Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Councilor Weimer, would you lead us, please?

One nation under our indivisible liberty and justice for all.

Please remain standing for a moment as I like to take this time to uh keep our first responders in our thoughts and prayers and give them a moment of silence and reflection as they're out there defending our lives and property each and every day.

So with that, we'll take a moment of uh silence.

Thank you very much.

You may be seated, and I'm gonna go ahead and call this meeting to order.

I'm gonna ask everybody to please silence all electronic devices while attending the governing body meeting.

For the record, I'll announce the names of the governing body members when I say your name, please acknowledge your presence by saying present, Councillor Dabson, who is virtual present.

Thank you, Councillor Lynn Time.

Yes, thank you.

Counselor Tyler Present.

Thank you.

Counselor Weimer?

Present.

Thank you.

Counselor Colbreth.

Present.

Thank you, Councilor List.

Present.

Thank you.

All right, moving on to public forum.

Each comment will be limited to two minutes.

Uh no more than two hours in total will be allotted to public forum.

Uh Mr.

Van Horn.

Good evening, Mayor.

Good evening, counselors.

I uh would like to talk to you this evening about transparency.

Um last month I was visiting my son in Hawaii, and I really wasn't paying much attention to what was going on here, but I saw the in the news of this huge eruption of water that occurred here is a significant.

Um I still have not seen anything that tells me, citizens, what the cause of that water spill was.

And I would like to know the cause of it.

Uh I would really like the city, the utilities department to dig into this and find the cause.

Um if if something like that happens and there's not a rundown on what really happened and disclosure, discussion, perhaps consideration of what we should do to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Um identify systemic issues that we don't we're not aware of yet.

Umless you really start re thinking about things when they occur like this.

We have a history in the city of discovering we have big problems with the weather system.

We know that all the service lines have to be replaced because of issues with that material.

But um my question is is the city really being transparent?

Here we have uh uh a headlined item that came up, and what it appears to me is it's it's just it was addressed at the time, but you know, it's over and it's passed, and no one's talking about it.

If there was an entity like the public and uh infrastructure advisory committee that was tasked with looking into this, then maybe but they're not tasked with that.

In fact, they don't ever meet, so it's uh entity that's I'm not sure what it's even useful for.

But my question is uh would you all consider taking actions to make sure the system city is transparent specifically about water?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, council.

Uh any comments by council.

Uh yes, Counselor List.

Uh I just want to take a minute to uh recognize Rio Rancho PD.

Uh they did a Christmas party for uh families in our community this past weekend.

Um it was huge, and uh hundreds of families benefited.

Um shout out to Officer Daisy Gomez, because I believe she kind of spearheaded it.

Also um wanted to give a shout out to uh dispatch supervisor Deedra Montana from Real Rancho.

Um they also uh adopted some some kids and provided Christmas for kids that otherwise wouldn't have it.

Um, but I think it's really important to remember our men and women that serve in our community, but also go above and beyond to serve our community in a different way, um, especially at this time of year.

So it's pretty extraordinary.

I want you to be recognized, and I want to say thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Tyler.

I just want to take uh a second.

I'm gonna step outside a little bit and just uh compliment Castillion, the company that um came in here with a project based um out west from Rio Rancho in Sandoval County.

They came out last meeting, and uh it was a very busy meeting, and should I say there was a lot going on, and they handled it with uh grace, and they I asked them to come out and do some community meetings along with some of the other counselors, and they graciously did that and uh met the timelines that were asked.

So I want to compliment them, compliment staff and everyone that was involved in those meetings and uh and thank everyone for all their patience and time.

So I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Linantine.

Uh I just like to recognize uh Director Peterson and everyone who put together the uh winter fest.

It was a great uh time from the uh parade to the Christmas tree lighting, fireworks, uh a bunch of great stuff.

And so thank you to the community that came out and thanks for uh to Connie, her team and every anyone who uh worked on that.

I know a lot I saw a lot of the city staff there and uh doing stuff working in booths and helping out, and so just thank you to all of you guys.

It was another great uh event this year for Christmas.

Thanks.

Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Weimer.

I just noticed on the consent agenda we've got a couple of folks that are being appointed to some of our commissions and boards.

Just wanted to thank them for their service and just let them know how important it is to have representation from the community on those boards and commissions.

So any of you out there that are interested, keep your eyes open and see if there's something that interests you and raise your hand.

We'd appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Anything further.

And I want to thank all the boards on here for all of their annual reports as well, giving us an update on uh what they've been working on all year long.

So if anybody wants to see those annual reports, they're right there.

Uh with that, um I'll take a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I have a motion of second.

Ms.

Davis.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor Dabson.

Um yeah, yes.

Counselor Lynentine.

Yes, Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

Counselor Colbreth.

Yes.

And Counselor List.

Yes.

Thank you.

The consent calendar is approved.

Thank you.

See here.

Moving on to public hearings.

Anyone with a uh excuse me, pecuniary interest on an item under public hearing and wishes to address the governing body shall register with the city clerk.

Each comment will be limited to two minutes.

This hearing will be handled in accordance with the rules for procedures, section three dot four and strict decorum will be maintained.

Moving on to D 70, item number 16.

Oh, um, before we go any further, I wanted to uh advise the governing body.

I'll be moving item number 27 down to the bottom of the report, the annual state of the city.

We'll do that just in front of the city manager's report.

Um D70 approval of On Ja LLC uh liquor license.

Ums Davis.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Good evening, counselors.

So tonight I have an application for a restaurant A, which is a beer and wine license with on-premise consumption and no patio service for Vong Ja.

Uh LC at 7820 Enchanted Hills Boulevard, Northeast Suite B.

So the regulation and licensing department has already granted a preliminary approval and has sent the application to the governing body for local governing body approval.

Upon governing body approval, of course, this will go back to regulation approval regulation and licensing for the final approval.

I stand for questions, and we also have um the applicant here as well as uh neighborhood supporter to speak should there be questions okay.

I'll take a motion to approve D70, motion to approve D70.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Uh do we any any council comments on this?

Mr.

Mayor.

Uh Counselor Tyler.

I just want to tell the business thank you very much for coming to Channel Hills.

I know you've been there already, but I appreciate it and and wish you well and wish you the best.

Thank you.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this item?

Just the applicant and the neighborhood supporter.

Um, and they were not sure if they would need to speak.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

I think we're good.

I think we're good.

Uh okay.

Uh nothing further from council.

Uh I have a motion.

I have a second, Miss Davis.

Thank you.

Councillor List.

Yes.

Councillor Colbrand.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

Councillor Lynentine.

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

And Councillor Tyler.

Yes.

Thank you.

D70 is approved.

Thank you.

Moving on to D 71.

Site plan approval for the Ask Academy Gymnasium at the property legally described as Texaco Conference Center, tracked 2A1.

Ms.

Rencone, and it looks like uh you're going to be in at that podium for the foreseeable future.

It's one of eight.

It's there.

Busy night.

All right.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and members of the governing body.

Amy Rincone, Director of Development Services.

So item number 17 is uh D 71.

It's a site plan approval for the Ask Academy Gymnasium.

Uh this is going to be located off of Sunt just west of 528.

Um so this is a um just a quick snapshot of the overall site.

There was a lot more uh detailed images in your agenda briefing memorandum.

I just kind of cherry picked some images for tonight.

Uh just to give some overall detail.

There is 101 parking spaces required.

33 of those parking spaces are going to be paved around the gym itself.

Uh they're going to do 25 percent shared parking with the existing uh school buildings that are going to be to the east.

Um so that's 25 spaces.

So there's going to be an additional 43 spaces that are going to be in an unimproved lot that will need at a minimum some uh bumpers to delineate where those spaces are going to be located.

Uh this uh includes the location um just kind of a little bit more zoomed in so you can see the landscaping um on the left hand side on the right hand side.

Um again it's another zoomed in so you can see what's going to actually happen inside of the building.

These are a few of the pictures of the elevations.

Just to note uh the building height uh is going to be overall 34 and a half feet tall.

Um so that's two and a half feet over um the the standard for that area, uh but that is well within um a 10% administrative uh variance.

Um and so uh if the site plan is approved tonight, we will go through as staff and review that administrative variance to that uh the building height and have that approved as well.

Um there was a public comment that came in uh earlier this evening, and I believe everybody has received that.

Um staff has reviewed the site plan.

We recommend approval and I will stand for any questions.

Okay, thank you.

Um I have to take a motion and a second before I go into public comment because I do have some people signed up to speak on this, but uh uh procedurally we have to have a motion and a second on the floor before we move into debate.

Um so I'll take a motion to approve D 71.

Motion to approve D 71.

Second.

Okay, I have a motion and a second.

Um we have a couple of people.

Um Mr.

Uh Joseph Courier Kurt I apologize if I'm saying the name.

Yes, Carreri.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My wife and I live on Morrone Loop Northeast adjacent to the proposed construction site.

This morning I emailed a document to the city clerk's office, which gives a detailed rationale for our position.

Given the two-minute time allotted, I will abbreviate for this presentation.

The proposal as submitted does not comply with the city of Rio Ranch's adopted planning and zoning standards specifically.

It conflicts with the comprehensive plan, the conditions of the special use zoning, chapter 154 of the municipal code and the city zone visual preference survey, all of which exists to ensure keep compatibility between large institutional uses and adjacent residential neighborhoods.

The ASC Academy students population is capped at 600 students and has not demonstrated a need for a 1600 square foot facility.

The scale and placement for the proposed structure create unnecessary impacts on neighboring homes and neither required nor justified by the school's enrollment.

The auxiliary gym at Rio Rancho High School is 4,949 square feet with seating for 1,100 people.

Shouldn't that uh size gymnasium be adequate for a school with a 600 student population?

We respectfully request the board require the applicant to revise the proposal by relocating the building as close as possible to the west side of the main school building and as close to its southern boundary as possible, which is adjacent to a dry riverbed rather than residents, and by placing the parking near the Swent Road entrance.

We also ask that the facility be reduced to house only a gymnasium and two locker rooms scaled appropriately with student population population.

These are reasonable common sense adjustments that would significantly reduce impacts on neighboring homes and bring the project into alignment with the city zone ordinances and planning principles.

With these reasons, we ask the board to deny the proposal as submitted and require it to be revised.

I invite any and all members of the board to meet with us in our location to personally see what we are recommending.

Thank you, Daniel.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the governing body.

We are Patrick and Manuelita Wolf, and we are homeowners whose property is located within 100 feet of the subject site, 4450 Sunt Road Northeast.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment.

Our concern is not with the gymnasium itself, but with the proposed location of the gymnasium on the site.

We respectfully request that the governing body consider relocating the gymnasium to the southern portion of the parcel adjacent to the existing multi-story building.

Place at the gymnasium near the existing multi-story structure would consolidate larger buildings in one area of the site rather than introducing a new large high volume structure that's close to the residential properties.

This approach would be more compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and would minimize visual and scale impacts on adjacent homes.

Additionally, locating the gymnasium on the southern portion of the parcel would create an opportunity for improved internal traffic circulation, helping to distribute the vehicles more efficiently and reduce congestion on Sunt Road, particularly during peak arrival, departure, and event triangles associated with the school and the gym use.

We believe that this alternative placement would allow the project to move forward with better balancing the needs of the school with the livability of the surrounding neighborhood.

And we respectfully ask that the governing body consider this alternative placement.

And if the project moves forward, impose conditions to achieve this outcome.

Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration.

Thank you.

Okay, do we have anybody else sign up to speak on this item?

No, Mr.

Mayor, we do not.

Thank you.

I'll take comments from council.

Is the applicant here?

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor.

I'm the agent representing the applicant.

I work with community design solutions and I'm also the civil engineer for the project.

We're in receipt of staff's comments and the proposed conditions of approval and have no questions or objections and respectfully request approval.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything?

Yeah, I have a couple questions.

Counselor Tyler.

Can you address the placement of the gymnasium and the flow and could it be moved to the back lot and the flow?

I'm just asking.

Yeah, I mean, as with most design items, if you spend enough money and you're like you can make anything happen, uh, but the location that it's where it's currently situated is next to the existing basketball courts, um, enables nice you know uh access on all sides of the building for fire in particular.

Um stays out of the way of the uh temporary SKFCA easement that crosses the south, uh south and east side of the site.

Does it make for the um I think the parking would be or the in and out would be a lot better if they didn't have to go around the buildings and everything, the parking, it would make the flow of traffic better if it was more towards the north than the south.

Just a food for thought.

And then I don't um, and this is for you, Amy.

I don't like the fact that the building is over height already, and we haven't even got that part of it, but we can look at that in a minute.

But uh, I I don't know.

I mean, is there something you can do to take a look at some of the residence concerns and kind of address that?

Well we will uh take it into consideration.

Mr.

Gunn.

Thank you.

Amy the height of the building, it's already 34 feet and supposed to be 32, correct?

Mr.

Chair, um uh Mr.

Mayor, excuse me, and uh counselor Tyler, it's a long day.

It's gonna be a long day.

Um, so uh for the height of the building.

Uh when we look at it, flat roof buildings are always um a little bit taller than um how we measure for pitch roof.

So when we do the measurements for uh flat roof building, we go all the way to the top.

If it had been actually pitched roof, we would actually be okay because we go to that center line.

Um so I don't have a great response for whether or not they're able to shrink the height of the building.

I would assume that gyms have some type of standard um heights to be able to allow for the best utilization of that space Mr.

Builder, uh Mr.

Counselor, yes, the um design item that's driving the height of the roof is the need to have a regulation distance from the bottom of the trusses inside of the gymnasium to the floor, and so we've minimized the height relative to maintaining a uh uh regular uh regulation uh basketball gym.

Okay, and that's within you said the 10% variance of administrative, right?

That's correct.

Yes.

Thank you.

I have no further questions.

Mr.

Mayor, Counselor Lemon Time.

Okay, so you said something about uh can you talk to us about uh Skafka?

So do you just have parking on the back on the south side?

And do you have to have a retention pond back there or what's going on with that piece?

Rick.

So um to the south is Skafka's arroyo, and they have an easement across the east portion of this tract shown on the site plan that enables SKFA to get from Sunt Road to their Royal for a royal maintenance if needed.

And that's inside the property line of Ask Academy.

That is correct.

Okay, I see it now.

Fully crosses the property.

Got it.

Okay.

All right, that's all I have, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor Weimer.

So Councillor Tyler asked if you would be amenable to moving the building, and you said you'd think about it.

What if we put a condition of approval that you think hard about it and work with staff to make it happen?

Um you know, representing the applicant, I think they're the applicant's concern would be that they've you know paid design consultants to fully design this project at this point.

And um while it's it's possible, I think perhaps a um solution would be to shift the gymnasium uh maybe 30 feet further to the east and move the the turf moving night open space area between the gymnasium and the residential to keep the building further away from the residents, but without having to fully rework um what's already been done and what's already gone, the staff or DRC and uh staff for site plan review, etc.

So you say moving it east, you said east.

That would be your response.

Okay toward 528.

And no, okay.

Got it.

Okay.

Um I I think can we put a condition of approval on an evaluation of that concept?

Well, I wouldn't say an evaluation, I would have to say that that would be a hard.

We can we can do that to adjust the site plan and look relocate the building.

Correct.

30 feet to the east.

And Amy's got a worried look on her face.

Uh so Mr.

Mayor, uh Counselor Weimer, so um so we can we can do that.

Um what I worry about when we start moving things is part of your agenda briefing packet.

Um, there was already some preliminary reviews.

So the fire one plan for the circulation on how the fire truck goes around.

Some of those other types of things have already been put in place.

Um we can obviously if if that's a desire is is to put that condition on, we we can look at that.

I I just want to to caution that that when we start moving things at this stage and how far they already are in a site plan, it it does add um some additional costs and some other concerns that I I don't know that the public has had a chance to understand that if they move the movie night, then we're gonna have we might have some some sound issues too, right?

So I I just want to be fully transparent that that when we start moving things, it uh it gets it gets a little bit uh complicated.

So just want to throw that out there.

That's a good point, and you you're absolutely right.

We the next thing we'll hear is that the movie night's gonna be too loud, and then nobody's gonna be able to sleep in so um well I'll defer to the the remainder of the uh counselors before making a decision on this condition.

Mr.

Mayor, yes, counselor Culbert.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um I think one of the one of the biggest challenges of um living in a community is that we can't always control what happens next to or around us.

Um and so I would have major concerns with um the the city being uh are or um mandating a condition that that is so specific as to moving a building over by 30 feet without a full examination of what that would mean um along with um the financial impact that it would take for a redesign of anything else that that would go along with that.

I think with this plan having met all of the other requirements.

Particularly when it has to do with a school and a gymnasium, of which our city lacks significant uh opportunities for gymnasium space.

Um and so while I understand the concern, we really can't um in many ways control our neighbors if we want to protect the view that we have, we just have to buy everything between where we are and what we want to see.

Um and that's really the only way that we can protect a view.

Um and so if if that is the major concern, um the that that's not one that I would be able to really um get behind and support.

Um, and I'm very supportive of seeing uh more gymnasium space, more um wonderful work that's being done by Ask Academy.

Um, and there's enough courts that maybe maybe some kids might be able to get on it and have some good time on the basketball court.

So um I I support this item as it's been presented.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, Councillor Lunantine.

Overall, I'm definitely gonna agree with Councilor Colbreth on that one.

I did want to say just uh kind of um ballpark.

Uh the what's the total cost of this project?

Would you say as far as the construction cost?

Um I'm not sure, as I'm not the architect of that, but I did have a better idea of it.

So the the point would just be if you could maybe impress upon the applicant that if you're getting to this stage, it's definitely a good idea to have some representation from them here.

Um but uh nonetheless, I I agree with with what Councillor Colbert said.

It is their property, and you know, if they're within a 10% variance, we have these specific codes for a reason.

And so you know, I do want to be careful about what we tell someone that they can or can't do uh if they've gone through uh the administrative procedures that they need to uh as laid out by the city staff and ordinances and uh DPMs and all of that.

So uh that's all I had.

Thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Anything further from council?

Mr.

Mayor.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh that's just we have somebody online.

Um looks like a Mr.

Garcia.

The school principal thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, I'm the CEO at the ASP Academy.

I'm the last council member that asked if I was uh present.

Oh okay.

Mr.

Mayor, can we please have him do the oath first?

Oh, I don't think I don't I don't think he wants to uh I don't think he wanted to say anything, he's just saying that he he was here.

Okay, all right.

I can answer any questions if you or I could try if you have questions.

Okay, thank you.

Anything further from counsel, Mr.

Mayor, yes, Councilor Weimer.

I'm glad I uh postponed my condition because I've heard from my fellow counselors, they make good points and um I stand corrected.

Thank you.

All right, have a motion and a second.

Ms.

Davis, please are we able to respond to some of the comments?

No, it's not a back and forth, it's we do the public comment, we take comments by council, and then we move to the the to the item.

Ms.

Davis D 71, please.

Thank you, sir.

Counselor Weimer, yes, Councillor Tyler, yes, Councillor Dabson.

Yes, Councillor Colbert.

Yes, Counselor List, yes, and Councillor Lennon Time.

Yes.

D71 is approved.

Thank you.

Moving on to D72 site plan approval for church property legally described as the village tract H1, Director Rincone.

Mr.

Mayor, um, and members of the governing body.

Um, so item number 18 is D72.

It's a site plan for approval for a church.

Um, and this is going to be located in the village where uh West Side and Well Spring connect.

Um so it's down there in that corner.

Um so there is shared um access points to the south um onto Wellspring uh that's going to be shared between the church and uh the neighboring lot.

There is um a lot more renderings inside your agenda briefing packet.

I just pulled out a couple of images for tonight.

Um so these are the different elevations.

Staff reviewed the um application for the site plan, and we recommend approval, and I will stand for any questions.

Thank you.

I'll take a motion to approve D72.

Motion to approve D72.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Uh, do we have the applicant here?

Yes, sir.

Hi.

Hi.

I just it did.

You have anything you wanted to kind of uh add on to this or we've received staff comment.

We have no further information.

Fantastic.

Okay, thank you.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this item?

No, Mr.

Mayor, we do not.

Okay.

Any comments by council?

Hearing none, D 72, Ms.

Davis.

Thank you, sir.

Counselor Lennon time.

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor Colbreth.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

D 72 is approved.

Moving on to D73 site plan approval for the installation of solar generation storage distribution system.

Director Rincone.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, and we were at Cone Director of Development Services.

So item number 19 is D73.

It's a site plan for the installation of the cell solar generation.

And so if you remembered just previously, a couple of months back, you actually saw this item as an overlay and a master plan amendment to the Loma Barbone master plan to allow that solar facility to go into place.

It would be 80 acres in that top top left hand corner that's highlighted here on your maps.

So a couple of things that again, there's there was a lot of site plan information in your agenda briefing memorandum.

There is a berm on the outside.

Really hard to see on this one, but it's in that yellow.

And so there's going to be a berm and then they'll have the fence.

That fence is going to be that bottom right hand corner is just a little image of what it's going to look like.

So it would be a six-foot tall fence with barbed wire on top.

A couple of things to note with that barbed wire is that for the fence height and the barbed wire M1 actually allows that just as a permissive fencing type.

And a lot of this property when we're talking about it actually falls into that M1 to begin with.

But part of that overlay that went into place allowed for that barbed wire on top of that fence just because of the fact that this is a utility, and we try to make sure that there's extra safety precautions built in with those.

And let's see.

Okay, I uh go ahead and take a motion to approve D 73.

Move to approve D 73.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Um Wayne Stansfield.

Yes.

I just has a signed up to speak.

I was just uh uh here as a representative.

So we're gonna okay, thank you.

And then I add Lori Moy.

Good evening, Mayor and Counselors.

I'm the agent for the project.

So just if you have any questions.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, any comments by council.

All right, hearing none.

D 73.

Uh Ms.

Davis.

Thank you.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Councillor Tyler.

No.

Councillor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer?

Yes.

Counselor Lennon?

Yes.

And Councillor Colbreth.

Yes.

D 73 is approved.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on to O29 ordinance of the City of Rear Rancho, amending the zoning classification of the properly property legally described as Plaza Rio from lot B, lot B from S U to special use for limited commercial retail to add multifamily townhomes as a permissive use.

Director Rincone.

So uh Mr.

Mayor and members of the governing body.

029 is a zone map amendment request.

And so this lot is located in the corner of Southern and golf course.

It's in that southeast corner.

Um and so it it's uh if you drive that intersection, it's it's a pad site that's kind of already set up and ready to go.

Um staff has been working with the applicant.

Um they came in originally and they were requesting an R6.

We worked with them and and determined that it was probably actually better to add the multifamily use to the existing SU than it was to just kind of go to that straight um R6 zoning.

Um and so there is some conceptual plans that they provided, but they will come in for a formal um site plan in the future when they get closer uh to actually developing the site.

A couple of things to note is in the ordinance on the right hand side is is some of the additional standards that we put into the ordinance for what we would want to see for the multifamily.

So a couple of things based on the conceptual designs that they provided us, we would be limiting the density to 12 units per acre.

In comparison, if they were coming in for R3, they they could have up as to as many as 26 units per acre with a height of 50 feet.

What we determined as staff and then working with the applicant was that they were very comfortable with the 12 units per acre and with capping that those building heights at 32 feet.

And so staff did review this item and this was reviewed at the Planning and Zoning Board on November 18th.

The planning and zoning board did recommend denial.

But again, staff because we we have worked very diligently with this applicant, we recommend approval and I will stand for any questions.

And Amy, was there a citation?

Did the Planning and Zoning Board?

You you had indicated earlier to me that they had a very specific reason for turning it down.

So Mr.

Mayor, from the meeting itself, it seemed they didn't have any questions for staff.

The applicant wasn't present during the time that the item was being heard.

I don't know what the questions would have been from the PCB.

It seems to me that they they might have because they weren't uh comfortable in in asking staff questions uh determined without the applicant being present to recommend denial.

Okay, and is the applicant present tonight?

From my understanding they were supposed to okay, good.

Good, good.

And let me get a motion in a second, and then we'll see if there's anything, any questions from the from the governing body.

But thank you for being here.

Okay, um I'll take a motion to approve O29.

And move to approve O29.

I have a motion and a second.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this item?

No, sir, we do not.

Um, would the applicant like to add anything at this time?

Okay.

Thank you.

Um any comments by council.

Hearing on um 029, Miss Davis.

Thank you.

Councillor Colbreth.

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

Counselor Lynn and Time.

Yes.

O29 is approved.

Okay.

Um moving on to O30, ordinance of the City River Rancho, New Mexico amending the zoning classification and official zone map for the property legally described as Vista Hills.

Uh Director Rincone.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body.

So this zone map request is um off located off of Sunt.

It's um in the building that used to be the old boys and girls club.

Um, and so the applicant is requesting a change in the zoning from C1 to C2, and it would allow for a marketing and design production business to go into place.

Um, and so this zoning uh change, excuse me.

I only have one image for this one.

So um the this zone change would be just the first step in getting this business moving forward.

Uh there still will need to be a building permit detailing the changes in the building from when it used to be that boys and girls club to the current configuration.

Um there will also need to be trades permits, including electrical permits going forward, um inspections, business registration, all of those things uh prior to operation of the business itself.

Uh the PCB reviewed this item and recommended approval, and with that I will stand for any questions.

Thank you.

I'll take a motion to approve O30.

Motion to approve O30.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this item?

No, sir, we do not.

Any comments by council?

Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor Weimer.

Henry, can you address the issue of whether they're operating a business there now?

I know I I read that I don't think they are, but I can you clarify that.

Mr.

Mayor, uh, Counselor Weimer.

So the the reason that this hit staff's radar back in January of last year was that we um I I believe it was the fire department and um another department received an anonymous letter saying that there was uh business and operation.

Um we have been trying to work with um multiple property owners through uh through the past year to uh make sure that there isn't operation taking place because it's the the building from our understanding has changed internally since it was a boys and girls club, and so we want to make sure that that structure is safe before a business continues forward.

So the the reason that this hit staff's radar back in January of last year was that we um I I believe it was the fire department and um another department received an anonymous letter saying that there was uh business in operation um we have been trying to work with um multiple property owners through uh through the past year to uh make sure that there isn't operation taking place um because it's the the building from our understanding has changed internally since it was a boys and girls club and so we want to make sure that that structure is safe before a business continues forward um we have um through the fire marshal's office received um some complaints about a generator at the back of the property that is producing smoke um so they're but the applicants have told us that they are only using that generator uh because they have machines inside the building uh that have ink and so they need to turn it on to make sure that the ink doesn't dry um I don't know how often that's occurring um but that's our we're being told they're not doing any business um and so we're we're going for a good faith effort that um moving forward if we do this rezoning um that we will be able to bring that building into conformance to move forward okay thank you ammy for that answer I guess they don't have any power to the building that is correct that's interesting okay all right thank you that's all I have mr mayor okay is the applicant here okay did you have anything you'd like to add on this good evening Mr.

Mayor and uh members of the board my name's Garrett Crow I'm PO box 1934 at Corralis New Mexico um I work closely with Joe Chambers and our uh agent Daniel Gonzalez I believe at DWL um we're looking forward to once the uh at your discretion if this moves forward submitting our building plans getting that building up to code correct working with the city um spoken with Armando Capeta um chief building uh I believe correct me if I get his uh title wrong but um head of building inspections and um working with our architect and also um certified tradesman to get things corrected and so that is a safe um building moving forward for both business and the surrounding community thank you any other comments from counsel Mr.

Mayor Counselor Tyler Amy is the building actually working right I mean he just said there's no power so are they actually in the building right now Mr.

Mayor Counselor Tyler um my understanding from what we are being told is that that they only go in at the time that they are turning on the machines to make sure that things are still uh moving but um I we have no way of of making sure that they're not inside the building at this point in time okay thanks Mr.

Mayor members of the government if I may add real fast to um yes uh this has been a property that uh actually been through our our problem properties task force uh hit our radar screen um and it is uh um on the radar screen of our our fire marshal's office who regularly does drive by is to keep an eye on it and uh also you know so it was a choppy process in the beginning but um the applicant has I think there's been a change in ownership of the of at least the of the business or the of the real estate and have been taking a lot of effort to bring it into compliance um started off as a little bumpy as I mentioned but as we've gone through this process our fire marshal's office has continued to monitor it um for potential occupancy or a potential uh business operations there um we're not inside the building um we can't drill a hole in the wall um or anything like that but um we've done I think on our side on uh you know kind of the monitoring um and we've seen and as Amy's referencing uh staff has seen a a lot of efforts um from the individuals involved now to take good faith efforts to to move this into being a productive piece of real estate that isn't is in compliance and not what's not what we came across with came across a year year and a half ago Mr.

Mayor can I just Mr.

City Manager it how do we know by changing by changing the designation for the it's gonna help correct the problem if I if I can on that one uh so counselor Tyler so um the what are the steps that we have uh run into is the fact that the use we feel um on the zoning side is a higher intensity than the C1 so really to be able to start the building permit process so that they can change the occupancy inside the building and get a business license uh when we get to that step they need to start here with that zoning uh to to be able to move forward so we we feel like this is uh the perfect first step okay thank you Mr.

Mayor Counselor Weimer okay I'm just gonna ask the applicant are you running a business out of that building now sir we're not running a business um we do have a printer that does have need main maintenance each day one to two hours so that's the minimal time that we're trying to uh be in there just doing that small little bit just so the print heads don't dry up okay thank you thank you Mr.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Anything further.

Hearing none, I have a motion, I have a second.

Uh Ms.

Davis, oh thirty, please.

Thank you.

Counselor Tyler Councillor Weimer.

Yes, Councillor Calbreath, yes, Councilor List.

Yes, Councillor Dabson.

Yes.

And Councillor Lennon Tyne.

No.

Thank you.

Moving on to R 140 resolution amending the Papillon Master Plan.

Director Rincone.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body.

So R 140 is a resolution amending the master the Papillon Master Plan.

So just for quick reference, the Papillon Master Plan is located outside of Mariposa between the Mariposa Master Plan area and UNSER.

So what the applicant is is suggesting to do is to expand their boundaries on both sides of the property.

So they're uh they're expanding to the north and expanding to the south.

Um they're adding approximately 98 acres, um, so 43 acres uh to the south and then 55 acres to the north.

There is um an updated uh proposed land use uh location for parks.

Um one of the things I do want to note is that if there is any major changes in any of the conceptual designs that are in this master plan, including utilities, uh, there would need to be updates to the exhibits in this master plan in the future, or if they decide again to um expand the boundaries.

Um so uh this was reviewed by the planning and zoning board at the December 16th meeting, so just uh this past Tuesday.

Uh they recommended approval, and I will stand for any questions.

Um and I do believe the applicant is in chambers.

Thank you.

Um I'll take a motion to approve uh R 140, please.

Motion to approve R 140.

Second.

I have a motion and second.

We do have uh Mr.

Schroger if we have any questions, and Mr.

Aragon if needed.

Do we have anybody else signed up to speak on this item?

No, sir, we do not.

Any comments by council hearing none, Miss Davis.

Uh R 140, please.

Thank you, Councillor Lennon Tyne.

Yes, Councilor Weimer, yes, Counselor List.

Yes, Councilor Dabson.

Yes, Counselor Tyler, yes, and counselor Colbreth, yes.

R140 is approved.

Thank you.

Uh moving on to R 141.

Um, and we're gonna take presentations on R 141 and O31 together.

Uh and so we'll take all comments and input on R 141 and move straight into a vote on O31.

Director Rincone.

So, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, I'm I'm gonna be presenting these two items together uh because they're they're connected.

So it's an amendment for the high range six master plan and then the associated zone map amendment for the lots that they are adding in.

So um this is located on the corner of Inca and Bedevere.

Um, but if you zoom out a little bit, uh easier corner to recognize would be Broadmoor and Idalia.

Um screen, I've got a couple of different images.

So I'm just gonna uh go through very quickly on the left hand side.

What you have in red are the four lots that they are adding to this master plan and that are under the zone map request.

Um so do those four additional lots actually create a connection to Broadmoor.

Um, and what they do in the furthest to right image is do a a reconfiguration of the layout because those lots actually do um uh put the main access point really centralized in that first phase of the subdivision, um, and so it it changes around the lots in the middle is the original uh lot layout, so it's just kind of showing um what uh is taking place.

Um so this item was reviewed by the planning and zoning board again this past Tuesday um at their planning and zoning board meeting, they recommended approval for the master plan amendment and also for the zone map amendment that would take those four lots that were highlighted in red and change their zoning to R5, which is a single family um zoning district.

One thing I do want to point out with that as well is that most of those additional lots are actually gonna become that roadway connection to Broadmoor.

Uh and with that, I will stand for any questions.

Thank you.

I'll take a motion to approve R 141.

Motion to approve R 141.

I have a motion and a second.

Thank you.

Justin Simonson with Isa Isaacson and Arthman acting as agent again here to answer any questions like previous cases if you have anything for us as agent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else signed up to speak on this item?

No, sir.

Any comments by council.

Hearing none.

Ms.

Davis, R141, please.

Thank you.

Counselor Tyler?

Yes.

Counselor Lennon Tyne?

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Colbreth.

Yes.

And Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

Great.

Thank you.

R141 is approved.

Thank you.

I'll uh take a motion to approve O31.

Motion to approve O31.

Thank you.

Counselor Lennantine?

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor Colbreth.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer?

Yes.

Counselor Tyler?

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

O31 is approved.

Thank you.

See.

Moving on to discussion and deliberation.

D74 advice and consent of the governing body to award contract number 26.026.it to DLT solutions.

Director Charlie.

Yes.

Director Charlie.

Charlie Dr.

You will have to get permission from him for that.

Okay.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, members of governing body.

My name is Charlie Hanuna, the IT director for the City of Reancho.

I'm here to seek your approval for the ERP contract that will support our organization, operation efficiency, and strategic goal.

We'll start with the basic basically what's an ERP.

An ERP is an you know enterprise resource planning system.

It is a software that basically it's a core software that everything runs on all operations done by the city.

With that being said, that's part of that ERP system is going to be the finance and accounting, human resource, uh recruitment and purchasing, budgeting, utility, and permitting and development services.

With a good ERP systems, it will streamline process by providing centralized database, basically providing data accuracy, uh enhancing reporting capabilities and so on, and to also help our you know citizens apply for stuff easier and apply and also help our uh staff uh with workflows and uh simple things to do in the system.

So back in July 2024, uh we issued an RFB for a new ARP system.

We had an eight submissions, uh different companies.

Uh we had a committee basically consist of uh different directors from the city uh free rancho.

Uh three of those basically uh got the highest scores after everyone uh scored all the submissions, the three top candidates for four square, savantis solutions, and DLT solutions.

Uh after those got selected, we told them to come here, do a demo, we give them a scripted uh information, and they've done the demos based on our scripts after all the scripts and demos uh that happened here at the city.

Uh DLT solutions achieves the highest overall score and recommended for contract award.

Basically part of the proposed ERP solution is gonna be the development services uh module and permitting utilities billing, finance and purchasing, budget, HR peril.

Basically anything that the city does will be part of this one system.

I respectfully request your approval to proceed with the RP contract so we can begin implementation and realize this benefits.

I'm happy to provide any further detail or address any questions you may have.

We also have uh for presentatives from the DLT present here in this in this building.

Thank you.

You mayor's returning now.

Buzzing himself in thank you very much.

Okay, uh D 74.

I'll take a motion to approve D 74.

Motion approve D74.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this item?

No, sir, we do not.

Any comments by council?

No.

Hearing none, D74, Ms.

Davis.

Thank you.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor Linentine.

Yes.

Counselor Culbreth.

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

And Councillor Weimer.

Yes.

Thank you.

D 74 is approved.

Thank you.

Moving on to R 142 resolution authorizing a budget adjustment to the general fund, computer and software fund.

Director Yara.

Mr.

Mayor and Counselors, good evening.

My part in this presentation is to request the budget adjustment that is necessary to fund the contract that you just approved.

Going into uh planning for the ERP system, the city had put away some money based on some estimates back in a few years ago.

Um a little over uh five million dollars, about five point five million dollars was put into various uh funds to fund an ERP project.

Um after all of the evaluations were done and DLT was selected as a recommended vendor, we did get their basically final and best offer um at that point um realized that we needed a little bit more money to fund the implementation of the system, and so we are asking for um a budget amendment of 1.9 million dollars and that would fund the implementation costs, which is the professional services of of DLT staff and their subcontractors to get the system implemented in the next two years, as well as the first year of the software licensing costs that we need right away when the system goes live.

Oh, wrong way, sorry.

Um just as some additional detail, it's in of course in the resolution, but the budget adjustment uh hits a few of the funds that we you are normally used to see.

The general fund, of course, is going to uh increase by 1.53 million.

Um that money would then be transferred into the computer and software fund in that same amount to fund the project.

Um and then for utility the utility enterprises portion, um, we are asking for a budget amendment of 425,119 dollars to come from fund balance of of basically uh the utilities enterprise, and that makes up the difference that we need to implement the project.

Um additionally, going into the future years, we're not asking for additional monies now, but we do know that a lot of the um modules and software suites that we're using today are going to be replaced by the ERP system, and we are pretty confident that at least a little over half a million dollars of these software costs will be switched out for um the ERP system once it's live.

So um just wanted to give you a heads up on the the years two through five software costs.

So I will stand for questions.

Um and um actually Ms.

Chavez is here, the purchasing manager.

If there's any questions about the procurement, so thank you.

I'll take a motion to approve R 142.

Move to approve R 142.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this item?

No, sir.

Any comments by council?

Mr.

Mayor, Counselor Tyler.

I'm glad we're getting this now because each and every year we wait, it goes up a lot.

Yeah, and uh, this is a project that's long overdue.

It's gonna bring all of our systems up to speed, and I see that the costs are being offset a little bit by what we already currently have for licensing and software, so it's about a 200,000 dollar difference per year versus the 700,000 looks, but we already currently have 500 and something for that anyway.

So I hope everyone understands these ERP systems are not cheap.

And to get them implemented and to get the software licensing and the support and the people in here to get it done, just as long as everyone knows it's a painful process.

So but uh that's all I'll add, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Yeah, Mr.

Mayor and Councilor Tyler.

I just want to add also there will be some efficiencies realized with staff time, and that I can't even um calculate right now.

So a lot more savings.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and thank you for that that last statement.

That was actually going to be one of my questions around anticipated efficiencies.

You know, hopefully with bringing on some of these um software systems.

Um we may not have to, you know, add additional staff, and we can do more with who we have.

So while it looks like a larger expense on the front end one, we need to do some of this just to bring us up into the modern space and waiting.

Um we would likely have to add on additional staff, which that really can pile up, right?

Yes, that's true.

Our volumes are increasing as the city grows.

So yeah, yeah, exactly.

No, so thank you.

I I understand the costs of these systems, but they really do reap benefits on the back end.

So thank you for the hard work.

Um, and best of luck on the implementation.

Thank you.

Anything further on R 142.

Hearing none.

Um Ms.

Davis, R 142, please.

Thank you, Counselor Weimer.

Yes, Counselor Dabson.

Yes, Councilor Colbreth.

Yes, Councilor Lennon Tyne.

Yes, Counselor List.

Yes, Counselor Taylor.

Yes.

Thank you.

R142 is approved.

Excuse me.

Um, you know what?

I think this is a good place to take about a 10-minute recess, uh, and then we'll go into legislative priorities, capital outlay priorities, and then we'll move into the state of the city.

So I'm gonna go ahead and uh let's uh we'll reconvene at 10 after, so more like an eight-minute recess.

So we're in recess.

Thank you all.

Okay, number 28, R 143 resolution establishing the city of Rio Rancho's legislative leg legislative priorities.

Uh Ryan Chavez.

Uh good evening, Mayor, members of the governing body.

Um, if it's all right with you, I'll present both our 143 and one R 144 together tonight, which are the legislative priorities and capital outlay request resolutions for the 2026 30-day legislative session beginning January 20th.

Uh, pursuant to the state constitution, a 30-day session is limited to matters pertaining to budgets of appropriations and revenue bills, bills drawn from a special message of the governor, and bills from the last regular legislative session that were vetoed by the governor.

Um, so for our legislative priorities resolution, uh, the city of Rio Rancho has specific legislative priorities and objectives that it desires the New Mexico legislature and elected officials representing Rio Rancho and Sandoval County to consider and support.

The specific legislative priorities and objectives listed in the resolutions have been developed from legislative priority resolutions previously adopted by the governing body, the new Mexico Municipal League legislative priorities, emergent issues, city staff input, and feedback given from the city's state government lobbyists.

The priorities listed broadly range from protecting the city's home rule autonomy, ensuring the city's revenue sources remain stable, supporting meaningful public safety legislation, and supporting reform and improvement to IPRO laws and others for the capital outlay resolution.

The specific capital outlay requests listed in the resolution have been developed from the ICIP, city staff input, feedback feedback from the city's state government lobbyist and previous state legislator funding allocations.

The nine projects range in categories from quality of life, including a new field at sports complex north, public safety, including a new fire and rescue ladder truck, and um public infrastructure, including median improvements on West Side Boulevard, and the detailed project descriptions can be found in your packets.

And with that, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you.

I'll take a motion to approve.

And since you presented on both of these at the same time, we'll take all comments on 143 and then just move right into 144.

So I'll take a motion to approve R 143.

Move to approve R 143.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you.

Right, we've got a couple of folks signed up to speak on this.

Stephen Van Horn.

Good evening again, Mayor Counselors.

On paper, this legislative priorities resolution that cities pass.

It's pretty standard.

Cities pass these every year to give staff and lobbyists cover at the roundhouse.

In reality, though, this is a political signal document.

It tells legislators what the city will fight, not just what it supports.

It creates free authorization for city staff and lobbyists to oppose certain reforms without needing governing body debate mid-session.

It locks in positions before the public can take any meaningful actions to react.

This is not a neutral priorities list.

They actually reflect a very specific governing philosophy.

First, the records slash IPRA section should make people nervous.

Initially calling IPRA outdated.

It asks for broader privacy definitions, more discretion over body cam footage, and the ability to charge more for redactions, which basically means regular people can get priced out of public records inspection.

It claims to be about protecting cities from abusive IFRA requests, but it never defines what abusive means.

That's a huge problem.

Once you label a request abusive or harassment, it becomes very easy to discourage watchdogs, journalists, or even residents who just want an answer, but you can make them go away.

What really gives it away is that they want more access to GRT data for the city.

Finally, there's no mention of making anything transparent for the public.

So the city gets to ask for more data, but it wants to keep the residents from getting any data.

Thank you.

This is a neutral.

Thank you.

It's an offensive move.

Thank you.

Michael Farrell.

I'm probably wrong.

My wife always tells me I am.

You know, I'm not as smart as y'all, but my understanding is that legislation, the legislative priorities resolution, like he said, is uh supposed to focus on big issues that actually require state action.

Um you know the kinds of things that help shape cities.

So I have to ask are we really expecting legislature to overhaul how I works across the entire state because Rio Rancho Management is tired of residents asking questions.

Is that the emergency we're gonna bring into Santa Fe during this session?

From the outside, it looks like reform and more like it doesn't look like reform, it looks more like it a lot like it's energy just being wasted because something's inconvenient to you.

What makes it even more impressive is that this isn't new.

The language looks just like what you guys set forth and voted on.

Some of you voted on it two years ago.

Copy and paste.

There's nothing new.

This isn't an accident.

This is becoming a pattern.

And while we're busy prioritizing public record requests, the real concerns us residents keep rising uh raising.

Somehow didn't make the cut this year.

No water security, no infrastructure capacity, no growth limits tied to real resources, none of the issues that actually we deal with in daily life here in Rio Rancho.

I guess my takeaway from all this when asking for public records becomes a legislative priority, and planning for the city's future doesn't problem, isn't it?

It's the city hall would rather not talk about something when talk about.

I hope some of you, councilmen, counselors, councilwomen, ask the real questions tonight.

Especially those who passed this two years ago, because voters are watching a lot more closely this year.

Thank you and have a merry Christmas, guys.

Thank you.

Julian Key?

I'm sorry, Jillian King.

I wanted to talk to you about item 28, paragraph three.

Um that supports changes to regulations that would allow supports changes to regulations that would allow those who have earned retirement benefits from public employees' retirement associations to return to work in order to fill pre-associated critical need positions, hard to fill vacancies and part-time positions without incurring penalties to existing retirement benefits.

My question is what are the city council and HR going to do to look at recruiting people that we need.

There's nothing wrong with hiring a retired person for a critical position, but I need to see a plan and some transparency of how you are going to improve the workforce in this city.

Um I I'm an HR person for I'm a retired HR person, and I really think that you need to add more to this.

And again, we need more transparency so we don't end up with a workforce of retired people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

No, sir.

Any comments by council?

Mr.

Mayor?

Yes, Council.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, could you just remind me of the um I know you mentioned it, but the capital outlay priorities.

Could you just uh go over those one more time?

Uh yeah, so I can kind of briefly talk about each of the number.

Thank you.

Um so we have um 1.7 million to just design and construct an additional youth baseball field at Sports Complex North, 276,000 to upgrade to multi-purpose sports courts at Havasu Falls Park, 100,000 to purchase and install and replace shelving at the in the children's area, Estherbone Memorial Library, uh 1.6 million to replace and equip a fire and rescue ladder truck, 110,000 to purchase two traffic and equipment trailers for the police department, 500,000 to replace and equip five police department vehicles, uh 496,500 to design and construct West Side Boulevard median landscaping from a park above to Wellspring.

Um 175,000 to purchase and install ITS improvements for Broadmoor Boulevard, 150,000 to reconstruct uh pedestrian curb ramp citywide in compliance with 88.

Okay, thank you.

So what I feel like I'm seeing here are um significant multi-million dollar uh nearly across the board, uh capital outlay requests in uh quality of life, uh public safety, and in infrastructure improvements that we'll be putting forward in Santa Fe during this 30-day legislative session.

Yes, right, and so and just the 30-day legislative session, very quick, um, really mostly focused on these type of budgetary items with some of the other policy issues, just get less space in that session.

Is that that's what I understand?

Is that correct?

Um, Mr.

Mayor, uh Councilor Colbert, that's correct.

Um if it's not messaged by the governor, it probably won't be deemed germane um to be heard to this session.

Yeah, and so I I think these these priorities that that have been identified here, again, multi-million dollar capital outlay requests that hopefully will be addressed and supported by the uh state legislators that represent Rio Rancho, um, again in quality of life, in public safety, and in public infrastructure, these were areas that were identified through our citizen survey as well as just through our ICIP projects or our ICIP vision for the city of Rio Rancho as what we need to continue to move the city forward.

So I am in full support of these, um, and I hope that our state uh legislators uh will champion them as they go forward in Santa Fe.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Lindstein.

Yes, uh, City Manager Geisel, if I could ask you in the last, well, let's go back five years or so.

Um, how many people have we needed to hire here to help process the increase in IPRA requests that we've seen?

Mr.

Mayor, members of the government party, uh, Counselor Lenantine.

Um, over the last seven years, uh, we've seen an increase in IPR volume from uh about 900 record requests a year to we're probably gonna have about 5,000 this year.

So it's a little bit over 400 percent increase.

Um we've added three uh records technicians uh in uh the clerk's office under on Noelle Davis is our records custodian uh for the city.

Um so we've doubled our staff on the handle records, and that's in addition to uh expenditures and investments in uh office space modifications uh to accommodate that staff as well as uh as technology.

So I imagine with three hires and when you do taxes, insurance, all that, we're probably around 250,000 a year that the taxpayers are gonna pay in order to to fund all of that.

Okay, I mean I agree that you we could add some language and and I know that we have some ideas about what would make kind of how to to rein in that to promote both transparency, which is important and we believe in, uh, but also to not make it too onerous to where we need to process.

I imagine what the trend just nationwide that we're seeing, and certainly city and statewide, that the 5,000 that we'll do this year will only go up the next several years, which means that in the future we'd have to hire a fourth person, a fifth person, so on and so forth.

And so I just want to point that out that that on the other end of it, we as a community are going to pay for all of these positions that we need to have.

And so, you know, we you know, our state, I know there's several cities around our state that are kind of looking to Santa Fe to say, hey, can you provide some definition uh to be able to make this uh both doable from a you know transparent to citizens, uh which we want to be, um, but then also uh affordable and then also um responsible to our taxpayers that they need to fund these different positions.

So okay, that's all I had, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Tyler, two issues.

Number one, IPRA.

So I'll talk a little bit about what I I've been down to the municipal league, um, and I I don't know if you were there when this was we had a large discussion over IPRA, and this was all the different cities, just a lot of the city counselors and and folks throughout.

And I think what the what the real goal is when we talk about the IPRA records, it's not to be dismissive of the public's requests, it's um to actually honor the public's requests.

The request that we're seeing is overburdensome and sometimes I think abusive, and or I don't know about the harassing piece, but the abusive part is when all these bloggers are starting to grab um information from body cams and whatnot, so they can make money off of the usage of our work.

And uh, I don't know that that's what IPRA was intended to do.

It was to be able to inspect public records and and for legitimate reasons, and I think what a lot of the cities throughout the state and a lot of it's become burdensome to the fact where we've had to employ so many, like you just said, so many employees to answer these requests that are not legitimate community concerns, they're people trying to make money off of um the city.

So I think that's where the city's going with this, and I think that's the direction that a lot of the cities are actually um trying to press upon the legislature to take a look at IPRA and make some modifications to make it to where we're addressing the needs and the wants of the community.

We're not trying to hide anything, we want to give you what you're asking for, but at the same time, I think that some of these other folks are abusing the system that was created to protect the citizens of Rio Rancho and then the state of New Mexico.

And as far as I just want to talk about the HR piece that was brought up just a second ago, I think really what that was looked at and where we're looking at that was for public safety and for fire and police, because for a long point, a long time we haven't been able to, we're not able to return to work.

So if I'm as a police officer, when I retired, I was not able to return to work unless I forego my retirement.

But at the same time, it it then became a problem of recruiting.

I think right now, Chief, we got a lot of open positions because we can't get applicants.

We can't get people to apply for being a police officer right now.

So what the IPRA or not IPRA, sorry, geez, what that law did, they actually finally came back and changed where we could come back to work without forgoing our retirement, but it only is for three years.

But yet a teacher can sit out for 90 days and go right back to work and collect their retirement.

But as law enforcement or firefighters, we cannot as public servants.

So I think where that bill was created, because I did push for that bill, and I wanted to make sure that it got heard each and every year until it got changed, because I do believe that the public employees who have retired do have something to offer, and as well as I think there's others that have a lot to offer.

But I don't think it should be restrictive not to allow people to return back to work when we have someone who retires to go back to work as a chief of police and then make us in because of the law, then we have to go hire chiefs of police from Texas, Colorado, or somewhere else.

So I I look at that as what that is the intent of that is.

Counselor Tyler, yes, most definitely a centerpiece of the conversation of return to work has been in the space of public safety, and there has been some short-term provisions that have been passed at the at the legislative uh level.

Um, but there's also opportunities uh to think about this and beyond public safety.

Um some point in time I'll retire as a city manager, and I hope to stay in New Mexico, and I will be precluded from getting a job as a part-time lifeguard.

Um I could go help Connie or the aquatics in the the the parks and rec.

Um, the mayor who's very handy with tools won't be able to become a part-time carpenter in the building maintenance department, or uh you know we won't be all the race mowers um across the parks and as as part-time employees.

So there's but things like crossing guards, you know, there's other places where people we want people to stay, and counselor Tyler, and you're an anomaly.

A lot of our law enforcement professionals, and I kind of have an idea when you retired.

A lot of your peers probably went to Texas, Arizona, other states to get second careers in law enforcement, um, rather than contributing to another community as a law enforcement professional, or becoming a a library page or a lifeguard or or something else in the part-time basis.

Um, but also, you know, I'll say, you know, one of the things that we do do here at the City of Re Ranchos, and the government body knows this, um, you know, and the mayor's talked a lot about it over the years of how we've grown our staff at the city in a very smart, predictable way.

We've created a five-year staffing plan so we can look ahead on what our future needs are to you know the the grow the departments across the different areas that of the public service demand and expectations that we have from our from our community members, and then a lot of a lot of efforts to grow our own, and we've added in the last couple years, as you know, several professional development programs for emerging leaders, um, you know, recently promoted supervisors, uh, and other you know tools and keys for success.

Um, so we obviously have the side of training where it's all about the compliance and all the things that we need to do there, but how do we grow our people?

And we spend a lot of calories and a lot of resources on that, and it's actually we've seen some you know, some fruits and some dividends come from that with folks successfully promoting from within, or even rethinking about their opportunities at the city of Rio Rancho, not just as a one-stop job but a multi-multi-step career.

Can you address the IPRA piece that I talked about?

And what your thoughts are of what we learned from this we're off base on that spot or not, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, uh Councillor Tyler, um, the concerns with IPRA are a statewide concern.

Um, this is not just a Rio Rancho issue or a Rio Rancho concern.

Uh, the municipal league as an entity that represents the 106 municipalities in New Mexico has a uh resolution requesting IPRA reform, um, has participated in meetings with other entities uh trying to advance that issue.

Um, but many municipalities, Santa Paul County has a um uh you know on their resolution uh their legislative priorities, um uh uh IPRA reform, um Santa Fe, Las Cruces, City of Albuquerque are also all seeing exponential growth in their IPRA requests over the last several years.

And I think there's a few reasons why that has happened.

Uh, you referenced one BWC, body warn camera's one of them.

Uh the passage of the uh um passage of the uh civil rights act is also another one.

See lots of requests from uh attorneys and other entities that are using it as a business development process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Mr.

City Manager, wasn't it Sandoval County last year that submitted for for legislative uh approval a complete rewrite of IPRA that was Sanibel County?

Mr.

Mayor, members of the government body, yes.

Um, there's a couple pieces of legislation, and one of them was Hannibal County, yes.

I think one of my issues around that is there's a website out there called drunk girls getting arrested.

And you have the uh you have these IPRA requests where all they want is body worn camera footage of people getting people that are drunk getting arrested, and they have a pay website you have to subscribe to to get in there, and I think that's where I see the abuse.

So and they're looking specifically for young teenage girls.

I find that demoralizing and sickening.

But it's each their own.

To each their own, if that's what people want to see.

Um then there's also the the concern about some of the videos, uh body worn camera that involve children uh in very distressed situations.

It's another website out there that's dedicated to putting up body worn cameras of people that have committed suicide of teenagers hanging in closets.

They're very disturbing, and they're making money off this.

So until we really know the depth of what some of the concerns are, it's not about it's not about the local newspaper needing documents.

We we want to give you guys what you want, it's not about that.

You guys are here to tell the story of Rio Rancho and what's happening, right?

So it's you're not running a website about teenage girls getting drunk.

So there's a big difference in some of the things that we're seeing that are coming forward, and people are making money off of it and blogging off of it, and um, and they're getting that information at taxpayer expense.

We're paying to process all that and put it out there.

So it's not a it's it's there's some very different circumstances, and let's you see the requests that come in, it's really hard to describe.

But uh first and foremost, transparency, we want to give everything out as long as it's in compliance with law.

Um the and I want to mention the uh return to work as well.

Uh ever since I've been in office for since 2014, we've had a situation with police officers that we pay into their para, we train them, we um the in years ago the the the legislature passed a law that says no more double dipping.

Once you hit this point, you're done, you're out.

2010, and that left us a severe shortage in in law enforcement uh first responders, huge shortage.

And we had this vast resource of individuals that became firefighters, police officers at the age of 20, 21, and they're retiring by the time they're 40, 45, and they're having to leave the state, and they're taking all the training we gave them, and they're taking their retirements, and they're leaving the state because they can't get another job here with the with the state.

And so everything we've invested in them, they're they're packing up and leaving town, and so now we don't have that retirement being invested back in the community, and so our first responders uh that have been trained year after year after year are tremendous resource, and allowing them to come back to work as mentors, uh as trainers, uh to pass on their trade uh is something that I've been a huge advocate for.

Um it's not that we want them to replace anybody else because we'd love to have we've got a we've got a hiring plan that says we want to recruit this many police officers and we want to recruit this many firefighters, and we want to recruit this many individuals here here and here, but the big shortages in the in the first responders.

Um when you look at the shortages you see in Albuquerque and police departments and fire departments across the state.

Um there's a big shortage out there, and and that's not just saying, hey, we want somebody to come in.

There's nobody to fill that position at that time, and then of course, if we do have an academy, it takes weeks to get somebody trained up and then months to get yeah, months to get somebody trained up.

So filling that gap is very, very, very important.

Um so on that hiring side.

So it's not as a as an adult to or a replacement of hiring new talent, it's filling that gap while we find and train that new talent.

So I think is the important thing because there is a uh return to work something that I've advocated for for a long time because we've got a lot of resources in the state.

Um, and when they hit that retirement age at 445 40, um that that's very young age to take your your retirement leave the state um or to go off to another agency.

So I want to make sure that we're respecting the time and talent that we've invested uh that's invested in in our first responders, and they do an amazing job, and we want to keep them as part of our community as long as we possibly can.

So that's one of those things that I just wanted to touch on because you mentioned that I've been an advocate of this uh for a long time, and uh it's been a problem that we have yet to resolve, and it's because of that uh the double dipping law is what it was called, I think, or referred to uh back in 2010 when the legislature passed uh that that rule that said once you hit this, you're kind of done, you know.

uh that's invested in in our first responders and they do an amazing job and we want to keep them as part of our community as long as we possibly can so that's one of those things that I just wanted to touch on because you mentioned that I've been an advocate of this uh for a long time and uh it's been a problem that we have yet to resolve and it's because of that uh the double dipping law is what it was called I think or referred to uh back in 2010 when the legislature passed uh that that rule that said once you hit this you're kind of done you know so um anyway but very important issues okay uh let's see here where was I what we're we have a motion on 143 is that where we're at okay okay so I have a motion and a second on R 143 any further comments on this hearing none uh miss Davis thank you counselor Weimer yes counselor Tyler Counselor List yes Counselor Lennon Time yes Counselor Colbreth yes and counselor Dabson yes yes okay um our 143 is approved okay I just said okay um sorry moving on to R 144 I'll take a motion to approve our 144 I move to approve R 144 second I have a motion a second Miss Davis R 144 please Counselor Dabson yes Counselor Lennon Time Yes Counselor List yes Counselor Tyler yes Counselor Colbreth yes Counselor Weimer yes R 144 is approved thank you all right um at this time I will uh present my uh annual state of the city to the city council and then after that we'll move on to the city manager's report I I will stay with the question thank you for I can see it can turn the microphone there we go you know you're right see there you gotta stay you gotta turn on the microphone hold on let me pull this apart good evening governing body I don't get to do this very often from this side uh uh in accordance with the uh uh city charter uh the mayor is to present a state of the city uh to the council and to the citizens uh annually and this is my annual State of the City 2025 uh update on the city and so we'll just start moving through this and I'll try to make it as quick as possible um over the past few years the City Rio Rancho and has made a lot of progress uh in the area of national recognition uh we've been recognized as a top 100 places to live by livability.com that's been we've been recognized on numerous times from that uh particular publication uh 50 best places to live for a family fortune magazine number two most affordable cities uh yeah by Motley Fool twin top 25 best places to live in the Southwest Livability.com again uh number four safest cities in New Mexico Safewise we've hit that marker on several occasions number six best places to retire and then most recently we saw a report from Polco which is the company that manages our uh citizen survey they ranked us in the top five best locally governed communities in the country so um as we go through these things it's a recognition of the hard work uh that we've been doing on not only from this uh from the mayor's office to the city council but to all of the staff that has worked so hard uh to make sure that Rio Rancho lives up to the motto that we put into our uh our um uh our uh strategic plan to be the best city in the Southwest so we that was the goal that we set and that's what we've been working toward uh mentioning that citizen survey the city conducts a statistically valid survey every two years to gauge citizen satisfaction and garner input uh we we rank it on quality of life uh trust in public uh in public trust in city leadership uh and uh residents feel safe and confident in the community very proud to report that in this uh particular survey 97 percent of citizens surveyed said that they feel safe in their community during the day now each and what every one of you know that uh new Mexico doesn't rank real high when it comes to public safety but Rio Rancho shines as a beacon uh uh and and stands out and the surrounding communities in the state recognizes it and sees the work that we're doing here and uh we get recognized constantly I get calls from other mayors and other counselors uh constantly talking about how we can help them and uh look at some of their circumstances and share the solutions that we've done here uh with them in their different communities so that we can partner with them to improve their public safety scores as well so we've seen some great uh improvement there private sector investment this is important what helps a city grow uh is partnerships uh people investing in our communities making sure that uh we've got robust robust investment bringing in those outside dollars creating opportunity uh you know creating GRT uh as uh as we would have it because that is the lifeblood of our budget and so having private and uh sector investment uh is critical uh to the growth and development of the city uh some of the private investment that we've seen over the past year uh in uh councilor culbroth right here in your district a big one market street came in and uh the fact that Albertson's uh brand Market Street chose Rio Rancho uh

What helps a city grow is partnerships, uh people investing in our communities, making sure that uh we've got robust robust investment, bringing in those outside dollars, creating opportunity, uh you know, creating GRT as uh as we would have it, because that is the lifeblood of our budget, and so having private and uh sector investment uh is critical uh to the growth and development of the city.

Uh some of the private investment that we've seen over the past year uh in uh uh councillor Culbroth right here in your district, a big one, Market Street came in, and uh the fact that Albertson's uh brand Market Street chose Rio Rancho for this particular location really speaks volumes for our city.

This is a uh uh model of store that you don't find it just everywhere.

They target uh uh uh high median income areas to build these stores and to place them.

And I'm very proud of the fact that in 2014 our median income in Rio Rancho was around uh I want to say it was it was just under 55,000, and right now the median income in Rio Rancho is a little over 85,000.

So by having these private sector investments, creating jobs, creating opportunity, we've seen strong growth uh in the median household income throughout Rio Rancho, which is why uh we were ranked as the number two most affordable city in the Southwest uh by the one organization is because when you look at the cost of living, we're still below the national average in cost of living.

And so that being said, uh when it you when it comes to affordability as your incomes are going up, that makes the community highly desirable, and so we're very proud of that.

We also saw the completion of the Chamisa Hills Master Plan, uh, which is going to bring private investment into the community uh coming forward very soon.

Uh when you look at the growth in Rio Rancho, Rio Rancho is a highly desirable community.

New single-family homes in 2024, we saw uh 967 new homes built in Rio Rancho.

That's a valuation of 202 million dollars in total valuation, and then in 2025 uh uh to date, 764 uh new homes, new home permits, with a total valuation of 162 million dollars.

So when we talk about investment in the community, very proud of the fact that over the last 10 years to 11 years, City of Rio Rancho has seen uh between six and seven billion dollars worth of private investment in this community on an on a per capita basis.

That's an incredible number uh based on the size of the city that we are and the fact that we were once denoted as uh uh a suburb, but now clearly uh standalone community uh being the number three, if not the number two, uh largest city in the state.

We're going back and forth on that number with Las Cruces.

Uh but we'll wait till the next census to verify that.

But I think we're in the number two slot, but we'll find out uh soon enough.

Uh looking at the uh New Mexico uh uh Rio Rancho is New Mexico's housing leader.

Now, when you look at the housing uh permits and the percentage of the markets that we're in, uh this gives you a clear understanding of where we're at.

Uh 2021 out of the Albuquerque and Santa Fe market combined, and that's not just the Albuquerque, that's Albuquerque and Santa Fe market combined in 2021.

We were 47 44.7 percent of all new home starts.

Uh and in 2025, we're 47.2 percent.

So we are carrying the market uh and we are meeting that housing need.

We have a housing shortage in New Mexico.

Uh people are looking for a great place to live, they're looking for a city with wonderful school districts, and they're really looking for cities that I don't know, have 97% of their residents that feel safe in the community during the day.

This is attracting people to our community.

And if the one thing what the one thing that we want to do is continue to be an inviting community, continue to uh have people moving here and build on the great successes that we've seen.

Other local investment that we've seen when it comes to some of the small businesses.

We've seen Screen Kings enter the market, the spectacle, Comcast Expansion, Easy Fiber, Define Pickleball, L Hawaiian, Rio Tech, Brecki Brecki, Big Brothers Bricks.

Uh, and yes, we had an investment in Rick's prehistoric mini golf.

Unfortunately, it sounds to me like they they unfortunately didn't make it, uh, but they did invest in our community and brought that uh brought that business to our community last year.

Uh and we we certainly wish them well, but we're seeing lots and lots of new investment.

And I might point out not all car washes.

Okay.

So Intel's investment and home builders and developers uh and so many other investors that are bringing so many things uh to uh to Rio Rancho.

And those dollars, when we talk about construction, the construction GRT that comes off those projects are helping pay for our police department, our fire department, they're helping us invest in our libraries and community centers, our senior centers.

They're helping us in every possible direction in growing Rio Rancho and improving the quality of life for each and every one of our citizens.

And other investments that we've seen that are massive investments in the community, Comcast and Easy Fiber.

Comcast investing 150 million dollars in our community.

When Comcast and Easy Fiber get done installing all of this infrastructure through our sit out of our city, Rio Rancho will have more internet options in this community than any other city in the state.

We'll have uh Comcast, Easy Fiber, CenturyLink, Sparklight, T-Mobile, Verizon, Starlink, you name it, we'll do you'll have just about every possible connection you can think of.

The thing that I really enjoy about the fiber optic going into the homes is we're already a city that has a massive amount of small business licenses, home office occupation licenses.

And these this this uh fiber optic to the house really gives our home offices or home businesses that that competitive edge that they need to compete with brick and mortar stores that have the higher internet speeds.

So when you think about your real estate agents, your CPAs, um, at-home photographers, uh, you know, home day cares, all these different individuals that might need uh internet resources, uh, homeschoolers, uh, people that are teaching from home, having these internet resources uh and having these speeds make sure that uh our our community has the highest level of communication offerings in the state, and so we're very proud of that.

And these investments also reflect the fact that these companies see the value in Rio Rancho and they see the value in our citizens, and uh they want to provide these services.

So we see here over 200 million dollars worth of private investment just in these two options, and it will create a very state-of-the-art situation for our community.

Um, Comcast right now is sitting at about 70 percent complete, and easy fiber is at about 14 percent complete.

Yes, uh, on the front end, there was a bit of a bumpy start getting this through.

Uh obviously, whenever you have a 40, 50, 60 year old community uh and you're bringing new infrastructure into that right away, there's a there's bound to be some bumps and bruises along the way.

But at the end of the day, no progress is ever easy.

Progress always takes commitment.

Progress is always painful, but we know that when we when we do make progress on the other side, we do find a better uh quality of life, especially when it comes to this communications and having this in our homes.

I think it's gonna really just make Rio Rancho have that extra edge once again.

So very excited about the investments that are being made here.

Other local investments, who's ready for some hockey?

So we will be dropping the puck next year as the uh goatheads professional hockey team is returning to Rio Rancho.

We're very excited about the fact uh that uh this uh this organization has chosen Rio Rancho to bring this franchise into Rio Rancho, bring professional hockey back to New Mexico, and so uh Rio Rancho will want to be once again be the epicenter for professional hockey in the state of New Mexico, and we're looking forward to what that's going to do.

I think the first time when we had the Scorpions here, they were maybe a little bit before their time, but with the growth and development and uh the fact that when the Scorpions here, I'll check with Matt here.

I think we had population of maybe around 60,000, give or take, and today we've got a population that's closer to 118,000.

So we've got uh a better population base, and folks down in Albuquerque don't think that you have to pack a lunch to get to Rio Rancho uh as much anymore.

So we're a little bit more accessible, and we're looking forward to that.

So having uh the goat heads at the Rio Rancho event center is going to be uh a real, I think a real boon for the city of Rio Rancho.

Investing and reinvesting in the community.

Um so we have the community partners, but in order to get community partners, it takes investing in oneself.

Uh we you know, we know that uh in 2014 the city was in full on stagnancy, uh, but when we got the road bond passed and the public safety bond passed, and uh outside companies started to see that we were investing in ourselves, they wanted to partner.

They didn't want to carry the load by themselves, they wanted to make sure that we were in this together.

And so uh I think that once we got the road bond started and we uh we started to show some real progress in infrastructure improvements.

Uh we saw a lot of uh private investors that wanted to come in and be a part of that.

Now, as part of investing and reinvesting in the community and growing the uh local uh the local resources uh through smart budgeting and through fiscal responsibly uh good fiscal management uh of our budget uh and also having this council support a policy decision of maintaining a minimum of 25% reserves to make sure that we would never suffer the consequences of the 2008 market collapse where the city was wholly dependent on uh very specific revenue sources through impact fees and construction GRT, and so when the main construction industry fell off, City of Rio Rancho suffered uh uh very heavily and didn't have the reserves to really push forward with the state minimum reserves.

And so when the main construction industry fell off, City of Rio Rancho suffered uh very heavily and didn't have the reserves to really push forward with the state minimum reserves.

This council has supported a 25% uh reserve balance, and so uh we've and uh for the most part we've been well above that, and I'm very happy that we are still above that 25% baseline reserve.

But because of that, we've saved the citizens of Rio Rancho millions and millions of millions of dollars, refinancing existing debt that was here before uh before 2014, uh, and uh get being able to, when we do issue, when we do issue debt, getting the absolute best of uh rate that we can get when we go out on the bond market, and what really helps set that rate is the city's credit rating.

And I you know, I refer to this as your uh FICO score, your uh your trans union or your Equifax, uh you know, your your credit score.

And so the city the city's credit score is higher than it's ever been.

And uh there's several factors that drive that.

But we see that uh Moody's has pushed us up to an AA uh AA1 from an AA2.

Um Moody's uh on that on the uh uh on the uh issue on our general obligation bonds, our state shared GRT revenues bonds uh are pushed from an AA3 to an AA1.

And our water wastewater, uh the management of that particular utility has pushed us from an AA minus to an AA flat.

And so we've seen, and a lot of these upgrades have come without us even going out to market.

Like our GRT bond rating was upgraded.

We weren't looking to issue GRT debt.

Uh we just got uh we got a notice from Moody's that said you guys are doing so well, we're just gonna upgrade your bond rating.

It's like going to uh credit karma and seeing that you went from a 700 to a 750.

But in this particular case, I rate it uh I think this puts us in the 800 range.

So city has a great credit rating, and it's based on tremendous fiscal management uh and and management of our resources.

Uh other investments that we've made, campus park.

Very proud of this uh campus park.

Uh we did phase one a few years ago, and we just completed phase two.

We've held some amazing community events out there, and if you didn't come to uh uh 4th of July, fall festival or winter fest, you missed out on really being a part of some tremendous community activities.

I mean, we can be active in the community and we can go in one place or another, but when we really come together as a community in these various different events, that shows real community spirit, community pride, and in this particular case, campus park phase two is just an unmitigated success, and it has become that centerpiece of Rio Rancho that draws us together as a community.

Uh one of the things, one of the visions we had with this uh when we first embarked on this, we looked at Rio Rancho, and one of the things that I've I really said was, you know, Ria Rancho with all the different communities is really kind of like 12 different villages.

We need something where all those little villages can come together and be unified in a single place, where we can hold outdoor events, outdoor concerts, and really share our share share together some uh space that is community.

And in this particular case, we've got that outside uh entertainment venue now that we've never really had before.

We've had bands here, we've had the New Mexico Philharmonic out on several occasions.

It's always fun when uh you when they're doing their symphonies while the fireworks are going off, that's always fun.

Uh so uh, but it just turned into a space that we've never had before, and uh we have this iconic uh uh skyroom in the center of it that is very uniquely Rio Rancho, so we're very proud of where this has come.

Now, with a lot of this when we talk about fiscal management, the things that we've done in this community over the last several years have been very careful.

Campus Park was paid for cash with no corresponding debt.

We manage our resources and we paid for it, and it's been paid for, so we're not sending any debt forward to future generations.

When I first took office, uh we were carrying so much debt that after you paid the employees and paid the debt service, you were lucky to have enough money to throw it uh to throw some asphalt in a pothole, let alone fix a street or or increase our police department or add police officers or add firefighters or build a new fire station, which we'll talk about here in just a second.

So we've seen a lot of great things.

Another great investment that we've placed uh in the city uh a few years ago, we brought in the Broadmoor Senior Center, and we're currently under expansion on the Broadmoor Senior Center to enclose the north side of the building so that there'll be indoor pickleball for our senior citizens and a great little space there that they can meet in.

So continuing to expand senior services.

This was the first expansion of senior services in Rio Rancho in over 20 years.

And with a growing senior population that are paying taxes, we need to make sure that we're expanding those services and we're meeting the needs of our senior citizens because they add so much value to our community and we appreciate them.

But here's another fun fact about this.

This facility has been paid for cash, no corresponding debt.

So making sure that we're managing our resources, working with the state.

We did get some state grants on this, and we got some other grants, leveraging some of our resources to get additional resources.

That's why that capital outlay priority list is so important when we talk about the priorities that we're looking for.

We're looking to fund quality of life things in the in the city of Rio Rancho.

For example, we're still a very young community, so expanding our parks, expanding our baseball fields, expanding those facilities, adding additional resources so that our kids have something to do aside from get in trouble.

We want to make sure that we're making those opportunities available and growing those resources as we grow as a community.

If we don't grow those resources as we grow as a community, we are leaving people behind.

And so, and we do not want to do that.

But Broadmoor Senior Center is yet again just another beautiful facility that we've added and continue to add.

We're uh obviously water and wastewater is huge in this community.

Uh as uh as was uh pointed out earlier uh by a former utility commissioner that understands and has known and has worked and understands the age of this system and the complexities in getting it replaced.

Uh certainly understands that we've invested millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars in trying to replace these water lines that we inherited.

Um we've spent millions and millions and millions of dollars upgrading our wastewater treatment facilities.

One thing that I know that when I brought when I took office, wastewater treatment facility one was behind Intel Corporation.

This was a huge undertaking.

And uh and that that facility needed to be decommissioned and a new one built.

And through uh, as we did a design built, uh design build on the uh on the wastewater treatment facility, we quickly came to the conclusion that putting a lift station there and pushing the wastewater from that location over to the Cabazon plant and expanding the Cavazan plant would not only create the efficiencies that we need and consolidate operations, but it would also save the taxpayers and ratepayers in the utility millions and millions of dollars in operational cost and build costs.

And so uh that expansion came at a great cost.

So over the years we've seen millions of dollars worth of infrastructure upgrades.

Uh recently we did have that water line uh break that was on a 30 to 40 year old pipe uh that came down that was originally serviced to Rio Rancho Estates.

Uh but as each of you all know, as we've moved forward in our capital outlay priorities, some of the things that we've asked the state for is we've asked for money to replace water lines because we had 18,000 residential service lines that needed to be replaced.

That was before I was uh in office in 2014 and back when the Utilities Commission was dealing with that, and it was the Utilities Commission at that time that decided uh in 2013 that they would increase water rates 50 percent.

50 percent to deal with this, 7.8% annually compounded for five years.

That was very painful to the citizens of Rio Rancho.

Uh and so that knowing that we had a an epic problem.

I think sometimes we think that we can just pick the city up and replace all the pipes and set it back down.

That's not the way this works.

Um, as I say, I don't replace the pipes in my house until it has a leak, and then I fix the leak.

I don't rip out the entire plumbing system.

Uh I fix the problem at hand.

Um, when cities are managing certain water infrastructures, and by the way, I want to assure the city council.

The city of Rio Rancho is not the only city in the United States that has water main breaks.

I think we remember the water main break that just recently happened in Albuquerque at Ellison that pretty much locked us into our city for almost a week as they had to fix Ellison in that massive water main break that happened there.

But that being said, um, I'm very proud of staff and the way that they jumped in there, and we had people in those trenches, and and that was an old concrete pipe, and uh solutions are coming forward on how we're gonna replace that.

But what are we doing proactively?

Well, every road that we've repaved in this city, 46 major road projects, which I'll talk about here in just a second, um, we've replaced the underlying infrastructure as the road's been up because we don't want to throw good money after bad.

We don't want to pave a road and then dig it right back up to fix a water line.

And so every as we've been replacing this, for example, as many as all of you I'm sure know, when we just finished the Broadmoor project, there's a 24-inch water main under Broadmore.

It hasn't been charged yet, but it's part of the total overall system, and that main has been replaced as a proactive step to make sure that we are protecting water resources as best we can in the city of Rio Rancho.

But this is not an overnight solution, and anybody that says we should just be able to change all the water lines like that.

Um, well, that's a bit difficult because if we were to replace every water line in the city today at current costs, it would cost over 1.5 billion dollars revenue that we do not have on hand, plus nor do we have the labor and resources to replace that many pipes all at one time.

So it's a long process.

And it's going to take a lot longer going into the future, but I'm very proud of the fact that we can say this.

Every water line that has been replaced in this city since I took office has been paid for cash with no corresponding debt.

We have been very careful about how we've spent our money and not left future generation piles and piles of debt, like what we inherited when we got this water system, and it had $80 million worth of debt on the initial purchase, plus the need to replace water lines all over the city.

So not only were we managing debt service, we were managing looking for the resources to actually replace all these pipes.

And if we happen to get some money from the legislature to help us, that was a bonus.

Uh, but ultimately working through this problem one pipe at a time.

It has been a long and difficult process, and I appreciate this council for sticking with it and seeing it through.

Uh moving on to Fire Station 8.

Uh, we're looking forward to expanding our police and fire our fire services.

So this is exciting as we grow as a community.

We want to make sure that we maintain our ISO rating, which last time I checked, Mr.

City Manager is an IOSO rating of two, which is in the top 7% of all fire departments in the United States.

That's a pretty high uh that's a pretty high mark.

And I've heard from our our fire chief, he wants to get to ISO one.

He is not satisfied being in number two, being at number two.

He wants to get to one.

And so we want to make sure that they have the resources necessary to achieve those goals.

And so expanding our fire services at our public safety services is always going to be critical to meeting those goals.

And so Fire Station 8, which will be located at the corner of uh, well, it's Cabazon on one side, 19th on the other, and then it turns to veranda as you go around the corner.

So it's right there, just uh south of Maggie Cordova Elementary.

Uh so it's a great position because in that particular area, fire station one receives the bulk of the calls uh that come out because of the population in Southern Rio Rancho.

So we want to make sure that they have the support as we continue to grow areas like Los Diamantes and Adjoe Harris Elementary, that we're providing quality fire service and making sure that we I've always said this, if we want our police and firefighters to do the job that we ask them to do, we have to make sure that we provide them the equipment and the resources necessary to do that job.

And it's because of those resources that we provided them that do an amazing job, and 97% of citizens uh surveyed in the city of Rio Rancho feel safe in the community during the day, which is uh pretty amazing.

Upcoming road projects uh or pro road projects and upcoming road projects.

Um recently completed Northern Boulevard and uh under Northern Boulevard when we uh when we got that project done.

Guess what?

There was a brand new pipe underneath it.

So we we proactively replaced the water pipe.

The water infrastructure was on there.

Well, we put brand new water infrastructure on old water infrastructure.

So we got a couple of uh main breaks from pressurizing up that new pipe.

Um when we redid Rockaway, we replaced the pipe under that one proactively, and when we tied the two of those together, uh put a lot of pressure on a PRV valve that couldn't handle that pressure, so we had to go and replace that very quickly.

Um those are not pieces of equipment you find on the shelf at the local true uh well now at the local Rio Rancho hardware.

Let's not use the wrong name there.

Um so uh those things take time to get in and we have to rush to get them in.

Uh, and so uh I I appreciate staff and how hard they work to get those done.

That was a $7.5 million project.

Broadmore Boulevard uh was just recently completed, plus several residential roads uh in Councilor Weimers district.

Uh and guess what?

Under every one of those roads uh in that residential district, I believe we replaced every water line that was under the road at the time we had it up.

So we are proactively uh replacing these water lines, and if you look at the contracts that where we issue these uh these RFPs and we issue these contracts, that clearly delineates uh, which is an available public record, uh clearly delineates that we're replacing these pipes and what the cost is.

So uh uh those items are in those contracts very transparently.

And so 19th Avenue uh reconstruction and water improvements from 10th Street to Cherry Avenue.

That's under construction right now, once again, proactively replacing water lines and Lima Road, reconstruction and water improvements from Western Hills to Chessman Drive.

So once again, we uh replacing water infrastructure there.

UNSER Boulevard is an upcoming project, 32 million dollars, widening improvements from Cherry to Paseo.

This will give us four lanes all the way from the city limits all the way north to King Boulevard so that we can eliminate that bottleneck and fix a lot of the drainage issues that you see going up UNSER Boulevard.

This is a longtime project that I'm very happy to finally see come to fruition because we've been throwing a lot of patches on that.

Now we're going to finally fix that piece of infrastructure.

That was one of those roads that uh, well, we needed to get out to the middle of nowhere quick, so we uh we we flattened out the dirt and threw some asphalt on it and called it good.

And uh so now we've got to go back and reconstruct that section uh properly.

It was the same as what we did with King Boulevard from uh from uh from UNSER to Wilpitt.

And by the way, while we uh while we were working on King Boulevard and we put that road down, we made sure the underlying infrastructure was put in place so that we could promote economic development on those corners and those available commercial pad sites that are in that area.

Um so there was a lot of improvements there uh that went in along with that project.

So since 2016, we've completed 48 major road projects with another five to be started or completed in uh calendar year 2026, in addition to 19th Avenue, Lima Road, and UNSA Road, Barber Loop uh uh in District 5, New Mexico 528, Western Hills D5 Southern to Cavazan, with DOT and NMDOT TPF funding, which means we are partnering with the state, we are partnering with DOT, we are looking for any resources that we can find to help other agencies share the expense and reduce the burden on the citizens of Rio Rancho.

So uh in local roads, we've done 19 miles of hybrid mill and inlay.

Uh most recent we were just talking about that in your district, uh uh Councillor Weimer, and in Councillor Dabson's district, we saw a lot of improvements around the Star Height Community Center there and roads there, and then as we look through the various different communities, we've done 129 miles of patch and seal with another 31 miles ongoing.

And mind you, the the patch and seal all has to be paid for cash.

Uh you can't finance those types of repairs, so those are not impacting the road bonds.

The road bonds are going strictly to reconstruction projects to make sure that we have longevity uh on those projects and uh for the amount of financing that goes on there.

Sums up to uh 179 miles of the 337 miles of paved local roads, which equates to well uh uh a little over 53 percent of total roads that have been touched over the last 10 years.

So, what's next coming up very soon?

Uh we've got the municipal election coming up.

We're gonna make sure that we pay attention to that.

Um obviously in this particular election, you've got the mayor's election, the municipal judge election, uh district two city councilor, district three city councilor, and district five city councilor, and of course, we have the road bond, public safety bond, and quality of life bond.

And it's these bonds that have really helped us achieve some of the goals that we've seen.

So in the municipal election, what will the bonds be applied to in the road bond proposed bond projects, which uh were selected basically by staff and city council in a work session where we went over these roads and the council looked at the uh at the the high priority targets, uh Baltic Avenue, Springer Drive, Ridgecrest Drive, and Honduras.

Now, I have to caution here.

We've uh we've done 40, we've done 40 plus major roadways throughout the city, some of them highly visible.

So the taxpayers have seen where their money's been going, whether that was high resort, which was the first road that we did, Rockaway, Northern, UNSER from a Brazo down to the city limits.

You think about uh King Boulevard that goes from UNSER all the way out to Rainbow, Abrazzo that goes from UNSER down to Chessman, all of these roads are very high visibility.

Riverside Drive uh from 528 to 528.

Oh, and by the way, we replaced all the water lines under that as well.

Uh and uh so the so when you think about the high visibility roads that we've done, uh enchanted Hills uh Boulevard, uh Safelite Boulevard, uh, and a few others up in Enchanted Hills, Santa Fe Hills Boulevard as well.

Those are a little bit more visible roads, and I could probably go on all night listing off all these different roads.

Uh but what we're gonna have to really do is make sure that we're communicating out to the citizens because as we get into some of these roads that are deeper into the residential areas like Springer, Councillor Tyler, um nobody in Cabazon really knows where Springer is.

Okay, so we've got to make sure that the folks in Cabazon uh know where we're doing work and why we're doing it there, uh, because it's gonna get a little bit harder.

And when we think about 19th over in your district, Councilor Lynantine, a little bit more obscured.

I know the people in your district like that, but unfortunately the people in Rivers Edge 12 and 3 don't know that that's happening, right?

So we're going to have to make sure that we're all communicating where these road projects are, why they're why they're happening, and making sure that everybody understands it's a part of a broader plan.

Once again, 300 miles of roads, very limited resources.

You see right here in the red band on the side.

After doing uh high resort and Sarah Boulevard, which were the two roads that we've targeted in that first bond cycle, voter approval on a bond issuance jumped 18 points from 63, I'm sorry, 15 points from 16, 63 percent to 78 percent.

So the citizens saw the value in what we were doing.

And then uh the bond rating ever since then has been 76, 76, and 75.

So we're enjoying uh landslide numbers on bond approvals because people understand the number one priority, and I know it's the priority of this council, and it's been a priority of my administration is roads, roads, roads, roads, roads.

I have been I've been named the orange barrel mayor, but then again, um as I've said before, um when you look at a 78 percent bond approval, I say eight out of ten citizens approve these orange barrels.

So uh it's not just me on myself on my own there.

The municipal election also on the public safety bond, police vehicle replacement, police headquarter repairs, police mobile communications, fire engine and rescue and ambulances, these are the things that we're gonna be targeting.

Yes, I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry, that means to push that along.

Thank you, Counselor.

Once again, voter support has been very strong in our public safety bond because Rio Rancho, uh, not only the leadership, but the citizens are committed to public safety.

And that's what makes me proud of this community.

Um, is that 73%, 72, 72, and 70 percent of voters said yes, we want to invest in public safety in our community.

We want to be the safest city in the Southwest.

So I'm very proud of our citizens for continuing to give strong support of the public safety bond, and I hope that they will continue to support that in this upcoming election.

Um and then of course uh uh for quality of life, some of the projects that we're looking at there, sports complex, sugar park, library materials and services, and Esther Bowman Memorial Library, uh various different improvements to those facilities, and these align with some of the some of the items that we you see on the ICIP, so that way if we do get some state money, we can use that in partnership with some of the projects that we're trying to accomplish here in the City of Rio Rancho.

Counselors, citizens, it's been my pleasure and my honor to uh present this state of the city, and as many of you know, this will be my final state of the city address to this council.

It has been a pleasure serving this community, it's been a pleasure working with each and every one of you, and it is my honor to get up here and talk about a community that I love very, very much.

I've raised my family here, my grandkids are here, and uh I know uh each and every one of you live here and call Rio Rancho home, and uh you're very vested in your community, and you get up there and you bravely serve your community behind that Diaz, despite criticisms, uh falsehoods, and and other accusations, you get up there and you bravely serve our community.

And for that, I'm grateful to each and every one of you.

I also want to take this moment to recognize staff uh for their hard work.

We have an amazing city manager, Mr.

Geisel, who uh has lived in our community for a long, long time.

He's served on many different levels.

Um Mr.

Wells, who has done an amazing job protecting and safeguarding uh the uh the this city and its resources.

I'm gonna tell you right now, I've had to fight with Peterson so many times on budgetary items, but that guy knows where every penny in that budget is, and he won't give up a penny unless you can absolutely justify why you want to spend it somewhere.

And so um this is another reason why we've seen stellar increases in our bond ratings, and really um uh organizations on the outside looking in or saying Rio Rancho is doing it right.

And to see the progress from the first one that I gave to this one has been astronomical, and I couldn't have done it without this the help of staff, the city council, the citizens, our department directors, and the the men and women uh that work uh in our our police departments, our fire departments, our dispatch centers.

Um and I always get in trouble when I start going down this path.

But uh parks and recreation, development services, IT, uh you know, I'm gonna miss somebody and I'm gonna apologize.

HR, you know.

Uh all of the various different uh the the city attorney's office, all of these uh very uh organizations that work so hard to produce superior results for the citizens of Rio Rancho.

So with that, I'm gonna say thank you all very much.

I will answer any questions that the city council has any.

Um and I just want to say God bless each and every one of you and Merry Christmas.

Mr.

Mayor, thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, thank you very much for your service and everything you've done for the City of Rio Rancho, and um I do appreciate the presentation.

I I did want to go back to one of your slides.

Okay.

The one that has the uh roads that we're gonna do right there.

Okay.

The utility replacement.

Um those numbers, can you I mean though it that is that's all cash funded, correct?

Yes, those are cash funded.

Uh those are those are in cooperation.

Now, some of that might in this particular, there's a little bit of this is gonna be with the road bond.

Yeah, so some of these in this particular utility replacement, because these were such high uh um high dollar amounts.

We were pairing it up with the utility department, and in this particular case, this is the first time uh uh ever, but in this particular case, some bond dollars will be going to these pipe replacements because once again, counselor, we cannot replace a road and leave the pipes underneath it uh because we're just asking to throw good and good money after bad.

No, and I'm looking at like Baltic Avenue, and I'm seeing 4.4 million for the road construction, and then we're putting in utilities at 3.75 million in uh replacements.

So I mean the total projects, eight million dollars that we're spending on Baltic.

Forgive me for my decibel and comma mistake there.

I'm looking at that.

So I just I mean it's just it's it's just phenomenal to see that we're able to do all that with money that we have, and we're not going out and borrowing a bunch of money to do some of these utilities.

Correct.

Um I like that I like that, and uh that's a great presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Well, I will tell you that uh the our reliance on debt over the years has gone way down compared to where we were, as I said, in 2014.

Our reserves were at state minimum, which I think was around 9%.

Uh so if there was a hiccup in the budget, we would not have been able to recover from it.

Um and it was the council that supported moving our policy rate, our policy reserve to 15% to start with, and then eventually we move that up to 25%, and that gives us some real insulation that if we do have a revenue downturn, or we or we see the housing market fall off, or we see other GRT.

Now, one of the big things that we've been focusing on through uh recruiting uh retail into the community is growing our GRT.

And so with uh I'm very proud of the fact that our GRT rate today is the same as when I took office in 2014.

The sales tax rate is the same.

So uh we've grown that budget growth that you've seen over the years, counselor, is because we're adding businesses and we're adding services to the city of Rio Rancho that are contributing to that base, helping us grow our budget to meet the needs of our citizens.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I yield the floor back to the counselors.

I'm sorry.

Mr.

Mayor.

Yeah, I guess, right?

Yeah.

I just talked.

Yeah, there's yeah, you don't yeah, I'm I'm the presenter now.

I should have handed it over to the deputy mayor.

Okay.

I'm just kidding.

I'm actually kidding.

Um what I what I really I appreciate about this presentation um is that uh as you're going through it, I mean, I I think of really like an itemized list of 17 more things that we could have talked about, right?

Talking about the growth in the GRT by the businesses coming in, the um internet uh purchase sales tax, right?

Those type of things, uh the permanent fund that was instituted.

Totally forgot the permanent fund, you know.

I mean, but I think that like the the number of achievements um that you, along with the council and the staff have been able to accomplish um over the the the time out on the council, but even just with within this past year, we are really seeing huge um benefits towards the community with an eye for uh taking care of future generations.

Um and so I'm very excited about these things and very excited to be able to support um these road bonds, even though uh they're not in my district, um staff it but it's okay because what staff has been able to do is to pair uh city funds along with state funds.

Um and so we were able to get roads in my district funded um through other mechanisms.

Um and so there's been this very constant innovative approach to try to get as much done for the city using all of the resources available.

Um and so you know, whether or not there's uh a road in in my district or not, it's really about what's best for the city.

Um and and staff and the administration have continued to do that.

Um and I look forward to continuing to support.

So thank you very much.

And counselor, I appreciate you bringing that up because the road bond has gone through five cycles, which has generated 50 million dollars.

But we've done close to 150 million dollars worth of road repair in the city of Rio Rancho, um, and that's in reconstruction.

So that's a hundred million dollars we don't have debt on.

So uh uh two-thirds of the total road repairs we've done, we don't have debt on.

So leveraging that road bond to get higher numbers because I hear people say, Well, why don't we go to federal government and get money, and why don't we go to state and get some money?

Um, as that's as if that's a new idea, right?

It's not a new idea, and we pursue those bonds constantly.

As a matter of fact, one of the first things I did when I took office is the federal government owed the city of Rio Rancho six and a half million dollars to the utility, which uh had basically been abandoned.

Uh and I I was a new mayor and didn't know any better, so I toddled off to DC and came back with six and a half million dollars, and you know, and and we brought that money back, and we were able to put that money to good use right into the utility in it, and it helped us uh pay down some some things and improve systems uh that are functioning today that are serving the citizens of Rio Rancho.

So going out and getting that money and bringing it back.

Um and then after we did that, we were able to tap into that same fund, uh 593 fund, uh, and we were to get another we actually came away with more than six and a half million.

We came away with several million more because we went back to that fund to get money to uh two million dollars, I think, to uh to repair a water tank up in Enchanted Hills, if I'm not mistaken.

So we've actually gone back to that that uh that source of funding and been able to bring more than the six and a half million dollars that was originally owed to us back into the Rio Rancho that's real back into Rio Rancho that's really helped us improve our water system, whether it's the tanks, the water lines, the uh water treatment facilities, uh many different facets throughout the community.

So I appreciate you bringing that up because w when you look at the total numbers that we've done in road repairs uh and reconstructions, 150 million, but as far as what we've contributed as a community, it's only been 50 million dollars.

I've been doing this long enough that I don't even need notes anymore.

Ms.

Okay, yes, Councillor Lenin Time, Deputy Mayor.

Uh I've been with you almost seven years of of your 12, and I just want to say that um, you know, all of this takes a great team, and I just um I love working with the city council.

I love working with the city manager, uh deputy manager Wells, all the department heads.

Um you see people come and go, but one of the things that I've really noticed in the last five years in particular is as someone goes, the next man up comes in so ready to go.

Uh there's not a drop-off, they're an asset from day one.

And just kind of all of the robust behind the scenes improvement that's been done to staffing uh to systems and processes has been really amazing, you know.

And I know that you've been at the top of that championing it, pushing it.

Uh you had a vision for the city of Vision.

And uh we just can't thank you enough.

Thank you so much for just your energy and passion for the city.

Um you go to all of the events of no matter the size, if there's 20 people there, uh I've been there before, I've seen you there, I've called you before you're walking into this, you know, uh event, you know, whatever, somewhere in the city, or to the big gallas or whatever.

You're at all the stuff.

And I know it's because you have a huge passion for the city, you have a huge love for the citizens, and you really want to see it go forward in a great direction.

And you set us up in a great position to go forward to continue to build on these things, and uh that's a great legacy that you have that you've given to this city.

And so thank you so much for this presentation.

Thank you so much for the last 12 years, and we really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councillor Deputy Mayor, and I do want to point out the ERP system that was just funded tonight, cash funded, no corresponding debt, because we managed that money, we put it aside, we knew what that need was, and we started planning for it years ago.

Would have liked to have bought that system several years ago, but as priorities go, uh you have to address the priorities immediately.

But uh now we've got that ERP system coming forward, and uh I'm very proud of the fact that we had the money set aside, we were able to do it, and we were able to put a system in place that's gonna create efficiencies that will create better systems going forward.

I have to giggle a little bit because when I first uh came into office in 2014, uh we didn't take credit cards at the MVD.

Um we didn't, none of the credit card systems lined up.

We didn't have a system process uh for processing paperwork online, and uh through our city staff's hard work, they brought all those systems together, and they're they're very efficient now and serving the citizens of Rio Rancho, and we've created those efficiencies.

Uh uh those ultimately do they have an expense on the front end but ultimately save money in the long run.

So once again, uh staff were working very hard to get some of that stuff in place, and uh, we appreciate it.

So, with that, if there's no further questions or counsel, I'm sorry, Counselor List.

Uh, I just want to uh say thank you for the presentation.

Um, it was very robust.

Additionally, I echo everything that my counterpart said.

Um, the things that aren't in here uh that encapsulate your passion for the city um aren't the amount of times that you showed up at someone's house at eight o'clock at night to check on whatever the disaster was, or when you showed up with your pickup check to pull the weeds or to bring a shovel, or um you went above and beyond your role as mayor, and you very much showed care and compassion for the people for the citizens, for the residents.

Um, and I I know that whoever fills your shoes will have an extremely um large challenge.

Um, but I I hope and pray that the citizens look for somebody that puts Rail Rancho first and that realizes that Rio Rancho is a home and not just a place to encompass a title.

And I think that um my counterparts have also said that it's it's the whole team, and you have been a leader of that team, but we have some amazing, amazing folks that work here at the city that make all of these things um move in tandem, and it is so very important, and it is such an honor to be able to sit here and help support all of these people, do all of the wonderful things for our residents.

So, thank you so much for for laying the foundation for the city.

Thank you, counselor.

With that, I will yield the floor to the city manager's report.

Mr.

City Manager, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body.

You know, sometimes on those sports talk shows or the talking headshows, or someone who kind of chimes in with the correct a couple data points.

Um just uh um a couple things, Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, the 26 the 24-inch transmission line under Western Hills was 56 years old.

Oh, 56 year old, 56 percent of its anticipated life uh lifespan.

The American Waterworks Association says a concrete cylinder pipe like that should actually last between 80 and 100 years.

So um thought there's a lot more time left on that on that pipe.

Um you uh just two other quick tidbits.

Uh we actually have 484 miles of paved roads in the city, 337 are local residential.

So when you said 300, you're referring to local residential.

And then last, I um I tried to break the internet.

I Googled cities that don't have water main breaks.

Uh oh.

And my AI summary says there are no cities that can guarantee zero water main breaks.

There's a quarter million a year, and then it goes on to talk about materials, which we know is one of the issues um that we have struggled with here in the pipe.

So we had talked about that before, the the water main uh and your idea of lifting up the city.

Very creative.

Maybe we can borrow some uh helicopters from uh Kirtland and see if that works.

Mr.

Mayor, I'm a member of the governing body for my city manager's report.

I'm gonna present from here.

Um I am going to uh um have a a little bit longer than normal of a city manager's report.

Um, I think some of this, you know, I think there's an information that's gonna be uh very germane.

Um I think you're not used to longer, you know, city management reports, but I'm gonna say there's an old song.

It's my birthday, I can it's my birthday and I can cry if I want to.

It's my birthday, and I can give a longer city manager report if I want to.

Oh, that's right.

Okay, happy birthday.

That's right.

Not seeking I don't like birthday celebrations.

My gift to uh to all of us is to talk a little bit about a theme that we heard this evening is transparency.

I think it's a very important topic, and is my PowerPoint up.

Um it is not so I uh uh thank you in advance for your attention and your um as I work through this.

Um it will take me more than a few minutes, but I appreciate your patience in advance.

I want to talk about the city's media practices and IPRA processes.

I'm gonna cover three things in this uh presentation this evening.

Our city media policy, inspection of public records.

I think this is gonna hit on some of the questions and expand on some of the things that you said this evening.

Um so timing is very apropos, and then recent editorials.

Media chories and media request.

The city constantly consistently responds to numerous media inquiries ranging from basic request to requests for interviews.

Rio Rancho is in an interesting and unique media market.

We have two local print publications plus a metro wide daily newspaper that covers our area, covers the city.

Multiple TV broadcast news outlets.

We have a local radio station and metro wide radio as well, as well as other media outlets.

As I said, we constantly and continuously are responding to media's media, numerous media requires ranging from very basic to requests for interviews.

As the mayor's walking off, I think the um you know, real quickly here, but you know, he has been one of the primary people who does those interviews.

Um, you as counselors sometimes take them, and we as city staff.

Yes, we do refer journalists to IPRA for certain information and source documents.

While it does require time to process the request, it provides a response process that is fair and consistent across all requesters.

And I'll talk about the different types of requesters we have and that we see that go well beyond the media and well beyond our average citizen.

Media policy.

The city has a formal citywide administrative policy that was established under Keith Reisberg's leadership.

Uh was adopted in 2013, revised in 2016, and is regularly reviewed by the communications professionals at the city.

Uh it's researched and based on policies around the country and locally.

Having a media policy is commonplace, it's a best practice.

Both private and public entities have media policies.

The media policy establishes procedures and guidelines concerning communications with news media as well as communicating as a city employee on social media and things of that sort.

Policy does not apply to the elected officials.

Only designated city staff may respond to and or speak on the city's related on the city's behalf related and media inquiries.

City manager or the PIO or the design of the city manager or the designated public safety PIOs are the individuals.

Something that's very, very important about media policy is that fourth bullet point minimizes miscommunication and misrepresentation of city position, city position and issues.

Strives to provide timely and accurate dissemination of information by the city to the public, ensures staff with applicable communication training and education, as well as knowledge or and as well as knowledge are representing the city and creates clear accountability standards for city employees and their chain of command.

As I mentioned, it's not unique by way of example.

Per policy at the Rio Rancho Public Schools, media inquiries are handled by the superintendent's office.

I don't want to put counselor list on the spot, but I don't think the media can walk in anywhere to high school or an elementary school and interview a teacher or an employee.

Some of you know, I think you all know that I transitioned into government.

Um kind of it was a mid-career transition, wasn't exactly planned, but I'm very glad it happened.

I worked in corporate America before that.

I worked for three publicly traded companies.

At two of those, I was a trained media spokesperson.

We had a media policy.

It's not unique, and you guys can look on my resume, you know my resume.

I worked at some you know some sizable companies.

Fun fact, I was actually one of the uh authorized Spanish speaking uh representatives uh spokesperson, but you know, there are processes.

Our this approach in this process is not unique to the City of Rio Rancho.

IPRA, the inspection of public records act.

The slide rolls a little bit there, I think different format.

I apologize.

I will read that header.

Says three and 15 days broad and burdensome.

You see two citations from state statue there that are core elements of the IPRA Act.

Um that is we the custodian receiving, and as I mentioned before, our clerk is the custodian.

Very common that the clerks are the custodians.

A custodian receiving a written request shall permit the inspection immediately or as soon as practical under the circumstances, but no later than 15 days after receiving a written request.

If this if the inspection is not permitted within three business days, the custodian shall explain in writing when the records will be available for inspection when the public body will respond to the request.

Um the three-day period shall not begin until the written request is delivered to the office of the custodian.

So three days, lots of requests are able, this quick, easy ones.

I'm looking for a copy of a solar permit, a solar permit inspection, so I can file for my tax credit, my pellet stove, my new roof, things like that, because there's a lot of tax credits, both state and federal.

Those are good examples of random, you know, you know, random citizens' requests.

We also try to automate some of our more common citizens' requests like crash reports.

So they don't even have to go through IPRA and they can be handled offline.

But three days, 15 days, and then it rolls into broad and burdensome.

If a custodian determines that a written request is excessively burdensome or broad, an additional reasonable period of time shall be allowed to comply with the request.

So as with many things we see at state, local, federal levels, you have law, and then that you know, then goes down into either guidance documents, how to documents, or proclamation of progress of rules.

In the case of IPRA, the arbitrator on IPRA is the Department of Justice, formerly known as the Attorney General.

The New Mexico Department of Justice publishes an IPRA compliance guide.

Not sure if you can see it up there on that screen.

This is the ninth edition of this document.

Um the compliance guide, which then you know, through case law and analysis of their attorneys, nine issues.

So this has spanned several attorney generals, not just the most recent one.

Um they provide guidance, and that's our how-to document.

It's the Bible for us in managing these inspection public records.

Um the guidance states IPRA does not require public bodies to answer questions, compile information or data into a document, or create any new record.

Requests into the future, sometimes referred to as standing or rolling requests, are not allowed under IPRA as the public body will or shall provide only documents that exist at the time that the request is received.

The act does not define exactly what constitute excessively burn excessively burdensome or broad requests, but leaves that to the determination of the records custodian, and I'll talk about the guidance they provide in that here on the next slide.

And it also encourages the providing records in batches on a rolling basis with large requests that have been deemed burdened broad and burdensome that are gonna take longer than 15 days.

This is something that we do on these large requests, and coincidentally enough, when I talk a little bit towards the end about some of the recent editorials, it's one of the things for which we're getting criticized.

Following the guidance and the laws that are given, and we're getting credit, we get we have been that has been has been cited.

DOJ guidance on broad and burdensome.

A request may be excessively burdensome, burdensome or broad if it requires a custodian to locate and review a very large number of records.

The requested records are difficult to locate or obtain because they are not in one location.

Imagine the folks in Santa Fe who are looking for records that are three to four hundred, three to four hundred years old.

Um they get a couple of requests every so often we have to ask them.

The the search involves a coordination among multiple people.

It requests record spanning many years or decades.

It encompasses a wide range of subjects or individuals, and the requester declines to narrow the parameters of the request.

Legal review is needed on a large number of records to determine whether any exact exceptions to disclosure and disclosure apply.

And it's a significant number of other records requests were received unexpectedly at the same time, and the public body that normally has adequate staff needs additional time to complete the unusually large list of requests.

This is the volume factor.

You asked me a question.

I had the data top of mind because I was preparing for this this week.

Um request, an over 400% increase in seven years.

In 2019, we had less than 900 IPRA requests.

As of the beginning of this month, 4,613.

I did not ask the clerk for an updated number.

Um it looks like she's ready to chime in.

4,083, I believe.

So we just make it to five.

Oh, I'm sorry, 28.

Okay.

4,828.

So that's a records request.

I think something in you preparing for this.

Um, if we think about that just that's a records request, not responsive documents.

So if we just, and I have not asked Noelle, what is the average number of responsive documents per IPRA request?

But I'm gonna throw out based on, I'm gonna say an average of 10.

And I bet you it's probably much higher than 10.

Um, but for 10, and if I'm wrong on 10, we can cut it in half and take it down to five.

But if we have 5,000 IPRA requests this year, and an average of 10 documents per IPRA, the clerk's office will process 50,000 responsive documents through EPRA this year.

If I'm wrong by a factor of 50, it's 25,000.

If I'm wrong by a fact, you know, from 50, or in the other direction, it's 100,000.

But that just kind of paints an order of magnitude.

Not meant to be a precise number, but gives you an idea of the volume.

Because this here is not one document per request, multiple documents per request.

The city works diligently to provide broad-based services to thousands of individuals every year.

I kind of sometimes call us the three C's.

Citizens, constituents, and customers.

We have citizens, constituents, and customers across the city that we deliver services across the wide array of services that we provide, whether that's the building department, the senior center, the aquatic center, the library, an individual that JR comes across and his functions as part of our quality of life team.

We are interfacing with citizens and constituents, thousands of them.

Fulfilling IPRA requests and processing media requests is just one or two of those thousands of citizens and services that we provide.

We have to balance the entire equation and the entire thing.

We approach things from a very broad based, 360-degree or panoramic view of the universe, not from a narrow point of view.

More than 70% of the public records requests that the city receives come from individuals or entities from outside the city.

The vast majority come from commercial for-profit entities like the media, attorneys, private investigators, insurance companies, data mining businesses, and social media content creators from outside the state.

I'm going to show you a quick mini case study.

And you heard a version of this mini-case study or a version of another version of another mini-case study that's out there.

This is one example of a regular requester to the city of your ranch.

It's an out of out of state social media content creator.

You can see their uh their channel on YouTube here.

Um, from November of last year to present, that's 13 months, have put in 193 requests, and this data comes from the beginning of the month, so we may be pushing 200 by now for police body cam footage of DUI arrests featuring women of a certain age range, 18 to 25, 18 to 23, um, where that content is taken and then posted online.

Um this is one example, and I think the mayor went down the start of the site some that I would actually put this as a PG 13 example compared to some of the other things that we get in.

But IPRA is content neutral.

IPRA is blind to the requests we have to process.

Requests like this have to be processed the same way as all other IPRA requests.

That includes the media.

And these types of requests necessitate time extensions so we can process the other requests, which include those from our citizens who are funding this service.

Gentlemen, I'm I'm sorry.

Hey guys, I'm sorry.

Uh we unfortunately can't we can hear in thank you.

The dramatic increase in IPRA requests year over year, now at over 400% since 2019, has led the city to fund three new positions to process these requests, doubling our staff to process them.

I mentioned this earlier.

That's in addition to capital investments in the building to create office space, repurpose conference rooms, technology.

I didn't think about the additional time that we've had to, you know, in the additional staff we've had to add to the city attorney's office, because we have a couple attorneys in the city's attorney's office that probably 25 to 50% of their staff time is looking at IPRAs and working towards the legal compliance.

This is becoming an unfunded mandate and an increasing imperative in future budget cycles.

Um we've had the good fortune.

Mayor, you've taught you you had a fantastic presentation.

Um tough act to follow.

You know, we we're something we had a very high here.

I'm coming in with like not exactly high of a conversation.

Um, and we haven't had to make a lot of trade-offs as a city in the budgetary cycle for for several years.

The beginning years of your at your tenure, mayor, you knew you remember those years we could add two people and what it meant to only be able to add two people.

There will be a date in time, and some of us may be in our position, some of us may be on the council where we're gonna have to make budgetary trade-offs.

And we know as a city, we've always prioritized public safety when we only can add a handful of positions.

There may be a date in time where we're gonna have to say IPRA processing clerk in conjunction with a police officer or a fire, a firefighter or other critical position.

Um I understand that um that some will say that referring the media to IPRA is increasing the number of IPRAs, but processing an IPRA outside by processing a document request outside of IPRA could have its drawbacks.

By processing things through IPRA, it creates a process that is fair and consistent.

I have it somewhere in my notes.

I may steal it from a future page.

But think about the scenario where 10 media outlets are asking for the same document.

They all deserve it as quickly as possible through IPRA, and that creates a fair and equitable process for to disseminate that information.

Yes, our legislative priority calls for IPRA reform by state, you know, IPRA reform at the state level.

And you go down to the bottom of this page.

The municipal league represents 106 local jurisdictions.

So that's 139 forms of local government saying this is an issue.

State agencies are grappling with it too.

New Mexico's laws are in large part outdated compared to other states.

There have been some modifications in recent years to address minors and victims' rights, but our laws are outdated.

Other states like Colorado, and in part on the heels of Columbine, took proactive steps to address their laws and were at the forefront of addressing body war on camera and technology, for instance.

Currently, anyone, including for-profit entities like the media can make unlimited records requests at no specific cost to themselves and only a cost to the taxpayers.

After making a public records request under state law, which have may have consumed thousands of taxpayer dollars for a single request, a requester doesn't even have to pick up access or use the information sought and paid, paid for by the taxpayers.

That's what we talk about.

That's government inefficiency and waste.

Some folks describe our upper laws as a barn door.

California, for instance, my understanding is the changes that they've implemented the law is to protect the inspection of inspection of public records of the average citizen.

And declaring that people requesters, if they're using it for commercial purposes, that they have to declare that it's for commercial purposes.

And then maybe in some states where you have that commercial requirement, there's a separate fee schedule for the commercial users, vis-a-vis, a resident who just wants to get a copy of a building permit or a copy of a master plan or something that impacts their their house and their livelihood.

And Mr.

Mr.

City Manager, I don't mean to uh interrupt, but uh along that line, aren't we one of the few states that don't protect the images of dead bodies?

Mr.

Mayor, uh that was actually one of the more recent updates was that now we do have the ability to redact images of um dead bodies so we have that fix.

We do, there are some caveats we needed to do.

But it was okay, yes.

I knew it was something that was uh that was that was sought after.

Um I'm glad to hear that it got taken care of.

I I didn't get that update, but that was that was a critical piece.

We were one of the few states that didn't protect the images of dead bodies.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor, that is correct.

So and I know in Farmington, and I'm uh I'll I'll just say this in Farmington that they fought to protect the image of the teenager that had hung himself, because I can't imagine what a parent would feel like if that image went on the internet and somebody was making a profit off the death of their child.

And that's what was happening.

So thank you, Mr.

Manager.

We'll go back to that.

Mr.

Bear, members of the governing body.

Um thank you.

Mr.

Rubin, thank you for your assistance with that question.

Mayor, um, that was my understanding a rather narrow update to IPRA's one or two legislative.

Yes, it was a small, but it was the first time we've seen reform or any changes to IPRA, and I think a couple decades.

I'd have to, you know, take that as broad strokes, I'll fact check myself.

Right.

Okay.

Um want to spend as I transition here, some observations on on recent editorials.

I would like to thank the Rio Rancho Observer for publishing the letter to the editor that I sent that was published this past Sunday.

Um I think that's an important piece of the dialogue, and I'll close with towards the end, and I'll talk about this.

Purpose of this document is dialogue.

The editorials from the found from Fog, the foundation of open government, and the observer have expressed frustration with the city's approach to sharing information and records response.

As I put in my edit my letter to the editor, the frustration is mutual.

The city has continued to make efforts, but we also want to see what the opportunities are to go forward.

The city has made continual efforts to correct inaccuracies, provide clarifications, and comply with public records law, but these efforts are often misinterpreted or ignored in favor of framing the city as uncooperative, not following the law or deliberately withholding and delaying document release.

IPRA requests are processed in the order received with no priority given to the media over any other group or individual.

The law is blind on the requester, and the law is blind on the content.

Permissible response extensions are due to the legal responsibility to ensure that information is accurate, complete, and appropriately redacted.

It's a heavy lift.

We strive our best to comply with the law.

The city has obligations not only to the requester but also those who appear in the requested documents.

There are some provisions for redaction.

To us, it seems, and I'll paint, I'll provide an illustration of this that the observer newspaper seeks preferential and priority treatment for them regarding public safety public safety information that they can use for online breaking news content in a competitive marketplace.

Talked about we are in a unique market media marketplace.

And they want their IPRA requests prioritized for the same reason.

In addition, there appears to be a lack of acknowledgement or awareness of the city's IPRA volume and our need to comply and follow NMDO and MDOT, not sorry, DOJ compliance.

I realize it may be hard for you guys to read on the screen, but this letter on the left-hand side, and the mayor, you've received a copy, a version of this in the past a couple of years ago, was recently sent to our new captain overseeing PIO, Captain Nick Army, when Chief Wenzel was promoted to fire chief.

He also received a similar version of this.

And I even have a hard time reading it.

So I'm gonna go a little closer on my reading glasses.

We have sent a version of this letter to the City of Rio Rancho before.

I have added a few things and made us made small changes, but in essence, this it's the same.

The Rio Rancho Observer is respectfully requesting our RPD slash City of Rio Rancho alert.

I think it's missing a two to alert us, via email to the best of its ability, any time personnel response to the following.

Suspected homicide, and you can see the list, shots fired, SWAT situation, accidents that shut down a major roadway.

But you know, there's the list there, but the the notion of any time personnel response.

I think Captain Army's response on the right hand side really summarizes our approach, and I'm gonna talk about this in the next slide.

I will continue to work on providing up-to-date information to the media in a timely fashion through inquiry and our social media platforms as appropriate and necessary to the public safety.

We do have SWOT activations for domestic violent calls and things like that.

That is a concern many times of a localized block.

And they show up on that scene as they work through that scene, and the authors respond, and the command staff gets involved.

There is an assessment from those folks on is this a citywide concern or is this a localized concern?

Citywide, we look, they may be knocking on doors, asking people to stay inside, code red, and then there's times where it is requires a broader response.

The city's approach has been to provide relevant and accurate information to all media outlets and the public at the same time via the city's communications resources, social media, and our website.

The city has a ro has robust capabilities to disseminate information and time-sensitive information, especially about public safety.

We're trying to cast a wide net.

Our Rio Rancho Police Department, I think, you know, mayor, you know, not sure where you are on followers on social media, over 34,000 followers on social media.

And it includes all the media.

And it is not uncommon for us when we post, when PD post something of news or fire post, that all the media starts to pick up on it.

We cast that wide net, it's getting the information out as wide as possible in a broad channel rather than a narrow channel.

In many parts of our business, and we talk about this a lot, Councillor Weimer and others and our development services department.

We try not to pick winners and losers.

Our business registration processes, we try to treat folks in an equitable manner.

That's one of the things we're accomplishing here in this approach.

As I mentioned earlier, it goes back to trying to strive for a fair, consistent process.

The example of 10 media outlets, what if they have the same request?

Processing that in an equitable manner, but also not sacrificing all the other requesters.

So last 30 days with the editorials.

The way I kind of describe this, I have this here, and there's 50, 80 pages of emails that Ryan has called through to analyze this.

And we have a complete packet that we can share with you.

But we go back to March or March, February, March of this year.

Um, and we learned by reading an editorial in the Rio Rancho Observer, it's kind of up there in the left-hand corner of the screen.

Delays in Rio Rancho IPRA portal don't serve the public.

Um that was published.

We ultimately received a copy of the complaint in the disposition letter from the New Mexico Department of Justice.

Um, and you can see their response on the right hand side.

Um, it reads in reviewing the city's response.

It reads In reviewing the city's response.

The city responded to each request within three business days with some of the requested records, as well as a determination that more time would be needed due to broad and burdensome requests.

The city then continued to disclose more records on an ongoing basis.

Based on the city's response, responses.

Our office does not do not find any violation of the IPRA.

The fact that other municipalities may provide post, may proactively post arrest information or response sooner does not have an impact on whether the city is complying with the IPRA statute as written.

You can see a couple more excerpts from, you know, this I call it, you know, from this time frame in March.

There's a quote from that's it's our belief that this is uh this is an unacceptable delay for routine requests that should be available within days, not weeks or months.

Um put it in the context of the overall volume of requests that we are processing.

When we when we learned about this, and Mayor, the the mayor, I know you remember this, we published some information on the city's website to clarify what had happened, the fact that the DOJ had determined in their analysis that the city had not violated IPRA, even though the newspaper had published that.

Afterwards, there was a subsequent editorial from The Observer that says loopholes in IPRA law need to be addressed, making overtures of the cities using loopholes.

We are following the guidance and the law that is provided to us in processing these requests.

Following the law and the guidance that is provided is not a loophole.

It is what has been enabled.

Concurrently, or right around the same time, the New Mexico Foundation of Government submitted a complaint to the DOJ talking about the information is no longer newsworthy.

As I've said a couple times in this this in my presentation, my dialogue this evening.

We have a broad base universe of constituents, citizens, and customers that we serve on a daily basis.

This is one aspect of it.

We do our best to comply with the law and the guidance while balancing those service needs of all our citizens more broadly.

You know, you can see down below that their result uh from the the DOJ is that they did not find it.

I'm trying to find the exact sentence, the documentation provided.

You know, the documentation you provided as part of your complaint does not demonstrate a violation of IPRA.

That was behind us in one Sunday morning in November.

Um, there's in the Rio Rancho Observer, uh, and then I think in the following week, or the following week in the Albuquerque Journal, um, an editorial from the Observer and an op-ed from the Fog, kind of rehashing these same issues with a new wave of uh of assertions, um rehashing these issues and with you know some new examples and citing the examples, the articles in our assessment, and this is part of why I had the all the emails reviewed and analyzed, the art and inventoried and cataloged.

The articles emitted key examples of the interactions.

They cited that we denied an interview.

There was a thread of emails back and forth.

And I know mayor, you know that you're very familiar with this one, and there's additional examples.

Um, and I could spend another hour walking through these examples.

They said no interview was we denied an interview.

We had already been interviewed for the feature segment that they were conducting.

We indicated that an alternative interviewee would be offered.

They declined.

There's additional examples.

Fog had IPRA of the city for communications with the media from January 1 to August 1 regarding guidance, instructions with the media, communications with the media.

That response included more than 3,000 responsive records back to Falk.

Their op-ed focus on just a handful of records that they received or documents.

You know, another example that was referenced, and I'll talk to the last one here in a second is corrections, but what another example was referenced is staff did inquire with the Rio Rancho Observer what their plans were to cover the dispatch center transition and Project Ranger.

This was based on a few things.

It was timely, it was newsworthy, other local media was covering it and was inquiring about it.

How many times have we heard in the last couple weeks?

Project Ranger, where did this come from?

Why didn't we know about this?

And you know, so that you know it was you know, something for you know, we just we highlighted you haven't, you know, this hasn't been covered.

And I can dive deeper into the coverage or lack of coverage on those two topics.

Um, but obviously this was as we know in the transition on the dispatch center, big announcement, dispatch centers open, our phone's still ringing, and it rang until the middle of October, even though a celebrated have opened on July on July 1 and July 19th.

But why do we submit corrections?

And I think this is very important.

I read last Sunday in the paper, I saw something.

Newspapers are important to democracy, and I believe that.

I subscribe to local news, I subscribe to national news, I support you know, local media outlets that are trying to make a go because it is tough.

And I do believe we've all heard that the media newspapers, they're the fourth branch of government.

And I and I absolutely believe that, and I appreciate the role they play.

Um, and you know, one of the reasons why we submit corrections is precisely that is because it is an important source of information for folks.

Even in this world where the media has become fragmented and we source, we get our information, you know, through different sources.

Traditional newspaper, whether it's print or online, is still an important place, and we value that.

But newspaper in the media is also an important historic, you know, it's an important historical archive and an important source for reference, reference material and research.

And so, what is a simple correction is also part of helping ensure that the historical archive or that future reference point is accurate.

One of the corrections that uh we submitted recently was an incorrect date for our our election, and the way the world works now, not just the traditional print, and then the print turns into laser fish, goes on the internet.

We do a Google search, media, whether it's digital media, print media, many times their news stories are among the tops of our our news search or our search results.

But the other thing that's happening now is the AI summary.

So just you know, it's a little bit of an example, but information gets published, incorrect, doesn't get corrected, another media outlet picks up the story, runs it, another media outlet picks it up because they do borrow stories from each other.

It's quite common.

Then all of a sudden, that incorrect fact or that incorrect information that someone's someone was the mayor who wasn't the mayor, it's out there five, six, seven, eight, nine times, ten times whatever number of times.

And what's the AI summary gonna do?

It's gonna start grabbing that information because it starts to drive that all algorithm.

So we do those corrections because they're a benefit and importance for everyone in the community, and we do it you know, with a good and a good intention.

Mayor, you spoke to this already.

Um, when we talk about transparency, when we talk about trust and government trust in government, um we received an award for trust in government or recognition, top five in the two from Polco, 2025 best in governments awards.

Polco is a national service provider.

We discussed this when we did a report on the citizen survey.

Um we use it as an independent research.

It is statistic, it's quantitative research, it's statistically valid.

They it's a blind panel that we have no input whatsoever.

They um send the surveys and recruit people to respond to the surveys to ensure that we have a geographically and a demographically diverse opportunity for you know response pattern.

And we, from the perspective of transparency, so to look at that and be recognized in those scores, the score high there, then from there, this survey is benchmarked against a peer group of I think 500 or so communities across the country.

So it's robust in building the model and the survey and that process, and it's robust in that we're being compared against a strong peer group.

So when we see that we are below the benchmark in a category, that means something.

When we see that we're above the the benchmark, that also means something.

So when we talk about transparency, I think it's important for us to also keep in mind in the context of, as I've said a few times now, we look at things from 360 degrees or a broad panoramic view.

Um we're broad-based service provider.

If we're private sector company, we would disinvest from about half of the services we provide because they're so disparate from one another.

Um, but we provide them, we do the best we can.

Not gonna tell you that we're perfect, and I think that's one of the reasons, Mayor.

We've done so much as a city, you as a governing body in the last 10 years is because we wake up every day trying to be a little bit better.

Um we have thousands of citizens, constituents, and customers.

Why did I provide this report this evening?

There's a couple reasons.

I know I'm not changing some opinions, and I absolutely know that.

I think there's a lot of issues out there in general, and I still like to believe you have some people, no matter what, they're gonna be they're gonna be on this side of the of the on this side of it, and another, and there's another group of people, they're gonna be on this side of it.

Then there's a group of people in between who are looking for more information and are going to form their opinion once they digest more information.

Wanted to round out the conversation, provide a more complete um aspect of the conversation and the material out there to round it out.

Um, reiterate to the public that we take these responsibilities seriously, um, and we are dedicated and committed to them.

We're always going to lean in and try to push forward.

We're always open to talk about the issues, but I want to talk about the issues and not finger point and do name calling and point things at individuals, whether it's by name or by job title.

Okay, let's talk about the issues.

We see that across the country on the name calling and attacking the individual rather than tacking the issue.

One of the things I say to our city employees when I do a new employee, new employee orientation, so there's always a lot of issues out there that we're dealing with society.

One of the things we should aim for is let's be a little bit better than everybody else when we tackle them and lean into them on a daily basis in our jobs.

Whatever your job is, whether you're weed whacking or reviewing a contract in the city attorney's office.

So, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, um, with that, thank you for the opportunity to provide this report.

Um evening, long day.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Anything further from council?

All right.

Well, with that, we're adjourned.

Thank you.