I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

Okay, I'll go ahead and call this work session to order.

And let's see here.

Miss Davis.

Do I have an agenda?

Thank you.

Okay, first item on the uh but let me just do this real quick.

I'll call roll and uh please silence all electronic devices while attending governing body meetings, and I'm gonna take that same advice right now.

And then let's see here.

And for the record, when I announce the names of the governing bodies, members that are present, please acknowledge by saying present.

Uh councillor Dabson.

Present.

Thank you.

Uh Councilor Lynantine, is he joining us online?

Okay.

Uh Council Tyler.

Present.

Thank you.

Councillor Weimer is excused.

Councilor Colbras.

Present.

Thank you.

Councilor List.

Present.

Thank you.

All righty.

Moving on to the first item.

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

So moving on to discussion, municipal court FY27 budget request.

Judge Cook, welcome.

Oh, and for the record, Jerry uh Councillor Lennon has just arrived.

Good afternoon.

Mayor and Counselor.

Really don't have a lot to say.

Our budget is recently flat.

Oh, yeah.

There we go.

That works.

Okay, thank you.

We don't have a lot of requests.

There is one thing that Miss Mascarina's brought to my attention.

There was a decrease in health care costs to the city.

We have some employees that have opted out for various reasons.

But other than that, there are some things that are out of our control that uh have increased.

Um the costs of interpreters is kind of skyrocketed.

Um that's not a good thing, but it is uh totally out of our control.

Beyond that, we don't have a whole lot to present uh beyond what is uh what you have in front of you.

If you have any questions, please council, do we have any questions on this?

Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, Council List.

Not a question, but I just wanted to say thank you.

If I recall a year ago, um one of the requests that had come up, I believe, from Councillor Tyler was that we would get a monthly email or regular updates on what's going on, and I just want to say thank you so much.

You have been so diligent about that, and we appreciate that.

You're welcome.

I have the best administrator.

Mayor Counselor, thank you.

We'll agree.

Uh, I have no questions.

Thank you, Judge.

Appreciate it, and thank you, Angel.

Appreciate you.

Good afternoon.

And once again, thank you for all the reports.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Moving on to item number two, City Manager 20 FY27 budget overview.

Mr.

Geisel.

I just lost my hand.

We have a broken mic up here, so it's like we have to share a mic.

Okay.

It's like so.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body.

Um BJ, I thought you were next.

So I apparently sort of paid a little more attention.

Um so, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, uh, would like to provide you with a um, you know, kind of a uh a preview of the you know, an overview of the budget.

Um, and if you will, we think of this uh this PowerPoint presentation being uh kind of a um a summary of the transmit a letter um that is in the uh in in the budget book.

Um so just kind of a the things in that we're gonna cover in this presentation, process general fund overview, uh general fund capital, utilities enterprise fund our five-year ICIP, and just a recap on next steps.

So from a process timeline uh on April 15th, uh the city manager provided the recommended fiscal year FY27 budget for municipal government operations and services and the capital program for the next five years to the mayor and the city council in accordance with the city charter.

When I say the city manager, I don't use that as an effort to uh um impersonate LeBron, but really just because that's how it's written in the charter, and there's been uh several city managers before me who have worked hard with their staffs uh to develop this budget, and there'll be city managers in the future.

So it's a little bit of a kind of a recognition of the role more than the uh thing else.

Um, nor do I think I get to the GOAT status of LeBron.

Um, but maybe one day we'll he'll play for my Los Angeles Clippers and then uh appreciate him a little more.

Uh FY27 budget spans from July 1, 2026 through July 30th of 2027.

Um, you know, so the FY27 corresponds to the uh year and the month in which uh the budget period, 12 month budget period ends.

Uh we follow the same budget uh fiscal year as the state of New Mexico.

Um then also per the city charter, the mayor of Rio Rancho has until April 25th to review the recommended budget and capital programs submit written comments to the city manager.

As we know, we are uh transitioning mayors.

Um so the uh the mayor on April 25th won't be the mayor uh as we go through the budget process.

So uh my recommendation to Mayor Hall is uh submit a letter like a thumbs up and emoji to the budget.

Um but uh appreciate uh Mayor Hall's support in developing, I think what a lot of our budgetary strengths that I'll reference as we we go through this.

If we look at where we were 12 years ago to where we are today, um how we built um some resiliency in some budgetary strengths and in practice and process and in overall robustness in the in the budget.

On slide four, general fund uh revenues and expenditures.

Um the FY27 budget is uh structurally balanced and furthers the goals outlined in the city strategic plan.

The five-year general fund forecast reflects a consistent structural balance with occurring revenues projected to exceed the recurring expenditures throughout the planning period, the five-year planning period.

And the ending fund balance is projected to meet or exceed the city's 25% reserve policy minimum for the next five fiscal years.

Slide five gives you kind of a graphical representation of what we mean, and we talk about you know of the structural balance.

Uh that dark line is recurring revenues, that red line is recurring expenditures, and the blue bar graphs are the difference.

Um you see that throughout the uh five-year planning period uh where the revenues um exceed the expenditures.

Um very important uh you know, kind of graph, very simple, simplistic but very important.

Um there have been some recent news articles out there uh of some other uh local government entities kind of trying to think of the best word, but working through an unstructural balance.

Um and uh that I think also you know speaks to um the looking at the five-year forecast as and in building what you know we work off of a pessimistic economic outlook scenario, which naturally builds conservativeness into our budget.

But at the same time, when we have that pessimistic revenue scenario, what drives us to do it to work on cost containment, we ultimately end up um when in the better years, we end up with additional uh excess revenues, and that excess revenue helps us fund our capital projects or capital program on a cash basis.

Uh and it also uh someday in the future when uh revenues are closer to that pessimistic outcome, we would be will be in a position to navigate that with minimal um budget cuts to kind of get through that uh process.

On the right-hand side, uh you see our general fund uh revenues and the different revenues or anticipated uh FY uh 27 uh uh budgeted revenues, about 130 million, which is above our total uh revenues in the FY26 adjusted budget, so about 130 versus 124.

As uh we all know in this room, but for the benefit of the in the broader public, uh gross receipts tax revenue is our number uh number one uh revenue source in the budget.

Um gross receipts tax revenue is a uh not a sales tax per se because it's also applied to um uh several services, and that and property tax is our second largest revenue source, uh, but gross receipts tax is about three times larger than uh uh than property tax.

Uh you can see a few other sources uh in here.

Uh franchise fees, uh franchise fees are the fees uh that uh certain service providers who use our public utility easement and our right-of-way to deliver a service.

Uh that'd be what we call the dry utilities, uh the wet utilities, as well as sanitation services.

Uh there's a franchise fee that comes into the the general fund.

Um there line item 10, these are not listed uh in alphabetical nor descending or ascending order.

It's just how they get spit out in the general chart, uh, the general chart um chart of accounts.

Uh charge for services is a uh catch-all, uh, and that's on pages 34 and 35.

That captures uh uh two of the bigger chunks in there would be fees associated with development, uh development services related fees, uh, uh then ambulance billing, some other things that are in there would be chiefs overtime, uh the aquatics, but big chunks of that eight um that eight million comes from uh development services related fees and ambulance billing.

Uh miscellaneous, uh which uh sums to over uh you know a little over five million dollars is just that.

It's miscellaneous.

That's on slides 36 or pay book pages 36 and 37 in your book captures um interest earnings, reimbursements, also the GNA charge uh for cost allocation uh to the utilities uh department.

Slide six um is kind of really our your sources and uses uh slide.

Um there's two funds here, um, general fund and utility operating fund focusing on the uh the general fund.

Um as you can see, we work operate as uh I think Mayor Hull has said several times over the last 12 years, uh we have to balance our budget.

Um we don't get to run in the red.

Running in the red's easy, balancing your budget is uh is hard.

Um I want to thank the the budget staff and the department directors and their staffs for always helping us um you know uh balance the budget on the on the expenditure side.

Um and then you know, so kind of two looks at how um the you know sources, the revenues roll up here, excuse me, and then or two looks at on the expenditure side and what would be the uh spreadsheet uh table.

You see personnel, materials and services, those are total recurring expenditures.

Personnel makes up about 75% of our recurring expenditures.

On the right hand side in this uh uh pie chart, if that's uh I don't know if that's a pie chart or it's a donut.

Um I guess it's a donut.

Um they're speaking to the police department's heart with uh with a power ring here.

Um Chief Steel will be very happy with that plug, you know, a little later on.

Um he's the one who taught me the term power rings.

So um, you know, I'm just uh uh I'm learning from the best.

Um and uh but you know, the police department uh representing a little over 34 million, uh a little over 31% of our total general fund expenditures, uh fire and rescue 22 million, about 20 percent.

So more than 50 percent of our budget goes to public safety in the general fund, and um more than 75% of our total recurring expenditures uh goes to uh our staff.

And then you can see the other departments on this uh power ring here, um, public works, uh parks and rec kind of the next big departments, uh, and uh you know about 13 million uh 12 percent and then 12 million about 11 and a half percent.

Utilities is not here because it's its own standalone standalone enterprise fund, um, but a good a good way.

And as I mentioned, um talked talked a second ago about uh staff.

Um I know it's sometimes people say it sounds like a cliche, uh, but you know, people, human capital, um, they're they're the most important part of the city.

Um they're they're what's what make the engine go.

Um they're the ones who press the pedal.

Um, and the uh whether it's a police car, uh uh a fire apparatus or uh one of our mowers or heavy equipment.

Um and to respond and as an investment in our personnel to respond to cost of living increases and to remain competitive in the labor market.

The proposed budget includes a compensation adjustment equivalent to 5% for all employee groups, subject to collective bargaining.

The adjustment will occur beginning the first full pay period in the new fiscal year, which starts on July 13th, is then the first full pay period.

Uh the estimated recurring cost for this adjustment in FY27 is 2.6 million for the general fund, 82,000 for the utility operating fund, and 15,000 for the convention and visitors bureau.

Um, even with our pessimistic and conservative budgeting approach, um, very uh very pleased, very proud of the fact that we're able to uh step forward with a 5% on the compensation adjustment.

Uh there's as we know, and I think that puts us in what one of our goals is being an employer of choice.

They think puts us in a good spot.

Um, you know, their you know, state of New Mexico, we think about our peer employers in the state and local government realm.

Uh state of New Mexico is only doing one percent this year.

Uh City of Las Cruces is I think contemplating two percent.

City of Las Cruces is I think contemplating two percent city of Albuquerque realizing published numbers just using adjectives and one of the adjectives I saw was uh was modest um in addition to you know traditional wages and salaries uh the city has always strived to have a competitive fringe benefits package and the cornerstone to that is our uh one of the cornerstones to that is our uh health insurance um as uh we've talked about in the past the city is self-insured uh on our on our health insurance um in the last few years we've actually had some uh pretty big increases due to uh uh medical care inflation uh coming out of the pandemic there was a lot of upward pressure on medical care uh as well as um some large claims and so we had I think two or three years I apologize for not having it memorized uh 15% increases in our um in in our health health insurance premiums and on top of or in addition to um uh you know injecting money from the general fund into the into the health um in into the health insurance uh fund to to balance uh that fund uh we're only proposing a uh five percent increase uh by way of example you can see in the below table what does that translate uh into cost on a monthly basis uh for employees so an individual on the blue cross co uh copay or the pre presbyterian co-pay is looking about a 23 dollar increase on the monthly basis uh 12 dollars um uh on a per paycheck basis so the five percent compensation adjustment far outweighs the five percent um in uh in in in health care um insurance premium uh one of the things that i think is also very um important in the in our health care uh fund is um we're bolstering the reserve in our health care fund this year um on a it's actually on a uh cost neutral basis to the the general fund um the new mexico self-insured fund which is part of the net new mexico municipal league where we have our workers compensation insurance has modified uh their policy uh in the past uh we've had to pay an insurance premium and then have a reserve in case there's large claims uh with modifications in their their policy um the we'd no longer need to carry that large cash reserve so we are transferring 2.2 million dollars from the workers compensation fund to a health self-insurance fund um for the purposes of creating this reserve it's about five million dollars this is uh really a financial safety net for a health insurance fund um it will help cover cost even uh claims spike uh also help provide predictable costs and prevent uh rate hikes in the future it's broken down into to four parts so it actually has um in addition to a general reserve as a volatility buffer also um another uh sub bucket if we will is for large and expensive claims and then also another uh portion of the reserve is to cover claims that can have the have a timing difference because sometimes we have claims that are incurred but not have been fully reported um so this will help us provide uh hopefully more financial strength and sustainability stability in our health um our health insurance fund council colbert it looks like you may have a question well I was trying to see when we were taking questions so um it's it's less of a a question in that way if it's been a long time since I've had some general algebra math right but five percent even though the number the percentage is the same the total amount is is going to be very different when it's five percent and so we see I think it's super helpful today to be able to see the five percent uh what that five percent increase looks like for the the health care expenses if for when we have the budget hearings if you wouldn't mind showing some examples of what a five percent increase would look like over some of the different pay grades just so that it's very clear to the public that five percent increase um that that the entire five percent increase in salary is not absorbed by that five percent health care expenditure I think that would just be helpful for clarity if that would be possible Mr.

Mayor members of the government body um Madam Councillor Colbert of course moving on to slide nine um overview of new new positions being requested in the in in the budget uh coming out of the the general fund uh this 21 new positions are uh being requested 13 of those are in public safety nine firefighters emts uh for uh fire state new fire station eight uh we will be recognizing six additional firefighters in uh FY28 with the opening of um fire station eight so there's a little bit of a timing issue on when folks come out of the academy people promote and there's kind of a cascading rolling effect to that um allowing us and we have some folks currently under what we call over higher status so that allows us to recognize nine in this fiscal year and then uh six more in in in fiscal year twenty eight if you want a detailed explanation of that um

We will be recognizing six additional firefighters in FY28 with the opening of fire station eight.

So there's a little bit of a timing issue on when folks come out of the academy, people promote, and there's kind of a cascading rolling effect to that, allowing us, and we have some folks currently under what we call overhire status, so that allows us to recognize nine in this fiscal year, and then uh six more in fiscal year 28.

If you want a detailed explanation of that, um Mr.

Don Martinez uh will have a spreadsheet and can walk you through the uh the calendar and the cascading effect.

Not putting on the spot dumb, but if you get asked, um two uh police officers, two real uh time uh crime center operators, uh, an electrician for our public works traffic department.

We think of a traffic signal street light, runs on electricity.

Um as the city grows, um we have uh more needs, also looking ahead for potential secession planning.

Um we have a a gentleman who's been the electrician with the city um for uh a very good uh period and has a lot of knowledge that we want to see if we can help transfer that knowledge to uh another electrician who joins our organization.

Uh communications manager, uh this would be uh housed in the the city manager's office and supporting the entire city as well as um the the governing body.

If we think of our uh newsletter that we send out via snail mail or you know, high quality production newsletter uh a few times a year, as well as our our counselor, um our counselor meet and greets and our social media presence.

Those are kind of the cornerstones of our uh communications and community outreach efforts, um, adding some additional resources into the uh communications space really gives us an opportunity, we think to really bolster that and increase the frequency of the messaging, the outreach, um, and the communications efforts of of the city and while also supporting the some of the departments that have direct communications efforts, such as Parks and Rec, who does a lot of their own messaging and advertising.

Uh getting into some of kind of the more boring positions, if you will, but also very important and critical to keep the city uh you know going in the the important uh you know direction, uh a payroll specialist.

We have two folks who work on payroll uh in in the city, um, and uh you know, with uh a growing headcount, growing complexity uh and in pay rates and and uh pay codes because some of our pay codes get charged to grants and things of that sort, and also very importantly, um you know, for redundancy, uh that you know, adding a payroll specialist.

It is a job, it is a function that has a very much a mad scramble, and then breathe, audit, double check everything was correct, and the mad scramble.

Um, and so you know, real important uh for that that redundancy in quality execution.

And if uh we don't get those paychecks out, you know, not a good day.

So uh deputy director creating it adding a deputy director position in the parks and rec department, as we know are two public safety departments, have dual deputies, uh, and uh we have um three of the larger um non-public safety departments that we are looking to implement a strategy to add deputy directors um to create dual deputies uh in those departments for you know strengthening the the oversight management and the leadership of those teams, also span of control.

Um, because we are you know, parks and rec is really the best example of a very broad span of control in a lot of ways where uh the the director and the deputy director are covering a lot, and but at the same time, maybe you know we'd like them to have a little more connective tissue rather than disconnectedness, and by adding another deputy, we can create some uh tighter span of control.

Um and then uh we'll also be through other uh potential HR uh actions and positions.

We'll be looking to create deputy director, second deputy directors uh in the utilities department and public works.

Um I'll discuss the utilities when I get to their department and accounting supervisor.

Um as you know, director Yara is a year uh a year plus into the job and in record in her assessing the needs of the department, and just again as a growing city.

You look at those revenues increase, you know, every those revenues and those expenditures increase.

That means more POs, which is really technically a purchasing function, not an accounting function, but it's more new, more general entries, more things to track, uh means more complexity uh in our uh financial reporting, our audit process, uh the accounting department is frontline and working with the external auditors and and audit season.

Uh seasonal library worker, uh receptionist at the Broadmoor Senior Center.

Uh right now, the uh front desk receptionist roles at the Broadmoor Senior Center being covered by folks out of Metal Ark as that facility expands as it gets more utilization.

We want to have the coverage, uh, have that the appropriate coverage at Broadmoor Senior Center and upgrading a to a part-time cashier.

This is an upgrade from a temporary position.

I have, I think, four slides now of general fund capital.

Um I will do my best to make uh pavement um exciting as I go through this.

I think BJ will make pavement more exciting.

Um the better possibility of making parks equipment exciting.

Um, but I'm gonna go through this uh some highlights.

Uh unless otherwise um a lot and unless otherwise indicated, this is general fund funded.

There are a couple references to where we have a coupling with it, other funding um sources, and these are in descending order.

So if you kind of wonder why are we going from roads to a park and back to a roads, it's because it's uh it's it is in descending order.

Six and a half million dollars on to our hybrid mill and inlay program, uh, which is really another way to think about is uh residential re um uh the repavement of residential roads, most commonly in the oldest parts of town, uh roads that are anywhere from paved roads that are anywhere from 30 to 50 years old that are beyond um you know uh addressing through crack patch or potholing.

Uh we have funded three phases of this so far at 18 miles, total universe is over a little 60 miles uh that would need this um this type of treatment.

So we have a balance to go of 42 miles-ish, 42 to 45 prior to these six miles.

I think BJ's gonna talk a little bit about this in his PowerPoint.

Um if there's a need for utility line replacements, um it uh to the go with these road projects, the these residential road repaving, it comes out of the utilities department.

Uh 3.2 million dollars for the design of Tulip Road from Rainbow to Abrasso Tulip is uh what we sometimes kind of call an old county special.

Um it's a you know it's a road that over the years just became asphalt on on dirt, um, and then more asphalt on dirt and uh um suffers from from drainage uh challenges and and and things of that sort.

Um, and really this is to put it into our project pipeline.

Um we fund design at about 10% of the estimated construction cost.

So to put that in the context, tulip will be would be or will be a $30 million road.

Um, but to build this into the pipeline process uh akin to what we are doing for uh rainbow from southern to city limits and Kim and also a version of that on Idalia where we're looking at a corridor study and ultimately leading into the direction of final design and really ultimately over several years to get to the point of final design, puts us in a position to be able to seek most likely federal funds, if not state funds, the pull-off uh construction.

Uh a cono circle dunser boulevard, this is a drainage, right-of-way acquisition and construction project, inadequate drainage, uh causes really, you know, some flooding and really sediment washout onto UNSER Boulevard.

Uh so looking to have a permanent solution and a permanent fix for this uh that goes beyond the uh um the that goes beyond uh getting the front loader out there to clean it up every time we have a really bad rain.

Uh 15th Street realignment from 20th Avenue to Vargas.

Uh this is construction uh at 2.35 million.

Uh ideally and Broadmoor uh roundabout right-away acquisition.

I uh referenced um in maybe you know BJ, you can ask BJ this question, but ideally as a corridor in which we are working on final design for the major intersections, and I think uh a lower percentage, 30 or 60 percent design for the rest of the corridor.

Um we know that we have two intersections that are very, very strained at Idelia and Broadmoor and Loma, Colorado, um, and and idealia.

This is right-oy acquisition with the the plan to ultimately get to a permanent solution with a roundabout with that high volume of traffic, the weird angles of the roads, uh roundabout provides very safe way and a continuous flow of um safe way to navigate that intersection and a continuous flow uh for the traffic given the high volume.

Uh UNSER Boulevard, uh, this is an additional $341,000 going into the project.

We had the opportunity uh through Mr.

Cog to get access to some federal funds earlier uh than we anticipated, and that requires a third uh $341,000 uh match.

And then we are in the process of applying to the New Mexico Department of Transportation for three roads under the TPF program, the project fund.

We've been very successful with that grant program.

It's a staff level technical merit driven application process.

We have received funding for, I'm gonna say eight-ish roads for TPF over the last few years.

Maybe it's seven ish, maybe it's nine-ish.

BJ will get the exact number before his presentation.

We're applying for three more roads.

This would provide the match funding where we have to provide 5% match.

We've commonly seen we apply for three, we've had the knock on for Micah or whatever the surface is.

We've seen the two roads funded in past years.

We're applying for a golf course from West Side Boulevard to 19th Avenue, which is also known as Cabazon Larriat from Western Hills to Nicholas, and uh Nicholas Chiante to Southern Boulevard.

Um so that'd be by the MLK Elementary School segment.

So that's what we have in the grant application.

Um to slide 12 uh additional uh capital highlights.

This is one exception of this is not general fund.

Uh it's actually being funded with impact fees.

Uh Sierra Norte to park improvements.

Uh Sierra Norte is a uh park to the south of North Hills.

Um, and there's uh a couple subdivisions that got built probably about 20 years ago now.

Sierra Norte 1's here and Norte 2.

Uh there was uh the developer had obligations to build uh parks.

They only built one of the parks, the other part kind of just fell off the radar screen going into the or this fell to the wayside going into the uh the Great Recession.

So we're gonna go in uh complete that park, but also with a I'll call it a more modern design.

Um it's gonna be a pickleball palace.

Um don't ask me how many pickleball courts, but Director Peterson is here and can provide that answer.

So very excited uh about that to put uh put the use to some undeveloped fallow land and uh and apply it towards something that's gonna be I think very popular uh with the community.

Um speaking of impact fees, uh not listed here, but we're also allocating some impact fee uh revenue, road impact fee revenue for the uh design of the intersection at US 550 and Northwest Loop Road.

Um, arguably um, you know, that that design should be carried by another entity, um, but given potential growth out there, uh given that growth may trigger the need to construct that intersection.

Our thought processes let's work on getting it designed.

So when that up when that time comes, either for capital outlay funding or if a develop if development triggers the need to build that intersection, it is designed and it's closer to being shovel ready at that at that point in time.

So we're taking a proactive uh step.

Not listed on the PowerPoint, but the impact fee uh triggered that that is um being uh funded by impact fees.

Bless you.

Uh City Hall uh first floor development services, parks and recreation entrance and workspace remodel.

Um we've had the good fortune over the last five years or so uh to invest in this building that is um 20 years old now.

Um that started with the restucco.

Uh we've done other remodeling.

Um this uh this remodel would provide um for some you know modifications on workspace, work uh work workspace workflow optimization as well as safety improvements uh and and those entryways uh to front serving uh to forward facing front serving departments here on the uh on the on the first floor.

Uh King's Meadows uh parking lot, King Kings Meadows is in Northern Meadows.

It's the park at the end of Northern Meadows on city limits.

Uh has a very large pavement parking lot that has deteriorated and disintegrated over time.

One of these again asphalt on um asphalt on dirt, lack of drainage, uh, things of that sort.

So we're gonna look to uh probably resize that parking lot.

It's overparked.

Um so that you know, look, we're gonna look at what's the right amount of parking that we need for the use of the uh of the park.

Um, and add an add all in this will be um you know new sports courts, and I'll talk about sports courts uh here in a second.

Um we have uh Esther Bone Library uh service desk and facility remodel uh 350,000.

Animal resource center uh kennel expansion.

Um I think I'm pulling on Mayor Hall's heartstrings uh with this item.

He has been uh talking about um making uh remodels and improvements to the animal resource center you know for for more than a few years now.

Uh $640,000 to be combined with uh $775,000 previously allocated, so a little over $1.2 million.

This is gonna add 12 kennels to the facility.

Um so in one way, $12 is a really good number, in another way $1.3 million is a very expensive number.

Um we do have some constraints with space allocation uh at this um at this facility, it has some uh grade challenges, some lot depth and some lot width um challenges, which makes this construction a little more expensive.

But at this point in time, our highest and best use of that facility and highest and best use of our dollars is to invest in that facility rather than going to look to build something from ground up elsewhere.

Um but it's uh um technical term, it's been a long time since we've expanded the number of kennels at that um uh facilities.

My understanding, uh Director Peterson can clarify that if anyone has a any questions, but excited uh to do that and really helps us uh service um all our citizens of Free Orancho, including I know it's a badge of the four-legged ones.

Come on.

I didn't even get come on, Jimmy.

Come on.

Okay.

Uh slide 13.

I think this is the end of the the capital.

Um about 500,000 to the Aquatic Center replaster.

Speaking of buildings that are uh nearly 20 years old, our aquatic center.

So this is the actual interior of the pool as a uh competitive use swimmer and then a triathlete in uh an adulthood, haven't been in the pool in about five years, to be honest with you, but even five years ago looking at the bottom of the pool, it was starting to look like it needed to be replastered.

So uh this is a great investment in our aquatic center.

It will be both the competition/slash lap pool as well as the um children's recreational fund pool.

Uh police department roof replacement, 449,000.

City Hall parking lot uh uh crack patch and seal, 350,000, multi-purpose court replacement at Clayton Meadows Park.

This is in Northern Meadows, and Enchanted Hills Park, which is obviously in Enchanted Hills, it's the parking on Channel Hills Boulevard.

As you approach the bridge over PDV, it's on uh your right-hand side if you're going uh westbound, north by uh northwest or west by northwest.

Um the uh sports courts uh at these uh parks is similar to what we used to have at Haynes uh Park, where it was asphalt courts, they cracked over time, like we've seen in our roads.

Uh so the court replacement comes in and uh it made out of uh concrete, so which gives us a much more durable surface.

Uh as well, the courts are then lined for both pickleball and basketball.

So if you're familiar with the uh the sports courts replacement we've done at Haynes Park in the last couple years, that same execution at Haynes Park will take place at Clayton Meadows, Enchanted Hills, and we are gonna see if um it fits within the budget to do it at King Meadows as well.

So all upgrades and nice reinvestments in existing parks in the community, and then uh sports complex north field one renovation.

Um this is not to be confused with the fourth field, the next field that we are going to add at Sports Complex North, as you uh recall.

Our capital outlay request included uh a request for about 1.7, 1.8 million dollars for uh a new field at Sports Complex North to be coupled with about 1.7, 1.8 million in uh impact fee revenue, park impact fee revenue that we had set aside.

Uh state legislator between capital outlay and another grant program funded us a little more on that request at about 2 million, so we have 300,000 extra.

So we're gonna couple that 300,000 in capital outlay, state grant with 121,000 uh and renovate field one at the uh the the uh sports complex north.

I am going to take a sip of my water and see if Mr.

Wells, Director Yara, Don or Kay, have any corrections to omissions, airs.

At least uh nothing that needs to be corrected now.

They'll tell me later.

Um transition on to slide 14.

Uh utility enterprise fund.

Um similar uh chart here just kind of shows you on the right hand side the sources and uses in the utility fund.

Um, you know, when you look at overall uh recurring revenue in the utility fund at about 62 million compared to the recurring revenue of the general fund at 128 million, um, it is very large, it is very sizable.

Um we operate our uh our water utility, water, wastewater utility, um, in an enterprise fund.

And one of the ways I like to describe this is that we operate as a not-for-profit enterprise.

Um excess, you know, earnings, shall we call it, are reinvested into the system.

Um, and it is designed around having a uh uh uh a rate structure that funds the operations and the capital investments that the system uh utilizes.

Um obviously there are times where we receive external funding through federal grants principally, and then sometimes state grants.

When that happens, that just stretches our our revenues further, allows us to invest in in the capital, um, and more importantly, enables us to then either do more cash funding of additional projects, do other projects sooner, when as we know cut we face, you know, face cost escalation.

Um the water and wastewater utilities provide service to over 40,000 customers delivering more than 3.5 million 3.5 billion gallons of water service annually.

Um as I said previously, the revenues to fund the operations and capital investments.

Um again, I mentioned it it is a operates as a separate fund on this not described as a a not-for-profit basis.

Why do I highlight that is um in Director Yara can tell you some more stories?

Uh you'll see municipalities and jurisdictions and other places, whether it's within the state of New Mexico or elsewhere, that use their enterprise funds to either either the enterprise fund is subsidized by the general fund, or they use the enterprise fund as a means of generating revenue and putting it back in uh to the uh into the general fund.

Neither one of those are really good uh best practices from a cost accounting basis or from just a general um you know generally accepted uh accounting principles uh basis.

On slide 15, just uh an overview of our utility utility enterprise fund reserves.

Um the utility enterprise fund uh will have an ending fund balance of operating reserves of about 11.9 million, capital reserves of 4 million, debt service reserve of 230,000, uh capital funds and impact fee reserves of 3.1.

Uh this operating fund reserve of 11.9 represents 129, 126 days of cash reserve.

So if we were to not collect any revenue for some reason, we'd still be able to operate the utility for 126 days.

Um the uh that the and then the capital reserve of 4 million represents 1% of the total estimated value of the utility's capital assets.

About a decade or so ago, and um when we were working on uh updating our utility rate structure, uh we worked with an outside consultant who helped establish these um guidelines on our reserve policy uh that we have in place for the utility.

The slide 16, the utilities enterprise fund rate adjustments.

Uh as we know, last year uh we approved a five-year um rate schedule uh with annual increases.

So the already approved 3% annual increase to water and wastewater rates is effective over a five-year period from FY26 through FY2030.

The water and wastewater rate adjustment for FY27 will increase the average monthly customer bill by approximately three dollars.

The scheduled rate adjustments include an increase of 3% in water rates acquisition, also include a 3% rates uh increase in water rates acquisition and 5% increase to the rate charge for bulk fill customers.

Slide 17.

Um the utilities fund has a 5% salary adjustment, uh, 5% in increase the health uh health insurance premiums, uh similar to the uh akin to the general fund, and uh requesting two new positions.

Uh one is an administrative services manager, uh, some of our other departments, uh such as public works, uh public works, police fire have administrative services manager uh positions, um, works on the budget and a lot of kind of the uh back of office type functions.

Uh with the creation of this position, it will enable uh us to upgrade and create a second deputy in the utilities department and also an associate engineer.

Um the as you'll see when I get into the ICIP.

Uh the utilities department has a very hefty ICIP with a lot of projects uh to tackle, and that's in addition to the everyday operations, which in itself is a is engine uh engineering and um the complexity of utilities projects is very, very high.

Um so we look forward to creating uh an associate engineer position to help us uh come on board, grow the City of Rio Rancho and help us with our project management.

Some highlights on the capital side on uh slide 18, uh 9.5 million coupled with 3.3 million going uh towards MBR upgrades, uh membrane bioreactor at wastewater treatment plant two.

Uh you'll probably see upgrades uh and investments or investments in wastewater treatment plant two every year for several years to come.

As we know, we have currently have a headworks project taking place, which is literally it's called headworks because that's where the the flows come into the plant.

So re um redesigning, upgrading that headworks, making it more efficient, and then in uh starting with this year and in future years, we'll see continued um investments in treatment and capacity.

This uh plant is um the the workhorse of the city's uh um the for the city it's the most important wastewater treatment plant that we have.

Um redrill of well four, uh this is uh 4.5 million from uh utility net revenue to be coupled with bond proceeds of the same amount for a total of $9 million project, uh $3 million to replace install water lines, uh funding for rehabilitation of well 7 and 15, um construction of a uh sewer line to support the new public work streets and right-of-way facility on Idalia, $2.1 million, um renovate the water storage tank 6A, uh funding for water rights acquisition, uh lift station improvements at Lift Station 21, 1 million uh million dollars there, and then well site infrastructure improvements about 810,000.

So I'm now coming the the kind of the final bend in uh the the final turn in this uh this presentation, so please uh uh bear uh bear with me.

I want to talk a little bit about the ICIP.

Uh the ICIP stands for infrastructure and capital improvement plan.

Uh this is a uh you know, really we have two things that come forward with the the in the budget.

Um a five-year ICIP, which is the planning year, and then budget authorization for year one of that five-year plan.

So this is uh this five years for this upcoming fiscal year going through the calendar period of June 30th, 2031.

The ICIP on the five year basis does not confer legal authority for capital spending outside of FY27.

The five-year plan, the ICIP, the document serves as a primary basis for subsequent annual capital budgets and presents a multi-year projection of capital needs and financing requirements.

So I'm first gonna talk a little bit about FY27's ICIP.

Again, think of this as a as a sources and uses sources up there on the the left hand side, 310 million, the breakdown in expenditures by departments, uh, and this power ring here at 310 million.

This is inclusive of the utilities fund.

You can see that uh wastewater and water production are the two biggest tickets.

Um I guess maybe, yeah, yeah, they're combined, they're bigger than public works.

Um the sources, pay as you go, 202 million.

What does pay as you go mean?

Um I had to ask for some you know best way to characterize that, describe that.

Um that is uh in the simplest term, it's all funding sources besides debt, um, which is largest contributors would be general fund, utility net revenue, intergovernmental grants, impact fees.

The FY27 capital uh capital plan consists of $56.4 million in new capital appropriations, $2 million in new repair minor equipment and contract service appropriations, and about $252 million in roll forward appropriations, and or anticipated funding sources for a grand total of $310 million in planned spending.

Looking at this on a five-year planning horizon, um the pay as you go, you know, the totals here are about $943 million.

So the ICIP is pushing a billion dollars.

I think next year's ICIP will probably get us into that uh 10-figure uh realm, uh at a you know, north of you know potentially um a billion dollars.

Pay as you go, uh $374 million, debt financing $155 million, and to be determined $414 million.

To put some context around that um to be determined, um RICIP, we uh look at the ICIP and catalog it or characterize it between growth and non-growth, and it's about a 50-50 split in the ICIP.

So an estimated $477 million or $51% of the IP ICIP is growth related.

Of that amount, an estimated $26 million or $56% of that does not have an identified funding source.

If we look at it a little more holistically, I would say you know, 28% of the ICIP growth related and does not have an identified uh funding source.

This will present challenges, and it's a challenge that we continue to navigate on an annual basis for meeting the city's capital needs during the planning period, uh, and we'll have to explore supplemental financing sources so we can fully exit execute the plan.

Those supplemental financing sources, uh intergovernmental grants, cash funding, uh things of um uh of that sort, and before you know it, um, you know, we'll be looking at our impact reschedule in in in a few years.

Um I've mentioned a few times.

I kind of have it's you know, throw this out there as an idea, um, and I will uh you know, try to reserve my right to um to to morph the idea, but I would like to see if we uh do a kind of a capital projects update, ICIP overview in October or December work sessions go a little bit deeper.

Um, talk about where we are in the status of projects.

You're gonna hear from BJ kind of a does it already with our public works update.

Um a lot of these projects have a gestation period that elephants uh would be jealous of um given how long it takes us to pull these projects together, but really talk about an overall like that life cycle of a project as well as the needs and the funding sources and looking at it because I do think the ICIP and our capital program is in many ways no pun intended where the rubber hits the road and our service delivery and the expectations of the community and how they want to see us service them, whether it's a you know, they're you know, a smooth road that they drive on or expansion of quality of life services like our future um multi-generational facility, um, the fire station eight, things like that.

So stay tuned as we flush out that concept.

Next steps on slide 24.

The recommended FY uh 27 budget capital um FY the recommended FY27 budget and capital program will be reviewed by the governing body, mayor, and city councilor at a budget hearing at 9 a.m.

on Friday May 1st.

Um we uh have the opportunity, the optionality to have additional budget hearings if there's a desire, if we want to go if there's desire or need or if warranted on May 11th and or May 14th.

The governing body will take public comments on F on the FY27 recommended budget during its uh regular uh its regular um meetings at City Hall on May 14th and May 28th.

A vote to adopt the FY27 budget and capital program um shall occur at the governing body's uh meeting of May 28th.

We need to transmit a an adopted balanced budget to the state of New Mexico Department of Finance Administration no later than May 31st.

Um so we have a statutory or legal obligation.

I'm not sure if it's in statute.

Um we have an obligation, statutory obligation to deliver um a balanced budget uh to the state.

Um in July, uh the governing body will consider a vote on a final budget for FY27.

We sometimes call this the final final budget.

Um, and that budget accounts for our rollovers, which stem from the FY26 uh financial closeout.

It's where we true up revenues, um, close out projects, look at reversions, um, and that then rolls from the ending fund balance into the beginning fund balance, and also opportunity to complain contemplate minor adjustments based on input from the governing body between now and then, other needs that arise uh and things of uh uh of that sort.

Um in that vein, and kind of tying back to the the beginning of the the presentation when I spoke um about the five percent compensation adjustment.

There was some parentheses there, subject to collective bargaining.

Um want to provide you with an update on uh where we are in that that collective bargaining process.

Um the uh fire union has tentatively agreed, um, what we call TAID has tentatively agreed to that uh five percent uh compensation adjustment.

Uh it's important to note that the fire union's uh collective bargaining agreement uh expires next summer, so 14-ish months from now.

Uh so we will uh open collective bargaining negotiations uh with the fire union uh later this year, probably in December.

That will be a holistic um review of that uh contract, uh including overall compensation structures uh at that time.

Um as you know, we recently concluded uh last uh you know, about nine, uh, you know, I guess doing math in my head, six, seven months ago, uh uh seven months ago last September, um we brought before you a new collective bargaining agreement with the um Rio Rancho Police and Communications Association.

The negotiation process for that contract um started uh last spring and went through the end of the summer that came before you um in September.

Um that uh that that contract had some compensation adjustments for the the police union subsequent to the ratification of that contract.

Um we've seen um you know considerable shifts in in considerable shifts and changes uh uh in the compensation structures um of law enforcement officers at our peer agencies such as uh City of Santa Fe, um City of Santa Fe's uh state of New Mexico, uh, and most recently in April uh Albuquerque Police Department.

Uh so our uh annual economic reopener uh with the police union was a little more comprehensive than a discussion around the uh the the 5%.

Um and we have uh tentatively agreed with the police union on um compensation adjustments uh to in addition to the the the 5% uh in the space of base pay, longevity pay, as well as premium pay for education attainment and uh instructor certification.

Um that will require a budget adjustment to be added into our our our budget.

We will bring that before you before you on May 28th for your consideration.

Um the anticipated uh cost of those adjustments that you will see uh on May 28th is about uh 1.4 million.

Um has comes with a price tag, um, but I also think it's very important to note that um it uh reasserts uh Rio Rancho, City of Rio Rancho, Rio Rancho uh Police Department's um position as a uh um not only as a top-tier place to work from quality of department um but puts them in a very competitive place uh in the market um for uh hourly wages as well as uh as take home wages.

So if that um, you know, if the if there's any questions on that, uh we can discuss that a little bit today or at one of our subsequent meetings.

Um but some uh you know, so we are teaed with police and fire, um, and uh we look forward to having the opportunity to uh engage in conversations with ASME.

Um we are uh ready to um have you know engage in those conversations.

With that, um, on the very last slide, just like to say thank you.

Um not sure how much I left BJ an hour, um, and the recommended budget can be viewed online at the city's website uh at this uh URL of RRNM.gov forward slash FY27 budget.

Um it's a it's a great platform to view the budget.

Uh if uh you use Google to get there, please make sure the URL takes you the T you know the URLs a dot gov, R Rn M.gov.

That will take you actually to a uh um uh a service that we use to house the budget.

So with that, Mr.

Mayor, um members of the governing body, uh we stand for any questions that you may have at this time.

Otherwise, uh we look forward to discussing the the budget a week from Friday at our first budget hearing, um, and would uh uh invite um you to share any questions that you would like questions or topics that we did to discuss on May 1st in advance as uh um as you have the opportunity to work through the budget book, um, the the cover letter.

Uh the intended format on May 1st is to be similar to past years, um, where we'll kind of treat it in a table of contents, page turner basis, um, work through the document and be prepared.

Um, really the book to prepare to answer questions that you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have any do it?

Yes.

Yes.

Oh, and just for the record of uh counselor has joined us online.

So thank you for that.

And then um any questions real quick before we move on to the next one.

I know we'll be plenty of time for questions at the budget hearing, but just in case there's any here.

All righty then.

Thank you.

We will move on to the roads update.

Mr.

Godlin, Director Gottlet, how are you today?

Very good, Mayor.

Thank you very much.

I love this.

An animated road presentation.

I like that.

Well, you know, I I thought I'd try to be a little different this year.

All right.

As Matt said, roads are kind of.

I mean, as the city manager said roads are kind of boring.

I'm gonna try to make it a little bit more entertaining.

Huh?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Standard uniform.

There it is.

Well, Mr.

Mayor Counselors, today I'm uh going to provide the annual Rio Rancho Roads update.

So the topics we're going to cover are basically a review of our current city assets.

The capital projects we've completed over time.

Uh recap of the project pipeline, which we previously discussed in the budget presentation.

I'm going to provide some updated statistics on the NSIP or neighborhood streets improvement program.

And I'm going to talk about upcoming projects that we have in the pipeline, different than the project pipeline.

And then I'm going to leave you with a city comparison of our peer cities of the four largest cities, and then I'll stand for any questions you may have.

As always, please let me know if you have questions as we move through the presentation.

I'm happy to answer those as we move through it.

So our first slide here is our asset review.

We are now at 495 miles, centerline miles of paved roads and 116 miles of unmaintained dirt roads or maintained dirt roads.

Our unmaintained roads have actually gone down as we've increased our maintenance levels on the dirt roads.

Within the surface type of PAVE, we have the arterial road classification, of which we have 75 centerline miles of roads.

We have 72 centerline miles of collector roads and approximately 348 miles of residential or local roads.

And when you look at all the roads, regardless of whether they need improvement or not, on our arterial roads, we've done about 43% of work, whether it's upcoming, completed, or ongoing.

We've done about 26 miles on our collectors, so that's the least amount of work we've done on our roads for collector roads.

I think that'll change a little bit with the upcoming bond.

And then we have 54% of our local residential roads receiving work.

That number is going to be lower than the number you'll receive, you'll hear me say with the neighborhood streets improvement program statistics, because this looks at all roads, regardless of whether the road is new or whether the road has been recently reconstructed.

With the NSIP statistics, I'm going to be speaking specifically about residential roads or local roads that were eligible for the patch and seal program.

So you'll see that much higher.

So in 2016, uh we were able to get our uh geobond projects back on uh a regular two-year cycle, and it's really made a huge improvement for the city because we've done 50 major projects since the inception of that re-established geobond cycle.

On the right-hand side of the presentation, you'll notice the project funding sources pie chart, not on not unlike the one you saw in the budget preparation uh presentation we just had.

Um, our vast majority of all of our projects are funded, 41% with general obligation bond funds, so it's really important to keep those cycles moving forward.

The next highest uh category is federal funds, federal grants from the mid-region council of governments from USDOT and FHWA.

And then our last two really important funds to talk about are again another grant fund, which is transportation project fund grant.

That's the state of New Mexico grant that comes through the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

We've been very successful.

We've actually done 10 projects with uh TPF funding, and I'm very proud of my team in making that happen.

And then the other funding source, which is almost exactly equivalent to TPF, though slightly less.

I just rounded up for percentage sake, is the general fund at 13% as well.

So those are the four highest fund sources, but geobond funds stand out significantly on how we get our projects completed in Rio Rancho.

I just showed a couple examples of projects going back to 2016 with high resort Boulevard and ending with Lima Road as one of our most recent completed projects with the 2024 Geobond.

So in Rio Rancho, it's really important as it is everywhere to get projects done, and my team understands that and I understand that, and we want to make sure that we're ready for federal funds when they become available.

So back in 20 uh 2023, I I talked to the the governing body here about developing um a project pipeline, and that really what that is is making a way to get shovel ready projects so that we can move from design to construction more easily.

And the little exhibit or the little graphic I have there basically shows using our local funds for that uh that design and right-of-way acquisition and moving into federal funding for construction, which is the most expensive part of a project, just funding the construction going forward.

So in FY25, we presented and the governing body uh liked the concept, and we went ahead and started off with our first projects, which is Kim Road from Idelia Road to New Exo 528.

That project is about 10% complete at that this point, and we anticipate a final design next year so that we can move that into construction and look for some construction funding uh as long as there's no additional right-of-way we need to acquire.

Rainbow Boulevard is as the city manager mentioned earlier, a corridor study, uh location study deciding what we need to do on that long big road to get another north-south connection to Albuquerque.

So at this point, we're about 5%, and that's from Irving, that's in the city of Albuquerque.

We've been working with our partners or we'll continue to work with our partners in Albuquerque and Amafca to make that happen up to Southern Boulevard where we already have an existing rainbow connection, so to speak.

We anticipate a 30% design of the entire corridor.

This is not unlike what we did for Southern Boulevard.

We we plan the entire corridor, and then during the planning stage, we phased out chunks in order to move forward with additional construction.

So what our intent is here is to get the entire corridor from Irving to Southern Boulevard planned out, designed to 30%, and then chunk it out into reasonable phases that we can actually obtain construction funding for and construct.

So I assume it'll probably be bridges over the arroyos and a two-lane section to start with, not unlike Broadmoor Boulevard.

As we move forward through time, we do want to complete additional projects to follow and keep the project pipeline moving forward so that we always are ready for federal construction funding, and as we mentioned in this budget cycle, we are looking at Tulip Road as one of those projects to move forward and move that from uh planning and concept into actual design work.

One of my favorite topics is the neighborhood streets improvement program.

I think it's made a huge improvement to the city over its time.

And I'm going to start off with the first project, which is the patch and seal project, and these are the stats.

So we started in 2017 with in-house only, and we have completed as of this year in November 10 in-house phases.

The guys have worked really hard to get this done.

And we've done about 109 centerline miles of roads throughout town.

Um we also were very fortunate.

We were able to get some supplemental phases as well to have a contractor help us.

We were able to accomplish phase five and six really, really well and knock those out pretty quick.

Unfortunately, we're still struggling to get phase seven and eight done.

We talked about that a little bit last year, that that's just not a job type that most contractors want to do today.

It's lack of lack of employees to do that work, but we're still making it happen, and we're trying to get that done.

I have it as a TBD, as we don't know exactly when we're going to finish.

But when we do finish that, we'll have 46 additional miles that have been done by a contractor.

The great news is, I think it's great news, is that we've completed greater than 70% of our original roads in town, leaving about 91.2 center line miles still to go.

That's a lot of miles to still go, but the accomplishment we've made so far has already been uh seen throughout the city, I believe.

And so we have 91.2 left to go, and we're gonna continue uh moving that forward.

I'm gonna talk about the next project, which is uh the hybrid mill and inlay.

This is a project that uh takes the NSIP and moves those those roads that aren't eligible for patch and seal into a new technology that we can reconstruct those roads and make them better long term, basically build brand new roads.

So back in 2023, FY23 we we talked about a pilot program for the HMI.

We enacted that pilot program six miles around the city, it was very successful.

So in 24 and 25, we came up with phase two and phase three to knock out more roads uh throughout the city.

Uh phase three is the only one that's still ongoing, and that's in Councilor Dabson's district.

Second street will be the last road there, and we're going through some drainage review and some possible road realignment before that project starts.

Um as you saw in the budget uh presentation, we're looking for HMI phase four to be considered by the governing body.

Um, as the city manager said, we have approximately 41, 42 miles of roads still remaining of the initial backlog that needs to be done by funding phase four.

That will reduce that by about six miles or a little bit more than six miles to get it into the 30 mile and uh 30 mile range to get that done.

If those projects are approved moving forward, I as usual, we'll put me and my team will put together a list of roads uh for your consideration for both HMI for the districts that have it and patch and seal for the district all districts that have it, and provide that to you later this year for your approval so we can move forward with that project.

Uh HMI, hopefully after the budget rolls in July, and then the phase 11 project in-house next year starting in March.

So our upcoming project, we talked a lot about upcoming projects as well in the budget.

Um, those are subject to your your approval.

Um, but projects that are upcoming right now that we have uh in the pipeline, again, different pipeline than the project pipeline.

But uh the transportation project fund grant, that was one we were successful on with the DOT this year, and as the city manager mentioned, um, we were able to get not not one, but two projects out of the three we submitted, and we got both Barbara Loop from 528 to Sarah Road and Western Hills Drive from Southern Boulevard to Cavazan.

We've been diligently working on those projects to get them designed.

And I'm I'm pretty comfortable saying that we'll be looking to start construction in June for Barbara Loop and uh August for Western Hills Drive as well.

Um so those are the those will be coming to the government body for advice and consent very soon.

Um we also have uh thank thanks the vote.

Thanks to the voters, we have uh four additional uh geobond projects that are really important for the 2026 bond.

Now that we are done with the 2024 bond, we can move into these.

I believe the money becomes available in May, and so we'll be starting to kick these off real soon.

Um but those four projects are coming, and we'll start them sometime later this year and finish them hopefully before uh spring of 2028 when the next voter uh uh geobond is going out to the voters for approval.

Lastly, on this slide, I want to talk about UNSER Boulevard and Southern Boulevard phase 2A.

These are really big federally funded projects and really important to the city overall, and UNSER really important to the region overall.

So we've been working very very diligently to uh finalize the plans that were originally designed a number of years ago and bring them up to date from Cherry to Paseo de Volcan, and as of right now, the DOT is moving uh this this project forward with the Federal Highway Administration in Washington in order to obligate the funds, and then once the funds are obligated, we would get a cooperative agreement with the Department of Transportation allowing us to bid the project.

Um I put on here TBD fall 2026.

I do believe that's doable.

I'm hoping it'll be sooner than that, but um the federal government does have till the end of September, which is the end of their federal fiscal year, in order to obligate those projects.

So it's possible it could be a little bit later, but I really feel that fall 2026 is achievable.

Same thing with Southern Boulevard.

We have broken Southern into three phases for part two or phase two, sub phases to make it more uh easy to construct and actually more fundable.

The first phase is the box cover just east of Nicholas Drive, and that is phase two A.

And again, we are finalizing our plans with the DOT, addressing their comments, their final comments on that one, and then it will follow the exact same process as Southern, or as UNSER Boulevard has, with the DOT recommending obligation to the Federal Highway Administration and them approving the project and then us putting it out to bid.

And I believe that will come in the fall as well.

It is a drainage project, so we like to try to do those as best as we can start them and get a vast majority of the project done when we're not in monsoon season.

You know, if we have some rain, we don't want to be in the in the arroyo fixing a box cover and wash out all the material.

So that may that may start in the fall if the DOT cannot get the obligation until later in the year, maybe meaning we can't get the agreement from them.

Federal highways signs the paperwork in September, but we don't get the agreement back from them until November.

It may be pushed to the following year just so we can be out of the monsoon season.

Lastly, I want to just um do a city comparison of our peer agencies across the state, and what we did is we reached out to some of our uh larger entities.

I I don't know if if you all know this, but I used to work for the uh city of Las Cruces down in Las Cruces.

So I have uh some colleagues down there that I reached out to, and really I wanted to just see where we where we compared, and we wanted to see where we compared uh among our paved roads, our graded roads, and then what our budget just looked like.

So we're at the very bottom, um, and that's uh 495 miles of road center line miles of road, which we talked about earlier.

Las Cruces is at the very top, and they're only at 509 center line miles of road, which is very equivalent to what we are not only population-wise, but amount of roads they have.

The city of Santa Fe is the third in the table.

They're smaller than us, and they have about 284 miles of roads that they maintain and upkeep.

And uh City of Albuquerque, though, they're the largest city in the state.

I thought it was a good idea just to show them as a comparator since they're right next door.

They have 2,308 miles of roads broken down into arterial collector and local roads.

So we're very equivalent to Las Cruces, and and we have more assets than the city of Santa Fe does.

And the third column from the left, that's our graded dirt roads, and I'll start with us again.

We're at 116 miles of graded dirt roads that are our crews work on every week.

Um, Las Cruces being equivalent to us in a lot of ways, only has about 15 miles of dirt roads, so most of their roads are are paved.

Um, City of Albuquerque has 7.8 miles, so they don't have very many miles, and and City of Santa Fe, actually, in this case, is probably most equivalent to us at 50 approximately 50 miles of dirt roads they pave or grade every every week or as often as they do.

And then the final column is the uh general fund revenue for FY25, which is the most up-to-date revenue uh projection we have today.

And our revenues are about 107 million dollars.

Uh Las Cruces is about 146 million.

Uh City of Santa Fe being a smaller municipality than us, they're at about 138 million, and the city of Albuquerque is pushing close to a billion dollars at 832 million.

So I just wanted to you know show this slide as a comparative to say, hey, you know, we're pretty close in our assets to other agencies.

We're not well ahead or well behind.

Oh, we're right there, except on our graded dirt roads, but that our our revenues are also, as you all know, um lower than the other cities as well.

So with that, I'll stand for any questions you may have on the presentation that I can answer.

Counselors.

Mr.

Handley.

I just have one question.

Yes, because I'm gonna be going, I'm gonna be talking to my constituents on Baltic.

Do you have a vague idea of when you're gonna be starting on that project?

Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Dabson.

Um yes, we're gonna we have to do a design for a water line, so that takes a little bit more time than just the roadway improvement.

The roadway work actually is fairly uh knock on wood, it's fairly simple.

Um, it's a two-lane collector road, more like a residential, so it's that will be pretty easy.

We're gonna do that in-house.

Um, it's gonna be the utility uh line work that needs to take place.

We probably won't start that design till after May.

I anticipate probably a five-month design for the utilities unless we can do it sooner.

So I would say probably sometime mid next year for Baltic, maybe earlier, but we're gonna push hard on those.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor Culbras.

Thank you.

Thank you so much as always, BJ.

I really appreciate the presentation.

It's always always so helpful, and you you do make roads very exciting.

Um question on the crack patch.

Um, and I guess maybe on HMI, but we've been doing crack patch and seal for a while now.

Um what are you seeing as like the the lifespan of those crack patches?

Um as you look kind of strategically into the future.

We've been making this big investment in these roads.

We'll have to go back and keep doing it.

So are you seeing that you know we're going to have to um well we need to accelerate some of that investment with some of some of the work that's already been done to go back and like reseal roads that have been sealed?

And I think the same question for HMI.

Do we have any um projections now that we're a few years in on um the anticipated life of the roads?

We had some initial expectations, but wondering if that's still in line.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, Councillor Calberth, that's a great question.

And something we we talk about regularly in my department.

Um, all roads have a generalized life cycle, right?

Uh, when we design a road, we're still designing for around 20 years.

I would purport that you can get longer than that with the modern techniques and the modern materials that we use today.

Uh pushing 25 and 30 years is not unreasonable, specifically if we have a uh preservation program that follows behind it as well.

Um we don't have that quite yet.

We're working to that in the future to get there.

Uh but to answer your question about the patch and seal, yes, those are temporary, what we call stop gap improvements.

We had a three-inch crack, and then we go cut the crack out and we replace the crack or we seal the crack, and eventually that material does have a limited lifespan, especially with our hot summers and our UV uh crack seal does have a tendency to degradate over time.

And uh those cracks that were once there that were sealed and tight do have a lifespan that you start to see two cracks now form on either side of the patch, and that becomes another problem.

And so, in my personal opinion, I think in in some of these roads, you could probably do two sets of crack seal, crack patch and crack seal on those roads, and then at that point in time you would need to move that road because now you're looking at a three-foot patch to a six-foot patch to a nine.

Where does it end?

And next thing you know, I'm just replacing the road by patch, right?

So then it goes into the hybrid mill and inlay, right?

And that would be where that goes.

And then, of course, after about five years or so, you start to see cracks forming on a hybrid mill and inlay road on any new road, even if it's brand new constructed.

So then you would need to get back out there and and seal those.

So roads that are currently being done as hybrid mill and inlays, so district one, district four, and district five, those are gonna be newer roads, but they're gonna be moving into the patch and seal project in the future.

And roads that have been patched and sealed in district two, district three, and district six, are gonna be moving into either another round of patch and seal or back into the hybrid mill and inlay, and we're gonna flip the districts around.

So that is a that is a challenge because you know we do have 91 miles still of the backlog of roads that we haven't done yet, but yet some of the earlier phases that we did back when Mayor Mayor Hall first started as mayor, are needing to be re-looked at already.

They're not in the greatest shape, they're not in terrible shape, but they're not in great shape.

And the question becomes how do you handle that?

Do we go back and do work on roads we already did work on and forego work on roads that haven't had the work done, or do we continue moving forward to deplete the backlog, knowing full well that we are limited on resources, whether that be capital resources of funds, or more importantly, labor resources.

I mean, we don't have the contractors anymore to keep pushing hard to get the supplementals done.

So we're really reliant on our in-house crews, and as you all know, that's been a challenge to keep those those crews filled with people over time.

It's tough work and they uh have other options out there.

So I I don't know.

I have I don't have an answer for that today, but it is something that we've been talking about.

Um it is easier to do the HMIs, to be quite honest with you, it is more expensive to do the HMIs, but it is easier to do the HMIs, and there's plenty of contractors that are willing to do those as opposed to patch and seal.

So maybe the discussion becomes do we increase the amount of roads we do for HMI?

I I don't know.

I I don't necessarily like doing that because if we can spend less money on a road with patch, I don't really want to go reconstruct a road that doesn't need it until it needs it.

So I don't really have a good answer for you, counselor, but we are we are thinking about that and trying to figure out what's the next and right steps to go forward with.

Thank you, thank you.

And just one more question.

Um yeah, I think the HMI project was just like so innovative, and and I love the um the thought behind it and how it really transformed what we've been able to do in the city with our roads.

Um are there any other emerging technologies that that you have your eye on?

I'm just curious um that might help us to have like another big leap forward um in the future.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, Councillor Calbreth, there are a lot of technologies that are coming out, they're coming out with new binders and new asphalt materials.

A lot of times, you know, I I want to be careful of being on the bleeding edge or the cutting edge of technology because you know, if we do test strips, that's fine, and that's we expect things to fail early.

But what I what I have to be careful on is bringing that cutting edge technology to the city and residents having an unrealistic expectation that if we do this trial on here that it's gonna last like a regular road.

So um, me and my team, the DOT hosts and UNM hosts um uh the you know you know the paving conference every year in January, and I'm a regular attendant to that that conference, and so is a lot of my staff to to learn new technologies and New Mexico State hosts, and actually it's this week, TransCon down in Las Cruces, for additional transportation uh information.

So we try to go to those, and they do present a lot of emerging technologies that the DOT is doing the experiments with.

Um there is a group out of Washington, DC at the Federal Highway Administration, and they do a lot of that testing too.

And so as that becomes more realistic, I don't want to wait to be the last in the last adopter.

I don't want to be the first adopter, but I want to be somewhere in the beginning of the big group of adopters if the material looks good.

So absolutely, I mean uh recently we met with uh a company out of the south, I think is out of Alabama or whatever, and they have it's called the American Road Patch, and we had some issues out on um a Brazo, and it's uh it looks like shingles, and what it is is you can basically place it on the road, heat it up, and tamp it down, and it will hold the alligator patching or alligator cracking together so that you can get a little bit more work out of that without having to go and replace the road or patch it and do that.

So we are looking for additional uh emergent technologies that we think will be a better fit for rearranchment and move us forward.

Um I don't have any good examples for you right this minute, but we are we are looking at those.

Thank you, as always.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I notice uh counselor Weimer is online uh has a question, Counselor Weimer.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Can you all hear me?

Yes.

Uh barely barely.

Okay, I'll try to speak up a bit here.

Um I apologize for not being on on video.

I'm having some video problems here or my remote connection.

Um BJ, um, just real quick.

I also, like Councillor Culbright, really enjoy your roads presentation.

I find it very in informative, and so I appreciate all the work you put into that.

And just maybe just confirmation from you, as we have done in the past, is it your intent to post that online for the public to view it?

Mr.

Mayor, Councilor Rymer, yes, I believe we can get this posted online um right after the presentation or within the next day or two.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, BJ.

That helps because then we can share that information with our constituents who are always interested in finding out what it is that we have or have not done.

So I appreciate it.

Thank you, BJ, and thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Any other comments by council?

Hearing none.

Thank you all very much.

Mr.

City Manager, did you have anything else?

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, um, I'm just grateful that I went before BJ, because he's a tough act to follow.

Well, get us get all those roads done, you know.

Absolutely.

All right.

Well, there's nothing else.

Thank you all very much.

We are adjourned.