I'm going to go ahead and put it in the middle of the bag. Folks are just waiting on GovTV to give us the okay and then we'll be ready to go. Great. Everyone, welcome aboard. Welcome to the eighth meeting of the 24th Council. It will now come to order. This is our third virtual meeting. We're sort of getting our hand at this now, which probably just doomed us to have a very bad and awkward meeting for the rest of the night since I said that. For the record, all of our counselors are present this evening via Zoom, and we have representatives from the administration scattered across a number of meeting rooms across City Hall tonight, and we'll be calling on them as we need them this evening. To get us started tonight, I'm gonna ask our Council Vice President, Councillor Gibson, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance in English, followed by Councillor Borrego in Spanish. Councillor Gibson. Thank you, Mr. President. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance. to the flag, 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. Councilor Braga. Fidelity to the flag of the United States and the Republic that represents a nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, counselors. We try to keep our traditions going even online. We appreciate it. For those following along at home, we want to welcome you and appreciate you joining us. As was noted in our press release from our office on Friday, was posted on the city's website and noticed on our council agenda, this meeting has special procedures given the governor's public health orders and the ban on gatherings of more than five people. Therefore, tonight's meeting, like the last two, have been held via Zoom video conference. Members of the public, our city staff and the media all have the ability to view this meeting through our three different platforms, on GovTV, on Comcast Channel 16, the GovTV website, and now via YouTube. These live streams are all accessible for most smartphones and tablets and computers. And for those watching on the live stream, we thank you for joining us. The video recording of this meeting and all of our meetings are all available online for viewing at any time on the City Council's website. If you need assistance in accessing those meetings, you can call our office at 768-3100. Monday through Friday, eight to five, and our staff are available by phone to help you walk you through that process. Tonight, the council intends to keep up our commitment to involving public comment, though because of the governor's order, we're not able to do it in person. And so we make the public comment available and comment through the meetings agenda items in written form via email that was received up to four o'clock today. Those comments were distributed to counselors and we had a couple that were sent out this afternoon and we'll address those later this evening in the meeting. Normally we would do proclamations and presentations at this time, but for tonight's meeting there are none. There are no specific economic development discussions tonight, though I know we're going to talk about budgets and economics. But next on our agenda, we usually move to council questions for the administration. And so I'll begin. A counselor submitted a number of questions ahead of time. And so I'm going to begin with those that are on our list and then we'll open it up to any follow-up questions for anybody that has some more to follow up. So I'll begin with Councillor Pena within a question for environmental health. That'll be followed by Councillor Benton, Councillor Bassan and myself. So Councillor Pena. Thank you, Mr. President. I've just received several calls and emails and I'm sure maybe the rest of the council has as well regarding restaurant inspections. And I just wanted to know, can the administration let us know how we proceed or how they can proceed when there are concerns with inspections? Good evening. Can everyone hear me? Yes, sir. Go ahead. From the economic development room, I think. Yes, sir. Good evening, Council President Davis, Councilor Peña. Thank you for that question. This is Ryan Mass, the Director of Environmental Health Department. I appreciate the question. We have been working for several weeks, as you know, related to the response to the COVID-19 emergency, and that includes our Consumer Health Protection Division. Since the beginning of March, we began our outreach and guidance we were provided to restaurants through the restaurant associations related to food safety. as it pertains to this current emergency. In the middle of the month, we did put a pause on some of our routine inspections. That was for a couple of reasons. The first one was because out of an abundance of caution and the way that this particular virus spreads, we didn't want to expose both our inspectors as well as those who are in the restaurants to the virus for potential spread from person to person as they were doing those routine inspections. On another more practical level as it relates to the response to the COVID-19 crisis, our inspectors are continuing to work. And what we're doing is we're providing guidance to food manufacturers, to restaurants, through the associations, as well as to our high-risk food producers, which includes the nursing homes, the hospitals, the childcare centers, with updated information and guidance related to this emergency. That includes ways that they can better clean and sanitize, their facilities as well as any new guidance that comes out from any of the federal agencies or the Department of Health related to food protection. I will say as well, we do still, or we still have the ability and we have been conducting inspections and so what we're doing is any complaints that come through, you can submit those through 311 to our department. We do have inspectors who have been conducting those inspections and we will continue to do so. So for any concerns related to restaurant food safety, please make sure you continue to direct those and we will address them right away. Thank you, that was helpful. Maybe we can get that online as well because it appears that several people are concerned probably, maybe about the cleanliness of some of the restaurants. Yes, we'll get that up. Thanks. Mayor Redekop, M. Councilor, thank you and a little out of order, but Councillor Gibson has a follow up for Director Mast about restaurants. Councillor Gibson. Councillor Gibson, Thank you, Mr. President. I do have a follow up question, but right at the end, I thought you said that you are conducting inspections. Did I hear that correctly, sir? Council President Davis and Councilor Goodson, yes, we continue to conduct inspections on a complaint basis. So rather than just getting a list and going from place to place, if there's any concerns out there, we have inspectors available to do calls virtually and if needed to do an in-person if the complaint warrants. Okay, well, that's great. And I'm glad you're handling complaints. But since most of us who do get takeout once in a while, don't even go into the restaurant, You know, the complaints would be just based on what's delivered to us. Um, and I absolutely, I don't want to put any city worker in, um, unnecessary jeopardy. I really do not. But, um, I also think it's, uh, very important that the public have utmost confidence in restaurants now and the food that they're, that they're producing for us. You know, we can all agree on one thing. These are shaky times. And in order to not add to that, I would feel so much better if we were continuing the inspection that we were doing before. I know the city does have a stockpile for PPE, the N95s, gloves. And I think with reasonable caution, utmost caution actually, I just think it's imperative that we continue that program as we were doing before. I mean, if the city does not feel confident in sending an inspector into a restaurant how can we expect the public as consumers to purchase food from that restaurant? That's a question. Council President Davis and Council Giffson, I think those are all valid concerns and we do appreciate where you're coming from. And we do wanna make sure that there's confidence in the food that's being consumed by the public. The protocol as we set forth is laid out in our continuity of operations planning for these types of infectious disease. We, because this is an extended stay at home order and extended timeframe that we're dealing with, is we are exploring right now ways that we can continue to enhance what we're already doing with regard to restaurant inspections and we hope to have in partnership with our partners in the county, as well as the state environmental division. of alternatives and ways to continue to provide this service very soon. So by providing this service, are you talking specifically about resuming inspections. To the level we were doing it before. So to conduct the routine inspections, we are looking at ways that we can modify ways to do that, that both enhance that, continue to provide that safety as it relates to this infection, but also still conduct those inspections, yes. All right, I guess that's an answer. All right, thank you. Great, next up we have Councilor Benton. Thank you, Mr. President. This question is for transit. I think we're going to call that to the mayor's conference room, I think, where Mr. Rayal is, unless we see someone else from transit there. All right. Mr. Rayal and I have spoken about this somewhat, and it remains a concern of mine. day service for transit is my opinion inferior service to which people who are dependent on transit are being subjected specifically several complaints but one of the the most concerning complaints is that just in the last year we made a robust year so we created a more robust service for the Rio Grande route. This would be on the regular weekday service, not Saturday service, which it does not run. And that is now . The Manal route also, which under weekday service would normally stop at 12th and Manal, weekend service doesn't stop there so we're really cutting out an entire swat of the North Valley from from the kind of adequate transit service and I know that we're a automobile dependent city we're used to our cars most of us have car but not all of us have one and I really consider this to be a serious issue of equity and would like to know what are the implications of returning to weekday service for the people who need it. Now I also understand that weekday service includes commuter routes, certain commuter routes, which are probably, you know, we can anecdotally, or not anecdotally, but through our normal tracking of how many boardings and un-boardings occur, we could determine whether some of the commuter roads may or may not still be valid under the current circumstances of a state at home. But for basic needs of citizens who cannot access an automobile, to get across town with the Saturday service, it's really unfair in my opinion. I just want to know why we cannot go out and operate that service. We're budgeted for it. I don't know that there are any, some kind of savings that would occur that could be applied under the emergency. But there are no other that I know of. And also continue to learn about the Central Avenue route and decision to not operate Albuquerque Rapid Transit. Instead, as we've discussed in the past, we've had overcrowded 66 buses that could have just as easily been spread out on a road transit articulated 60 foot buses. And instead of running two 66 buses in tandem apparently in order to create social distancing. I just have to say, it doesn't make any sense to me. I don't know what we're doing with this. I realize this is for a small percentage of our population. A small percentage deserves to be able to get around the same as the rest of us do. Thank you. I see Mr. Rayal and Director Holcomb. So I'll let you guys go. I'm sorry, Mr. Rayal, go ahead. I'll let Mr. Director Holcomb talk to you a little bit about the issues associated with the operations and why we made the decision. And then we'll have a conversation about the routes that you asked me about last week. Thank you, Mr. Grayle. Council President Davis, Councilor Benton, thank you for your comments and your concerns. Councilor Benton, we're certainly looking at all of our options, all of our possibilities. Myself and my staff, we meet several times a week to talk about options on what routes we can or cannot increase. Just so you know, to date, we've probably had over 20 employees that have tested for COVID-19. Mike Noble, MNC, Fortunately, we haven't had one test positive our concern is for the safety of the passengers as well as our drivers. Mike Noble, MNC, I have no problem looking at any route also with the 36. Mike Noble, MNC, All routes as well and see if there are any possibilities to increase any type of service or increase the stop here and there. Mike Noble, MNC, Again, like I said, we're looking at the safety of the passengers as well as our staff. Councilor Benton or? Mr. President. Councilor Benton, as I said to you on Friday afternoon that I was gonna visit with transit today to talk about those two specific routes, the Rio Grande route and the Manal route. We will look at seeing how we might be able to implement those routes so that if we have riders that aren't getting to where they need to go, we can certainly look at that. And if we get the ridership that makes sense, I mean, here, the administration clearly is in the same place you are in. We'd love to have service in a way that can help a lot of those folks that can't get to work or can't get to shopping or what have you. The real challenge has been is that when you get buses with a lot of people, then we become part of the problem is that we're trying to solve here by keeping people, at least separating people as much as we possibly can. That's why the ART bus in particular was taken offline because we were having way too many people in the buses and can't control the access points because the drivers sit behind the doors. And when you come up to a station and you have 15 or 20 people in a very close environment like a bus, it becomes a challenge. So we opted to use the smaller buses and the transit department has been putting additional buses in that corridor so that we can separate in space, if you will, the passengers on that route on central. And that's why we felt that the ART bus could be put, we could take the bus out of service so that we could also do the improvements in the corridor. So when we do open up the entire system, we don't have disruptions again to the business community. So we're trying to balance the needs of the community with the safety of the drivers and with the orders that the governor has imposed to make sure that we're keeping our community safe. But again, let me just iterate the Manal route and the Rio Grande route, we were gonna look at this week to try and reinstate those two routes to see and to determine the ridership on those routes as you requested last week. Councilor Benton, any follow up? Mr. President, yeah, thank you. And thank you, Mr. Mr. Allen. And I do appreciate our discussions about this. And I know you're, you're trying your hardest. So does this mean that that the way we're operating now, and this is probably, you know, that the central route 66 and the rapid transit route are, you know, probably the most heavily used normal circumstances. So I'm sure that it remains so today. Are so is there a protocol that's being used on those 66 buses where the driver reaches x capacity and then tells people you have to wait for the next bus. For that to direct the Holcomb. Council President Davis, Councilor Benton, yes. So the directive that we've given the drivers is to try to limit passengers to about 12 to 15 passengers per bus. Once the drivers reach that point, they'll go on a drop off only mode. They've created some space for bus. With that in play, we've added some helper buses on some of our busy routes, including Central, Manal, Domits. So we're doing this on other routes, not just Central. So if we get a bus that's, the driver knows it's not safe, The drivers have the ability to give us a call and say, hey, I've picked up 15 people, I'm gonna go on drop off only mode. And we know that we have other buses on the routes to help out with some of the excess passengers work that we have out there. Thank you, Director Holcomb. Mr. President, if I could just one more question. In In the Saturday weekend service, on routes like the ones you mentioned, which are normally the highest activity routes, we were experiencing the same kind of, I guess if you want to call it overcrowding, the buses on those routes as well. Council President Davis, Councilor Benton. On some routes, yes. And I don't think we ever got to the point where we were over capacity. We did get some routes that were different before. We had buses where they may have been standing only on some of those buses, but we've never been to the point where, at least since I've been here, where we've denied passengers to ride because the buses were too full. And just on a couple more issues, right? There are high school students who are still trying to get to their high schools to get their meal. This is something, of course, before the emergency we're working on and of course we're providing free passes for youth. I believe the Transit Advisory Board also recommend that we just go to free passes for everybody during this crisis. That's something that's being looked at. Council President Davis, Councilor Benton, yes, they did recommend that and we have had discussions to look at the best ways of implementing that. So it is something that's definitely on the table. All right. Well, I appreciate your attention to this. You know, I'm going to keep asking about it. I appreciate the understanding that we've got to serve our entire citizenry. So thank you. Thank you, Councilor Benn. And next up we have Councilor Bassan followed by Councilor Harris, and then back to Councilor Gibson. So Councilor Bassan. And Councilors, as a reminder, if you have a question or want to do a follow-up, you can do so by using the raise your hand option. Just go to the bottom of your screen, click the participants list and you'll get that raise hand option if you want to jump in. but for the moment we have counselor basan followed by counselor harris and counselor gibson so counselor basan thank you mr president uh my apologies for having a delay in um or the late request for this question but i do keep getting some some emails and some constituent concerns and i know that i had a conversation with miss nair uh the other day that clarified some things but again i think for the record it would be really amazing if we could have the administration clarify for the public what if any have considerations have been made to allow for the stay at home order. You know, when we are able to lift some of it, if we can actually allow for perhaps more of the elderly or those with underlying health conditions for them to stay home so that we can allow for more of the healthier folks and residents in Albuquerque to get back to work and open up a little bit sooner than later rather than waiting for everybody. So Council President Davis, Councilor Bassan, thanks for the chat the other day. What we talked about is that the reopening plan, there was a great article, op-ed by a doctor in the journal today that kind of outlines the four considerations that we're gonna need to think about. I won't hash it all out, but basically the models that we're seeing come up around the country are you know, that you have sort of this peak and then as it goes down, you start to loosen restrictions and then you have to tighten them again and target certain populations. We spoke specifically about some of the businesses like nurseries and they do seem to have found a good balance where we are seeing them do curbside and delivery and not allowing people into the business and the state seems to be okay with that. The other thing we talked about was really making sure we're promoting both sides of the stay at home message. So there is stay at home so you don't come into contact with people who may be carrying the coronavirus, but there's also preserving the capacity within our medical system. And that is actually the limiting factor of what we can handle as a state and as a city right now. So when you're staying home, you're not just protecting yourself or others from Corona, you're also reducing the likelihood that you're gonna be in a traffic accident, reducing the likelihood that you're gonna be hit by a drunk driver, just reducing your risks for all sorts of other perils that happen in the outside world. And ventilators don't care whether you're on a ventilator because you have Corona or because you were in a near fatal car accident. They just get used and there's a limited supply. So we talked about making sure that we're getting out that message too because You know more and more we're seeing people cruise around the city because they are in their car and they're by themselves but really that's not getting to the full effect that we need from the stay home order so the the quicker that we can really have the stay at home period get through the medical peak and make sure that we are preserving our medical resources, the sooner we'll be able to reopen for business. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Besson. Councilor Harris for the question. Thank you. Maybe I'll follow up the student's question I was going to ask, but I'll go ahead and ask, I think it was Ms. Nair that was speaking, but yeah, I noticed you talked about kind of the the factors that we have to consider, but does anyone have an idea of sort of a broad timeline that we're thinking of in terms of reopening? Has that been shared with anybody? Council President Davis, Councilor Harris, I haven't heard anything definitive from New Mexico. We're still looking at a medical peak towards the end of this month, April. And then it really just depends how quickly we come down from that and what that sort of aftershocks look like. So right now everything is extended through May 15th, I believe at the state level. So we know that much. And I think most of us are sort of informally planning through the end of May that we'll be in the same spot and then trying to think backwards from, okay, if we did have the ability to open up in June, what should we be doing right now to get ready for that moment? Okay. That's not surprising, is it? but what I was going to ask about the parks department, a little bit of good news, silver lining is the parks department just completed a beautiful park in my district that wants those hills. Actually it's just phase one. It's going to be a stunning park and all the places are done. But I just wanted an update on, first of all, I went out there and it was gorgeous. There was an opening in a fence and now I was able to walk around a little bit. I might not have been supposed to, but in any event, I want to know, is that park open? or will it be open for the public? And second, how's the funding looking and the calendar looking for the other phases? Yes, Council President Davis, Councilor Harris, this is David Flotus. We're gonna keep the park closed through the time that we feel like it's gonna be a message to the public that things are normalized. Right now, all our playgrounds are officially closed and for the most part, this phase is essentially mostly all playground, with the exception of some landscape and grass, which would benefit with a little bit more time to root in. So we feel that that right now is the best way to go about addressing this. And yeah, we'll get breaches from time to time if any, you know, for people who might wanna be curious. It's more curiosity essentially with the playground being at So-Neal and the allure, but we'll address that, we'll manage that. We don't seem to have as much as we normally would though, but I think people for the most part have been respecting the closures. I go around almost all weekend, and looking at playgrounds in the parks. And there's so many people out using the parks, but I think that we're generally seeing a good compliance of the orders. So that I think is helping us make this decision to keep it closed for a few more weeks. As far as the funding, We've got the state grant, and so we've already started the design on the hillside. That has already been in play. So when we get to the next phase of looking to construct it, we'll be looking at the new, any new opportunities to look at existing funding, and then of course in preparation for future phases with the hillside selection and Menachos and and the Western wedge, all those significant dollars, we would look at new funding opportunities in the 21. And what is gonna be a good news, if you wanna put it that way, is if we get our next NOO from the state to utilize the remaining balance of the Wantable Hills Grant. So we're working towards that. And we'll know very soon when we get that Thank you. Yes, sir. Councilor, as a reminder, if you'll use your raise the hand button, we'll put you in line. Next up, we have Councillor Gibson, followed by Councillor Borrego and Councillor Bassan and then myself. So Councillor Gibson. Director Holcomb as well. Since we've shifted back, so much on our fixed routes. I'm wondering how many drivers are not driving these days? How many are staying home? Do you know what percentage you're still using on the routes and how many are staying home? Council President Davis, Councilor Gibson, there are no drivers staying home. We have enough work with our helper buses to have work for just about every driver. We're also sending out some of our sunban vehicles to use as Wi-Fi hotspots. So we don't have any drivers that are out and don't have, it's not that we don't have work for them. We don't have any drivers that are out. OK. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Borrego. Oh, thank you. So I just wanted to follow up because we were talking about parks and I wondered about last year's money, especially for petroglyph little league. We had about a half a million dollars and I just wondered, we were waiting for the contracts to be signed on that. And I know that was done a couple of months ago. Are we freeing up any of that money to be used? President Davis, Councilor Votero, B&B has just last week gave us the allocation and the activities that will give us access to those grants which were signed off through the other sign off of the Little League agreements. Those have been done have been now activated. So the 2019 grants are the only ones that have been activated so far. And of course, from everybody's minds as part of the 2020, clearly are premature at this point. We'll be waiting on, I probably shouldn't speak on that, that's Pats Arena and Mark Monsko. But we just got those authorized and we're making contacts with all the leagues now. Some of them have already got everything ready and prepared to start going with some of the small things like fencing and other purchases. Other things are, of course, with other leaves like Mile High are doing a full renovation. And so yours will need to make, get in touch with Bustamante and the other folks to see where we go with these funds. They've got a considerable amount, but a lot of them have already been kind of specified with regard to the exact elements that we'll be working on. So we're going to start. working with pricing with the new contractor that we have. And they are delighted to have the work, let's just say, especially now. So this will be the first step. Thank you. And Councillor Davis, President Davis, I have a follow-up question, but it's to the administration. And I guess it's Sarita or Lawrence or Sanjay. I don't know, so I called this afternoon and I talked with someone in the mayor's office and I was asking about the reserve money and I had a answer of approximately, approximate balance of $54 million in that fund. And I'm just wondering, is that correct? Because I know we're using about $100,000 a day And I'm just wondering how much of that fund we've already utilized. Do you have any idea? Okay. Council President Davis and Councillor Borrego, the amount you mentioned is correct amount. It's based on our expenditure budget of FY 20 and a $54 million is separate in a particular fund. The money we are using right now, it is not used from that fund. The money is basically cash expenditure and at the same time against the expenditure, we are booking receivables from the federal government. So we are not using the reserve fund for that, but we are using the cash that we have. Okay, so we haven't tapped into that fund yet. at this point? No, we haven't tapped into that fund and this expenditure would be something which we can get the reimbursement for and we are tracking them separately so it's not city's expenditure, it's just a temporarily used from city's cash but we will be receiving the money from the federal government. Yes, okay, yes, thank you so much. Thank you. Next up I see Councillor Bassan with a follow up followed by Councillor Harris and then myself to close Councillor Bassan. Thank you Mr. President. Councillor Councillor Harris reminded me that I've been meaning to ask and almost keep forgetting well I keep forgetting but as I get a lot of also emails about golf courses and how there are certain tennis courses that are open even if they're alternating which courses can be used but There are a lot of people that are wondering if there's a way to find a balance to open up golf courses since typically you can't golf with more than four people. You have your own clubs, your own ball. Is there some kind of regulations that's being considered with parks to start that up so that people can kind of take advantage of the beautiful air while still practicing social distancing and while still keeping things safe? And if you don't have an answer per se now, if you can get back to me, I'd appreciate it. Councilor Besson, Mr. President and Councilor Besson, let me visit with you a little bit particularly about that and obviously with any other counselors. It is part of the notice of the governor's order. Ironically, the day of the order, a state police officer actually stopped at El Royo de Loso in particular and ordered us to shut it down immediately. So that's been part of the conversation with the governor's office. Plus we also have a lot of citizens who were obviously always looking at these golf courses and reporting them too, which made it even more challenging for us just to even have a conversation about it. But we are looking at that issue right now and be happy to visit with you a little bit more when we get a little more information from Santa Fe. Okay, great. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Councillor Harris. Thank you, Mr. President. And when I heard, major renovations at mile high. I just picked up when I hear about that a little bit. And also I just want to second that about the golf courses and some of these things, and I know the governor controls is not us. I have an email today that constituent, I agree with them that it really doesn't seem to make sense to be pushing people into big boxes, into the Home Depot's and into the Lowe's and into the grocery stores to buy things when they could be going to specialty shops and have much more social distancing going on. Instead of buying chlorine at Home Depot, they could buy it at a local pool supply place instead of going to, you go to Kelly's, which is a local small business instead of pushing it into cost going to the grocery stores. I think that just doesn't make sense. There's also some initial research that shows that the coronavirus is very difficult in Wuhan to actually transmit outdoor. There's only, there's an initial study, there's only one outbreak, or two outbreaks, two people. But almost all outbreaks are actually in an indoor environment. So it seems that being outdoors is a very safe thing for people to do, and they really should be able to do it. So that's just my editorial statement. I know that the mayor can't control this because the governor's the one who closed our golf courses, and the governor's the one who closed our work stores. The governor's the one who said we can't go to specialty shops, have to go to a private big box store. my objection to that. But let's get back to what we were talking about with regard to Mile High and the major renovations. So that's something that's near and dear to my heart as I've been on the council. We came, we raised a lot of money and then we had a budget problem and then Governor Richardson at the time swept it. It looks like we're too far along for that to happen this time around, but can you tell us what's happening with Mile High and the major renovations? Yes, Council President, Councilor Harris, the mile high drawings are nearly complete. I've asked them to accelerate because we think given that we may have still some shortfall, we have a substantial amount to at least get the field reoriented, graded, reoriented, fenced, playable. Lighting is what he told me last week was his priority with the league. So with that, I'm gonna try to, at least get that part done. And that's not unusual to have that where next phases could be the infield and the pertinences for the rest of the development. But I think that we have a substantial amount enough to get the basics in and get them playing on a reoriented field with lights. And that's happening in the next few weeks here now, and we have a contractor ready to go. That's great news Mr. Farr. Thank you. Thank you, Councilors. Any other questions? Use your raise the hand button as a reminder just to be sure we can see you all. And I had one follow up I know I spoke to Mr. Padilla about earlier today for the administration, but I know last week the Council passed the million dollar emergency support fund for the community and I know the family and community and the CAO's office has been working to figure out to get that program up and implemented and ready to go but Ms. Nyer or someone from from your shop can you help us give a little bit of an update on what we think the timeline might be to make those applications available to the public I know your office and the counselors got a number of emails about those today asking for folks that were interesting in applying or learning about it yes council president uh Davis we are just ironing out the last details but I think we had a good model with the Route 66 marketing fund of how we can do this and then just sort of expediting that type of process. And we will have details out this week. Great, thanks so much. And as we finish this conversation, I just want to remind folks as well, we owe a debt of gratitude and to say thanks to everybody in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. looking at the newest health data that's coming out from the state. As we talk about looking ahead, we have to remember that we're still seeing new cases and Bernalillo County's numbers are slowly creeping up in terms of new cases, but certainly not at the rate that the rest of New Mexico has. But every time we have a new case in New Mexico, it requires, usually requires healthcare support from our Albuquerque healthcare folks. And so as we look forward about how to do that, we have to remember that other folks in New Mexico are counting on those of us in Albuquerque as well. So thanks to everybody for those conversations and seeing no other questions for the administration, I will turn it over to Vice President Gibson for the journal. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll move approval of the April 6th journal Thank you. And councilors, as a reminder, we'll ask you to use the raise the hand button so that we can capture a second. In this case, I saw councilor Harris first anyway, but we'll get back into that habit and thank you very much. So councilor Harris for the second, any discussion hearing none, Ms. Yar will you call the roll? Yes, thank you, Mr. President. We'll start with councilor Senna. Yes. Councilor Benton. Yes. Councilor Pena. Yes. Councilor Bassan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Okay, that passes on a nine zero vote. Thank you, Ms. Hara. Next up we'll do communications and introductions. Councilors will direct your attention to the letter of introduction. Are there any changes to tonight's letter of introduction? I believe we start with Councillor Senna. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that the rules be suspended for the purpose of pulling R33 out of Finance and Government Operations Committee and placing it on tonight's agenda for final action. R33 is approving the application and petition of Pulte Homes of New Mexico, the formation of the Inspiration Public Improvement District pursuant to the Public Improvement District Act. Thank you very much. And we have a second from Councillor Borrego. Thank you. Councilors, any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Yara. We need two thirds of councilors present voting yes. Councilor Senneth. Yes. Councilor Benton. Yes. Councilor Pena. Yes. Councilor Bassan. Yes. Councilor Borrego. Yes. Councilor Davids. Yes. Councilor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Sorry, I had to unmute. Yes. All right. Thank you. That passes on a nine zero vote. Thank you. Councillor Pena. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that the rules be suspended for the purpose of placing R36 on tonight's agenda for final action. R36 is urging the United States Congress to amend or enact provisions of the CARES Act to allow for reimbursement to local governments for the recapture of lost revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic. I move, oh, that's you, right? Thank you, and I see, thank you, Councilor Borrego, for the second. Councilor, seeing no discussion about that item, we'll go to Ms. Yara for the vote. Okay, this is for a late intro on the councilor Pena's bill. Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Basan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Okay, that passes on a nine zero vote, thank you. Thank you, Councilor Bassan. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that the rules be suspended for the purpose of introducing R38 and placing it on the May 4th Council agenda for action. R38 is calling on the governor and mayor to establish a protocol for the reopening of businesses deemed non-essential during the COVID-19 public health emergency. And we have a second from Councilor Jones. Ms. Yar for the roll. Okay. We'll go to Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Basan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Okay. Thank you that I passes on a nine zero vote. Councillor Ben. Mr. President, I move the rules be suspended for the purpose of introducing R39 and placing it on the May 4th council agenda for action. R39 is adopting the fiscal year 2021 Urban Enhancement Trust Fund Program and appropriating funds for the Urban Enhancement Programs projects. Thank you, and I'll second that motion. Councilors, any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Chiara for the roll call vote for R39. Councillor Senna? Yes. Councillor Benton? Yes. Councillor Pena? Yes. Councillor Basan? Yes. Councillor Borrego? Yes. Councillor Davis? Yes. Councillor Gibson? Yes. Councillor Jones? Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Thank you. That passes in a nine zero vote. Great. And we're going to give me 30 seconds. We're going to confer with staff here before we move on to our next agenda. So everybody hang out for just a second. Yeah. All right. Thank you folks. Over here to keep ourselves going. Next up. We have reports of committees, there are none. Mr. President. Move to deferrals and withdrawals. And I believe we start with Councillor Harris for 072. Councillor Harris. We need to vote. Mr. Harris. Sorry. Mr. President. We were going to get our act together and then we didn't. Councillor Gibson, I believe you have a motion to approve the letter of introduction. I will move the approval for the letter of introduction. Thank you. And I'll second that along with a number of other councillors including Councillor Borrego. Ms. Yarra for the letter of introduction as amended. Okay, Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Bassan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Thank you. That passes under 9-0 vote. Thank you. My apologies. And as we mentioned, next up, deferrals and withdrawals. And we'll begin with Councillor Harris for 072. Hang on a second, Mr. Perthamon. 072. Yes, on 019-72, I move a deferral until the May 18, 2020 Council meeting. And a second from Councillor Bassan. Thank you. Councillors, any discussion on that item? Seeing none, Ms. Yar. Okay, Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Basan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Thank you, that passes on a nine zero vote. Thank you, Ms. Shara. Councilor Pena, I'm gonna turn over the next two items to you for R178 and R189. Thank you, Mr. President. R178 amending the adopted capital implementation program with the city of Albuquerque by supplementing current appropriations for the Arenal Crespi's Bluff open space acquisition. I moved deferral until May 18th. And I see a second from, we'll call it Councillor Senna this time. Thank you, Ms. Yara for the vote. Okay. Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Bassan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Thank you. That passes on a 9-0 vote. Thank you, Mr. President. My next one is myself and Councillor Betten, but this is Committee Sub R189 amending the composition of the Board of Housing Commissioners for the Albuquerque Housing Authority. I move deferral until May 18. Thank you, Councillor. Do I have a second? And Councillor Bassan and Betten. Great. Thank you. Ms. Yar for the vote. Okay, we'll go to Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Besson. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Okay, that passes on the 9-0 vote. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Yara. Councilor's last call, any other changes, deferrals or withdrawals? Seeing none, we're gonna move to the consent agenda. Are there any changes to tonight's consent agenda? Seeing none, I'm sorry, Councilor Borrego. I was gonna make a motion, Councilor. Go for it. Make a motion, we accept the consent agenda. Thank you and Councilor Bassan for the second. Councilor, is there any other discussion? Seeing none, I'm sorry, seeing none, all those in favor vote yes. Ms. Yara for the vote. Councilor Senna. Yes. Councilor Benton. Yes. Councilor Pena. That was a yes. Councilor Bassan. Yes. Councilor Borrego. Yes. Councilor Davis. Yes. Councilor Gibson. Yes. Councilor Jones. Yes. And Councilor Harris. Yes. Thank you. That passes on a 9-0 vote. Thank you, councilors. We rolled through that. Next up would be general public comment. As we stated earlier, our in-person public comment is not available. because of the governor's public health orders. But again, members of the public sending their comments in advance via email. I know one of those was addressed earlier in administration Q&A regarding businesses that were open. And I know others will be addressed tonight in the legislation around our CDBG action plan. Next up would be announcements. There are none tonight. There are also no public hearings and no approvals on our agenda for the evening. Next up, we're gonna move to final action. We'll start with Councillor Gibson on 08. Okay, sorry. 08 is authorizing the issuance and sale of city of Albuquerque refuse removal and disposal improvement revenue bonds series 2020 in the maximum principal amount of $47,500,000. I'll move a due pass. And I do have a floor substitute. Thank you ma'am. We have a second from council. on the do pass and Councillor Gibson for the floor sub. I'll move the floor sub 408 which is in your iPads. And to Councillors do we have a second? Thank you Councillor Benton. Councillor Gibson on the substitute. I heard your support on the floor sub. Councillors any questions any comments on the floor sub seeing none all those in favor vote yes Ms. Yara for the roll call vote. Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Basan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. That was a yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Thank you. Florida passes on a 9-0 vote. Councilor Gibson back on the bill as substituted. Yes, urge your support on the bill as substituted. Thank you. I have one question. Other councilors with questions? I think, councilors raise your hand if you have questions. I have one for the administration quickly. I'm going to assume, I see some masked figures in DMD, but I'm not sure I see Director Whalen. Maybe Mr. Rayal, you can help me or point me in the right direction. Previously, oh, there's Director Whalen right there in budget. For either one of you, I know at some point years ago, we had passed an extra fee on solid waste pickups to fund the transfer station and possibly an administration building. That was all put on hold with the administration's change and the decision not to seek the transfer station in the North Valley. What's the status of that fund? And is any of that being used for this project? Or is this purely new bond revenue and I can ask somebody to take Director Whalen off in the budget conference so we can hear. Councilor President, this is actually part of that project. So the rate increase was done and what that was was bond capacity to make payments on a future loan. So the debt capacity was what the rate increase was for, for this project. So what we're collecting are the bond, the annual bond payments that we'll need to be making for the transfer station and the maintenance facility and the Westside location. It's all packaged into this one. Now there will be a second issuance of bonds to complete the projects as we're doing it in three phases. This will complete the first two phases, which will be the maintenance facility and the Westside location. Thank you, director. And I have one more followup there. roughly how much we collected through that new fee and how much this would draw that down and just to package it together, my next would be, do you know what the status is on the final decision on the East side transfer station? I know there were a number of locations that were being evaluated. I just don't recall that we ever made the final decision there or what that timeline would be with where we are now. Councilor Davis, Councilor President, yes, so we've collected, to date, I can't give you an exact number, but it's right around $10 million for future bond payments or to start using our project. We have 4 million in debt service for our first annual payment that, so we'll have one payment already in debt service. And then we allocated another, I think it's 6 million that is already put aside in a CIP-coded fund for this project. And that can even be moved to debt service for a future bond payment as well. Now, in regards to location, we looked at several places. We were moving forward with one close to the airport. However, the FAA denied us doing that after we had gone several steps in getting that property. But we have two, three other locations that are we're actively seeking right now. We are in talks on one of those properties as we speak. Thank you, I appreciate it. That's pretty good numbers off the top of your head, but I think that's right. So we appreciate that very much. And I think it would be great. I know Councilor Benton is interested in those two since those locations are likely both in one of our districts, but perhaps as a follow-up between now and our next meeting, if we could follow up about that process offline, it would be great. I'd love to hear more about where we're coming with that. But with that, I'll turn it over to Councilor Benton who has a question. Thank you, Mr. Director. Would this, would this, would this pay for the compressed natural gas fueling facility at Edith and Dr. Griegos? Councilor President, Councilor Benton, this will Our plans do have CNG facilities at the Edith location where our administration and maintenance facility will be. So we are actively working with a group to try and get somebody to help us with the CNG, but that is part of this package. And so, President and Director, so we are moving forward with the intention in any way, which has been a long standing intention of the environment to go with CNG fuel. the council president and councilor Benton, yes, we've already started the purchase of CNG trucks. As of right now, we have five and we actually have four more on order. So we are gonna need to have a CNG facility at the Edith location for at least our trucks as we continue to convert over. Thank you. And Mr. President, yeah, just for people who are listening and answers, CNG, you know, there's a lot of discussion over the years that it's the, bridge fuel to a great extent. We're probably not gonna see electric refuse trucks in the near future, but it's a heck of a lot less carbon intensive and damaging as diesel. So thank you, Mr. Director and thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor. I see Councilor Pena with a follow-up. Councilor. Thank you, Mr. President. Waylon, I was just wondering about the interest rate you have here 4.157%. Seems relatively low, but is this pre COVID? I mean, or is there an opportunity to get a lower interest rate based on where the market is or are these tied in already locked in? Council President and Councillor Pena, These were estimates based on when we started the process and we started the process about six weeks before COVID. They're a very conservative estimate as far as the percentage rate. Now that we've gone through this and that the interest rates are lower, there's a possibility it will be lower than what that is. But this was based on what we think our bond rating would be at the time and the interest rate that we felt was a conservative base to use. So there could potentially, Mr. President, so there could potentially be more savings. Yes. OK, thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Great questions. Any other questions on this matter? Seeing none, Councilor Gibson to close on 08 as substituted. Thank you, Mr. President. I urge you support. Thank you. Ms. Yara, did you follow the roll? I'm sorry. I believe I put that on pause. I see Councilor Jones with a follow up. Nevermind. Now back to the Mr. Ardwell, we'll call vote on 08 as substituted. Okay, Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Bassan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Okay, that passes on a nine zero vote. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Howard. Thank you, Director Whalen. Thanks for being here. Next up is O11. It's granting a franchise authority to PNM to maintain and operate electric power infrastructure in the city of Albuquerque right away. I'll move a do pass on O11. And I see a Councillor Bassan, thank you for the second. Councillor's discussion or question. on this item? Raise your hand, please, using the tool. Councilor Benton, did you have a follow-up? I do, Mr. President. I want to pose a question to Mr. Melendrez or Ms. Yi from City Legal, who is our expert on some of these franchises. So I'm gonna pose a theoretical, which is not really theoretical. On North 4th Street, in the oldest parts of that corridor, we've got conditions where we've got a three and a half or four foot wide sidewalk with a big old PNM pole right in the middle. And as I understand the language in this bill or in this agreement, PNM, if the city has a, all that works project to remedy something like this. As I understand it, it would be on PNM's dime to get that poll relocated in some way. But that isn't my question. My question is in this unique circumstance where there's very limited right of way, this would be a theoretical, and it's something that we've struggled with in the past sometimes with PNM. There may be no option but to underground that facility and that certainly involves some expense. But I would imagine, my question is if the ADA justifies it and the city has verified that there's no other option, to go underground in a situation like that. Is P&M obligated to pay the cost of that underground? I think I want to send that to, I'm going to start with Mr. Aguilar, I believe, from City Legal with Ms. Yees in the DMD conference room with the question about the negotiations or the obligation of P&M relating to ADA compliance. Yeah. Mr. President Davis, Councillor Benton, this is Mr. Aguilar. Councillor Benton, the last part of your question tailed off, so I couldn't hear the last part. Could you restate that, please? Mr. Sure, I can repeat that. I know I've had some problems with my microphone on my old messy computer here. In a condition, in a situation where there's not enough right away to do anything else, This is a specific condition that I'm aware of, not just on North 4th Street. And there's no other place to put a pole where we've already got minimal sidewalks anyway. I realize that the agreement probably doesn't get into this level of detail, but I'm raising the issue because I know it to be an issue. Grounding, undergrounding that facility may be the only alternative. And so the way this reads right now is that expense on P&M. Yes, right? Councilor Kretzmann, should I talk? Yes. Speak louder. Good evening, everyone. It's Jane here, and we have the legal department, President Davis, and Councillor Manton. I'll try to answer that question as best I can. This is a franchise authority that gives P&M the right to use cities right away to put infrastructure in there for the provision of electric are also going to be working on a right-of-way ordinance that will apply to all public utilities so that would be PNM, New Mexico GAN and the Water Authority as a separate matter where something like what you're raising could be more explicitly addressed than it is addressed in this. However, the ordinance that we are proposing today does reflect state law on relocation. And so I would just take it one step beyond what you raised in your question and your comments, Councillor Vanden, that the idea that a relocation for a municipal project addressing public health, safety, and general welfare would be the financial responsibility of the utility because the utility is in the right of way as privilege and that the assumption in the case law is very well settled that they are in there as a privileged subject to these projects. Now the question you're raising about a poll that is in the right of way and that the ADA cannot be complied with except through underground is actually addressed in case law. And so there is a case involving city of Albuquerque about undergrounding for aesthetic purposes would have to be absorbed by the city ratepayers. But if it's an undergrounding for a municipal project affecting public health safety and general welfare, the legal department, you know, preliminarily, of course, the P&M attorney is here. And so, you know, whenever you're raising an issue, lawyers, you know that there's asking for a point and counterpoint. There's nothing straightforward. But in my mind, on behalf of the city, I think it is straightforward that if it is undergrounded for that purpose, for the compliance with ADA, then I would say that it's not aesthetic. But then potentially the city of PNM would have a discussion about whether that was the only alternative. Council would bet. And if I could take more hypothetical down the road a little bit to answer the question as best I can. But I think that that's pretty much it. This is a pretty bare bones ordinance. And we're going to continue working on those very important details in the future. Thank you, Mr. Yee. And Mr. President, thank you. And thanks to everyone's attention for this. I realized from the staff write-ups and also my understanding of the history is that this is an important advancement. We've kind of been operating on a, well, we've kept an old agreement alive for quite some time now. We appreciate P&M's working with us to, make this happen and also the expertise of the legal department specifically is always right on top of these things so thank you Mr. President. Thank You Councillor Benton I see councillors Borrego, Pena and Gibson to follow and so we'll start with Councillor Borrego. Councillor Benton I just wanted to kind of give you some background in terms of long we've been asking for this in the 90s when we were doing sector plans there were there was much language written into many sector plans asking that existing lines be underground you know at the expense of PNM so there is quite a history on this and especially in areas where we had really small sidewalks, I think like three foot sidewalks. And unfortunately that never happened. And so the history of this happening has been going on for quite a long time, the request. So I, you know, I'm just giving you a little bit of background there because I personally wrote this into many of those plans at the time and it never happened. So I just wanted to give you that background. Thank you, Councillor. And Councillor Pena. Thank you, Mr. President. Councillor Benton, I just want to say I appreciate the, I have a question around ADA compliance and with this agreement, as it was stated, it's been a long time since agreement and it expired in 94 and it was actually adopted long before that. But my question was around the ADA compliance and it's also around right of way. I was just wondering if it's written in there in terms of right of way and who, we have some issues here in the Southwest Mesa some illegal dumping and the PNM lines that run practically obviously kind of horizontally across the boundaries of some of our communities here. And there's always been this question about right away and whose responsibility it is to clean up. So would these things be addressed in there or is it addressed? And, do they share the responsibility of some of these cleanups or is it the responsibility of PNM? Would it be? Mr. Aguilar, I believe that's for you. President Davis and Councilor Pena. President Davis and Councilor Pena, thank you for your question. So again, that is a right-of-way management issue that we're hoping to address in the future. The right-of-way is shared by, at this point in time in 2020, by many utilities, not many, but by the utilities, and at this point, many telecommunications companies. So the question of, is responsible for cleanup with a requirement for the investigation on a case-by-case basis. But I think that the important thing is that these ordinances that we've been writing, including the Comcast ordinance and now the PNM ordinance, look at the issue of coordinating of the right of way much more than the government, the city government and the utilities looked at it in the past in 1967, because the right of way was much simpler back in the day. And so going forward, it is a partnership and the city will have to work with the utilities to come up with good ways to coordinate those things like compliance with ADA, like keeping the right of way clean and that kind of thing. But this is just the first step. I'm sorry I don't have a more specific answer. It's just this is a good step because we're talking with the utilities. And the next step is to look at many of the issues that President Davis, Council Batten, Thank you. Councilor Gibson. Mr. President, so, Ms. Yee, I think what I heard you saying was that PNM will not be erecting poles in the middle of sidewalks in the future. Is that what I heard? PNM has, I'm sorry, President Davis and Councillor Gibson. To answer your question, PNM is currently, whether these are an ordinance or not, they are required to abide by ADA requirements. And this ordinance makes it clear that PNM is responsible for abiding by all state and federal law and the city's construction codes and all that. Whatever governs construction, PNM is subject to that. But when you're talking about specific issues, it's just the way things are in the world that we need to talk with the other parties about how we're going to handle each situation. And those are important. issue that the city administration and the legal department will address. Thank you, Ms. Yee. And I agree with you, but that was true 20 years ago. And I know I have sidewalks in my district, and I'm sure everyone else does too, that has exactly that, a poll, a PNM poll, directed right in the middle of a sidewalk. and you know not within the past certainly within the past 20 years so uh but um anyway i appreciate your work on this you do a really nice job and i appreciate that thank you thank you councilor gibson i agree and it is good to have pnm at the table we the administration's done a great job in the last few years working on these franchise agreements to ensure that we're keeping up with the times and thinking about these right-of-way issues in a different way. It's great to have you all working on this and we appreciate it. Councilors, any other discussion on item 011? Going once, going twice, seeing none. Ms. Yara, take the vote on 011. Okay, we'll go to Councilor Senna. Yes. Councilor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Basan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. And Councillor Harris. Okay, I got that, yes, thank you, Councilor. That passes on a nine zero vote, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Hora, thank you, Councilors. Councilor Gibson for R26. Thank you, Mr. President. R26 is adopting the 2020 Action Plan and Program Investment Summary for the Expenditure of Community Development Block Grant, Home Investment Partnerships Program, and Emergency Solutions Grant Funds. providing an appropriation to the Department of Family and Community Services for 2020 US Department of Housing and Urban Development Entitlement funds. I'll move it, do pass. Thank you, counselors. And I have a second from Councilor Basson. Counselors, any discussion on this item? Seeing none at the moment, I just wanna clarify or ask the administration to help us clarify. This is a part of our regular CDBG FY current 2020 plan, but this is separate from any new CDBG funds that the city might be eligible for under the current, like CARES Act, Corona recovery. Is that right? I assume Ms. Nair or Mr. Fochner. Council President Davis, that is correct. Thank you very much. Councilor, any other questions on this item? Seeing none, Councillor Gibson to close on R26 as presented. All right. I do urge your support on this. Ms. Yarrow. OK. Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Bassan. Yes. Councilor Borrego. Yes. Councilor Davis. Yes. Councilor Gibson. Yes. Councilor Jones. Yes. Councilor Harris. Yes. Thank you, that passes on a 9-0 vote. Thank you. Councilor Senna for R33. Thank you, Mr. President. R33 is approving the application and petition of Pulte Homes of New Mexico for formation of the Inspiration Public Improvement District pursuant to the Public Improvement District Act. I do move a do pass. And Council Borrego is a second for that one. Councilors, any discussion on R33? Going once, going twice, seeing none. Councilor Senator Close. Thank you and I urge your support. Miss Yara for the roll call please. Do I have a second on that? It was Councillor Borrego, I'm sorry. Okay, and I'll go to the vote. Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Basan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Thank you. That passes on a nine zero vote. Thank you, Ms. Yoram. Councillor Pena to present R36. Thank you, Mr. President. R36 is urging the United States Congress to amend or enact provisions of the CARES Act to allow for reimbursement to local governments for recapture of lost revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic. I move it do pass. And I also have an amendment and it should be in your iPads. Thank you, Councillor Pena. I see a number of seconds, so I'm gonna pick Councillor Borrego's out of the list. Thank you very much. We'll clear the board for hands and then ask if councillors have any follow-up questions. I see Councilor Bassan with a question. Thank you, Mr. President. And it's not really a question so much as I am very grateful for this resolution because I think that it's a big struggle that we've been having with the funding that's coming in. So thank you, Councilor Pena for sponsoring this. I think it's definitely going to clarify some much, hopefully much needed money. Thank you. Thank you and Councillor Pena, I wanna come back to you really quickly, because you do have an amendment you mentioned and I glossed over it. So would you like to move amendment number one? Yes, I'd move amendment number one, but if you could actually read it into the record, I don't have it in front of me, but basically what it is is that prior to putting this resolution forward, I hadn't received an email which I think I got it this weekend. It's from the NLC, the National League of Cities and NACO, which is the National Association of Counties and the United States Conference of Mayors actually. And I'd like to add that as part of this amendment because it's supporting a letter that they've written. It has some additional content and it's to Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to Nancy Pelosi, to the Speaker of the House, Charles Schumer, Democratic leader, Kevin McCarthy, Republican leader, and it's just a joint letter asking for municipalities with populations less than 50,000 to be able to receive some of this coronavirus money. But in addition to that, it includes the relief that we desperately need would also be flexible. We strongly urge that the funding provided in the interim package allow for local governments to make up for lost revenue. and further that there'll be language in the interim package clarifying that the CARES Act funding can be used for the same purpose. So actually my resolution, it's all in this letter and I think it should be in your packets. I sent one to Stephanie Yatta to forward and that's what the amendment consists of. Okay and thank you Councillor Pena. I'm actually gonna just for the record and for folks following along at home, if it's okay I'm gonna ask Ms. Yarra just to read the text is fairly short for amendment number one and then we'll take a second and take questions on the amendment. Ms. Yarra would you read the amendment into the record for us please? Yes Mr. President, floor amendment one to R36 on page one after line 25 insert the following language. Whereas a survey conducted by the United States Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities of more than 2,100 local government officials shows that nearly all communities with a population above 500,000 will see a revenue decline this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. And more than half of those surveyed report that these revenue reductions will impact core city functions, including police hiring and retention and public safety. And on page two, line four, after the term CARES Act, insert the following, and interim spending bill. So basically this amendment just brings a little more language into the where as statements based on the letter that NLC did send to us. And then just clarifies that would not only be the cares act, but the interim spending bill that's being negotiated currently by the Congress that the council would be urging them to include revenue recuperation as it were. Thank you, Ms. Yara and thank you, Councilor Pena, I'm sorry. Just Mr. President, thank you. And if you could add into that amendment, the National Association of Counties, because it's a letter from all three of those bodies. And then just so that everybody knows the intent of my resolution is so that we could actually use these monies for voids in our budgets, but it does also have in the letter, it's kind of a joint letter that, actually has for populations under 50,000 that they would get the corona, the stimulus money as well. Thank you. So, I need the amendment. Adding ACO is an additional language in that language, is that correct? Yes, that's your present and I have it. Thank you. Councilor Borrego, I see you next. Is this for a second or a question or both? For a second. For a second. Thank you. Motion and a second on the amendment as presented by Councilor Pena. Councilors, any questions about the amendment as presented? Seeing none, Ms. Yarrow, would you call the roll call for the amendment? Yes, so vote on the amendment. Councilor Senna. Yes. Councilor Benton. Yes. Councilor Pena. Yes. Councilor Bassan. Yes. Councilor Borrego. Yes. Councilor Davis. Yes. Councilor Gibson. Councilor Gibson. Yes. Okay, thank you. Councilor Jones. Yes. And Councilor Harris. Yes. Thank you. The amendment passes on a 9-0 vote. Thank you. And I want to give the administration an opportunity to comment if they wish from the Mayor's conference room upstairs. Any comment from the administration before we return to Councilor Penny? No. Council President Davis, we're grateful for the support. As you know, revenue replacement is gonna be our single biggest challenge moving forward. And so if the treasury or whoever decides to let us use the money for that, that would be a really great thing for all of the residents of Albuquerque. So thank you for your support. Sorry, we're waiting on the president get back in. My apologies. Somehow I got dropped there. It's my turn this time. Thank you. I didn't get a chance to hear Ms. Nair, but did we conclude our comments there? Great. And Councillor Pena, to close. Thank you. I urge your support. Thank you, Ms. Yara for the vote. Okay, and I have a second by Councillor Borrego on that one. Councillor Senna. Yes. Councillor Benton. Yes. Councillor Pena. Yes. Councillor Bassan. Yes. Councillor Borrego. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Gibson. Yes. Councillor Jones. Yes. And Councillor Harris. Yes. Okay, that passes on a nine zero vote, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Yarra, we appreciate that. Counselors, the final item for our business this evening is the consideration of the veto override for the mayor's veto of R2032, passed at our last meeting establishing a CARES Act oversight committee. Before we consider the motion, let me just lay down a couple of things to explain how this process works. According to the charter, any mayor veto of legislation must be placed on the agenda for the next council meeting, which is this one. If a councilor wishes to attempt an override of the mayor's veto, you must make a motion to do so. If no motion is made or if a second is not received, the mayor's veto is sustained. Also, if a motion is made, a second is received, but six votes are not obtained in favor of the override, the mayor's veto is sustained. I'm gonna open the floor at this time for discussion or motions. on the consideration of the veto override R2032, which we're carrying as EC 68. Counselors for discussion, starting with Counselor Gibson. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll just go ahead and jump right to it. I will make the motion to override. I don't think we discussed this far enough last time. So we'll get a second chance. Okay, so we have a motion on the floor from Councilor Gibson for the override. I see Councilor Jones next and then Councilor Bassan and we'll be looking for a second and absent that we'll move on. Councilor Jones. Thank you, Mr. President. I had planned on introducing this override also, but in lieu of I'm the second and say thank you Councilor Gibson. This indeed does need more discussion and certainly, more consideration of what can be done in fit so hopefully we can override the veto and we can veto and we can get to work on making this correct so thank you i do offer my second so the motion on the floor is to override the veto with a second from counselor jones counselors if you have other questions or discussion please use the raised hand feature Seeing none, I'll take the privilege of the chair and just say that I appreciate very much everybody working on this. This was a hard conversation for us to have last time in figuring out how to find the right balance. Our charter gives both the mayor and the city council the responsibility to work jointly to develop the city's budget, both in terms of how we spend the money on the planning side and appropriating those funds. And I think there was a lot of interest from the, across the council to be sure that everyone got an opportunity to review how we might do this unusual CARES Act funding and reimbursement, excuse me. And I appreciate very much the chance to talk to the mayor. I know he spoke into a number of counselors and in his veto message, the message that we wanna work cooperatively to come up with a strategy to ensure that the public and the council gets a chance to look at those options that are available to us, both either through a committee of the whole process or a study session, And I look forward to if the council does not override this veto for us to establish that process going forward. But I'll, so for that reason, I think we can find a better answer that answers more of the concerns from other counselors. But even as a sponsor of that legislation, I'm willing to defer to other counselors who think we need a different process. And so I won't be voting, I will not be voting to override the mayor's veto on this in favor of a different process that we can develop cooperatively. I see Councillor Benton, you have a comment or question, Councillor Benton. Thank you, Mr. President. And I want to express in this discussion with the mayor, I want to make it clear that it was not our intention as the sponsors anyway, the co-sponsors of this, that there's any lack of faith in the administration's willingness to do the right thing with how we move forward with how we extend these funds. But, and at the same time, I also very much respect the critique by the councilors who voted against the, I just want to reiterate something that I said during the previous debate. And that is, as budget chair, as chair of the committee of the whole, I absolutely want to hear from any councilor who has a concern about where we're heading with this. where the administration would be heading or different directions that individual counselors and the council as a whole feels that we need to be going with any part of this. And we realize this is a huge, huge amount of money potentially for the city. And I just wanna say that when we look at the committee of the whole process, which is a very good process, the extent these funds are part of that are part of a few fiscal year 21 budget I do support as as necessary additional perhaps to me of the whole meetings you know there's a process laid out I feel that with regard to the idea of study sessions, study sessions are great, but under the current circumstances, we need to have these discussions broadcast. So I would be advocating for if necessary, additional Committee of the Whole meetings, we know we need to look into what all that would look like. But I appreciate the sentiments expressed by other counselors, including those who voted against this. and by the mayor and his veto message and I will not be supporting the override. Thank you, Councilor Besson and then Councilor Jones. Councilor Besson. Councilor Besson, if you're there, we can't hear you. Thank you. Sorry. Thanks, Mr. President. I definitely respect and see where the mayor has come in with his veto and I can see the sense of urgency to make sure to expedite any processing of the funding that comes in. And I think that whether it's the study group or the extra committee of the whole meetings, I'm in support of all of that as well. So I have to just make sure to say that I think that there's that obligation. with our end as what our involvement is as a city council in parallel and in tandem with what the mayor does. And so I wanna make sure to be clear that in no disrespect or a lack of that trust in knowing that maybe that the administration is going to do the right thing because of how my constituents feel for a lot of them. And I think that I have an obligation to make sure to still I try for this override, even though I still look forward to making sure to participate however I can in doing the right thing for our city with this funding. Thank you, Councilor Jones. Thank you, Mr. President. I am confident we won't be able to override this detail, but it's very important that we have open discussions about what's going to be done and what is happening. This is, I think I said this a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week ago, this is a city. And we are there to protect the entire city. And it doesn't depend, it doesn't matter where in the city we live, what we do for a living, what our background is, what our ethnicity is. It's essential that we take care and study very carefully and do the right thing for the entire city. And I see some things happening today that are extremely uncomfortable, which should have been better thought out. Unfortunately, the city's not the one who made these decisions, but I think it's a sorry time when we close down private sector small businesses who do the same things as big box stores. The big box stores are allowed to stay open and do the same kind of thing that the small local businesses could do, but we've shut them down. We've allowed the big box stores to remain open. I don't want to see, and again, I must reiterate that that was not the city that did that, but that is one of the major worst results we could get from what's going on here. We must be sure that we honor, we protect, and we take care of all citizens of Albuquerque. And that's what I want to see done here. So I am hoping we have some very public and some very open discussions about how this is done and where the funds are going. I think if we don't, we will have failed all of the citizens. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Jones. Councilor Pena. It's not a meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. I agree with Councilor Jones. I think that we have a responsibility to all our citizens in the city of Albuquerque. My argument last week was that we just have a fair and inclusive process and we all have just different needs and unique needs in our own districts. And I felt like when there's $150 million that were at stake that it was important to have a process that included all counselors rather than a few counselors. So, you know, what I'd like for, I'd like is for the administration to notify the council prior to submitting any legislation for introduction in order for us to call for a study session before spending any CDBG dollars, transportation dollars, airport dollars. It will allow for the entire council the opportunity to provide valuable input on these dollars. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Pena. Councilor Senna. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you for your statement earlier. I do wanna say that as we're seeing federal money being spent, it hasn't actually been distributed most equitably and so I believe you know that bigger box stores that's correct. They are getting a lot of Corporations are getting a lot more funding than what small businesses have been able to access and with this inequitable distribution of funding it it brings harm to the smaller communities. And I believe that with all nine counselors in evaluation of what is best for our city, it will bring some of that equity along with this funding that's coming down. So I do appreciate some of the other counselors stating that, of course, that was not their intentions. And I hope that we can bring more transparency and more representation to the table with these study sessions and more conversations with the mayor's administration as well as to how this funding will be spent. So thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Borrego and then Councilor Harris. Thank you, Mr. President and Councilors. Trust me, my business has been closed for two months already. And it's very difficult to think that I cannot go into my business. I cannot access any of my merchandise. I cannot have a sale and I'm, You know, my taxes are due and, you know, I'm gonna be two months short of any revenue. So I appreciate what Councilor Jones said about opening businesses. Trust me, I am chomping at the bit to get my business open, but I think we have to do it. with the health, safety, and general welfare of the public in mind, because we have not reached our peak yet. And until we go through that peak and we know that it's safe to go back out and open our businesses, it's important that we maintain our distance. And You know, I think that this money that's coming down is a lot of money and I am going to be responsible to my constituents. And as you guys know, I proposed an amendment that at least added one more counselor to this group of three counselors and that was shot down. You know, I was looking at issues that are on the other side of the river that may affect or probably may not affect my district because there are programs that don't necessarily affect my district on the Northwest Quadrant. So I still have a responsibility to my constituents. And I think it's important that we all have a voice and we all have a seat at the table. And for that reason, I will not support this override. I think that it's important that we're all sitting at the table. Thank you, Councilor Harris. Yeah, very briefly, it's already been said, I'm not gonna support the override because I think it does violate the charter, so it creates a meeting council and I think we all have to be involved, but I would like to take the opportunity, I'm glad I'm hearing people talk about the, I'll just use the word idiocy of closing down small local businesses so that you can funnel everyone into packed big box stores. I think that makes no sense. Several counselors have talked about it today and I hope the journal talks about it back to back. Thank you, counselor. Seeing no other comment there, I'll add my own and then we'll turn it back over to the counselor Gibson who proposed the override to close. Let me just say, like, I appreciate that. I appreciate everyone's interest. I think we will find a way and just to be sure that it's transparent. We have the ability to call an emergency meeting. virtually no notice should we need to, but certainly to install additional meetings before our May 4th meeting if we get to the position where we need to start drawing down those dollars or reappropriating them from the Federal 265 Fund. So we do have some options available and I think we can come up with a process that includes the public and we'll certainly do that. I would want to say it's sort of tangentially related, but since others have brought it up, I think we do have to really fight hard and work hard for our small businesses. But I also understand from an emergency management standpoint that it's simply much easier for us to regulate and to work with a handful of business at least at the beginning of this, to be sure that we get those processes right. And so it's, for example, a lot easier to work with 10 big box stores on getting those processes right than it is with 300 smaller stores. But I do hope, and I think we are seeing some signs already, both from the state and from other states around the country, that as this moves forward, we can find a better way once that curve is sort of flat or plateaued and moving back. But New Mexico is not there yet. And we are still looking for our medical peak sometime in the next few weeks. weeks. I watch and drive by Gibson every day and watch the Army Corps of Engineers building a field hospital in the old Lovelace facility to take that on. And so we know that we're not quite there yet in New Mexicans. And so I hope we also use our platform to look at how we can ask the state to help us help small businesses to keep our city moving to our federal delegation. And I appreciate everyone's cooperation in doing that together. However, we end up there. We certainly have a good way now online and otherwise to include the public and how we might do that. So seeing none, I see Councilor Pena with a final comment and then I'll just go straight to Councilor Gibson to close. Councilor Pena. I was hoping that we could hear from the administration in terms of, I made some comments about before them sending down any kind of legislation that it could come to us first. Council President Davis, Councilor Pena, I think we've used the study sessions really successfully in a number of tricky issues, whether that be the civilian police oversight revisions or other legislation over the past couple of years and we would be happy to use that process for these issues as well. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other comments, I'll go to Councilor Gibson to close on the override. Thank you, Mr. President. I just have a couple of real quick comments. This bill really didn't have anything to do with reopening the economy, which parenthetically, I'm in agreement. I think we're all pretty much in agreement on that. We need to have a plan, but it's way too early. It's quite frightening. But I did want to address a couple of counselors I heard from just a few moments ago talked about a lack of respect for the mayor's office or something like that. And I think this council has done much to show deference and respect to the mayor's office with recent legislation that has been passed. We changed our own process, budget process, out of, from a request from the mayor's office. So now we have 45 days instead of the typical six weeks, even though we're gonna blast way past the July 1st deadline. So we've done that, we've certainly given the mayor greater authority and more defined authority to act and act in a fast and nimble way during emergency conditions. And I really do appreciate not only the mayors, but everybody in the administration in trying to get information out in a very timely way. I think that's been really helpful. So we've done a number of things already and I didn't even really worked too hard on the list here just now. So this is not that. What this is, an oversight committee was just that, to make sure that all of the people in Albuquerque that we represent do get the benefit from these dollars coming from the CARES Act. So, you know, there's no reason to, you know, have hurt feelings over this, you know. After two years, I would imagine that you, that the mayor would be pretty hardened by now, evidently not. That's, well, I'm sure it's gonna happen again. You'll have another chance at it. So anyway, I do urge your support on this override of the bill. Thank you. Mr. Gibson, as a reminder, the vote to yes would be to override the mayor's veto. A vote of no would be not to. Ms. Yara for the vote. And as a reminder, we need six votes to override the mayor's veto. Ms. Yara for the roll call. Yes, so this is overriding the mayor's veto.