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December 17th, 2024 Roll call please. Mayor Bhaskar, Councillor Tavis Lopez, Councillor Dean, Councillor Fleming, Councillor 00:00:00
Campo, Councillor Oguin, Councillor Partridge, Councillor Romero. 00:00:08
Councillor Salome, we do have a quorum, all right. 00:00:17
Of the United States of America, which he stands and Nathan. 00:00:26
With liberty and justice for all. 00:00:34
Make a motion. We approve the consent agenda. 00:00:42
But I'll move the second discussion all in favor. Aye, public forum. 00:00:47
Anybody. 00:00:54
Well, one with the ordinance for what does that stand for CWSRF? 00:00:57
Water State revolving, Sun City, Water State Revolving Fund, Water State Revolving Fund. This is the extra funding that we 00:01:05
acquired to keep going all the way out on Evergreen. 00:01:10
When we're short. 00:01:17
About 800. Yes, Sir. 00:01:19
And so. 00:01:22
Most of it is Grant except for 250,000, so we got the extra money to make sure we finish ever again. 00:01:25
And this is for advertisement only, Mr. Mayor. 00:01:35
Oh, it says action now for publication, huh. Yes, for publication only. And I kind of messed up on the ordinance itself and put a 00:01:39
wrong date or actually in the advertising. I said we would have the public hearing on January 7th, but that's too short of a time 00:01:45
frame to meet the advertising requirements. So we'll have the public trading on the 7th and then the actual approval of the 00:01:52
ordinance on the 21st. 00:01:58
Well, I don't say publication. 00:02:05
Anyway, yes man, let's go again. I'll make a motion with you. Approve ordinance #24-12-17 for publication only. 00:02:07
Now, do I have to do a roll call on this or no, Yes. It's not really an ordinance, no, Sir. No, it's just publication as it does 00:02:19
say publication. All in favor, aye. And now Christmas present longevity stipend, we have figured out a way with the budget 00:02:26
committee and Ruby, you want to give us the specifics of what the. 00:02:33
Administration recommends for a longevity stipend. Hopefully the council will agree. Hey mayor, council, so. 00:02:41
We looked at it and it's going we're looking at $500 per full time employee and 250 temporary. What did cost the city about 76,000 00:02:50
and the city does have the money to be able to pay it. I went over salaries and there is some money because we are having a hard 00:02:58
time keeping employees. So this would be a rain for us to be able to just give them like a longevity step in like they do. 00:03:06
Like the police officers, they get a longevity stipend, so the mayor had requested. I looked at the budget in. 00:03:15
OK, Mr. Murthy, it's it's the maybe I misunderstand, is it a one time deal or is it one time, one time? OK, thank you. 00:03:22
I'll make a motion. I second moved and seconded. It's kind of like the space race, the. 00:03:34
County continues to try to outpace us as to what they bring their employees, police officers and so forth. We're trying to keep up 00:03:41
good for the employees, but we're trying to keep our employees. So this is this is our and then I think we're going to also talk 00:03:47
about a raise in January. So all in favor, aye, Mr. Mayor. 00:03:54
I'd like to bring the attention to Ruby's hard work, yours and Donald for finding this money available to give our wonderful 00:04:03
employees who work very hard. 00:04:10
The benefit. Thank you, Ruby. Thank you for coming under your salary. 00:04:18
OK, well, yeah, no, you know, we, we have a great finance department, we have a great budget committee, and I think we are very 00:04:25
judicious and hopefully we'll find out here pretty soon. This is the resolution to accept the audit. Mr. Rogan. Motion we pass 00:04:32
resolution #24-12-17. I second. 00:04:39
So Morgan segment, we've got a little presentation. My name is Robert Shoto on the management of Southwest County Solutions. You 00:04:48
have a audit in front of you. I'm going to go kind of fast. Just go through this. First off, this audit reflects well on your 00:04:53
city. You have wonderful employees. You gave them a raise you Yeah, they they're doing a wonderful job. One thing way you can see 00:04:59
that is on page 12, the date of your audit, October 2nd, 2024. These audits are due December 15th, just a few days ago. You are so 00:05:04
far. 00:05:09
Before the due date. 00:05:16
That's because your folks and records are in very, very good shape. You have people that are manning the ship that know what 00:05:17
they're doing. So yeah, I'm happy you're paying your people. Well. It's good to see another thing. On page 17, you can see towards 00:05:23
the bottom it says net change and change in that position. That's your full accrual basis accounting. It's telling you whether the 00:05:29
city is doing well or it's getting better or deteriorating over time. On the full accrual basis, overall it went up by 4.33 00:05:35
million. 00:05:41
That's that is a good sign to show you what the city is doing. 18 This is just your funds fund financials. You have 6.1 million in 00:05:47
the general fund. Looking at comparing that to your expenses on page 20 of 8.6 million when you see around 2-3 months of cash in 00:05:54
there, that's a concern. There's no concern here. You have a approximately 1010 eleven months of cash. That's there's nothing I'm 00:06:01
worried about. 00:06:08
Next thing 2425 your utilities. 00:06:16
Looking at your net change in operating income loss of 111,000, this looks like you need upward pressure on utility rates or 00:06:19
downward pressure on expenses. I'm not extremely concerned here, that's just what these numbers say. 00:06:26
If you look at them, I'm going to push forward next thing pages 26, you're saving the cash flows, you're bringing in 1.43 million 00:06:33
net cash right about operating activities. That's what nest and services your debt that number right there and the number on the 00:06:40
full accrual basis, the 111,000 over the long term horizon of we want to see that number a little bit higher. Just on your do your 00:06:48
debt covenants again, nothing of huge concern. I'm going to push forward on the nose to your financial stages. 00:06:55
Out a few important notes, I believe it seats in note 7 or note 8. It is note 8 long term debt. These long term debts, there they 00:07:03
are broken down by each of your revenue sources so you can see when these debts come due, how much more debt you can borrow and 00:07:10
secure on each and every revenue source if you read through No 8. 00:07:16
It could be of use to when you want to issue more debt, secure more debt when you want, whether it's for the FIRE, for your GRT, 00:07:23
for your rodeo facility, which I believe is secured through your lodgers taxes and so forth. This is a very helpful no disclosure. 00:07:31
Again, that's no eight-year financial statements. One other area to point out here on your financials is. 00:07:38
Your statement of cash is on page 94. You have 6.2 million in LDIP. If you can move as more money in there as possible, every 00:07:47
million dollars, you're going to get another 50 to $55,000 in interest income a year. And that's how you're going to maximize the 00:07:54
use of your cash when it's sitting there and move it out when you need it for liquidity purposes. Other than that, you have no 00:08:02
findings. You have no findings because you have very good people at the helm. 00:08:09
Question, LGIP, what does it mean? That's local growth investment pool, it's the, it's the state Treasurer's office. Thank you. 00:08:17
Yes, absolutely. 00:08:21
11 more thing you're you're 104. This is your schedule expenditure federal awards. This is how much money you have brought in and 00:08:29
you spent from the federal government. The more money we can bring in and spend of federal monies. It's good for the city of that 00:08:36
you had 947,000 was federal loans, 1.3 million was federal grants. 00:08:43
I know I went through a big state. I went through all this as 108 pages. I don't know in a couple minutes, but I know you don't 00:08:54
want to hear hear me talk about finance all night. Any questions? Mr. Fleming, our budget chairman. Thank you. Mr. First of all, I 00:09:01
didn't catch your name. Robert Pescio. Thank you, Robert. All these notifications that you just pointed out to us. 00:09:09
Did you highlight those for Ruby? Ruby, No. Yeah, we, Ruby, we talked many times about this. She is very, very knowledgeable. 00:09:17
And, and she is very aware of all these things. She knows of the notes, she knows where to look at these things. And you can go to 00:09:27
her and she and you can always call me directly and I can talk to this. We could talk for hours about this if you like. 00:09:34
Let me just. 00:09:43
All these wonderful counselors up here, we were trying to frantically turn to the pages that you were talking about. Next year, 00:09:46
may I suggest the points that you want to highlight? Perhaps you highlight them on a separate sheet and give them to us so we can 00:09:54
get mark our pages ahead of time. I can do that. And what else we can do is I won't go as fast. I was told to go fast because 00:10:01
people don't want to hear me talk about finance. 00:10:08
You don't want me to go? So I could see I could stand up here for 45 minutes and talk about this total already. Yeah, OK, sorry. 00:10:16
Were there any findings? That's important. No findings. You have no findings. That's always important. 00:10:24
To do the audit, we look at recommendations and we get recommendations. You all do all those things. You're doing what we would 00:10:33
expect the city to do. And all of this is important because any monies that we go for if there's findings or there's an audit 00:10:37
thing. 00:10:42
They won't get to give us the money SI think it's important to point in a lot of money off this report. What would the threshold 00:10:48
be to be considered a finding? I would imagine there's some it's a matter of auditor judgment and what we want to see is if you 00:10:55
will, you have the ability to detect and correct misstatements and your employees normal course performing their assigned 00:11:03
functions, whether that due to mistakes or fraud. And a big thing is that is fraud. 00:11:10
You have a segregation of duties and adequate internal controls and how money moves in and out of the organization. 00:11:18
Thank you. 00:11:25
Yeah, Thank you, Mayor. Thank you again. How long is the contract now? I don't know. Ruby, what's the deal? I could one more year. 00:11:26
OK. One more year of no findings. That would be great. 00:11:32
You know, what I recommend is read 9899, read that. That's the auditors report and that's kind of what we're doing when it comes 00:11:40
to a governmental audit. And I, I don't want to read to you, but read that. That's very helpful information. And read the other 00:11:46
auditor's report that's on 102 and 1:03. 00:11:52
It's pretty handy. I mean, I think it's light reading for people to go through page by page just to see where our finances are 00:12:01
that where you get a feeling for, you know, it's and even even if you had two hours to explain it to us, I think it's important 00:12:08
for the council to just kind of go through it and see, just see how it flows and what the deal is in there. Go through it. And if 00:12:15
you want to talk to me individually, I'll spend as much time with you as possible. I know you all are on. 00:12:22
Straight and I don't want to take up too many people's time, but we can spend a lot of time at length. But it's it's important 00:12:30
because of future loans. We're talking about the electric grid money, about borrowing money. That's important to know what our 00:12:37
cash flow has been, how our balances are to making sure that we have reserves. I think you get a better idea of kind of going 00:12:43
through that your own pace just kind of figuring out those numbers. 00:12:49
Mr. Salome last year was recommended by the auditors to. 00:12:57
Our utility rates. 00:13:03
And continue to. So if you look at 25, you'll see your operating income loss is 111,000. What we needed, what you want to do is 00:13:06
admissions is going to service your debt service over time, your principal payments, your interest payments and you want to with 00:13:13
$111,000 operating income. It it's showing that on the long term horizon, you're almost staying very steady 111,000 over almost 00:13:20
9.5 million. 00:13:27
Now every year your expenses are going to have upward pressure and with inflation and you want to keep above inflation and you're 00:13:36
doing much better as you have over the past few years. But you need to continue to keep that upward pressure on revenues as 00:13:41
expenses have that upward pressure. 00:13:46
To speak about Mr. Solomon's point, we did advertise some, no, we did, We did advertise that we are going to have some rate 00:13:56
increases for some of the utilities, right. And we did follow through with that, correct. 00:14:01
Cost, this cost has been upgrading the sewer system and upgrading some of the other stuff that we've had to increase certain 00:14:07
revenue Mr. and we were doing this on a year to year basis. We're going to we're going to raise the rates for the first year and 00:14:14
then we're going to revisit off of the second year based on the fact that we know that inflation was taking hold of everybody. And 00:14:22
so we know that maybe there will be some. 00:14:29
Some relief and maybe in the future we'll have a, a budget balanced enough to maybe not raise the rates or maybe reduce the rates 00:14:38
because we, we look at ways to make it easy on our residents and, and raising the rates. That's easy for a governmental entity to 00:14:46
say. You know what we're going to, we're going 2% across the board for the next 10 years. 00:14:53
Oh, hi, yes, yes, yes, done. But but it takes more and what what I'm really proud of this administration was. 00:15:02
Looking at ways to. 00:15:11
Buffer those rate increases, find other ways that are not a burdensome on our residents. But at, at some point in time you do have 00:15:15
to, you do have to raise rates, but we're going to revisit them every year. It's not a, it's not a blanket five year thing going 00:15:21
2% for five years. Actually it'll be 10%. Yeah, I, I get you. And, and what a lot of people do is they'll, they'll attach you to a 00:15:28
consumer price index versus attached to inflation. 00:15:34
For one thing to realize is if you're not bringing enough the money and it's not, you're not charging current customers enough 00:15:41
money, it comes at the cost of future users of the utility systems. So there is no free lunch, there is no free ride. And to best 00:15:47
serve your customers is charged a fair market rate any given point in time. So you're not front loading or not pushing off 00:15:54
liabilities to future users and it's looking at the long term horizon and the long term use of the utility. 00:16:00
So we, you know, in essence, people who are using it today are paying for their charges. They're not pushing it on the future 00:16:07
generation. 00:16:11
Will continue to rise. They have arise and we don't see deflation is kind of something coming in the future. It's inflation is 00:16:45
expected for no matter what and if I'm wrong, I would be blown away, but I would be willing to bet my name on it. You're going to 00:16:54
have inflation for the for going for the future years. Realistically, you got wage pressure, you've got material pressure. 00:17:02
And you've got professional services pressure. 00:17:12
And I just don't see rolling back. I can see where we're trying to hold the prices and try to get, if you notice what he was 00:17:15
mentioning, money that we get from the federal government as opposed to the loans. That's one way of decreasing pressure on on 00:17:22
rates is that we get that stuff financed. 00:17:29
Things and like I said, wage pressure, utility costs, Rd. pressure, like this is what we just passed a resolution on. We were 00:18:07
short 800,000 on a sewer project. And so in order to finish that sewer project, instead of raising rates for 800,000, we only 00:18:16
raised rates for 2:50 because that's all we had to put in. So that's the only way we can. 00:18:25
Cut down on how much. 00:18:34
The consumers having to pay. 00:18:36
But eventually the federal government will charge you taxes for the money they give us. So the mayors point is when he was talking 00:18:40
about grants, If you charge a realistic rate today and able to increase your cash reserves, you'll be able to leverage that money 00:18:47
on your utility system for grants. Grants that often have 1020% match. 00:18:53
If you don't have those monies that that money's gonna be matched out of the general fund, it's gonna come out of your basic 00:19:00
services and then your police, your fire, your your basic public safety administration's gonna suffer. So there, there's just no 00:19:05
free lunch. And if you charge an adequate rate over the long term horizon, you're gonna charge you utility customers a lot less 00:19:10
money than trying to save them money in the short term. 00:19:16
So it, it, it's hard to, you know, I know it's hard to increase rates on people, especially when you see them struggling, but it 00:19:22
is the best thing for the long term users of the utility system and to charge them the less amount of money over the long term 00:19:26
horizon. 00:19:31
I know what you're saying, but I I know, I know. 00:19:38
Thank you. Mr. Smith. First of all, again, I want to thank you. You've been very thorough, as you have been over the years, so we 00:19:42
appreciate one more year of your. 00:19:47
Advice. 00:19:54
Imagine this, my son at home in upstate New York. My garbage bill is $26 a week. 00:19:56
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's, there's a lot that I've seen those. Now there's a lot of ways to subsidize that and there those 00:20:08
things can be subsidized, but everything comes at a cost. 00:20:12
But you guys stop and I think the point is that, you know, when you when you have a figure in front of you, it's just a math 00:20:18
problem. You can add a percentage over a certain time frame and you come out with a with a resolution, with a with a equal sign at 00:20:26
the end. You say, well, let's do that, put it down. Everybody says that I and we're done. 00:20:33
But, but I think that this council and the administration has to do their due diligence to not do that, to look at ways to ease 00:20:40
the burden on our residents because they expect us to do that. It's easy to stay here and raise the rates, easy to do that. 00:20:49
I think with your help in that last increase, you said we would reevaluate it. And that was in the resolution itself. Yeah, that's 00:20:59
why we that that's why the council got resolution. And I understand that we need to have a good little bank account in order for 00:21:05
us to apply for the loans and get grants for the future. 00:21:11
But but we also need to these people, our folks, they're paying everybody's paying though what we said the federal government 00:21:18
through $7 trillion into the economy, everything went sky high and that leaves us here holding the bag. And so I think that we 00:21:25
need the door and they have been and I'm I'm real proud to be a part of that process that they do this administration and Ruby and 00:21:33
her team looks for ways to well if we can do this and. 00:21:40
Do that, it will alleviate some of the, some of the pressure on our residents for that sewer bill or for that landfill bill a 00:21:48
little bit, you know, and that that's your job to discuss that amongst you. And I just come and tell you what the numbers say. And 00:21:54
then if you want to lower the, if you want to lower the rates, you can. I don't care either way you go. 00:22:01
Yeah. Thank you for the explanations, team. Thank you again for the presentation. Thank you all. Thank you. Give me a call. We 00:22:11
can. I'll talk forever about these things again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll talk to you, Holland. All in favor of the 00:22:16
resolution, aye. 00:22:21
OK. We're asking the council to approve a reauthorization of a capital outlay that we got. We did get it through a $700,000 00:22:28
capital outlay. I thought that we were going to be able to get the Eagle Pitcher site before too long. 00:22:38
But. 00:22:48
Take the before out. It's too long. I mean, I can't, I can't build out there because I have not been able to get them to clear it. 00:22:50
And God knows when the EPA and Ed are going to let us have it. So I am asking the council to please approve my asking of the 00:22:57
legislator. And I think Senator Diamond is going to carry that bill, but we would like to reauthorize it so I can take that money 00:23:04
and put it out there at the industrial park. 00:23:12
Build a building out there. That's what this capital authorization is. 00:23:20
So if I could get a motion to do that, I can put it in my. 00:23:25
Notes. 00:23:29
So moved and seconded discussion. This will be a spec building for economic development and hopefully the VLA or somebody that's 00:23:31
starting to build out there can maybe use it as a warehouse or something that we can get them to do some business in town. That's 00:23:36
what I was hoping. 00:23:42
All in favor. 00:23:50
New business. 00:23:53
I just wanted to inform the council that we have a settlement from a case that happened at the Convention Center before it was 00:23:56
finished. Lions Club was also involved. We just want to say that. And the city lost that case. So I just want to tell people that 00:24:05
when we get a big make a big fuss out of people using the Plaza or using the. 00:24:14
The youth center or using Finley gym that is an outside non public. 00:24:23
People, we make a big fuss on Insurance Co, insurance indemnification of any liability and we have to look at it very closely. So 00:24:31
I just want to tell you that in this case, what happened that we probably should have allowed them to use their facility, but we 00:24:39
went ahead and it was a gun show I think or something like that and it wasn't done. 00:24:46
Person tripped and fell. Probably shouldn't have done that. We probably need to be. 00:24:55
More careful than anybody using our public facilities, we're the deep pocket. 00:25:01
We end up getting sued even though it's not our event. So in the future, just the public should know that that we're going to be 00:25:08
pretty sticky about how and sure how what your insurance is. We're in coinsured. We're going to be indemnified that there's no 00:25:15
problem. And so that's just to let you know that's that's the thing that happened on new business Chan, you want to give us a 00:25:22
little report on your. 00:25:29
Deal. 00:25:38
Fantastic light parade and Lloyd's not here and his groups not here, but the fantastic light show throughout the town. Yeah, 00:25:39
definitely. And of course the the Friends of the Boskie having the the. 00:25:45
Everything went really well. 00:26:53
But the fire department, they had raised $8100.00 at the Matanza and they're going to take 100 kids. 00:26:55
To go shopping. 00:27:02
And was it 81 kids in $100? No, it's 81 kids in $100 each. And so and the list they got from the schools, they didn't make that 00:27:04
list of themselves. So that's how they they got all that. And then, of course, Chief, you want to tell us a little bit about your 00:27:11
projects with the Marines and the the Tots Toys for Tots or what do you guys, what do you call that? 00:27:18
It's the City of the Coral that helps them do it. I've done it for the last 26 years. This is my 6th year with the Marines. Toys 00:27:28
for cots. They supply us with a lot of those toys that we give out during the parades and for every for all the money we spend, we 00:27:35
have different vendors that will help us. We spend 5000, they give us $5000 in toys and so it's been really good. I think last 00:27:42
year we served. 00:27:48
Almost 800 families. 00:27:56
And over 4600 toys were handed out. 00:27:57
Congratulations. Good job doing that again. And this year we have the Defenders Star Wars here for the toys for the parade, along 00:28:02
with Coca-Cola that came from Albuquerque. They've done it with us for the last four years. We also had a. 00:28:10
United States Marine Corps, first time ever coming. They walked the parade and handed out kids gifts that is their Marines Toys 00:28:18
for Tots. So I was glad to see them here to help us and everything went good. Great. Thank you for doing that. And I wanted to 00:28:26
Councillor Ocampo about your Turkey. How did that go? I noticed that after Thanksgiving, but how did that? It's this weekend, this 00:28:33
weekend. Yes, this weekend it's first come first serve drive through behind San Miguel Parish. 00:28:40
Starting at 11:00 AM and until we run out and angels always helpful with us on that deal too. Given anything he's got leftover so 00:28:48
we can give the kids this year we got one of my sisters is a professor at Arizona State and she got her whole all of her classes 00:28:54
to make the. 00:29:01
The stockings for the kids. So I have many families. When the family comes up, how many kids they have, they all get a stocking 00:29:08
filled with all kinds of goodies and they're all ready to go. We'd like to thank the city for always supporting us. I mean, I know 00:29:15
you guys did it for God, 50 some years with Toby. So thank you for always being there And John, John Brooks, the storehouse. 00:29:23
Individual help too. We have tons of help. I mean, we, that's a, that's a great thing about this place. There's never any shortage 00:29:32
of help, I mean. 00:29:36
We have like a waiting list of people that are like, hey, I'd like to deliver for you or whatever. So well, you know, just that 00:29:40
added thing about Toby, you may have already heard his daughter is the chief operating officer at Lovelace and she works with it 00:29:47
too. They they still come down and help us. Yeah. Well, then that's a good job. That's that's a fantastic for somebody from 00:29:53
soccer. They're like, you know, that's a superstar. So it's fantastic. And thank you for doing that. 00:30:00
You can get up where Toby left off. And I don't know how old are you? It'll be 50 years. These things do it for 50 years. So much 00:30:07
like to. That's like my favorite and that honestly, it's like my favorite part of Christmas now. It really is. Mr. Padilla, you 00:30:12
want to tell us a little bit about your programs going on? 00:30:17
Come on up here. Don't be doing it from back there. But yeah, your basketball and you had your bingo too. This is this is a. 00:30:23
Little nervous but I got yelled at by some ladies. 00:30:33
But it was good, we had a good turn out, but it's quite a bit of money for the food driving. 00:30:39
And what's, what's your program to go on right now? Right now we start basketball that's been going on. We've been using Parkview 00:30:45
as long and the youth Senate and the family gym Monday through Thursday for practices. Have you got any numbers that you can tell 00:30:49
us? We have 212 kids. 00:30:54
Of total and you know you've got all kinds of equipment over there and I guess it's getting built up with people that are coming. 00:31:00
Hopefully they're more than welcome 20 to 30 right now. We have throughout the day that come and use the weight room and more and 00:31:05
more are coming. So we've been going pretty good on that. 00:31:11
Thank you. 00:31:19
Chris, anything you want to say? 00:31:21
I know you're hiding your head a while ago. 00:31:23
I just wanted to check in and everything is going well with the schools and all that. Finishing that out for the year and still 00:31:29
working on yards, trying to put out some fires with that and also working on that Main St. ordinance as well. Still still doing 00:31:35
that. I want to see that one through so. 00:31:42
Yeah, try not to **** a lot of people. I know it's my job, though, so I'm the bear of bad news. You got to do that. I mean, that's 00:31:49
just what you got to do. And then you got to work around it and flip, right? Be flexible. I think that's what our little town is 00:31:55
about, right? Right. So finish the year out strong and start it off strong. 00:32:02
All righty. All right, Chief. 00:32:09
Oh, sorry, Mr. 00:32:13
The RISE program. 00:32:17
And we want to, we want to have a little party for them or whatever you want to do. We want to. Let's do that, yeah. 00:32:24
It is. 00:32:32
Crystal Brown. 00:32:35
Currently recognize them for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:32:38
Mr. Salami, did you have a question, Chris? Chris was kind enough to document that that kind of guided the first ordinance that we 00:32:42
looked at and and we're starting that process. So our committee is going to be meeting. And I think what we need to do is kind of 00:32:49
look at the definition of what we're, we're really trying to do here. You know, there's dilapidated Billings and you'd be knocked 00:32:56
down. There's vacant buildings that need to be. 00:33:03
Have folks and businesses put inside them and working. And so I was just looking and noticing this document that comes from the 00:33:11
state and you know, they're they're they're paragraphs start like vacant commercial buildings, one's house, vibrant store front 00:33:16
commercial business. 00:33:21
That at one point generated a profit. 00:33:27
Now they can now vacant many of the these commercial buildings are either historical, architecturally significant, located within 00:33:30
the designated historic districts. These build commercial buildings stay vacant. They're declining status leads to blight, 00:33:37
discourages economic development and diminishes property values. So they go from these buildings that are being occupied to these 00:33:43
buildings that are now vacant and. 00:33:50
Dilapidated. So I, I, I'm thinking personally that we need to attack this committee and attack this issue. 00:33:58
In the middle, something happened in the middle, they were, they were vibrant and now they're vacant. So what can we do as a as a 00:34:06
council, as an administration that would help to put a business back in that building? There's dilapidated buildings, they need to 00:34:13
be knocked down, but there's vacant buildings that I think we should be using some of the, I think it should be like an economic 00:34:20
development. 00:34:27
A revitalization committee. 00:34:34
Because I think the city can do a lot of good by using some funds to support. 00:34:37
Putting businesses just like you mentioned Doctor Bhaskar up on at the industrial park, there's going to be a building up there to 00:34:45
for, for a business to bring people in so we can employ our kids. We're doing the Co-op that cooperates with too high. For 12 00:34:51
years we've been trying to get those rates down so we can say hey, look, yeah, come to Socorro, start your little five man 00:34:56
business and. 00:35:02
Maybe it'll grow, maybe maybe our young people don't have to leave town to go get a job. Maybe there was there's going to be more 00:35:08
opportunities. So I'm looking at it from that, from that area that it's not, you know, tear it down, penalize them, charge them on 00:35:16
a year to year basis more and more because you know what those people that have those vacant buildings, they want those things 00:35:23
occupied probably more than than the council does because. 00:35:30
You know, so I'm, I'm looking at it from there. I think we should meet Chris and I. We can of course start this whole process. 00:35:38
Yeah, no problem. Very helpful and very diligent in in in his in his job. Thank you, Mr. Marcus. Did I get that same document? 00:35:46
Yeah. No problem. Yeah, I can fill one out. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Kirsty. Anything. 00:35:55
How's the insurance for the for the workers, employees insurance? Is it going to get renewed in January? Are we going to raise 00:36:08
increase in price or have they said anything about? 00:36:13
Good. Yeah, Yeah. So far I've not heard anything about an increase for the premiums. 00:36:20
I know the one in July came later June and so I was kind of like right away an increase, but we haven't received anything. 00:36:27
Any update planning and zoning like a new committee, Who's on it? Who's not on it So far we I received what Donald? 00:36:36
Sent in the e-mail. I don't remember exactly, I think it was Deborah myself. 00:36:48
John, not the committee, I'm sorry, the the planning and zoning for the board. 00:36:53
Mr. Did Mr. Anaya resign? He resigned via text. OK, so how many people do you need to be on there, do you know? I could use three 00:37:02
more. Yeah, that would be ideal. I was running it with five, but I think ideal would be. So if the council has somebody that would 00:37:11
like to nominate, more than happy to place them on the committee. Yeah, that would be great. 00:37:19
Any dialogue with the new Co-op manager? Anything? Have a meeting with him on Thursday at 11. 00:37:28
So if you want to come and join the screaming and shouting, you're welcome. You're not going to be any. They were very Mr. Anaya 00:37:36
called me today and offered the invitation to meet him. So he was very nice that they called. 00:37:43
The Christmas decorations are beautiful. Thank you so much for doing that, it looks great. 00:37:56
Really nice, I thought is one of the best. I don't think I've seen a town that you can go in and you're coming into town and saw. 00:38:03
It's really nice, really. 00:38:07
Welcome. No, I think that was Lloyd's crew. I was not out there putting no place. But they are very beautiful. Everybody, 00:38:14
everybody helped Mr. Parker. I wasn't here for the I never make that light parade. I bummed out because I'm always at a wrestling 00:38:19
tournament. But when I came back, I mean, I talked to a lot of people around the that were on the Plaza. The trash cans around the 00:38:24
Plaza were looked like there's tons of people. 00:38:30
And so we're cleaning up trash around that area by a resting room and everybody had really good things to say about it. My wife 00:38:36
was able to go, my father-in-law, they were watching and they were like really impressed with it. They liked Ruben was running 00:38:40
around. 00:38:44
You're welcome. They really like the first big organization without Desiree and she did a fabulous job. They were really proud of 00:38:50
22/22/24 people that were, I mean, 40. 00:38:57
You know, they're real happy with this. Yeah. No, I and I, it's Christmas. It's fantastic. 00:39:05
Thank you for doing that. You're good. 00:39:12
OK, old news. Any old news under new business? I'd just like to inform the council that the tri-county day but the legislature is 00:39:17
February 25th at La Fonda from 6 to 9 it's Socorro Katzen in Sierra County and municipal day is February 28th. So if the cat. 00:39:27
Is there a reception at the La Fonda? Yes, Sir, from 6 to 9. And if the counselors will let me know who's going to attend, I'll 00:39:39
advertise it if we need to. 00:39:43
Oh yeah, I missed that. Donald, could you tell me again? 00:39:49
OK, thank you. With three counties and it'll be in La Fonda from 6 to 9, another hotel there, it's Tuesday, February 25th. 00:39:54
Mr. O'Connor just announcement we have the this week this Saturday we have the food drive. Anybody that's in need of a meal come 00:40:05
on by drive through behind St. San Miguel like I mentioned earlier, also from 6:00 to 8:00 PM to San Miguel youth group is putting 00:40:11
on a Christmas festival. It's called Operation Saint Nick. It's a pretty cool deal. It's and it's all put on by the kids and if 00:40:17
you want to hear some great singing. 00:40:23
There's the youth choir, my wife along with Kenny Hart. 00:40:30
They put on the youth choir if you want to hear it, starts at 6:00 PM behind San Miguel Church, and they've got a whole Christmas 00:40:36
lineup of songs. And if you want to be in the Christmas period, I show up. And we just had a phone call that we lost to Santa. So 00:40:44
we're looking for another Santa to make sure he can show up. So anybody here wants to dress up and don't see it in your eyes? 00:40:52
But that's from 6:00 to 8:00 on Saturday evening, 6 to 8, Operation Saint Nick. 00:41:02
It's going to be a pretty good deal. They're going to have a choir and A and a youth choir there and they're pretty unbelievable 00:41:07
if you ask me. So not necessarily no business, but I remember I talked to the city's been going to misuse Emily coach and you know 00:41:13
chief then we've been in the facility. We'll be moving out. You're pretty quick. Our maps are in are almost finished with 00:41:20
installing. So we hope to do that over the Christmas break. 00:41:27
Thank the council before me, you know, they let us move in there over here. 00:41:35
Friends at the library also be moving into that modular pretty soon, so that'll be another thing, and then we are going to be 00:42:08
asking a representative. Representative Dow went and saw the place. 00:42:13
And hopefully she'll help us with some funding. So it's coming together, Chief, hopefully. I know you guys have been persevering 00:42:19
for a year and a half with a lot of trouble, but hopefully we'll get this thing. What exactly is that near the the librarian, the 00:42:25
friends at library, they have a huge amount of books that they sell and they have them in the in the other side of that Zimmer 00:42:31
League. 00:42:37
And they're going to be moving all of that so that we can have a secure police station. 00:42:44
And probably we'll put the Municipal Court there too, but that will be our judicial complex, police and judicial complex. It's 00:42:48
going to take 5-6 years to develop it, but it'll be a dedicated judicial complex and it'll take a building off the market. We're 00:42:55
not going to have an empty building sitter there instead of building a new building. So that's that's what's going on. 00:43:02
Yeah. 00:43:10
We know. I mean, yeah, I mean the modular that we got from Midway, No, but no, we got this from the high school. Yes, Sir. That 00:43:17
would be the one that we have two of them at the rodeo and then we have two more at the. 00:43:24
RV park area. This one was totally remodeled. It's it's not just basically empty shell with a storage room, bathroom and janitors 00:43:33
closet. HVAC about 2200 square feet. 00:43:40
And so they'll be able to move their books and have a dedicated place that they can use that looks really nice to see it every day 00:43:48
there. Looks really nice. Of course, they are an independent group, so probably going to have to have a good contract with them. 00:43:54
Christy, we don't have any injuries, people. 00:43:59
Well, they're getting a book. They fall down the steps and always thinking of the bad stuff. Donald, I'm sorry, no good deed goes 00:44:05
unpunished. I'm sorry. Always thinking of something better. What's this Debbie Downer? 00:44:13
Rabbi Downer Anyway, any old business? All right, Well, the year is almost over. Executive session. Well, we tell everybody what 00:44:22
happens. We don't go to executive session. Right, Marianne? No, we don't. And then as the mayor's report, personality changes. 00:44:28
Christopher Vega. A job amendment. That's it. 00:44:34
Personality past personal changes. 00:44:42
We've been secondary discussion all in favor and then we have. 00:44:46
It's called Intra works out of town, Albuquerque, Kevin Mayor, low voltage security. 00:44:52
Mr. Motion, we pass the business registration. Second, I don't know what low voltage security is like ADT type stuff that would 00:45:00
imagine like ADT, I would imagine, I would imagine something like installation and the next is happy new Year, January, Mr. 00:45:06
Fleming. 00:45:12
Oh, Wanda, you want to stand up and give us a speech? Come on. A goodbye speech. And you're going to. You're going to. 00:45:19
No, this works well, none better than ours. 00:45:34
Well, you had a wonderful Chieftain, you've won all kinds of prizes, and now you're going to be moving up to the Journal. 00:45:40
You're moving to where? 00:45:53
Bado. 00:45:57
Wow. 00:46:03
Well, so you still have to drive through here to go to Taos? 00:46:07
Well, we certainly do. You have a replacement. We certainly enjoyed this. Thank you. Thank you, your editorship and hopefully 00:46:15
they'll keep it together well. So I think we've educated about 20 editors. 00:46:22
Well, I hope not. 00:46:40
Pentagon 1/3. 00:46:42
If they shut it down then we'll have to have this. 00:46:47
Newsletter that everybody used to pass around with the nasty stuff in it so. 00:46:50
And Trump's not suing you, are you not? Trump is not suing your newspaper for any. 00:46:59
And he came to interview at the paper and he says there anything else I can do for you? And said, yeah, how about advertising in 00:47:13
their local papers that we own? He goes, you know, Mohammed Shanique, I said, how about $25,000? And Donnie, writer, check. 00:47:20
What? And that's great. 00:47:31
He's suing the he's suing the Des Moines Register. So we'll see, We'll see, we'll see what happens. But. 00:47:38
ABC. 00:47:47
Right. 00:47:49
No. 00:47:51
Well, yeah, my and the Quad Cities. My folks lived in the Quad Cities for 50 years. 00:47:57
Well, great. Well, thank you for your service here. Thank you, Wanda. Thank you. 00:48:02
Next meeting is January 7, 2025. 00:48:10
Be here, B Square. I'll try to be here this time. Thanks. 7. I will be here. Not on February though. Try to leave as much as I 00:48:15
can. No, no, that's on the air. Everybody have a wonderful Christmas. 00:48:22
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December 17th, 2024 Roll call please. Mayor Bhaskar, Councillor Tavis Lopez, Councillor Dean, Councillor Fleming, Councillor 00:00:00
Campo, Councillor Oguin, Councillor Partridge, Councillor Romero. 00:00:08
Councillor Salome, we do have a quorum, all right. 00:00:17
Of the United States of America, which he stands and Nathan. 00:00:26
With liberty and justice for all. 00:00:34
Make a motion. We approve the consent agenda. 00:00:42
But I'll move the second discussion all in favor. Aye, public forum. 00:00:47
Anybody. 00:00:54
Well, one with the ordinance for what does that stand for CWSRF? 00:00:57
Water State revolving, Sun City, Water State Revolving Fund, Water State Revolving Fund. This is the extra funding that we 00:01:05
acquired to keep going all the way out on Evergreen. 00:01:10
When we're short. 00:01:17
About 800. Yes, Sir. 00:01:19
And so. 00:01:22
Most of it is Grant except for 250,000, so we got the extra money to make sure we finish ever again. 00:01:25
And this is for advertisement only, Mr. Mayor. 00:01:35
Oh, it says action now for publication, huh. Yes, for publication only. And I kind of messed up on the ordinance itself and put a 00:01:39
wrong date or actually in the advertising. I said we would have the public hearing on January 7th, but that's too short of a time 00:01:45
frame to meet the advertising requirements. So we'll have the public trading on the 7th and then the actual approval of the 00:01:52
ordinance on the 21st. 00:01:58
Well, I don't say publication. 00:02:05
Anyway, yes man, let's go again. I'll make a motion with you. Approve ordinance #24-12-17 for publication only. 00:02:07
Now, do I have to do a roll call on this or no, Yes. It's not really an ordinance, no, Sir. No, it's just publication as it does 00:02:19
say publication. All in favor, aye. And now Christmas present longevity stipend, we have figured out a way with the budget 00:02:26
committee and Ruby, you want to give us the specifics of what the. 00:02:33
Administration recommends for a longevity stipend. Hopefully the council will agree. Hey mayor, council, so. 00:02:41
We looked at it and it's going we're looking at $500 per full time employee and 250 temporary. What did cost the city about 76,000 00:02:50
and the city does have the money to be able to pay it. I went over salaries and there is some money because we are having a hard 00:02:58
time keeping employees. So this would be a rain for us to be able to just give them like a longevity step in like they do. 00:03:06
Like the police officers, they get a longevity stipend, so the mayor had requested. I looked at the budget in. 00:03:15
OK, Mr. Murthy, it's it's the maybe I misunderstand, is it a one time deal or is it one time, one time? OK, thank you. 00:03:22
I'll make a motion. I second moved and seconded. It's kind of like the space race, the. 00:03:34
County continues to try to outpace us as to what they bring their employees, police officers and so forth. We're trying to keep up 00:03:41
good for the employees, but we're trying to keep our employees. So this is this is our and then I think we're going to also talk 00:03:47
about a raise in January. So all in favor, aye, Mr. Mayor. 00:03:54
I'd like to bring the attention to Ruby's hard work, yours and Donald for finding this money available to give our wonderful 00:04:03
employees who work very hard. 00:04:10
The benefit. Thank you, Ruby. Thank you for coming under your salary. 00:04:18
OK, well, yeah, no, you know, we, we have a great finance department, we have a great budget committee, and I think we are very 00:04:25
judicious and hopefully we'll find out here pretty soon. This is the resolution to accept the audit. Mr. Rogan. Motion we pass 00:04:32
resolution #24-12-17. I second. 00:04:39
So Morgan segment, we've got a little presentation. My name is Robert Shoto on the management of Southwest County Solutions. You 00:04:48
have a audit in front of you. I'm going to go kind of fast. Just go through this. First off, this audit reflects well on your 00:04:53
city. You have wonderful employees. You gave them a raise you Yeah, they they're doing a wonderful job. One thing way you can see 00:04:59
that is on page 12, the date of your audit, October 2nd, 2024. These audits are due December 15th, just a few days ago. You are so 00:05:04
far. 00:05:09
Before the due date. 00:05:16
That's because your folks and records are in very, very good shape. You have people that are manning the ship that know what 00:05:17
they're doing. So yeah, I'm happy you're paying your people. Well. It's good to see another thing. On page 17, you can see towards 00:05:23
the bottom it says net change and change in that position. That's your full accrual basis accounting. It's telling you whether the 00:05:29
city is doing well or it's getting better or deteriorating over time. On the full accrual basis, overall it went up by 4.33 00:05:35
million. 00:05:41
That's that is a good sign to show you what the city is doing. 18 This is just your funds fund financials. You have 6.1 million in 00:05:47
the general fund. Looking at comparing that to your expenses on page 20 of 8.6 million when you see around 2-3 months of cash in 00:05:54
there, that's a concern. There's no concern here. You have a approximately 1010 eleven months of cash. That's there's nothing I'm 00:06:01
worried about. 00:06:08
Next thing 2425 your utilities. 00:06:16
Looking at your net change in operating income loss of 111,000, this looks like you need upward pressure on utility rates or 00:06:19
downward pressure on expenses. I'm not extremely concerned here, that's just what these numbers say. 00:06:26
If you look at them, I'm going to push forward next thing pages 26, you're saving the cash flows, you're bringing in 1.43 million 00:06:33
net cash right about operating activities. That's what nest and services your debt that number right there and the number on the 00:06:40
full accrual basis, the 111,000 over the long term horizon of we want to see that number a little bit higher. Just on your do your 00:06:48
debt covenants again, nothing of huge concern. I'm going to push forward on the nose to your financial stages. 00:06:55
Out a few important notes, I believe it seats in note 7 or note 8. It is note 8 long term debt. These long term debts, there they 00:07:03
are broken down by each of your revenue sources so you can see when these debts come due, how much more debt you can borrow and 00:07:10
secure on each and every revenue source if you read through No 8. 00:07:16
It could be of use to when you want to issue more debt, secure more debt when you want, whether it's for the FIRE, for your GRT, 00:07:23
for your rodeo facility, which I believe is secured through your lodgers taxes and so forth. This is a very helpful no disclosure. 00:07:31
Again, that's no eight-year financial statements. One other area to point out here on your financials is. 00:07:38
Your statement of cash is on page 94. You have 6.2 million in LDIP. If you can move as more money in there as possible, every 00:07:47
million dollars, you're going to get another 50 to $55,000 in interest income a year. And that's how you're going to maximize the 00:07:54
use of your cash when it's sitting there and move it out when you need it for liquidity purposes. Other than that, you have no 00:08:02
findings. You have no findings because you have very good people at the helm. 00:08:09
Question, LGIP, what does it mean? That's local growth investment pool, it's the, it's the state Treasurer's office. Thank you. 00:08:17
Yes, absolutely. 00:08:21
11 more thing you're you're 104. This is your schedule expenditure federal awards. This is how much money you have brought in and 00:08:29
you spent from the federal government. The more money we can bring in and spend of federal monies. It's good for the city of that 00:08:36
you had 947,000 was federal loans, 1.3 million was federal grants. 00:08:43
I know I went through a big state. I went through all this as 108 pages. I don't know in a couple minutes, but I know you don't 00:08:54
want to hear hear me talk about finance all night. Any questions? Mr. Fleming, our budget chairman. Thank you. Mr. First of all, I 00:09:01
didn't catch your name. Robert Pescio. Thank you, Robert. All these notifications that you just pointed out to us. 00:09:09
Did you highlight those for Ruby? Ruby, No. Yeah, we, Ruby, we talked many times about this. She is very, very knowledgeable. 00:09:17
And, and she is very aware of all these things. She knows of the notes, she knows where to look at these things. And you can go to 00:09:27
her and she and you can always call me directly and I can talk to this. We could talk for hours about this if you like. 00:09:34
Let me just. 00:09:43
All these wonderful counselors up here, we were trying to frantically turn to the pages that you were talking about. Next year, 00:09:46
may I suggest the points that you want to highlight? Perhaps you highlight them on a separate sheet and give them to us so we can 00:09:54
get mark our pages ahead of time. I can do that. And what else we can do is I won't go as fast. I was told to go fast because 00:10:01
people don't want to hear me talk about finance. 00:10:08
You don't want me to go? So I could see I could stand up here for 45 minutes and talk about this total already. Yeah, OK, sorry. 00:10:16
Were there any findings? That's important. No findings. You have no findings. That's always important. 00:10:24
To do the audit, we look at recommendations and we get recommendations. You all do all those things. You're doing what we would 00:10:33
expect the city to do. And all of this is important because any monies that we go for if there's findings or there's an audit 00:10:37
thing. 00:10:42
They won't get to give us the money SI think it's important to point in a lot of money off this report. What would the threshold 00:10:48
be to be considered a finding? I would imagine there's some it's a matter of auditor judgment and what we want to see is if you 00:10:55
will, you have the ability to detect and correct misstatements and your employees normal course performing their assigned 00:11:03
functions, whether that due to mistakes or fraud. And a big thing is that is fraud. 00:11:10
You have a segregation of duties and adequate internal controls and how money moves in and out of the organization. 00:11:18
Thank you. 00:11:25
Yeah, Thank you, Mayor. Thank you again. How long is the contract now? I don't know. Ruby, what's the deal? I could one more year. 00:11:26
OK. One more year of no findings. That would be great. 00:11:32
You know, what I recommend is read 9899, read that. That's the auditors report and that's kind of what we're doing when it comes 00:11:40
to a governmental audit. And I, I don't want to read to you, but read that. That's very helpful information. And read the other 00:11:46
auditor's report that's on 102 and 1:03. 00:11:52
It's pretty handy. I mean, I think it's light reading for people to go through page by page just to see where our finances are 00:12:01
that where you get a feeling for, you know, it's and even even if you had two hours to explain it to us, I think it's important 00:12:08
for the council to just kind of go through it and see, just see how it flows and what the deal is in there. Go through it. And if 00:12:15
you want to talk to me individually, I'll spend as much time with you as possible. I know you all are on. 00:12:22
Straight and I don't want to take up too many people's time, but we can spend a lot of time at length. But it's it's important 00:12:30
because of future loans. We're talking about the electric grid money, about borrowing money. That's important to know what our 00:12:37
cash flow has been, how our balances are to making sure that we have reserves. I think you get a better idea of kind of going 00:12:43
through that your own pace just kind of figuring out those numbers. 00:12:49
Mr. Salome last year was recommended by the auditors to. 00:12:57
Our utility rates. 00:13:03
And continue to. So if you look at 25, you'll see your operating income loss is 111,000. What we needed, what you want to do is 00:13:06
admissions is going to service your debt service over time, your principal payments, your interest payments and you want to with 00:13:13
$111,000 operating income. It it's showing that on the long term horizon, you're almost staying very steady 111,000 over almost 00:13:20
9.5 million. 00:13:27
Now every year your expenses are going to have upward pressure and with inflation and you want to keep above inflation and you're 00:13:36
doing much better as you have over the past few years. But you need to continue to keep that upward pressure on revenues as 00:13:41
expenses have that upward pressure. 00:13:46
To speak about Mr. Solomon's point, we did advertise some, no, we did, We did advertise that we are going to have some rate 00:13:56
increases for some of the utilities, right. And we did follow through with that, correct. 00:14:01
Cost, this cost has been upgrading the sewer system and upgrading some of the other stuff that we've had to increase certain 00:14:07
revenue Mr. and we were doing this on a year to year basis. We're going to we're going to raise the rates for the first year and 00:14:14
then we're going to revisit off of the second year based on the fact that we know that inflation was taking hold of everybody. And 00:14:22
so we know that maybe there will be some. 00:14:29
Some relief and maybe in the future we'll have a, a budget balanced enough to maybe not raise the rates or maybe reduce the rates 00:14:38
because we, we look at ways to make it easy on our residents and, and raising the rates. That's easy for a governmental entity to 00:14:46
say. You know what we're going to, we're going 2% across the board for the next 10 years. 00:14:53
Oh, hi, yes, yes, yes, done. But but it takes more and what what I'm really proud of this administration was. 00:15:02
Looking at ways to. 00:15:11
Buffer those rate increases, find other ways that are not a burdensome on our residents. But at, at some point in time you do have 00:15:15
to, you do have to raise rates, but we're going to revisit them every year. It's not a, it's not a blanket five year thing going 00:15:21
2% for five years. Actually it'll be 10%. Yeah, I, I get you. And, and what a lot of people do is they'll, they'll attach you to a 00:15:28
consumer price index versus attached to inflation. 00:15:34
For one thing to realize is if you're not bringing enough the money and it's not, you're not charging current customers enough 00:15:41
money, it comes at the cost of future users of the utility systems. So there is no free lunch, there is no free ride. And to best 00:15:47
serve your customers is charged a fair market rate any given point in time. So you're not front loading or not pushing off 00:15:54
liabilities to future users and it's looking at the long term horizon and the long term use of the utility. 00:16:00
So we, you know, in essence, people who are using it today are paying for their charges. They're not pushing it on the future 00:16:07
generation. 00:16:11
Will continue to rise. They have arise and we don't see deflation is kind of something coming in the future. It's inflation is 00:16:45
expected for no matter what and if I'm wrong, I would be blown away, but I would be willing to bet my name on it. You're going to 00:16:54
have inflation for the for going for the future years. Realistically, you got wage pressure, you've got material pressure. 00:17:02
And you've got professional services pressure. 00:17:12
And I just don't see rolling back. I can see where we're trying to hold the prices and try to get, if you notice what he was 00:17:15
mentioning, money that we get from the federal government as opposed to the loans. That's one way of decreasing pressure on on 00:17:22
rates is that we get that stuff financed. 00:17:29
Things and like I said, wage pressure, utility costs, Rd. pressure, like this is what we just passed a resolution on. We were 00:18:07
short 800,000 on a sewer project. And so in order to finish that sewer project, instead of raising rates for 800,000, we only 00:18:16
raised rates for 2:50 because that's all we had to put in. So that's the only way we can. 00:18:25
Cut down on how much. 00:18:34
The consumers having to pay. 00:18:36
But eventually the federal government will charge you taxes for the money they give us. So the mayors point is when he was talking 00:18:40
about grants, If you charge a realistic rate today and able to increase your cash reserves, you'll be able to leverage that money 00:18:47
on your utility system for grants. Grants that often have 1020% match. 00:18:53
If you don't have those monies that that money's gonna be matched out of the general fund, it's gonna come out of your basic 00:19:00
services and then your police, your fire, your your basic public safety administration's gonna suffer. So there, there's just no 00:19:05
free lunch. And if you charge an adequate rate over the long term horizon, you're gonna charge you utility customers a lot less 00:19:10
money than trying to save them money in the short term. 00:19:16
So it, it, it's hard to, you know, I know it's hard to increase rates on people, especially when you see them struggling, but it 00:19:22
is the best thing for the long term users of the utility system and to charge them the less amount of money over the long term 00:19:26
horizon. 00:19:31
I know what you're saying, but I I know, I know. 00:19:38
Thank you. Mr. Smith. First of all, again, I want to thank you. You've been very thorough, as you have been over the years, so we 00:19:42
appreciate one more year of your. 00:19:47
Advice. 00:19:54
Imagine this, my son at home in upstate New York. My garbage bill is $26 a week. 00:19:56
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's, there's a lot that I've seen those. Now there's a lot of ways to subsidize that and there those 00:20:08
things can be subsidized, but everything comes at a cost. 00:20:12
But you guys stop and I think the point is that, you know, when you when you have a figure in front of you, it's just a math 00:20:18
problem. You can add a percentage over a certain time frame and you come out with a with a resolution, with a with a equal sign at 00:20:26
the end. You say, well, let's do that, put it down. Everybody says that I and we're done. 00:20:33
But, but I think that this council and the administration has to do their due diligence to not do that, to look at ways to ease 00:20:40
the burden on our residents because they expect us to do that. It's easy to stay here and raise the rates, easy to do that. 00:20:49
I think with your help in that last increase, you said we would reevaluate it. And that was in the resolution itself. Yeah, that's 00:20:59
why we that that's why the council got resolution. And I understand that we need to have a good little bank account in order for 00:21:05
us to apply for the loans and get grants for the future. 00:21:11
But but we also need to these people, our folks, they're paying everybody's paying though what we said the federal government 00:21:18
through $7 trillion into the economy, everything went sky high and that leaves us here holding the bag. And so I think that we 00:21:25
need the door and they have been and I'm I'm real proud to be a part of that process that they do this administration and Ruby and 00:21:33
her team looks for ways to well if we can do this and. 00:21:40
Do that, it will alleviate some of the, some of the pressure on our residents for that sewer bill or for that landfill bill a 00:21:48
little bit, you know, and that that's your job to discuss that amongst you. And I just come and tell you what the numbers say. And 00:21:54
then if you want to lower the, if you want to lower the rates, you can. I don't care either way you go. 00:22:01
Yeah. Thank you for the explanations, team. Thank you again for the presentation. Thank you all. Thank you. Give me a call. We 00:22:11
can. I'll talk forever about these things again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll talk to you, Holland. All in favor of the 00:22:16
resolution, aye. 00:22:21
OK. We're asking the council to approve a reauthorization of a capital outlay that we got. We did get it through a $700,000 00:22:28
capital outlay. I thought that we were going to be able to get the Eagle Pitcher site before too long. 00:22:38
But. 00:22:48
Take the before out. It's too long. I mean, I can't, I can't build out there because I have not been able to get them to clear it. 00:22:50
And God knows when the EPA and Ed are going to let us have it. So I am asking the council to please approve my asking of the 00:22:57
legislator. And I think Senator Diamond is going to carry that bill, but we would like to reauthorize it so I can take that money 00:23:04
and put it out there at the industrial park. 00:23:12
Build a building out there. That's what this capital authorization is. 00:23:20
So if I could get a motion to do that, I can put it in my. 00:23:25
Notes. 00:23:29
So moved and seconded discussion. This will be a spec building for economic development and hopefully the VLA or somebody that's 00:23:31
starting to build out there can maybe use it as a warehouse or something that we can get them to do some business in town. That's 00:23:36
what I was hoping. 00:23:42
All in favor. 00:23:50
New business. 00:23:53
I just wanted to inform the council that we have a settlement from a case that happened at the Convention Center before it was 00:23:56
finished. Lions Club was also involved. We just want to say that. And the city lost that case. So I just want to tell people that 00:24:05
when we get a big make a big fuss out of people using the Plaza or using the. 00:24:14
The youth center or using Finley gym that is an outside non public. 00:24:23
People, we make a big fuss on Insurance Co, insurance indemnification of any liability and we have to look at it very closely. So 00:24:31
I just want to tell you that in this case, what happened that we probably should have allowed them to use their facility, but we 00:24:39
went ahead and it was a gun show I think or something like that and it wasn't done. 00:24:46
Person tripped and fell. Probably shouldn't have done that. We probably need to be. 00:24:55
More careful than anybody using our public facilities, we're the deep pocket. 00:25:01
We end up getting sued even though it's not our event. So in the future, just the public should know that that we're going to be 00:25:08
pretty sticky about how and sure how what your insurance is. We're in coinsured. We're going to be indemnified that there's no 00:25:15
problem. And so that's just to let you know that's that's the thing that happened on new business Chan, you want to give us a 00:25:22
little report on your. 00:25:29
Deal. 00:25:38
Fantastic light parade and Lloyd's not here and his groups not here, but the fantastic light show throughout the town. Yeah, 00:25:39
definitely. And of course the the Friends of the Boskie having the the. 00:25:45
Everything went really well. 00:26:53
But the fire department, they had raised $8100.00 at the Matanza and they're going to take 100 kids. 00:26:55
To go shopping. 00:27:02
And was it 81 kids in $100? No, it's 81 kids in $100 each. And so and the list they got from the schools, they didn't make that 00:27:04
list of themselves. So that's how they they got all that. And then, of course, Chief, you want to tell us a little bit about your 00:27:11
projects with the Marines and the the Tots Toys for Tots or what do you guys, what do you call that? 00:27:18
It's the City of the Coral that helps them do it. I've done it for the last 26 years. This is my 6th year with the Marines. Toys 00:27:28
for cots. They supply us with a lot of those toys that we give out during the parades and for every for all the money we spend, we 00:27:35
have different vendors that will help us. We spend 5000, they give us $5000 in toys and so it's been really good. I think last 00:27:42
year we served. 00:27:48
Almost 800 families. 00:27:56
And over 4600 toys were handed out. 00:27:57
Congratulations. Good job doing that again. And this year we have the Defenders Star Wars here for the toys for the parade, along 00:28:02
with Coca-Cola that came from Albuquerque. They've done it with us for the last four years. We also had a. 00:28:10
United States Marine Corps, first time ever coming. They walked the parade and handed out kids gifts that is their Marines Toys 00:28:18
for Tots. So I was glad to see them here to help us and everything went good. Great. Thank you for doing that. And I wanted to 00:28:26
Councillor Ocampo about your Turkey. How did that go? I noticed that after Thanksgiving, but how did that? It's this weekend, this 00:28:33
weekend. Yes, this weekend it's first come first serve drive through behind San Miguel Parish. 00:28:40
Starting at 11:00 AM and until we run out and angels always helpful with us on that deal too. Given anything he's got leftover so 00:28:48
we can give the kids this year we got one of my sisters is a professor at Arizona State and she got her whole all of her classes 00:28:54
to make the. 00:29:01
The stockings for the kids. So I have many families. When the family comes up, how many kids they have, they all get a stocking 00:29:08
filled with all kinds of goodies and they're all ready to go. We'd like to thank the city for always supporting us. I mean, I know 00:29:15
you guys did it for God, 50 some years with Toby. So thank you for always being there And John, John Brooks, the storehouse. 00:29:23
Individual help too. We have tons of help. I mean, we, that's a, that's a great thing about this place. There's never any shortage 00:29:32
of help, I mean. 00:29:36
We have like a waiting list of people that are like, hey, I'd like to deliver for you or whatever. So well, you know, just that 00:29:40
added thing about Toby, you may have already heard his daughter is the chief operating officer at Lovelace and she works with it 00:29:47
too. They they still come down and help us. Yeah. Well, then that's a good job. That's that's a fantastic for somebody from 00:29:53
soccer. They're like, you know, that's a superstar. So it's fantastic. And thank you for doing that. 00:30:00
You can get up where Toby left off. And I don't know how old are you? It'll be 50 years. These things do it for 50 years. So much 00:30:07
like to. That's like my favorite and that honestly, it's like my favorite part of Christmas now. It really is. Mr. Padilla, you 00:30:12
want to tell us a little bit about your programs going on? 00:30:17
Come on up here. Don't be doing it from back there. But yeah, your basketball and you had your bingo too. This is this is a. 00:30:23
Little nervous but I got yelled at by some ladies. 00:30:33
But it was good, we had a good turn out, but it's quite a bit of money for the food driving. 00:30:39
And what's, what's your program to go on right now? Right now we start basketball that's been going on. We've been using Parkview 00:30:45
as long and the youth Senate and the family gym Monday through Thursday for practices. Have you got any numbers that you can tell 00:30:49
us? We have 212 kids. 00:30:54
Of total and you know you've got all kinds of equipment over there and I guess it's getting built up with people that are coming. 00:31:00
Hopefully they're more than welcome 20 to 30 right now. We have throughout the day that come and use the weight room and more and 00:31:05
more are coming. So we've been going pretty good on that. 00:31:11
Thank you. 00:31:19
Chris, anything you want to say? 00:31:21
I know you're hiding your head a while ago. 00:31:23
I just wanted to check in and everything is going well with the schools and all that. Finishing that out for the year and still 00:31:29
working on yards, trying to put out some fires with that and also working on that Main St. ordinance as well. Still still doing 00:31:35
that. I want to see that one through so. 00:31:42
Yeah, try not to **** a lot of people. I know it's my job, though, so I'm the bear of bad news. You got to do that. I mean, that's 00:31:49
just what you got to do. And then you got to work around it and flip, right? Be flexible. I think that's what our little town is 00:31:55
about, right? Right. So finish the year out strong and start it off strong. 00:32:02
All righty. All right, Chief. 00:32:09
Oh, sorry, Mr. 00:32:13
The RISE program. 00:32:17
And we want to, we want to have a little party for them or whatever you want to do. We want to. Let's do that, yeah. 00:32:24
It is. 00:32:32
Crystal Brown. 00:32:35
Currently recognize them for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:32:38
Mr. Salami, did you have a question, Chris? Chris was kind enough to document that that kind of guided the first ordinance that we 00:32:42
looked at and and we're starting that process. So our committee is going to be meeting. And I think what we need to do is kind of 00:32:49
look at the definition of what we're, we're really trying to do here. You know, there's dilapidated Billings and you'd be knocked 00:32:56
down. There's vacant buildings that need to be. 00:33:03
Have folks and businesses put inside them and working. And so I was just looking and noticing this document that comes from the 00:33:11
state and you know, they're they're they're paragraphs start like vacant commercial buildings, one's house, vibrant store front 00:33:16
commercial business. 00:33:21
That at one point generated a profit. 00:33:27
Now they can now vacant many of the these commercial buildings are either historical, architecturally significant, located within 00:33:30
the designated historic districts. These build commercial buildings stay vacant. They're declining status leads to blight, 00:33:37
discourages economic development and diminishes property values. So they go from these buildings that are being occupied to these 00:33:43
buildings that are now vacant and. 00:33:50
Dilapidated. So I, I, I'm thinking personally that we need to attack this committee and attack this issue. 00:33:58
In the middle, something happened in the middle, they were, they were vibrant and now they're vacant. So what can we do as a as a 00:34:06
council, as an administration that would help to put a business back in that building? There's dilapidated buildings, they need to 00:34:13
be knocked down, but there's vacant buildings that I think we should be using some of the, I think it should be like an economic 00:34:20
development. 00:34:27
A revitalization committee. 00:34:34
Because I think the city can do a lot of good by using some funds to support. 00:34:37
Putting businesses just like you mentioned Doctor Bhaskar up on at the industrial park, there's going to be a building up there to 00:34:45
for, for a business to bring people in so we can employ our kids. We're doing the Co-op that cooperates with too high. For 12 00:34:51
years we've been trying to get those rates down so we can say hey, look, yeah, come to Socorro, start your little five man 00:34:56
business and. 00:35:02
Maybe it'll grow, maybe maybe our young people don't have to leave town to go get a job. Maybe there was there's going to be more 00:35:08
opportunities. So I'm looking at it from that, from that area that it's not, you know, tear it down, penalize them, charge them on 00:35:16
a year to year basis more and more because you know what those people that have those vacant buildings, they want those things 00:35:23
occupied probably more than than the council does because. 00:35:30
You know, so I'm, I'm looking at it from there. I think we should meet Chris and I. We can of course start this whole process. 00:35:38
Yeah, no problem. Very helpful and very diligent in in in his in his job. Thank you, Mr. Marcus. Did I get that same document? 00:35:46
Yeah. No problem. Yeah, I can fill one out. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Kirsty. Anything. 00:35:55
How's the insurance for the for the workers, employees insurance? Is it going to get renewed in January? Are we going to raise 00:36:08
increase in price or have they said anything about? 00:36:13
Good. Yeah, Yeah. So far I've not heard anything about an increase for the premiums. 00:36:20
I know the one in July came later June and so I was kind of like right away an increase, but we haven't received anything. 00:36:27
Any update planning and zoning like a new committee, Who's on it? Who's not on it So far we I received what Donald? 00:36:36
Sent in the e-mail. I don't remember exactly, I think it was Deborah myself. 00:36:48
John, not the committee, I'm sorry, the the planning and zoning for the board. 00:36:53
Mr. Did Mr. Anaya resign? He resigned via text. OK, so how many people do you need to be on there, do you know? I could use three 00:37:02
more. Yeah, that would be ideal. I was running it with five, but I think ideal would be. So if the council has somebody that would 00:37:11
like to nominate, more than happy to place them on the committee. Yeah, that would be great. 00:37:19
Any dialogue with the new Co-op manager? Anything? Have a meeting with him on Thursday at 11. 00:37:28
So if you want to come and join the screaming and shouting, you're welcome. You're not going to be any. They were very Mr. Anaya 00:37:36
called me today and offered the invitation to meet him. So he was very nice that they called. 00:37:43
The Christmas decorations are beautiful. Thank you so much for doing that, it looks great. 00:37:56
Really nice, I thought is one of the best. I don't think I've seen a town that you can go in and you're coming into town and saw. 00:38:03
It's really nice, really. 00:38:07
Welcome. No, I think that was Lloyd's crew. I was not out there putting no place. But they are very beautiful. Everybody, 00:38:14
everybody helped Mr. Parker. I wasn't here for the I never make that light parade. I bummed out because I'm always at a wrestling 00:38:19
tournament. But when I came back, I mean, I talked to a lot of people around the that were on the Plaza. The trash cans around the 00:38:24
Plaza were looked like there's tons of people. 00:38:30
And so we're cleaning up trash around that area by a resting room and everybody had really good things to say about it. My wife 00:38:36
was able to go, my father-in-law, they were watching and they were like really impressed with it. They liked Ruben was running 00:38:40
around. 00:38:44
You're welcome. They really like the first big organization without Desiree and she did a fabulous job. They were really proud of 00:38:50
22/22/24 people that were, I mean, 40. 00:38:57
You know, they're real happy with this. Yeah. No, I and I, it's Christmas. It's fantastic. 00:39:05
Thank you for doing that. You're good. 00:39:12
OK, old news. Any old news under new business? I'd just like to inform the council that the tri-county day but the legislature is 00:39:17
February 25th at La Fonda from 6 to 9 it's Socorro Katzen in Sierra County and municipal day is February 28th. So if the cat. 00:39:27
Is there a reception at the La Fonda? Yes, Sir, from 6 to 9. And if the counselors will let me know who's going to attend, I'll 00:39:39
advertise it if we need to. 00:39:43
Oh yeah, I missed that. Donald, could you tell me again? 00:39:49
OK, thank you. With three counties and it'll be in La Fonda from 6 to 9, another hotel there, it's Tuesday, February 25th. 00:39:54
Mr. O'Connor just announcement we have the this week this Saturday we have the food drive. Anybody that's in need of a meal come 00:40:05
on by drive through behind St. San Miguel like I mentioned earlier, also from 6:00 to 8:00 PM to San Miguel youth group is putting 00:40:11
on a Christmas festival. It's called Operation Saint Nick. It's a pretty cool deal. It's and it's all put on by the kids and if 00:40:17
you want to hear some great singing. 00:40:23
There's the youth choir, my wife along with Kenny Hart. 00:40:30
They put on the youth choir if you want to hear it, starts at 6:00 PM behind San Miguel Church, and they've got a whole Christmas 00:40:36
lineup of songs. And if you want to be in the Christmas period, I show up. And we just had a phone call that we lost to Santa. So 00:40:44
we're looking for another Santa to make sure he can show up. So anybody here wants to dress up and don't see it in your eyes? 00:40:52
But that's from 6:00 to 8:00 on Saturday evening, 6 to 8, Operation Saint Nick. 00:41:02
It's going to be a pretty good deal. They're going to have a choir and A and a youth choir there and they're pretty unbelievable 00:41:07
if you ask me. So not necessarily no business, but I remember I talked to the city's been going to misuse Emily coach and you know 00:41:13
chief then we've been in the facility. We'll be moving out. You're pretty quick. Our maps are in are almost finished with 00:41:20
installing. So we hope to do that over the Christmas break. 00:41:27
Thank the council before me, you know, they let us move in there over here. 00:41:35
Friends at the library also be moving into that modular pretty soon, so that'll be another thing, and then we are going to be 00:42:08
asking a representative. Representative Dow went and saw the place. 00:42:13
And hopefully she'll help us with some funding. So it's coming together, Chief, hopefully. I know you guys have been persevering 00:42:19
for a year and a half with a lot of trouble, but hopefully we'll get this thing. What exactly is that near the the librarian, the 00:42:25
friends at library, they have a huge amount of books that they sell and they have them in the in the other side of that Zimmer 00:42:31
League. 00:42:37
And they're going to be moving all of that so that we can have a secure police station. 00:42:44
And probably we'll put the Municipal Court there too, but that will be our judicial complex, police and judicial complex. It's 00:42:48
going to take 5-6 years to develop it, but it'll be a dedicated judicial complex and it'll take a building off the market. We're 00:42:55
not going to have an empty building sitter there instead of building a new building. So that's that's what's going on. 00:43:02
Yeah. 00:43:10
We know. I mean, yeah, I mean the modular that we got from Midway, No, but no, we got this from the high school. Yes, Sir. That 00:43:17
would be the one that we have two of them at the rodeo and then we have two more at the. 00:43:24
RV park area. This one was totally remodeled. It's it's not just basically empty shell with a storage room, bathroom and janitors 00:43:33
closet. HVAC about 2200 square feet. 00:43:40
And so they'll be able to move their books and have a dedicated place that they can use that looks really nice to see it every day 00:43:48
there. Looks really nice. Of course, they are an independent group, so probably going to have to have a good contract with them. 00:43:54
Christy, we don't have any injuries, people. 00:43:59
Well, they're getting a book. They fall down the steps and always thinking of the bad stuff. Donald, I'm sorry, no good deed goes 00:44:05
unpunished. I'm sorry. Always thinking of something better. What's this Debbie Downer? 00:44:13
Rabbi Downer Anyway, any old business? All right, Well, the year is almost over. Executive session. Well, we tell everybody what 00:44:22
happens. We don't go to executive session. Right, Marianne? No, we don't. And then as the mayor's report, personality changes. 00:44:28
Christopher Vega. A job amendment. That's it. 00:44:34
Personality past personal changes. 00:44:42
We've been secondary discussion all in favor and then we have. 00:44:46
It's called Intra works out of town, Albuquerque, Kevin Mayor, low voltage security. 00:44:52
Mr. Motion, we pass the business registration. Second, I don't know what low voltage security is like ADT type stuff that would 00:45:00
imagine like ADT, I would imagine, I would imagine something like installation and the next is happy new Year, January, Mr. 00:45:06
Fleming. 00:45:12
Oh, Wanda, you want to stand up and give us a speech? Come on. A goodbye speech. And you're going to. You're going to. 00:45:19
No, this works well, none better than ours. 00:45:34
Well, you had a wonderful Chieftain, you've won all kinds of prizes, and now you're going to be moving up to the Journal. 00:45:40
You're moving to where? 00:45:53
Bado. 00:45:57
Wow. 00:46:03
Well, so you still have to drive through here to go to Taos? 00:46:07
Well, we certainly do. You have a replacement. We certainly enjoyed this. Thank you. Thank you, your editorship and hopefully 00:46:15
they'll keep it together well. So I think we've educated about 20 editors. 00:46:22
Well, I hope not. 00:46:40
Pentagon 1/3. 00:46:42
If they shut it down then we'll have to have this. 00:46:47
Newsletter that everybody used to pass around with the nasty stuff in it so. 00:46:50
And Trump's not suing you, are you not? Trump is not suing your newspaper for any. 00:46:59
And he came to interview at the paper and he says there anything else I can do for you? And said, yeah, how about advertising in 00:47:13
their local papers that we own? He goes, you know, Mohammed Shanique, I said, how about $25,000? And Donnie, writer, check. 00:47:20
What? And that's great. 00:47:31
He's suing the he's suing the Des Moines Register. So we'll see, We'll see, we'll see what happens. But. 00:47:38
ABC. 00:47:47
Right. 00:47:49
No. 00:47:51
Well, yeah, my and the Quad Cities. My folks lived in the Quad Cities for 50 years. 00:47:57
Well, great. Well, thank you for your service here. Thank you, Wanda. Thank you. 00:48:02
Next meeting is January 7, 2025. 00:48:10
Be here, B Square. I'll try to be here this time. Thanks. 7. I will be here. Not on February though. Try to leave as much as I 00:48:15
can. No, no, that's on the air. Everybody have a wonderful Christmas. 00:48:22
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