Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for joining us for today's uh uh work session.

And uh if you rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, Councilor Tyler, would you lead us please?

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the report for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

Okay.

Um ask everybody to please silence all electronic devices while attending the governing body meeting.

For the record, I will announce the names of the governing body members when I say your name.

Please acknowledge your presence by saying present, Councillor Dabson.

Present.

Thank you.

Counselor Tyler.

Present.

Thank you.

Counselor Weimer, present.

Thank you.

And Councillor Colbert is on her way.

Um no public comment will be taken at this work session.

And this is the uh annual work session, goal setting session as prescribed by the city charter.

So excuse me, Mr.

Can you please call counselor list for the first time?

Oh, is she online?

No.

Counselor List.

Okay.

Okay.

I didn't say Linantine either.

No, we didn't.

No, okay.

So Counselor Lenantine, Council List.

Okay, great.

Uh let's see here.

Okay.

Um item on the agenda today is the 2023-2028 strategic plan update.

Ryan Chavez.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the governing body.

Um, this is our annual strategic plan update for the 2023 through 2028 strategic plan.

Um I'll get started with a recap.

Our process to develop this plan began in December 2022 when the governing body reviewed the previous strategic plan, and then December through January 2023, we collected citizen and stakeholder feedback with town hall meetings and surveys, and then a committee was formed with representatives from each department to review all of the input and develop a new plan.

From there, the proposed new plan was presented to the governing body in 2023 for additional review and input and was adopted in September of that year.

Since then, we've been working on implementation.

Um as a reminder on our vision statement, which answers the question where do we want to be?

It's to provide a nationally recognized small community environment with robust amenities.

Our mission, why do we do what we do and how will we get there?

The mission of the City of Vision is to deliver high quality of life for all people of Rio Rancho through exceptional municipal services.

The core values that we adopted are stewardship, integrity, safety and well-being, and respect.

So within the plan, we have five key service areas, including quality of life, community and economic development, infrastructure, public safety, and organizational excellence.

In each of those buckets, we um established goals and objectives to fulfill those goals.

So as we've been implementing the plan, um, we developed a tracking system where we met on each objective and established either metrics or timelines to complete those objectives.

And this is an example of one for the um aid and home property and maintenance for community aesthetics, and the objective was continue home repair assistance program.

And um, so as you can see, we established some deadlines and um what each task, the percentage of the overall objective that it was responsible for.

Um so I'm gonna go over some key highlights.

You have the report in front of you, and it's posted online as well with all of the um goals and objectives, but I'm gonna just go over some of the highlights of the progress we've made so far.

Um so for example, we have uh campus park phase two is 100% complete.

Um we're about 70% of the way there for phase two of Broadmore Senior Center, and we're about 70% of the way there for the initial planning of the multi-generational recreation facility.

Um continuing with quality of life, we um are 100% complete with the home repair assistance program, and of our goal of having 50,000 um new library cardholders, we're at about 45,000.

Moving into uh community and economic development, uh College Boulevard phase one is now complete, the construction.

Um you'll see that throughout the I'm sorry, hold on, I lost me.

Um we are getting there with the development process manual.

Um about 70% of the way there.

That's upcoming and should be completed this by the end of this year, and then the impact fee schedule is complete.

Moving into infrastructure, um, it kind of shows how we've done on the facilities master plan with the uh five facilities that we identified, um, which we had a presentation on that last month.

Um we have eight projects underway with 15.32 miles for the long-range planning pipeline, and we're 100% done with the utilities rate schedule.

For public safety, um, this demonstrates the amount of hours of supplemental training, which is training above uh the minimum training requirements for both the police and fire department, and we are 100% complete with implementing the new CAD dispatch system and the RMS system.

And with organizational excellence, um, we're about 85% done with our multi-year staffing plan.

We're at the again the implementation phase.

We a couple years ago now did a present or maybe it was last year, a presentation on the staffing plan, um, and now we're implementing that.

And um we're 70% done with developing and implementing career professional development for existing employees progression, and in twenty FY25, we had 272 new volunteers to for the city.

That's kind of an overview of some of the highlights.

There's obviously many, many more goals and objectives, and if you have any specific questions, we can definitely answer those, and all of it's available on the website.

Okay.

Any questions on this item?

All righty.

Thank you.

That was good stuff.

That looks like we're making a very, very good progress.

So thank you and staff for all your hard work on all this stuff and getting all these things pushed forward.

Did you have anything you want to add on this, Mr.

City Manager?

Mr.

Mayor, members of the government party at this time now.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Moving on to the 2025 citizen survey results, Ms.

Ryan James.

Uh thank you, Mayor, members of the governing body.

Um, so this year we did another round of our citizen survey.

Uh, the national community survey is performed by the National Research Center and Polco to provide a comprehensive picture of the community's livability and provide insight into residents' perspective on local government services policies and management.

The city's been conducting these surveys every two years since 2015, and the results are measured against national benchmarks set by more than 600 communities.

Uh it provides an opportunity to gauge what citizens believe about city government and the community generally, what is going well, where there are opportunities for improvement, and to receive compute community feedback on various initiatives.

Over the years, the survey has been used to inform the strategic planning, budgeting, and improve communications and engagement.

So the survey methodology, uh, the data collection lasted six weeks starting in early May.

The survey was sent to 3,000 households.

Participants were invited to participate both via mail and online, and there were reminders sent to complete the survey.

There were options to complete the survey in both English and Spanish.

So the participation rate and accuracy, about 2% of the mailings were undeliverable.

329 households completed the survey, which is about an 11% response rate.

One survey was completed in Spanish.

The confidence rate is 95%, and the margin of error is plus or minus 5.4 percentage points, and the sample is weighted to reflect the population.

And it was open for two weeks at the end of May.

And the open survey included residency confirmation, a question about how they heard about the survey, and we received 296 responses.

Because it was open and not taken from a representative sample of residents, these results were weighed separately and disp and are displayed separately from the statistically valid survey in the report and online.

Some of the key findings.

About nine in ten residents said they were very or somewhat likely to recommend living in the city and remaining in Rio Rancho for the next five years, both of which exceed national benchmarks.

There is also an increase in overall direction of the city, welcoming resident involvement, overall confidence in government in city government, transparency to the public, and treating residents with respect.

Public safety was another notable area of confidence, with 97% of respondents feeling very or somewhat safe in their neighborhood during the day, and 93% rating the fire service as excellent or good.

Six in ten residents positively rated the overall quality of business and service establishments in Rio Rancho and as Rio Rancho as a place to work.

Nearly seven in ten gave higher marks for the overall economic health, and all of these items saw statistically significant increases from 2023, and ratings for Rio Rancho as a place to visit improved.

The cost of living exceeded the national average.

Some areas of focus.

Opportunities to attend cultural art music activities and opportunities to attend special events and festivals.

Mobility continues to be an area with the largest gap between perceived importance, 78% rated as essential or very important, and the quality only 25% rated excellent or good.

Only about three in 10 residents positively rated the ease of travel by bicycle and walking, both falling below the national average, with walking falling much lower.

Ease of travel by car was at 60% excellent and good, and was a statistically significant decline from previous iteration from the previous iteration.

And several parks and recreation measures also rated below the national average, including overall quality of parks and recreation opportunities, availability of paths and walking trails, and fitness opportunities, fitness opportunities and recreation opportunities.

Each cycle we test some custom questions, including gauging support for continuing our general obligation bonds for infrastructure, public safety, and quality of life.

And again, the residents were mostly in favor of these questions, provided there is no tax increases.

Other notable insights from the custom questions include uh the preference to retain the current municipal code, which prohibits oversized vehicles from parking overnight on public streets, and seven in ten participants said that they would be somewhat or very supportive of changing to a plurality voting system.

You have the full report in front of you, and it's available online, and as has been done in the past, these results will be considered in decision-making processes at every level, and I'll stamp for any questions.

So does this uh Ryan, does this report have any any insights as to the uh focus group meetings?

Uh this is a specific uh presentation for the um the survey itself.

Okay, yeah.

I was just curious because I know we had a focus group, and I was just wondering some of the key findings from that from if they kind of aligned to what the survey said.

So yeah, uh there the difference in the quantitative and qualitative is you know complementary but not necessarily the same.

Okay.

All right.

Good deal.

Well, you know, well, uh I I like the the boil down of the report you gave.

I think uh looking at some of these numbers.

I just I just can't help but to point out that we're on a very positive upward trajectory.

Rear rancho is a place to live up nine percent, eighty-one to ninety.

Total overall quality of life, 77 to 85.

Um, those are significant increases.

Um, which is interesting because you know, the year before, as we were coming out of the pandemic, I think had a little bit to play with that.

We went, you know, quality of life went from 83 to 77, and that was probably reflective of the fact people couldn't use public facilities as much as what they did before.

So quality of life was substantially different during that time period by you know various different opinions.

But now that we're out of that, things seem to have recovered quite significantly, actually going up over 83 where we were four years ago to 85 this year.

So I think that's a significant comeback on a quality of life rating, and then same thing as Rio Rancho is a place to live.

You saw 89 to 81 and then back to 90.

So I think that we assumed um on a national level and on a local level, the pandemic played a lot with some of those downward trends that in that last survey.

I think this really kind of says now that things are kind of back to normal.

It's says that we've come back to the numbers we were at, if not a little bit better than where we were four years ago on some of these numbers.

Once again, looking at uh recommending Rio Rancho as a uh uh to somebody who asks 88 to 81 and back to 94.

So that's very markable progress.

Uh gonna remain in Rio Rancho for the next five years, 86 down to 83 and back to 94.

Those those are very significant recoveries from a dip.

And once again, that was a that dip last in the last survey was a national dip.

Uh uh surveys across the country had experienced that same.

Hey, things just don't feel right to us.

So we're gonna be we're gonna respond accordingly.

Um overall image or reputation of the city, 77 down to 62 and back to 80.

So I think that that's those are significant uh and I'm not only just talking to Ryan, I'm talking to you, Mr.

City Manager and your staff, because you all play a very significant role.

I know when we saw these numbers come out two years ago, we were a little concerned about it, and now I think we can really point to the the pandemic and the way people were feeling, just you know, um not being able to do the things that they would normally do on a day-to-day basis, and then jumping over to one that does not surprise me.

Ease of travel by car went from 59 to 72 during the pandemic.

Well, that's because nobody was going to work.

And now we're back to 60, um, which is back to where it was four years ago.

And honestly, that's expected with all the road construction that we've got going on, and the more we move into the residential neighborhoods, the more people are really feeling the impact of having all that road repair happening and all those orange barrels all over the city.

So I think that really is reflective, of course, uh ease of travel by car going up 72 percent.

We remember that all the schools at that time, your kids were being schooled at home, so we we didn't, you know, you were doing virtual virtual school at that point.

So um it it's it's just interesting because these trend numbers really show you, I think they reflect where things were and how they were impacted by the uh by the pandemic.

And then one that I wanted to flip over here and just make sure we point it out.

Um I know you touched on this uh but see here.

Where did I go with public safety, parks and rec, natural environment, safety, there we go.

Um overall feeling of safety in Rio Rancho.

Once again, it went 80 82, 71 and back up to 79.

So uh that was a good recovery, but uh feeling feeling safe in your neighborhood during the day, 97 percent.

I think that's the highest we've ever seen it right there.

And that uh chief and uh both chiefs uh that's reflective of the amazing public safety system that we have here in Rio Rancho people feel safe, and that's due to your great leadership in making our community feel safe.

Okay.

So that that's an incredible number.

And so kudos to uh to you all on on that on that number and also Mr.

City Manager and all of your team.

Uh that that when I saw that number, I thought, well, you can't you can't improve on 93 that much, but you figured out how to do it.

So and once again, I think the 87 drop-off was just reflective of the pandemic.

But as I look at these numbers, uh, do you feel safe from property crime?

We went from 71 to 64 and rebounded back up to 90 percent.

90 percent feel safe from property crime.

That's incredible.

Um and then from fire flood or other natural disaster, 88 to 84 to 90.

So uh I think we did a really good job of recovering from some of the numbers coming out of the pandemic.

Um, and then you look at uh once again police services at 83 percent, crime prevention at 79 percent, animal resources at 66 percent, um fire services at 93 percent.

Um so I just think that these are some very impressive numbers, and then natural environment overall quality of uh natural environment 74 percent.

So some really impressive numbers here, and I know I know Matt, when you first got these, you were a little I would have liked to see some better things, and but I I I just want to focus on the fact that uh these were a strong recovery back from what I think was really reflective of the pandemic pandemic period and came back into a more consistent.

If you look go back to the 2016 or 2015 when we started these surveys, you you clearly see that dip during that pandemic and recovery can come and kind of back to the norm on those numbers and statistics.

Um I think uh uh was it was it was it's really great move.

We recovered from it and came back, and in most cases excelled beyond the previous number, which put us back on a trajectory of continued success and excellence.

So thank you, Matt, and thank you all the department directors because and all of the city staff, all of our employees uh played a role in seeing those numbers uh really really improve.

So thank each and every one of you because it just shows the commitment we have from this team here in Rio Rancho, and thank you to my governing body members for supporting staff in these initiatives as well and really giving them the flexibility and the authority to carry these things out.

So, Matt, um I'm I'm just gonna say excellent job.

I know you hold yourself to a little to a very tight thing, but you and Peter and all all the team, you do a great job.

So any other comments by council?

Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, Councilor Weimer.

I'm just curious.

Um Ryan, you mentioned that the response rate was 11 percent.

How does that compare to past surveys here locally as well as maybe a national trend?

Um I'm not sure on uh counselor Weimar on the national trend part of it, but definitely uh over the years we have gotten lower rates of participation, but that's not completely um unnormal for when a survey is done regularly in a community.

So um it's I mean we would always love to see it higher, but as the more things get you know become regular, the kind of less novelty there is.

Yeah, that's a good point.

If people are happy, yeah, they tend not to respond because they're happy.

If they're upset, then they'll respond.

So that makes it those really more curious.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Other comments by council.

All right, thank you all very much.

Moving on to the 2025-2026 city manager goals and priorities planning calendar.

Um the uh not just the directors, the department Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, uh start over with the green light on.

Thank you very much uh for your comments, but really want to uh um you know transfer those comments to the department directors and their entire um teams and staffs from uh the the frontline folks um to their you know supervisors, frontline managers, and and everything else.

It is a collective effort, and we have the good fortune that many, many, many, many of our employees hold themselves to high standards of quality and professionalism.

It's um kind of part of our organizational DNA.

Um Ryan, I'm hoping you have the planning calendar that you can pull up screen over there.

There we go.

You have this document in front of you, and I think if we could walk through this document um and then come back to uh talking about uh uh setting um potential goals for the uh the this current fiscal year.

Um you've seen this document a few times now over the the past few years, um, and we use a kind of a color coding system on here.

Uh when you see orange, um that is uh things we need to do that are required by law by our charter or our ordinance, uh green are things are items that are uh required by state federal law necessitated, dictated uh uh upon us, and then uh the blue is the the catch-all in the vein of good governance and and operational.

Um I'll come back to this first uh page here in a minute, but there's a list of potential items uh you know to get a temperature check if they're items if the governing body would like us to uh explore those in the uh in the next year.

Um but just kind of looking ahead.

Um, you know, we have a time machine here.

We're in July 2025, um, and we're adopting the uh the final budget.

Um, but as in all seriousness, um already making headway into this uh fiscal year with facilities master plan updates and strategic plan updates, um some big heavy lifts that we have uh working through now in September is precisely this work session today.

Uh also um have recently tackled the uh the the golf course redevelopment plan.

You'll see some uh land use zoning development services related items.

Um obviously there's a fair amount of work, um something like the the DPM or some other items where uh development services is you know, I'll say leaning forward looking to uh sign ordinance was an example of that to tackle items, but then there's a component of I'll call it you know, the the work, the inbound that comes to us, a land use application that you know that we have to work through.

So one of the things that's a little different about uh development services compared to other departments is you know, there's a fair amount of work is dictated from the outside coming in to what they can tackle um in a given year.

Uh in October of 2025, a couple things that we'll have before you is um development process manual uh update, um, hopefully bringing that to finalization.

Uh utility department revenue bond consideration if you recall uh the uh five-year rate study and the um the five-year uh rate structure that was put in place.

Um contemplated uh the issuance of revenue bonds in a couple series to support um the ICIP, help support the ICIP of the uh of the utilities department, and then uh the 2026 geobond questions for consideration uh later in later this year, before we wrap up the calendar year, um tackling our legislative priorities and capital outlay uh request going into the um next year's 30-day session uh later on in January.

Uh we will see the New Mexico legislators 30-day session, we'll have our mid-year budget, and then also we'll have candidate declaration on uh the 6th of January.

Um Tuesday for the municipal elections that are slated to take place on March uh 3rd.

Um continuing down with in you know February, uh just continuing with the meetings, legislative session, uh March 2026, the municipal election would be on March 3rd, and then uh in April um we will be in the midst of budget season with the uh the budget um the city managers recommended budget uh being published on April 15th.

If there's no runoff elections, uh new elected officials will take office on the first of April, and then if necessary, a municipal runoff election would be on the 14th of uh April, and then uh May is uh continuing with budget season.

Um, and then if uh any individuals elected through a runoff election um would uh take office on the first of May.

So baseline of our uh workload and planning calendar um for this upcoming year.

Uh in addition to the uh if I can go back to that first slide, please.

Um in addition to the continued uh push and progress of items in the strategic plan and listed out a potential other few topics that have come up in the in the past year um to see if there's some general consensus uh for us to work on these.

Uh in addition to this planning calendar and this process today, um, you know, we obviously have through the governing body's rules of procedure.

In addition to the if I can go back to that first slide, please, in addition to the continued uh push and progress of items in the strategic plan, um, and listed out a potential other few topics that have come up in the in the past year um to see if there's some general consensus uh for us to to work on these uh in addition to the this planning calendar and this process today um you know we obviously have through the governing body's rules of procedure uh there's two opportunities there's two mechanisms there for members of the governing body to request uh work product whether that's for a work session or for the drafting of legislation um I can walk through some of these items uh if I as a by way of uh uh of an introduction um uh civil monetary penalty is a topic that's come up a few times the city attorney's office has uh provided a a a primer on that uh something that uh development services uh we've um talked uh uh have have thought about um other communities in the state um are I think are um taking some interesting steps some some good steps in this direction of a property maintenance code um we have taken as we know um steps to uh to abate properties that are really dilapidated conditions a property maintenance code does a it would do a couple things it would be I'm gonna say you know a little more upstream prior uh to that but also um so it it's beyond the weeds and debris and things like that it also gets into uh the conditions of the building and helping that to be in a better place to uh and uh address I hate to use word in force but I will um the conditions and the livability and uh the life safety side of uh of a building um as well so uh property maintenance code city of clovis um Mr.

Mayor you may have heard mayor morris talk about it they're they're doing some some good things in Clovis uh Las Cruces is actually revisiting their code they have a work session on Monday so um some of us will probably be tuning in to listen to what how Las Cruces is uh looking to um address some of a uh um some of their their needs in their in their community um the uh uh a topic that I um would present for uh that you know we'd prepare to talk about at some point is um uh you know a review or discussion around our legislative development options um most of uh our work um right now comes through a work session and then to the governing body um there's other formal processes that other uh that other uh cities use city of Santa Fe for instance uses a committee structure uh everything that goes to the governing body is routed through at least two committees um before it comes to the governing body um and uh and so that you know potential pros and cons to that uh we have a couple ad hoc opportunities with it within our code that for instance um you know we have a a formal ad hoc committee uh you know that's identified in our um identified as it in our charter and ordinances in order by ordinance and then we've uh uh done some uh informal working groups like we did with the the signed ordinance with a couple members of the governing body so uh opportunity to um to you know for us to maybe discuss that um legislative again that would be legislative development options um in parallel too to our current processes or in lieu of uh multi-year sources and uses financial planning uh a couple of years ago as we started the facilities master plan we started the strategic plan uh uh uh director Haramillo provided and and Ryan's given a couple versions of this along the way of we have debt starting to retire some of that debt is uh is um pledged with gross receipts tax as we know we did a revenue bond to support UNSERT and Fire Station 8 and then we have uh other gross receipts tax increments in particular the the higher ed gross receipts tax that is set to expire on uh uh on June 30th 2027 so in addition to or kind of our five-year financial forecast that you see in the annual budget a you know kind of a I hate to use bigger picture but for lack of a better term but like uh you know a look at long range what are our sources you know sources be in the revenues what are our uses um you know as we continue to look to invest in our and in our staff and as we look to to add uh new facilities that adds to our baseline budget um as we go on just as matter you know as a matter of course um at the the most recent governing body meeting we adopted a um uh a collective bargaining agreement with the uh the police union and that's all increased compensation uh you know for the police union so those things start to build into our baseline budget we talk about uh adding fire station eight that's um about 15 firefighters will be coming on board um so we're adding uses you know how we're expending the money um the this revenues heavily come from ghost receipts tax that are volatile uh so um would like to revisit um you know revisit that in the next year or so um the uh the multi-year sources and uses financial planning um recently presented at a uh at a at a work session by director got leave and director rincone um weed maintenance responsibilities on the orphan tracks and the side yards and the end caps horse regulations uh vehicle parking regulations um we get comments and as uh as as Ryan just discussed we had a question on oversized parking of vehicles we also get comments and questions about parking on uh front front yards um and on on a property are those in in is there a desire to look at a vehicle parking um

Um recently presented at a uh at a at a work session by Director Gottlieb and Director Green Cohn.

Um weed maintenance responsibilities on the orphan tracks and the side yards and the end caps, horse regulations, uh vehicle parking regulations.

Um we get comments, and as uh as as Ryan just discussed, we had a question on oversized parking of vehicles.

We also get comments and questions about parking on uh front front yards um and on on a property or those in in is there a desire to look at a vehicle parking.

Um and then uh uh review of our municipal code.

We have two sections of municipal code uh that speak to uh dust control, as well as the policies and the practice practices around that.

Um lot of other communities I would use the word I think descriptive or prescriptive on how they address um dust mitigation.

Uh counselor Weimer and his former life is probably familiar with the fugitive dust control permit um that it that is uh required.

Um there you know, Bernalillo County has that.

Um but as the city continues to grow and as we start to see more development, not just about the golf course within Phill, um, but seeing more development close to existing development.

Um when we're half the size and things were developing a little further apart.

I think it was less of a nuisance, but we're you know, just in the Broadmoor basin alone.

Um, the number of active subdivisions that are being built next to uh existing residents, it's uh potentially something for us to discuss.

So, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, those are some topics uh if you would have any thoughts or guidance on whether you'd like to see us integrate these into the planning calendar would appreciate it, and then we can also um come back to the uh city manager goals and priorities for this upcoming year.

Mayor, uh Mr.

City Manager, I would like to see the civil monetary move forward.

I think there's a lot we can do with that.

Um I think it will help us out.

I I see a lot of the stuff on here about the property maintenance codes and um the review on the municipal code on the dust control.

I'd like to see something on the nuisance ordinance.

I know that there's been movement in other cities on nuisance and uh you know panhandling and things of that nature.

I'd like to see some of these nuisances be wrapped up and see if there's something that we can do about driving that forward a little bit.

I know it was put on the back burner a long time ago when we all received an email from a certain group, and I just want to see if there's something that we can do with all the legal changes.

Um that with the people parking in their front drive, the yards and all that nuisance, uh like just tie all that nuisance stuff together, and I'm sure code enforcement loves hearing this, but just things that we can do to control the quality of life for each neighbor, right?

Like I don't want to go home and see some guy parked his car sideways in his yard because he's got 13 cars in his regular driveway and he thinks he can park on top of his yucca or whatever it is.

So I'd like to develop something and start looking at some of these other pieces of pieces of legislation that we can do to create a more stable environment for people that live in those homes and maybe control some of these nuisances, and that goes along with our roadways and safety of our roadways with panhandling and all this other stuff that's going on.

So I'd appreciate that.

Um weed maintenance and responsibilities.

So I know we're gonna talk about that, BJ and Amy about the responsibilities, and we've already kind of talked about that a little bit.

But more importantly, I think we need to look at, and this is something that we'll probably have in the next or you guys may I may not, but in the next budget hearings, um, we need to get more money into the weeds, or get more into the weeds for the money.

I don't really know how you want to say it.

Either way, we need more money for weed control and mitigation.

And I I don't I don't know that having our staff do it is probably is the right answer because our staff, when floods happen or what what have you, they're out dealing with blading roads and moving mud and all this other stuff, and the weeds are just growing out of control, and it's not because of the lack of attention from city staff.

I think it's just a lack of resources, and it's not something that they haven't tried to hire, but we may need to look at spending more money and getting contractors to do something like that.

So around that weed maintenance responsibility, I'd also like to talk about, and I know it's probably not the right place, but maybe finding the way to get more funding.

I know it sounds kind of crazy, but I think it deserves it.

So that's all I had, Mr.

Mayor.

But everything else, oh, I do want to say one more thing.

Um the numbers are amazing, like seeing all the upticks, especially like real natural city governments up here and the federal government.

I love seeing all these positive changes.

So uh it's really amazing.

But thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

That's all I want to say.

Counselor, Mr.

Mayor.

Councilor Holford.

Thank you.

Um so I think um the property maintenance code um and kind of wrapping up any kind of associated items with that so that we can get upstream of any abatement issues, the sooner we can start to address those um issues so that it helps to protect really the residents that are around the property.

We've seen that once we start down that path, um, is probably quite likely where we end up.

Um, but we also need to make sure that we're keeping in mind um what's happening with the residents.

Um and I think at some point we do have to just take a look at um so sources and uses um and thinking about our long-term financial planning um for the community as we think about who we are in the future.

We've already done so much to ensure that we have a permanent fund that is established, really thinking about how we uh protect the future of the city um and in this uh kind of volatile economic market.

I think it's a good idea to look at all of our options and know as we go into some of our future planning years, looking at our ICIP and all of the things that we do still need for the city, um, because while absolutely all of the numbers were great, one place that people are saying they still want more of is in those kind of quality of life, recreational, the multi-generational facility, all of that, and so thinking about how we might fund all of the things that are currently planned in the ICIP but are unfunded.

Um, and I think we need to give some careful thought to those items.

Um, but otherwise I think it's looking uh to be a great planning year and excited about what's to come.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Wymer.

Um, I agree with the property maintenance that we need to re-re revisit that review that I'd like to though understand how that's going to impact staff because clearly as we add more regulations and restrictions, it puts more burden on staff, especially code enforcement.

So we need to understand that piece of the puzzle as well.

So that's all I have, Mr.

Mayor.

Point enough, people are wanting more and more quality money.

But this requirements.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Here we go.

The you want to have pops out the door, you're not you don't have your microphone on.

I agree uh that we're hearing a lot about more amenities.

That's why I'm very glad that we've got the community center in the planning stages, you know, multi-generational facilities, so on and so forth.

But what is interesting to me is you see this overall um quality parks and recreation opportunities, and we see this you know this decline here.

The thing that I've asked the question on this one is is that from 21 to uh 2021 to 2025, we've added more facilities.

You know, we've added campus park, we've added a new library and community center, we've added uh a new senior center, and so we're actually adding more amenities.

So why this would be tracking down is is interesting to me because we've been making those of that investments as we've been able to afford them, right?

And uh bringing more facilities online, and then of course of course um as evidenced by the fact that the aquatic center is shut down right now.

Um, you know, uh I I know we've spent a lot of money on upgrading the existing facilities that we have to try to get a better longevity out of them, like a lot of repairs to Rainbow Park over the you know, Rainbow Pool.

Um some uh uh the resurfacing of the tennis courts uh at Haynes Park and some other uh improvements there, and then so you just think about some of the various things, uh re-roofing the libraries, um, and then uh uh right now the current senior centers under expansion.

So I think about those things, and I just don't think maybe enough people know that those things are happening, right?

And so we need to make sure that we're um pointing pointing out those additional amenities that have been coming online.

But I'm very excited about having another community center.

That's gonna be a huge thing.

So I'm very excited about that.

And but I always question that number because you're like, but we are you know, but we are we're trying, we're trying to get there.

But what's good about campus park, the senior center, and the hub, um, and and library and and community center.

What's really great about those three facilities is we did those within the confines of our budgets, getting grants, getting state assistance and other things like that.

Those are paid for cash with no corresponding debt.

So those facilities are paid for, so uh in order to serve the public.

So uh in order to serve the public.

So that's the other thing is as we're adding these facilities, I think we're doing it very thoughtfully.

And so uh once again, I have to point back to Matt and Peter and all the staff uh for working on those things to get them done.

But uh absolutely but I I was noticing that as well.

Mr.

Mayor?

Yes, Counselor Dabson.

Um I have a couple of questions.

The first one is about the um property maintenance code consideration.

Um I guess it's always been that if there was a code violation, it was only once somebody reported it that that that code enforcement would go out to that property.

As would BB changing that to something a little more proactive.

That's my first question.

And my second question is I think I heard something about cultural enrichment or something in one of the reports.

I remember so I might I'm wondering if I don't know if this is something that the city can do, but I'm wondering if we were able to have um something that adults can do, like a museum or like a theater, or you know, um is there any way that we can add that kind of thing?

Because I that's what I'm hearing from people that I talk to is that we don't have any kind of culture.

If you want to do something like go see a play or something, you have to go into Albuquerque, except for Rio Rancho players when they play.

But um, so those are my two questions.

If you can help me understand them, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, um Ryan will defer to you at some moment at the point in this, refer to the data point there.

But uh a couple things and Armando, I may refer to you at some point as well.

Um so property maintenance code.

Um the International Code Council, which is the group that puts together the International Electrical Code, International Residential Code, and what other ones, Councillor Weimer, International Plumbing Code, and all the ones that you're familiar with, and you're acting as an architect through all your um has a property maintenance code.

And some of that property maintenance code looks at I'm gonna call it the this may not be the the technical term, but the viability of a building, the livability of building, the health safety uh of a building.

Um so that is uh one place that we look.

We have our chapter 91, which is our nuisance code existing that probably last updated in the 90s.

Um and you know, that talks about debris, rodents, things like you know, it has different things like that, or are on um has some general language about conditions of buildings.

Uh the international uh pro International Code Council's property maintenance codes will have some I think stronger um you know, stronger and more specific language about the condition of a of a property.

Our overall code enforcement operations in large part um for several years, several, I mean decades have been on a complaint base um basis, and um that is has been combination of resource allocation, combination of uh the the steps it takes to go through investigation, issue the warning, 15 days of follow-up, interact with the citizens, um you know, many of those interactions on uh when we issue a courtesy note of violation notice of violation, many of those are are positive, they're not all positive.

Some folks are like, hey, I was out of town for six weeks because something happened.

Let me get to it, can I have a couple more weeks?

We've worked through uh through that process.

Um there are times where um there is some what we'll call proactive patrol, or you know, if you go to respond to a complaint on a invitation to research a complaint on a street and you see that that that same condition exists at four other houses, um the appropriate thing at that point is to you know cite all of those.

Um but generally speaking, I don't foresee a shifting away from a model that is more complaint-based that is then supplemented with it with other things.

Um I mean I've heard jokes about like you know, when you try to do proactive patrol, you get to your first street, and that's the only street you're on all day because there may have been multiple complaints, and so um you're not then getting to the complaints or the higher level um issues.

There is kind of some officer discretion based on what is the greater issue than in then working down from there.

Um but the property, you know, the the the notion of the property maintenance code coupled with updating uh sections of uh I think it's chapter 91 would be able to, you know, a update the language, B have language that's more I'll say modern and more applicable um and uh in and in and go um in go from there.

And then there's other things that fall under to that new that nuisance bucket, dust control is is one of them.

Again, we're dealing with language from you know from probably the 90s and in that portion of uh of the code.

Um Ryan did reference in the citizen survey the I think some of the you know some of the areas where we didn't score as high, and uh that was in um some of the uh you know walkability trails, uh you know, fitness, recreational type opportunities.

When you dive in a little bit deeper, people are very happy with our I'll call them our physical assets, the libraries, the aquatic center, the baseball fields, the and the physical asset people are happy with that, and the active physical asset, it's the more passive ones on the uh, but I mean, Ryan, if you can maybe pull up that that specific thing.

In the planning for our um multi-generational facility, one of the the programming components that is in the is um is a theater, uh, a multi-purpose room that would have a theater, so it'd be easier for whether it's second graders doing a holiday um play or a battle of the bans for for for middle schoolers, it's to have that type of asset um more available uh to us, the origin more available to us, and then hopefully create more opportunities for the community engage.

The other um piece, and I think this is mentioned in the strategic plan.

Um the our library has gotten more active and um applying for traveling exhibits, um, different traveling uh exhibits from Smithsonian.

There's about a half dozen entities across the country that have uh traveling exhibits, museum quality exhibits that either you get through grant or um you you apply, get a grant, then they come for free with some minimal matching, or um you can uh you can rent them as well.

So those additional things we're trying to do to complement with with the within the assets that we have.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, uh if I may, one of the items that does go uh hand in hand, and I think uh counselor Weimer posed a a good question is what is the cost to take on more um as we grow.

Um a parallel to exploring um updates to our property maintenance code or things that would go under traditional code enforcement, um, such as dust uh dust and and weeds and and things like that would be civil monetary penalty.

So if we were to go down that path, there would they go so there is some pair some you know they they they operate hand in hand potentially as another avenue for us to to tackle these problems with the civil monetary and then I think uh um I also appreciate Councilor Colverse's recognition of this as this one of the reasons why um I think it's important for us to um continue to talk about and look at that long-range planning um with the sources and uses and the financial forecasting as we you know just out of pure growth, we have to take things on as a city, and as the expectations of the community's residents continue to grow, we look to take on um you know take on things and part of in that old vein of you know can't continue to do it the same way we've always done it, and we need to look at how we need to do it in five, ten, fifteen, fifteen years, and that that's part of uh the uh sources and uses.

Um so if I'm hearing some some guidance and some direction from the the governing body, um a kind of a broad bucket of nuisance, which would include uh property maintenance, uh property maintenance, dust control, um potentially, uh parking and parallel um to that would be uh civil monetary, and I'll say kind of in parallel to that uh would be um multi-year sources and sources and uses as some as items for us to integrate into the planning calendar.

Perfect.

No.

There's a couple I didn't.

There's three that I didn't.

I think civil monetary is probably the big one.

But I know that one also is gonna take a lot of work.

Yeah.

Anyway, okay.

Anything else?

Uh then Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, if we can um look at a uh formalizing goals and priorities for um what I'll call as FY26.

Okay.

Um the year that we've already started.

Uh have uh five suggestions here.

Um this is uh you know pursuit and two uh charter and ordinance.

Uh you know, with the uh the mayor convenes an annual meeting of the governing body discuss and identify the city's goals and priorities in this is to provide guidance to the city manager and to inform the public.

Um there's no formal action, um, but you know, we look at and and track these over the the course of the year.

Um we would propose, I would propose with input from uh city staff the following five items uh utility revenue bond issuance, as you can see, it aligns with uh two um two of the pillars of the strategic plan that's community and economic development as well as infrastructure, initiate construction of UNSER Boulevard phase two.

Um, this is the reconstruction widening of um UNSER from cherry to PDV.

Uh same thing, community and economic development as well as infrastructure.

Um let me just elaborate on these two items very quickly.

As I mentioned uh earlier, um when we looked at our five-year rate study for the utility and our five-year ICIP, um the the rate structure was uh contemplated uh debt service rather than cash funding uh given the size and scale and magnitude, I would say, of uh the utility work uh infrastructure that we have ahead of us from uh re-equipping and uh redrilling uh wells on the production side and then on the uh collection uh lift stations as well as on the treatment side and the uh on the the sewer.

Um and then really UNSER Boulevard, you know, probably the biggest road project in the city since Southern Boulevard.

Um, and uh it's gonna be very beneficial for for the senior uh this the city center and the continued growth um in this area and the growth that we're seeing in uh um in uh in northern Rio Rancho and uh hopefully improve those uh um you know continue to improve on the uh uh the drivability scores that we see in the citizen survey.

Um next, initiate construction of uh fire station eight uh infrastructure and public safety uh um continue to make headway.

Um still lots of work to be done to get us to that first shovel on the ground and then get us to the uh the day that uh um we ring the bell and to take the first call out of that uh station.

Uh explore additional sale and long-term lease easement of cell tower leases.

Um this is uh uh organizational excellence uh you know for and financial well-being of um the for the city as well as community economic development, as you uh may recall.

Uh we uh did uh undertake one long-term lease uh that generated about 1.1 million dollars in proceeds that we put into the uh to the permanent fund.

Same concept as we'd like to continue to explore is additional leases, generate one-time cash, be able to put those into the permanent fund, um, where we then see that multiplier effect and then a permanent long-term uh revenue stream for the city in the future, and then initiate pilot uh youth after school programming, uh that'd be quality of life and public safety.

Um stand for any questions on the proposed uh goals and priorities for 2025.

Uh in addition to these five, obviously, planning calendar, continued progress on the strategic plan, and whatever else happens between when we leave at the end of the day and come back tomorrow.

So anything further?

Mr.

Mayor, yes, Councilor Weimer.

Quick question on the UNSER Boulevard.

Would you see that inclusive of the underground utilities, water and sewer, or is it premature to have that discussion?

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, um he has a really good answer for that.

Awesome.

Yeah, Mr.

Mayor, Councillor Weimer.

Um, yes, there will be some utilities included with UNSER Boulevard, though the utility department has in the past uh assumed that the uh east and west side would be served served across UNSER, not with utilities longitudinally down that uh corridor.

Uh we will look to install uh you know, obviously storm grain infrastructure, and we will also look to do um any adjustments as necessary with that project.

Um so that that's what we're looking for with the UNSER project this time, Councilor.

All right, good.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, Councilor Culbert.

Thank you.

Um I think all of these look um great, and I'm I'm especially excited um about the youth after school program.

Um I think you know, all of the others are very much in kind of that operational space, public safety, and um those really critical pieces.

Um I'm also excited to see increased programming um available for um for our youth that is in need in our city um to be able to have some more options for um the young people after school.

There have been a lot of pieces that have been taken out of school programming, a lot of um you know just opportunities and education um like kind of that out of school education um that's that's kind of shifted around and so I'm very excited to see um the city initiate a pilot program um to start to address those issues and hopefully um I I also very much appreciate um that it also checks one of those public safety boxes because as we start to make those interventions early on with our children we we see that they that has long-term impact on them and it keeps them outside of having to experience um the public safety in in in a way that may not be as productive so thank you very much for including that and I look forward to continuing to support it.

Thank you.

Anything else fantastic thank you all we appreciate it.