Regular Governing Body Meeting - Last Wednesday Wed, Jan 28, 2026 · Governing Body https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/927 == Executive Summary == The Governing Body meeting on January 28th, 2026, saw the appointment and swearing-in of Paul Bamonte as the new District 2 City Councilor, followed by the approval of amended City Council committee assignments. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to a comprehensive presentation and discussion on the 'Santa Fe Forward' General Plan update, which aims to guide the city's development for the next 20-25 years. This included an overview of the plan's progress, extensive public engagement efforts, and the launch of new public-facing online tools like the 'City Smart' website and parcel viewer to enhance transparency and accessibility of planning information. Key administrative actions included the approval of contract amendments for the city's timekeeping and phone systems, and a grant for the Kinda Beautification Program. Councilors also discussed upcoming legislative items related to water system regulations and funding for wastewater and water treatment facility improvements. The meeting concluded with an executive session to discuss litigation, and a public comment period where a resident raised concerns about city transparency, urban planning, and permitting processes. == Key Decisions == - Paul Bamonte was approved as District 2 City Councilor (7-0 vote). - Amended City Council committee assignments were approved (8-0 vote). - The consent agenda was approved (8-0 vote). - Amendment number one to the UKG Kronos Systems LLC agreement was approved (8-0 vote). - Amendment number two to the Altura Communication Solutions agreement was approved (8-0 vote). - The Kinda Beautification Program grant agreement with the New Mexico Department of Transportation and associated budget amendment resolution were approved (8-0 vote). == Motions & Votes == - Motion to approve amended agenda — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to approve Paul Bamonte as District 2 City Councilor — Passed by roll call vote (7-0, with Councilor Barrett voting yes, and Councilor Bamonte not yet sworn in). - Motion to approve amended City Council Committee Assignments — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to approve Consent Agenda — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to approve Amendment number one to the UKG Kronos Systems LLC agreement — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to approve Amendment number two to the Altura Communication Solutions agreement — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to approve Kinda Beautification Program grant agreement with the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the associated budget amendment resolution — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to reorder agenda (skip 'Matters from the City Attorney,' proceed with 'Matters from the City Clerk' and 'Communications from the Governing Body' until 7:00 PM, then return to 'Petitions from the Floor,' and finally 'Matters from the City Attorney') — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to return to 'Petitions from the Floor' at 7:00 PM — Passed by roll call vote (8-0). - Motion to enter Executive Session — Passed by roll call vote (7-0). - Motion to reconvene in Open Session — Passed by roll call vote (7-0). == Public Comment == During the public comment period, Stephanie Benonato raised several critical points, including inquiries about the hiring process for permanent City Manager and City Attorney, concerns about downtown accessibility due to relaxed parking requirements, a suggestion to update neighborhood association contact information, and a request for genuine public participation in general plan development rather than just reaction. She also complained about an IPRA lawsuit regarding unprovided documents and issues with permit requirements for licensed trades, specifically regarding license verification and incorrect company information. == Topics == - General Plan Update - District 2 Councilor Appointment - Water Project Funding - Backflow Prevention Ordinance - Wastewater Treatment Facility - City Council Committee Assignments - Legislative Session Engagement - City Smart Website - Invocation and Remembrances - Public Petitions/Concerns - Executive Session - Budget Session Feedback - Meet with Mike Events - Staff Appreciation - Agenda Approval == Full Transcript == It's in the back. Are we live? We are live. Okay, thank you. I'd like to call the January 28th, 2026 Governing Body meeting to order. Tonight, we will have Councilor Barrett lead in the Pledge of Allegiance, Councilor Fagali lead in the salute to New Mexico flag, and Councilor Faulkner lead us with invocation remembrances. Please stand as you're able. I'd like to start tonight with recognizing the unprecedented unrest that's happening in our country and the innocent lives that are being taken for exercising their constitutional privileges. I think now more than ever, we need leadership that calls for calm and collaboration and that is willing to listen. I think as leaders, we need to be very mindful and serious about how we treat each other and how we treat the community and how we protect the community. I would also say that it's the legislative session and a lot of very important decisions are being made for the state of New Mexico and all of the citizens within New Mexico. Some decisions are being made that will impact citizens in other states indirectly. So I encourage everyone who can to engage in the process and at least track what's happening. We have legislation related to healthcare. There's a compact between the states that's up for debate and has seemingly will pass, which means New Mexicans can get healthcare in other states. There's a lot of important legislation around immigration. There's a lot of important legislation happening right now. So I just encourage everyone in the community, if you can, please participate because these are very serious and meaningful decisions that are being made. Thank you, Councilor. Anybody else? Councilor Cassid. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I assume we're going on to remembrances at this moment. I would like to remember Mr. Patrick Trujillo who passed early this morning. He is the cousin of my partner. He was a proud Northern New Mexican from Española, New Mexico, and he owned the Chimayo Trading Post. The Trujillo family had actually owned the trading post for over 100 years, and so he was the most recent in that legacy. I know that he is going to be very much missed by his family. He was a very kind, thoughtful man. So I do just want to send my condolences out to his family, to the Trujillo family, the Cerna family, and the others that I know are missing him. Thank you. Let's just take a quick moment to reflect our own thoughts and pray for those in our community. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call, please? Certainly, Mayor. Councilor Barrett. Here. Councilor Casset. Here. Councilor Castro. Councilor Chavez. Here. Councilor Faulkner. Here. Councilor Fagali. Here. Councilor Garcia. Here. Mayor Garcia. Present. You have a quorum, Mayor. Thank you so much. The next item is approval of the agenda. I do have one proposed amendment, which is I would like to move item 21 to be the next item of business. Second. Before we second, are there any other changes? Okay. So there's a motion and then... Go ahead. Can you make a motion if you can't vote? Yeah. Okay. Sorry, I didn't know. We haven't played this game before. But I don't think there needs... I was going to say, I don't know if we've made the motion quite yet. Actually, Mayor, move to approve as amended. Second. All right. With that being said... All those in favor say aye. I think we have to do roll call because I'm online, don't we? Oh, yes. I forgot. I sincerely apologize, Councilor Chavez. Roll call vote, please, Madam City Clerk. Councilor Barrett. Yes. Councilor Casset. Yes. Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Chavez. Yes. Councilor Faulkner. Yes. Councilor Fagali. Yes. Councilor Garcia. Yes. Motion approved. Okay, Madam City Clerk, what's the next item up? Next item is item 21A. Let me get there. Sorry about that. Item 21A is District 2 City Councilor appointment of Paul Bamonte, term ending 12/31/2027. Move to approve. Second. I do want to say that given the first 28 days, this is definitely one of the hardest decisions I've had to make. We had initially 12 folks put forth their name, and then through the process, ultimately, I had nine folks to build a decision from. It was ultimately Mr. Bamonte who I selected, but I wholeheartedly hope that the remaining eight candidates do stay engaged, involved, and bettering our community. It is because of the passion that those other eight candidates brought forward that gives me hope for our community. I truly feel that we are at a point in time where I'm just grateful that so many folks took the opportunity to step up and represent District 2. So I know District 2 will be in good hands with Mr. Bamonte should he be approved by the Governing Body tonight. Any other comments or questions? Being none, Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Certainly, Mayor. Councilor Casset. Yes. Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Chavez. Yes. Councilor Faulkner. Yes. Councilor Fagali. Yes. Councilor Garcia. Yes. Councilor Barrett. Yes. Motion is approved. Right. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, can you take us to the next item, please? Next item is 21B, swearing in of Paul Bamonte to District 2 City Councilor, and I will do the swearing in for him. Mr. Bamonte, if you'll please step to the center of the room. Gerlyn, did you get the handheld mic? Okay. The Zoom can't hear you. Okay, Mr. Bamonte, if you'll please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I... I... And state your name. Paul Bamonte. Having been elected to the office of City Councilor District 2... Having been elected to the office of City Councilor District 2... Of the City of Santa Fe, State of New Mexico... Of the City of Santa Fe, State of New Mexico... Do solemnly swear... Do solemnly swear... That I will support the Constitution of the United States... That I will support the Constitution of the United States... The Constitution and laws of the State of New Mexico... The Constitution and laws of the State of New Mexico... And the ordinances of the City of Santa Fe... And the ordinances of the City of Santa Fe... And that I will faithfully and impartially... And that I will faithfully and impartially... Discharge the duties of said office... Discharge the duties of said office... To the best of my ability. So help me God. To the best of my ability. So help me God. Amen. You have a 20-minute speech. Congratulations, Councilor Bamonte. Madam City Clerk, the next item on the agenda. Next item, Mayor, is approval of consent agenda. I think we've got 21C still. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, 21C. I apologize. 21C is amended City Council committee assignments. It's the will of the Governing Body. Move to approve. Second. And just for clarification, this is the committee assignments are being amended to include Councilor Bamonte's assignments, and then I had a quick change with one of the other chairs' positions. So that's the reason for the amended committee assignments. So with that being said, no other discussion, Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Certainly, Mayor. Councilor Bamonte. Yes. Councilor Casset. Yes. Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Chavez. Yes. Councilor Faulkner. Yes. Councilor Fagali. Yes. Councilor Garcia. Yes. Councilor Barrett. Yes. Motion passed. Great. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, please. Now, we'll go back to approval of consent agenda. There were no items pulled for discussion from the Governing Body. Move to approve. Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing or seeing none, Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Councilor Casset. Yes. Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Chavez. Yes. Councilor Faulkner. Yes. Councilor Fagali. Yes. Councilor Garcia. Yes. Councilor Barrett. Yes. Councilor Bamonte. Yes. Motion passed. Okay. Before we move forward, Madam City Clerk, can we get a name tag for Councilor Bamonte? Yes, Mayor. And it's Councilor Bamonte. This is temporary. So you will get an official one here soon. Okay, Madam City Clerk, next item on the agenda, please. Next item is eight. It is the presentations. 8A is the General Plan update. This will be presented by Heather Lamboy, Land Use Director. I have a loud voice, so it managed to carry anyway. So anyway, at this point, we have two presentations for you. The first presentation will be regarding the City Smart website that we have developed in conjunction with the General Plan update project. What is really critical and important in our city is having access to information, especially with planning and land use projects as well as programs. The heart of it all is engaging with our community members. So there's a lot of things that we've done with the City Smart, in addition to providing information, also giving people the opportunity to engage with case members, case managers, and members of the planning and land use staff. So we will, without further ado, start that presentation. Jay Pucket is remote. He's going to take us through the computer operations. He's been promoted. Okay. He has been promoted, and he'll need to be able to also make a presentation. And just a quick question for Mr. City Attorney. Given that we want to start with City Smart, but it's actually the second item on the agenda, do we need to amend the agenda, or I'm happy to move forward with the cadence that works best for you, Miss Lamboy, Director Lamboy, but want to... My understanding was that the City Smart was the first on the agenda, but did it get switched back? Okay. At one point, I saw a draft with the City Smart first. So I'm so sorry. Oh, no, no worries. No worries. We can go ahead and just, since we have momentum, we'll continue through City Smart. So that, Mr. Mayor, that would require an amendment. Okay, never mind. Okay. So then we do got to start with the General Plan. Yes. Okay. So this is the preferred scenario. The General Plan update is something that is mandated by the State of New Mexico and is a really important piece of what we do here as a community, as your role in the Governing Body and implementing the policies that are going to be associated with the General Plan. Last time it was adopted was in 1999, and so it's been over a quarter century. There was an attempt to update the General Plan back in the 2010s when I was here previously, and it unfortunately didn't happen. So we have great momentum now, and I'm really excited to give you an update. I'd like to introduce Mjet Renu, who is the principal with Continuum Strategies, and he will be leading us through the conversation, as well as Nick Fasio, who is with WSP. Good evening, Mayor and Councilors, and congratulations on your appointment, Councilor Bamonte. I just have a moment here to plug in. Sure this comes through. So we are plugged in. There it is. Okay. So tonight, we are here to provide you a status briefing and a preview of in-progress material that's been developing with Santa Fe Forward since this project began in earnest with consultant services in September of 2024. After these previews, we'll come back in a future meeting to continue our process to do a deeper dive into those materials. So a quick overview of what we're here to talk to you about today is to provide a quick background about Santa Fe Forward, its status, some findings at a high level that we've learned through this process, those previews, and then what's next. So for the background, I'm going to turn it to my colleague, Nick Fasio. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thanks, Manet and Heather. Nick Fasio, I'm with WSP. I'm local here to Albuquerque, New Mexico, so very glad to be in front of this body again. It's great to be back. I'll go ahead and go quickly through some of the background. Of course, the update to the general plan is really dictated by two major pieces of legislation or statutory authority. So the first is statutory authority, New Mexico Statutes Amended 319, which directs cities to prepare a master plan. And then this very governing body adopted Resolution 202315, directing the Planning and Land Use Department to update the general plan, which the current version was adopted in 1999 and it's not been substantively updated since. So as Heather mentioned, a pretty significant step. The general plan is really a visionary document, right? It helps set guidance and direction for the city moving forward for a planning horizon 20, 25 years, hopefully sooner than that. And it helps guide capital and operating annual budgets and also guides the departments on their various implementation plans moving forward for their initiatives. One of the things we seek to do with this general plan update is make it a little bit more usable, a little bit more user-friendly. We don't want it to sit on the shelf. So that means making it more concise, more straightforward, more legible, using clear language and a really appealing graphical layout so that people want to pick it up, they want to use it. And the general plan is policy-focused, meaning that it is intentionally broad. It is supposed to be advisory and therefore less detailed. And that is in contrast to something like the Land Development Code, which is really the implementation arm of the general plan that is regulatory and it is has a narrower focus so that it can actually guide decisions moving forward in a really clear way. So as Manet mentioned, this project kicked off in September of 2024. That's when the technical parts of this effort really commenced. Engagement commenced in earnest in January of last year, 2025. So we've been talking to the community for about a year now. Since that time, we've reached several key milestones, including the adoption of the assessment report. We've presented that before the governing body before in Stage Gate One, along with Planning Commission, the Technical Working Group, and our community partners. More about those in a sec. But that assessment report is really an existing conditions analysis. It's more than 600 pages, and it represents one of the most comprehensive bodies of work of existing conditions analysis for any municipality in the state of New Mexico. Since that time, we've also established the Community Partners Program and our Technical Working Group. That Technical Working Group is a body of 16 folks that have professional and lived experience in planning adjacent topics, the built environment, and that their purpose is really to make sure that the general plan update is not only informed by public engagement, but that it's also technically sound. Right? We want both. And then of course, we've gone through Stage Gate One as I mentioned, but also Stage Gates Two and Three. We have gone through Planning Commission and our Technical Working Group. So with this delivery method that we are using for Santa Fe Forward, which is the public-facing name of the general plan update, we go to Planning Commission and our Technical Working Group. We workshop any key milestone that we have with them before we come to Governing Body. That way we're getting feedback, we're getting input and buy-in as the plan moves forward. So we are currently underway in a number of areas. So we are preparing mission, vision, strategies, as well as the outline of what the plan document itself will contain, and we're about 85% complete with that effort. Another effort that we are currently in the midst of is preparing scenario frameworks, and these scenario frameworks will help sort of put more meat on the skeleton, right? It will help to start to shape what are the different future scenarios that Santa Fe might encounter and how might the community want to respond to those scenarios. We're about 65% of the way through that effort. And then the city's Smart Digital User Platform. That's an effort that my colleague Jay Pucket is going to present on next. That is the sort of one-stop digital shop where people can go for geographic information system-based information about the built environment as well as another a number of other city initiatives. And so this really represents a big step forward in making information accessible to people online, and that's about 80% of the way through. So it is live now. It went live in November of 2024. And it is a living product, so it will continue to evolve and grow as needs change for the city. We have some forthcoming tasks that we still need to work on and complete. That includes preparing the plan map and the plan document itself, as well as preparing an implementation or action plan. Right? We really want people to have information on how to apply the general plan in a real-world basis. And so that's what that implementation action plan is for. And of course, as I mentioned, we want the City Smart, the Digital User Platform, to continue to grow and evolve with additional modules and data sets. I've mentioned before at this body that public involvement and communications is really a cornerstone of the general plan effort. And our North Star with our public involvement communications program is our Community Partners Program. So this is an arrangement that the city has prepared. It's a pretty innovative program, and it distributes micro-grants to 15 community partners, 16 if we include PBLO of Tsuk, for them to carry the message of Santa Fe Forward and also collect input from their constituents in a deeper way that allows the city to connect with folks we might normally have a more difficult time reaching. I already mentioned the Technical Working Group, and we also offer briefings to interested parties. So, for example, a neighborhood association could contact the project team, ask for an update on the general plan. We're happy to go to that neighborhood association meeting and share information. We conducted an open house in June of 2025 that's pictured there, presented a large body of work on the assessment report to the public and collected their input. And we've also been at a number of tabling events over the summer and fall of 2025, really going out into the community and engaging with people where they already are. We've got a robust visual communications program that includes social media and a dedicated project website, as well as videos and other visual sort of communication methods for people that prefer to engage in that manner. I mentioned the Land Development Code earlier as well, and so we are ensuring alignment and collaboration with that process as it moves forward, and we also offer a completely bilingual program, ensuring that folks who speak Spanish can participate on equal terms with English speakers if they want to. So this is just a quick snapshot of public engagement results to date. So we've had more than 9,500 unique website visitors. We've had more than 788 completed surveys, including surveys from kids, youth, as well as Spanish speakers, which is a really great achievement. We spent more than 45 hours this summer and fall at more than 15 community events, resulting in more than 450 interactions that led to a written comment. And overall, we've received 8,000 pieces of public input that have informed the draft mission and vision and strategies that my colleague Manet is going to present to you. I also just a quick note about social media. In January 2026, only this month, we have had more than 16,000 views of our social media post related to this project, leading to 117 interactions. During the visioning public engagement phase that we conducted in the late summer, we ran that sort of engagement module for nine weeks, and we had more than 76,000 social media views and more than 450 interactions. So social media is definitely one method by which we're reaching folks. And just a quick note about the metrics we're seeing here. This is testament to not just how the program is designed and implemented, but to the care that Santa Feans have for their community, the interest that they're showing in this project, and also in the efforts and initiatives of city government. I've worked on other projects in, for example, the Portland Metro Area, where the topic of infrastructure was much more controversial than Santa Fe's general plan. And that's a metro area of 2 and a half million people, and they're seeing similar engagement metrics in terms of numbers. So, people in Santa Fe are really showing up to participate for this effort. And with that, I'll pass it back to Manet, who's going to talk about some of the findings that we're learning from our engagement process. Thank you, Nick. And so that was a great overview of the process, but what does that mean? Why is the general plan update important? So, we talked a bit about the regulatory requirement and also the city's adopted resolution, but it's about setting the stage for shared prosperity. It's about prioritizing investment by the public sector, the private sector, and partners. And it's also an opportunity for this mayor and governing body, because you will be the ones acting on this plan, to set those priorities and what that vision is and then to align the deploying of resources around that. So it is a very important long-term document for planning in Santa Fe. So some of the key findings that we've seen, and these are very broad because we have a short time before you today, but again, we will be back for a deeper dive. We've seen some great alignments across the general public and organized stakeholders and contributors such as the Technical Working Group and the Community Partners Program as to what the needs and the opportunities and dreams are in Santa Fe. And that's pretty remarkable to have that level of alignment. The differences are mainly on prioritization, more socioeconomic or more development economic development focused, depending on the audience. There's a broad agreement to spread inclusive opportunities throughout Santa Fe, that there's a community here that cares about everyone who's here today and who's coming tomorrow. And of course, a real desire to increase the variety of housing and to have it be more affordable because that's an acute issue here in Santa Fe, even more so than you see nationally. And the character of Santa Fe, of course, is remarkable and special. Everybody here wants to tame that while accommodating change to meet the ever-evolving needs of the community and the influences that affect Santa Fe, and the arts and culture is of course a key part of what Santa Fe is. And then to broaden and strengthen civic engagement. So the work that we're doing today, we'd like to see carry forward and have built that capacity for lots of other city initiatives. Those are some key findings about engagement. Here are those that are technical. That assessment report again is available at SantaFeForward.org. It's very long, but you really just should, if you have limited time, just focus on the key findings in each of those chapters or at a minimum, please read the executive summary. So the broad themes that were found through the technical study is about resiliency, both to a changing climate that is always changing on planet Earth, but seems to be accelerating now, and socioeconomic changes as well. There's a need for more of the safe and shared mobility that the city has been doing a great job initiating for a number of years, but to do more of that and to create the conditions to facilitate economic diversification that's been long aware of as a need in Santa Fe, and that continues to be the case. And to modernize and regionally collaborate the delivery of services, that's a good opportunity to help effectively deliver public services and do it transparently. And then to invest in identified areas for investment and do that in concert with exceptional design for this great city. So some of the notable findings, just highlighting a handful here: population growth. Santa Fe is about 90,000 people in round numbers. We see that leveling off in the 2040s, and then, like might be happening in this country overall, there may be potentially a decline afterward due to lower birth rates and depending on immigration policy that dramatically affects population growth as well. There are, however, substantial vacant and unutilized lands available to accommodate the forecasted growth within the incorporated boundaries of Santa Fe today. So annexation is not an imperative. That would be a policy choice by this mayor and governing body. Displacement risk is the highest based on our looking at socioeconomic factors near the traditional community of Agua Fria where those bakias are. That's the area that has the most pressure for potential displacement of existing residents. Regarding infrastructure, this city's done a great job securing and safeguarding its water supply and is never complacent about that and is constantly looking forward, in fact, to the end of this century. But there's all types of infrastructure to maintain as well as assets to maintain those in a state of good repair, and ensuring there's available funding for doing so is important. And finally, housing, employment, and mobility opportunities do need to diversify. That's a constant theme that we see both in the technical work as well as the engagement. And all that supported by strong education, healthcare, and engagement as all of this is interconnected. So now into the preview. So here's a preview of the mission statement. The mission statement is about the purpose of Santa Fe Forward as your general plan. This is draft here that's been reviewed by the Planning Commission and the technical working group to date. Draft mission statement is: "Faithful to our heritage, focused on our present, and forging our future. Santa Fe Forward shapes the city different, sets priorities, and opens opportunities for all." Again, that's the purpose of the document. Now, the vision, which is about the outcome that Santa Fe aspires toward. So that future vision: "Santa Fe supports and respects the needs and growth of all in harmony with our heritage and environment, thriving today and tomorrow as the city different." And then there are eight strategies which will comprise the chapters, the body chapters of the general plan update document, Santa Fe Forward. Eight strategies here based on what we've learned from that technical work and engagement. And you see those eight here on the screen, and from those we'll be developing priorities. So now moving into the scenario frameworks. There are three scenario frameworks that have been prepared. These are at the diagrammatic level. You can think of them at about 30,000 feet, and when we get to the third plan, we're going to take it down to 7,000 feet because we're here in Santa Fe. And so this first one is about making connections. The big idea here is a mobility spine that you see highlighted there in dashed red. That's a regional and cross-town mobility spine to really improve connectivity to access opportunity. And making connections to those are these community connectors that are just diagrammatically shown there, which are also destinations onto themselves in Santa Fe, using existing infrastructure but improving that as well as looking at land use. Next is the places framework. This big idea includes three distinct big places. These are, of course, not the only places in Santa Fe, but these would be big places to add to what you already have here in downtown and spreading those opportunities around Santa Fe. One in partnership with the state around the Civic Center, another at Midtown, which is well underway, and the adjacent Siler Rufina area, and then Tierra Contenta where a lot of new growth has been occurring in recent years in Santa Fe. So this gives everybody in Santa Fe access to special places near them that are distinct and thematic based on what's surrounding them. And then the smaller places, relative to these larger ones, would be connected to them and synergistic. Lastly is the resilience scenario framework, and this has to do with housing resiliency. So making sure there's enough and a variety of that housing and environmental, so protecting the resources that you have and taking care to be adaptable, and then economic diversification. And so those colors on the scenario framework represent different bold moves to address the need to be environmentally and socioeconomically resilient here in Santa Fe. It's a very quick run-through, which is why I call this a preview. We will be back for the deeper dive. So next are these place types. So when we take this down into the preferred plan and bring it down to Santa Fe's elevation, so to speak, we're going to be applying to the preferred plan these place types. There are five categories and 12 individual place types under those five. And these are going to take the strategies that I quickly showed on the screen there and apply those in detail on the map. So if you're in a certain part of the community, you might be in a legacy neighborhood. And so there'll be a place type that describes that form, function, and investment that's expected by Santa Fe in that area as an example. Next is the prioritization framework preview. So the preview here that has to do with these three categories. So there's some differences in Santa Fe, of course, and there are well-established areas. And so how to look at the form and function and level of investment in those established areas was really more about really strongly keeping that character and investing in it accordingly. Enhancement areas were places in Santa Fe, which is the vast amount of Santa Fe, would be places that are largely stable and thriving, but maybe have some opportunities to fill in, and so that would be the focus of investment there. And investment areas where there's a real opportunity to direct meeting the needs and opportunities in Santa Fe and focusing significant investment in those areas. You see some examples here. So, with what's next, I'm going to turn this to Janice Bitnikov, who is the city's project manager. Janice Bitnikov: Thank you, Mangie. Janice Bitnikov, long-range strategic planner for the city and also the project manager for Santa Fe Forward. Regarding what's next, first, our team is focused on calibrating the project pace to transition with this new administration. Our director has already met with the mayor once about this project, and we will continue to give updates and work closely with the mayor and directors of departments and divisions as we work through the next steps here. We are working on the approach and the timing for the next steps that I'll go into in just a second and continuing to engage internally and externally with the public and our community partners. The first thing we'll be doing is bringing the mission, vision, and strategies to the public as well as our community partner groups for their input. Following this, the frameworks that you just learned about will be, and the place types will be brought to our community partners and the public. And then we will be returning to Governing Body for input on our mission, vision, and strategies as well as the scenario frameworks after we have gotten feedback from the community. And this feedback will inform the draft preferred plan that will be crafted. This will follow all of this input, and we look forward to bringing those materials to you soon. With that, I stand for questions now, or we can transition over to Mr. J. Pucket, who will give you a virtual tour of the digital user platform that is accompanying this project. Mayor: Thank you. Why don't we stand for questions from the council members? Councilor Casset. Councilor Casset: Thank you, Mayor. You might want to time me, Mayor. I have a number of questions and happy to give up the mic once my 10 minutes are up. Thank you so much. This is really exciting to see this moving forward. I have a few questions, comments, some things that are maybe about definitions and processes. One of the big ones is we have a lot of plans at the city, as we have discussed a number of times, and a lot of them, I think one of the challenging things about general plans or comp plans is that they are so broad, but other departments are doing other things. So I know that Economic Development has actually added on to this contract so that their strategic action plan is more aligned with the general plan update. But how are we incorporating a lot of the existing plans? We have our sustainability plan. We have our bike and trail master plan. There's, I think there's a pedestrian master plan as well. There's a transit plan. And assessing, one, are these still relevant? Are these also ones that have been on the shelf for so long that we need to update them? And then also, how do we make sure that we're not contradicting ourselves because I know that that has occurred in some of our various plans in the past. Janice Bitnikov: Thank you, Councilor Casset, Mayor Garcia, for that question. We are about to also embark on the important commission road show for the mission, vision, and strategies, and we're going to be speaking with all those boards that are associated with, you know, the Pedestrian Advisory Committee, in addition to a lot of the other committees and neighborhood organizations that have been tracking this. So, and you're right, there are a lot of different plans and strategies across different departments. The department directors and their staff have been involved in the review all along, and we are really making an effort to incorporate their goals and also have this be the glue for all that we do at the city. Councilor Casset: Yeah, I'm glad to hear that, and I know that that was a very, a very nice answer, and I'm sure it's a lot more challenging than just that sentence makes it sound or that explanation. So, what I'm most worried about is that we are rowing all in the same direction. You know, that when we're talking about, you know, these these nodes of activity or these areas and how that aligns with, you know, for example, our transit plan and whether or not people are actually able to get from place to place where there is investment. So, I definitely look forward to hearing about that as as this develops and would love at some point to understand, you know, where where are these alignments happening, as we get down further down in the process and and how they are incorporating these different different components. Another question, the community partners. As as you know, Heather, I've talked a lot about the Midtown engagement partners and how I thought that was a really well-done model and something to continue to work off of and learn from. And I think that this is another really great step. So, are we going to be able, first of all, with with the community, these these community partners, do they get uniform activities, questionnaires, or is it really kind of in their court of how they are going to both discuss these issues with their populations as well as gather information and data about what the different people are that they're speaking to are saying? Janice Bitnikov: Mayor Garcia, Councilor Casset, we have provided a media packet to all of the community partners. We don't direct their conversation. We provide guardrails and sample questions, but really it's intended to be a safe space for their organizations and, quite honestly, not having the city butting into their business, but listening to their conversation. And so we do provide all of the materials necessary for them to engage with their constituencies, but it really is up to them on how they really want to undertake the endeavor. Good. Got a lot of good feedback. Indigenous Ways, for instance, provided us with 107 surveys. So, fabulous feedback. Yeah. Well, that's what I was hoping to hear, that it is going to be that they would have the opportunity to really tailor it to what they know that their community needs. And to that point, do we get to see not the individual data, but aggregated data from each community partner? Because I think that would be really interesting to look at these different groups and who they're engaging with, and what those responses have been as opposed to just popping them all together and then potentially some of the loudest voices are still coming through instead of getting the broad spectrum of ideas. Mayor, Councilor, Nick is going to talk about the aggregated data. Thanks. Thanks for the question. Yeah, we luckily have done a really good job building a record of all of the input that we've received. And so that's really step one in being able to parse out what input we may have received from any individual community group, for example. All of the feedback and input provided by the community partners has been synthesized and we do have a synthesis document available. And at the direction of the department, we will share that with folks whenever they deem that it's ready to report out on, and that might be very soon. And I think one of the things that that synthesis document does is it really highlights broadly what are we hearing from our community partners and more specifically what are some of the things that they said, what are some of the concerns that they brought to our attention and identified for us as key priorities. We certainly can prepare a record for each community-based organization based on what we've heard and we have all that data available and are happy to make that available based at the direction of the department. Yeah, I think that would, I would just be interested to see how are these differences and conversations occurring. So, thank you for keeping such detailed records. That is very helpful. Really, really do appreciate that. I'm trying to be as speedy as I can be. Hold on. Definitions are interesting. And we've had this conversation a lot during land use cases, specifically around preserving the character of Santa Fe. When we're talking about that, I mean, that's, it sounds like we know, but it becomes actually a bit of a loaded statement because we've talked about character being architecture, we've talked about character being landscape, and then we've talked about character being people. And I'm glad that we talked about displacement. But we've had the discussion that with downtown Santa Fe, in theory, our character is really well preserved, minus the fact that a lot of people don't actually live in downtown Santa Fe anymore. And a lot of the people that potentially could have lived in downtown Santa Fe are very priced out. We've had a lot of displacement here. Probably can't go, it's hard to go back on those things. But something that I want us to be really thoughtful about as we're moving forward and talking about character. So, has that conversation come up? Is that something that's kind of integrated in? You know, there's some really interesting conversations about the way that we have preserved downtown Santa Fe with our historic code has inherently made it unaffordable and unattainable for a large percentage of our population. And wanting to be very cautious about one, is there a way to start, you know, open up a little bit more of the gates back to downtown, back to the center of the city, as well as we are looking at the culture of other parts of our city. Both how do we create a strong sense of place without making this a barrier for people to stay or access it in the first place? Mayor Garcia and Councilor Casset, that has been thought about and it is being integrated. Early in the process of this general plan update, we spoke not only about the architectural character but also the economic diversity character because the diversity of this community is as important, if not more important, than the visual character of our built and natural environment here. So, we've been keeping that as a central tenant all throughout. However, where you see the rubber meet the road is in the land development code. As you know, phase one was recently adopted and we are actively endeavoring to increase incentives for affordable housing and also missing middle housing, which allows folks who can't necessarily afford five acres of property with a single-family home to live in areas they otherwise couldn't afford through a gentle density that is architecturally compatible with communities as sensitive as ours, architecturally speaking. So, we are actually working on various initiatives through the land development code update. But the important thing to take home here is that the general plan will be in alignment with the land development code because this is what sets our mission and our vision for the community. The land development code is the tool that manifests that mission and vision. So, that's just one of the tools that you've seen so far. We're about to embark on phase two of the land development code and you will see a lot more proposals coming in those drafts in the future that will be aligning with what you're seeing us presenting here that the community has asked us for. Okay. Wonderful. Yeah, I'm really, I'm really looking forward to those policy discussions, the, you know, the incentives for affordable housing. That was wonderful and I know there's a lot more to come. So, thank you for keeping your attention on that. I remembered my last question, then I'll give up the floor. How are we doing on money? Are we funded? Mayor, Councilor Casset, we do have funding. We've had an aggressive schedule really to try to get ahead of the land development code update and set the stage for phase two of the land development code update. So, we are waiting to amend the contract so that we can speed up the final year. So, ultimately it's saving time, saving money from phase three having gone away. We're also trying to do that with the land development code to compress into two phases so it can be faster and also rightsized. And so that's, we don't have the funding yet for the amendment to the contract, but we are looking for it. Okay. Yeah, I think that that, really important we continue to fund this project aggressively. I mean, I was actually a little bit shocked by that resolution being passed in 2023 and it was 15 in 2023, which means that was at the beginning of 2023, I'm going to guess. So, I want to make sure that we continue to move this forward. I think that there again, the general plan holds so much, the land development code holds so much in what really impacts everyday lives of Santa Feans. And I say this all the time, you know, doesn't sound fun, doesn't sound exciting, doesn't sound like it's an important thing. Although apparently our community has realized that it is. So, just want to, you know, put out my support that I want to, want to get some money for this thing to make sure that we can continue to move forward aggressively. So, thank you so much. It's important to note is that this, the accelerating of the schedule means that the next fiscal year ask, which starts in July, will be much less because we're just moving, we're moving things forward, but we do need that funding, the budget cycle. Well, glad to hear we're compressing that. So, wonderful. Well, thank you so much. Really again, look forward to more conversations and deeper dives into this. Thank you, Mayor. Councilor Chap. Thank you, Mayor. I have just a few clarifying questions. There was a slide that showed or where you called Civic Center Downtown Established. Can you expand on that a little bit? Yes, Mayor Garcia. Councilor Chavis, the Civic Center area is really more of an organizing area. I'm going to go back to the slide. You know, it is already an area of activity and it really does acknowledge that that is a focus because of all the activities we have on the plaza, the farmers market at the railyard. It's more of an existing, how can we improve it and really cater to the community? But then as we're acknowledging also that we're, we've grown larger than that and we have opportunities at Midtown as well as Siler Rufina and then to make improvements along Airport Road and making it more walkable, more community focused instead of a strip. Is there anything else that you would like to add? That was a great description, Heather. And so the reason why I bring that up is because I just don't want us, if you could take down that slide, I just want to be able to see you all. I think I just don't want us to think of or to not acknowledge that there are improvements that are needed in that area because we do not have accessibility. Councilor Casset hit on that, like the fact that it is not affordable, but it's not accessible. There are certain guardrails in place there where we can't improve that area to increase accessibility, to make improvements that actually make that area more welcoming for all community members. And I just want to make sure that that is truly acknowledged. And when we say established, to me, in my mind, I'm like, it's established for a certain population. And I think that that's created a lot of conflict and tension amongst our community. So, I just want us to, and I heard you say like it's still an area where we can improve in. But we really need to look at it through that lens. If it's an established area, who is it exactly established for? And we do have our history there, but we need our community members throughout Santa Fe to be able to easily access that history and, you know, that respect we have for that area in order for all of us to feel that magic and that have that full positivity that we emphasis and is the whole reason why we, you know, have those guardrails for that area. I've heard a lot of people come to me and voice that they have issues with how inaccessible downtown actually is. And so I just want to emphasize that, which also leads me to just piggyback off of Councilor Casset in this planning. I would, I know that we mentioned that there's collaboration with other departments, but that's going to be key because like again, going back to accessibility, you know, we're talking about transportation, we're talking about roads in Santa Fe we can't drive on. So, if we develop and we don't have our community or we aren't setting our city up and our infrastructure up in a way to make our city accessible to really see these benefits, then it's not going to matter. So, every department just plays such an essential role and we need to make sure we're doing a complete picture of improvement and we're looking through that lens. And so I just wanted to really emphasize that is key and I just, if you could expand on how the department collaboration is actually looking throughout this process in a little more detail. Thank you, Mayor Garcia, Councilor Cass, I'm sorry, Councilor Chavis. The department directors have been involved, the staff has been involved. We're getting down to a level where we collaborated with the NPO on street design guide. They are the main drivers behind it, but we are as part of Phase 1 or 2A, we're going to look to adopt the street design guide. There are other components that lessons I've learned from other jurisdictions that really keeps in mind the importance of making investment across the community, not in just different parts of the community. And so looking at the transportation improvement plan, mapping it, mapping those things that we're doing right now that in the next three to five years, mapping the priorities that we want, this is part of the implementation plan for the next 20 years, and then revisit the map. So as the capital improvements plan is updated, for instance, then that will be transferred over. Are those priorities for the next 20 years still the same, or do we need to inject others? But seeing that map and making sure that those investments are across the community, not just in individual parts of the community, having that visual will be great in directing our future. So it's really important to collaborate with all the departments, and that's why we are also going to be going to the different departments and their staff meetings and all of that as we proceed now that we have this stage gate complete. And we know in government agencies, we often work in silos. It's just something that has happened across all levels. But what's really exciting is when something this big comes along, it gives us an opportunity to break those silos and really look at complete picture improvements for the community members we serve. And I encourage all departments to really look at the big picture and how they can contribute and the part they play in this, because it can be really powerful if we're all moving in the same direction to complete this plan so that we all know we played a part in it benefiting community members long term. And that is it, Mayor. Thank you so much. Mayor: Thank you, Director. Councilor Chavis: Thank you, Councilor Castro. Councilor Castro: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director. I just have a few questions on the big picture and how this is in relation to the code update. And I don't want to go too far into it, but this is layered, right? This general plan is not sort of in a silo. We are working with different departments and a different plan. Can you speak a little bit more to that, please? Director: Certainly. Thank you, Mayor Garcia, Councilor Castro. If you take a look at it, there's a 30,000-foot level. This is the general plan. We're looking down at our community from the 30,000-foot level. The implementation plan defining those priorities, what I was just talking about, is at that 10,000-foot level. These are the programs that we're going to invest in. These are the policies that we're going to develop. And of course, then the land development code is sort of on the ground. What am I going to do when I apply for a permit? What can I do and how am I going to do it? And so those are all related. And as you've probably heard us in council meetings talking about, it's consistent with the general plan. It's a really a keystone of all decisions that we make in planning and land use. And so we will keep that present in our dialogue as we proceed forward. Councilor Castro: And I don't want to go too far into some of the areas that we're looking at, but I know that collaboration with other entities and other agencies is really important. We're also talking to other governments, right? We are working with the county in this update as well. Is that correct? Director: Mayor, Councilor Castro, that is correct. We actually, Janice has been part of a public participation focus group with the county. Herbert Foster, who's with Growth Management, and Alex Lad, who is Growth Management Director, they both have been involved with our technical working group. And we are regularly having meetings. We're doing a city-county planning issues huddle so that we can collaborate on a regular basis on the different projects they're doing and share information. Councilor Castro: Perfect. So to Councilor Travis's point, it's super important that we dot all of our eyes and cross all of our tees and get all the input that we can. I want to commend you and the team for the amount of input that we've gotten. To Councilor Cassid's point, we are super engaged. We want to continue to be engaged. So thank you very much. No further questions. Mayor: Other councilor? Faulkner. Councilor Faulkner: I just want to say I appreciate that Airport Road is being considered. I know that Councilor Lee Garcia and I have worked very hard to build up community in our district, and I think Airport Road is sort of like the heart of our district. And anything we can do to make that a focal point where our community can be proud of Airport Road, which I think right now our community is very angry about Airport Road. And so it would be great, and I will do anything to help, and I know Councilor Egarcia will as well, to just make that a more vital space and kind of the heart of our district because we have one of the most amazing things about our district is the diversity in our district and then also just the heart and soul of the people in our district. And so if we can create a space where there can be a place where people can gather and can have community, I think that's going to be amazing. So please keep me informed. I genuinely will help do anything I can to make that happen. Mayor: Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Garcia. Councilor Garcia: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. And to Councilor Falner's point, I think she and I both started on the Planning Commission back in 2018, and the whole long-range planning, and I think you were even the chair of that committee for some time, of the discussion over what does the future Santa Fe look like? How do we adapt? How do we change? Because it's not optional. Change is going to happen. How do we not lose our identity? And I think that's a very big part of all of this because to the people that have been here for many years, generational, and to those that have moved in, and how do we include all to be able to live here, including our youth that for whatever reason will move away because they don't have opportunities either to purchase homes or have job opportunities. And I think looking at some of those areas, and that's what you guys are doing, and it seems you're doing a good job at it. I do have a question in regards to the tracking of engagement. So, is there like a consensus on where your, are you tracking where the majority of your engagement is coming back, the best feedback, where it's coming from, whether it's south side, north side, interest groups that have some skin in the game, so to speak? Director: Yeah, thank you for the question. So, one of the ways that we have been able to incorporate the concept that it's really important to get input from all corners of the city, and we heard loud and clear at the beginning of this process that it was really important to make sure that folks on the south side and the west side of Santa Fe had just as much opportunity and were being just as engaged as maybe some folks who are maybe more traditionally engaged at very high levels in different parts of town. And so one of the ways that we've done that is by preparing a digital engagement approach. So we've got our website, as I mentioned, our social media opportunities, as I mentioned, and all of those methods allow folks to participate on their own terms in their own ways. And so for example, on SantaFeForward.org, we had a pin map, an engagement map, and we received more than 614 pins that were dropped. A large portion of those pins that were dropped came from zip codes on the south and west side of Santa Fe. So, is it one of those methods that we can guarantee exact parity? Absolutely not, right? But it was one step. It was one tool that we used to make sure that we could reach those folks and participate in a way that they preferred. Another way that we do that to help mitigate any sort of circumstances where we're overtalking to one group of town, one part of town versus another, is through our community partners program, right? So those are our 501c3 nonprofit organizations. Many of them provide community-based services, and many of them focus on some of our most vulnerable community members or some of our community members that traditionally are not at the decision-making table or involved in planning efforts. And so through the community partnership program, we've been able to say, "Hey, we really want deeper engagement from folks that are historically and currently underserved. Can you help us do that?" And so they've been really successful, and they've been able to do that. In terms of providing hard numbers, in terms of like how many pieces of input have come from, you know, the south side of town, we do have some numbers that we could provide at the direction of the department to help gauge our success. Some of it is anonymous, and so we're limited by some data constraints, but we definitely ask the question, we ask people to self-identify, and we have available information that we provide. Councilor Garcia: Thank you. And back to the Airport Road corridor, I know that in 2021-22, there was an initiative through the Main Street program that was gathering data. They were utilizing funding that was received through those organizations. Are those organizations, have they been involved in reporting back to some of that data that they gathered during the time that they were working on it? Director: Yes. Mayor Garcia, Councilor Garcia, Earthcare actually is one of our community partners, and they were the force behind the Main Street program back in the early 2020s. And so, and really, it's pretty amazing what Miguel Acosta has, some of the questions he's raised. And one of the questions was, what about design standards for mobile home or manufactured home parks? What are we going to do to make those livable? And it's not just all about, you know, stick-built housing, but truly these, this is a form of housing that we have in town. So, they're, they've been really active to the point that we had some community partners drop out just because of funding issues or what have you, or they just decided to cease to be a community partner. So, we've been able to move over, or we're going to move over some of that extra funding to Earthcare because they have been so active. Councilor Garcia: Thank you. And once again, I appreciate the data, the information, and how do we move forward? How do we create the city that we want for the future but not lose who we are? So, thank you very much. Mayor: Thank you, Councilor. Yes, Councilor Fagali. Councilor Fagali: Thank you, Mayor. I just have a couple more questions. Most of my concerns have been addressed. I'm glad that you all are addressing mobility, and I look forward to seeing you at BPAC when you get there. So thank you for that. What is, I know Councilor Castro spoke on it, touched on it a bit, but what, when is this scheduled to come in, one, in general, like date-wise, and two, in relation to Phase 2 of the land use development code update? And Director Lamboy, you mentioned a Phase 2A. Is that something new and exciting? Director: Yes. Thank you, Mayor, Councilor Fagali. Phase, we're breaking up Phase 2 of the land development code update because there's a lot of issues that need to be addressed immediately. And so the street design guide, we feel that instead of throwing one huge document at the community, really engaging on those separate issues is important because it can be more meaningful. And so we would be bringing a series of amendments to the land development code instead of just a phase two end. That way, we can be sure to revisit our priorities all the time as well to make sure we don't miss anything. Mayor: And in relation to the general plan update, in relation to phase two, where is one coming before the other? Are they coming at the same day? Do we have— Thank you for reminding me, Mayor Garcia, Councilor Vagali. So the general plan update, the intent is to have the general plan itself adopted late spring, early summer. The implementation plan, which is going to be the work of this governing body on what are we going to do, what are the priorities that we're going to set, would be late summer. And then the land development code update, we are going to be launching in February after we get all the contract issues resolved. Just paperwork, nothing, no concerns about funding or anything there. And they're going to be launching that developer or consultant will be launching with an assessment report for the land development code update. So that will track going into the fall and early 2027. Thank you. Those are all my questions. Thank you, Councilor. Any other questions? Councilor Bmanat: Yes, Councilor Bmanat. Thank you, Mayor. I don't really question so much. I just want some clarification. I know, [clears throat] thank you, Councilor Garcia, for asking about engagement, and Councilor Cassett brought this up, displacement. And you answered some of this before, but I know a lot of people, for example, in the Hope Mayan area, are very concerned about displacement due to the Midtown development project. So I just want to make sure that all areas of our community are being included in this consideration and that we've made, taken that special attempt, I guess, to make sure that we're connecting with some of these areas, as you said, that might be particularly underserved or have different means of community communicating. So I just want to make sure that, and it sounds like you're doing your due diligence, but I want to make sure that we are looking at all these communities. Thank you, Councilor Bamonte, Mayor Garcia. The Hopeful Man will definitely be part of sort of that Midtown node in terms of the community conversation. Carly Van Diddi is very active with us in planning and land use, and we're working with her on the neighborhood stabilization plans, and those lessons will be incorporated into the policy framework as well. So definitely that is part of the conversation. This is sort of a broader level, but we also have a displacement heat map on the website that shows the areas, and certainly this is yet another area where there's displacement threat that's already been identified, and we'll be sure to address. Thank you, Director Lamboy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay, seeing none, let's move on to the next presentation, please. Yes, thank you, Mayor Garcia. We'll dive into City Smart, and shall we just go ahead and have Jay start immediately? Save time. And I, Jay, needs to be able to share his screen. Yep. Hey, everybody. Hopefully you can hear me. It looks like audio is working, but if I could share my screen, that'd be great. I know there's some permissions that I need to do. It's rejoining as a panelist. So, Perfect. Okay, looks like that worked. Can you all hear me okay? Yes. I will share my screen then, and hopefully that is the correct screen. Yeah, so thanks for sitting through a little presentation of the City Smart website. Really excited to show this to you all today. I am going to be fairly brief, and I encourage everybody who is in attendance and watching this to go to the website and take a look at all the information and tools that are up there and poke around. Hopefully it's a place where you can explore some information about the city and about the ongoing initiatives that we've been working with the planning department on. But I will take us through a quick tour of it, and please feel free to ask questions as we go. So here I have pulled up on the screen the homepage of the City Smart site. We have a little bit of contextual information about the purpose of the site. We started to build this as an accompaniment to the general plan update. As we got into the process, we, going back to something that Nick said earlier tonight, we really wanted to make sure that the general plan process is something that is more digestible than, you know, a written report that sits on a shelf. We wanted to make sure that members of the community could go in and interact and understand the data that went into it, the document itself, and build some applications that would help members of the community moving forward, as well as a bit of a legacy leave behind for the process. So here on the homepage, we have a couple of different links. This is built to be expandable. It's built on the City of Santa Fe's ArcGIS infrastructure. So it's something that the city owns fully and has the ability to maintain and update and change moving forward. And so most of what I'll show you all is under the maps and data and the land use sections because they're the most built out on the site. The site is definitely under development still and will continue to evolve throughout this process. But I did want to highlight that we do have links to a few other departments on here right now. Can certainly add others as we go. Most of these links take the user straight to the departmental website, and the idea is that there will be times when someone's interacting with the site, they're using the site, and they want to get access to other content that's already on the City of Santa Fe's website. And it's going to be easier for those users if we have, you know, direct links to that content instead of making them search for or, you know, go back and search for how to get access to those things. So we've got links here for the parks and open space, public works, public safety, and then the NPO as well. There's a lot of spatial data on the NPO's website, and so we want to make sure that users are aware and can access that easily as well. So we have a direct link there. Back on the City Smart page, I'll go ahead and go into the maps and data section. And so this section here is a set of web maps that are set up thematically. There are 11 thematic maps here. They've got over 350 GIS data layers on them. So there's a tremendous amount of information. If we were to try to set up a single map that had all of that data in there, it would be a little overwhelming, and it probably wouldn't perform very well. And so we decided to break out the data into these thematic categories. You can go into any of these maps, and the users are able to interact, turn layers on and off. And again, there's a lot of data on here, but they're able to interact with the maps. They're able to, they have a legend here. This one showing zoning information by default, but it's completely interactive. So they can zoom in. They can select, you know, a zone and get more detailed information. Each of these maps has the ability to change the base map. So if they want to switch to an aerial imagery background, if that's something that a user is more familiar with, then they can certainly do that. And a search function as well. So you can search for parcels or you can search for an address and zoom straight to that. So a lot of, a lot of folks these days are pretty comfortable using Google Maps and Bing Maps and that sort of thing, and the, you know, they should find this type of interface to be quite familiar in that regard. And so each of these maps is set up, you know, they've got a variety of information. In one instance, we actually just linked to an existing web application that was created elsewhere in the city. So this capital projects dashboard wasn't created by us. It wasn't created as part of this process. But it's easy enough to just link it in and again make it so that the end user or the community members are able to get to this information in a really easy and consolidated manner. There's a 3D building viewer as well, which is pretty neat. I won't click on that. It doesn't always interact great over a web share, but it can be a pretty neat way to see the city as well instead of just in two dimensions. So we will continue to build this out. Another big component of this maps and data page is actually the open data portal. So that's not live at the moment, but I can show you guys what that will look like. So these 350 data layers, there are going to be users in the community that want to be able to query those data layers in a catalog format like this. Be able to search by tags. And so if they're interested in something around planning or something around parks or something around transportation, they can filter down the data sets. We're providing some metadata for these, and so they'll be, you know, the naming conventions will be a little more legible. But in general, members of the community are going to be able to go in and they're going to be able to click on a data layer, find out some more information about it, bring it into a map, and then eventually be able to go in and download those data layers as well. So there are some download options that will allow users to pull that data out as a GIS file or a KMZ to be used in Google Earth or as an Excel file. So they can just open it up and see what the data looks like. And users will be actually be able to use this to build their own custom maps if they want to. If there are, let's say there's a couple of data layers in one of our thematic maps and a couple of data layers in a different thematic map, and the user needs to see all of that in one environment, they'll be able to build that here for themselves and then use it going forward. So we will, we're working with the planning department to get the last couple steps, you know, polished up on the open data portal, and then we'll turn it on. And at that point, users will have access to the thematic maps and the open data portal as well. So if I flip back to the homepage now, we'll go into the land use and planning page. And this is where things start to get a little bit more interesting. And so one of the main concepts that we've had around this site is how to make this useful for stakeholders in the community. We want to make sure that the tools that we put on here, it's not just information, it's information that helps them make decisions or helps them understand decisions that have been made. So we have a couple of links on here that will take you to existing planning resources, scheduling appointments, applicant resources. These will take you to things that are information for the different divisions within the planning department or the actual appointment scheduling for the different departments as well. But if we go back up to the property viewer, we've tried to put some information in here that allows a landowner or someone who's interested in a specific parcel to get more data about that parcel than they could get in any individual source, you know, otherwise. And so here I can just zoom in and select a parcel. All of the parcel information is going to show up there. We are building out some additional information down here. And so, additional zones that that parcel falls in are all listed here. If there are additional planning actions under progress, so let's say someone has filed some sort of planning activity and that is in progress still, it would show up in this section. And then we're working with the planning department to digitize and organize some additional documents. So if there are historic planning actions that have taken place on a parcel, members of the public would actually be able to access some of those documents here. And the benefit of this is multifaceted. Members of the public will have access to more information than they've had in the past. The planning board, the planning department, and the planning desk staff will be able to focus on other activities rather than answering some document requests that come in that now members of the public are going to be able to handle themselves, which will make everybody happy. And again, this has the ability to search for parcels. If I search for a parcel that has, see if I can get this one to flip in here. If I grab a parcel that does have an ongoing planning activity, for example, here's where that information would show. And as we get those documents linked to some of the other city systems, we hope to be able to have hyperlinks that will direct users directly to the other applications that this information is tracked in. It's all about bringing information together, tying it together, and making it so that members of the public can answer the questions for themselves as they go. We have two other applications here that I can highlight right quick. One is a residential pipeline map. So, this includes all of the residential development projects that are underway currently. Users can go in and select one of these and get some additional information about it. They're able to filter. So, if they want to understand what's still under review, they can do a quick filter and see that there are a couple of projects that are still under review and find out some general information about them there. And then if I go back one more time, we have a similar map that is set up that has information on current planning actions. So these are actions or initiatives that are currently under review by different entities at the city. We've got a couple of those entities listed down here. So if I want to see what is currently in front of the Land Use Board, I can filter that and again select one of these and see some of that information. And again, this is the same information that would show up if we searched for that parcel back on the parcel viewer map. And so you're able to come into this application and see all of the projects that are under development. But if you're interested in a specific parcel, you're able to get that same information back in your parcel viewer. And we have links to some other information here. If I go back to the active initiatives link up at the top, we've got Santa Fe Forward, a direct link to the Santa Fe Forward website. The Land Use Development, the Land Use Code is listed in active initiatives as well. And lastly, just for your awareness, there are some internal facing aspects of the site as well. So this is all public facing, but we have built and are continuing to build some tools that will allow the planning staff to update this data in a really efficient way, keep it up to date as we move forward, as they move forward with their planning activities. And so that's been key as well, making sure that the system that we set up and build is useful to stakeholders and members of the public, but also to the planning staff in their activities. So I think that's the full demo. We're excited to have it out there, excited for folks to get in and use it and bring us feedback. So I would encourage you all to take a look at it and just let us know if there's anything that you want to see. >> changed or developed or added or have any questions, please reach out. Any questions, comments from the governing body? Councilor Castro. >> Sorry, Director, could you just walk us through how to get to that website for the public and for us, please? >> Mayor Garcia, Councilor Castro, I don't know off the top of my head the address, but you can go to the santafeforward.org and on the landing page you can see "Explore City Smart." So that is the direct link to that site. We also have it, we're going to put a request in to have it sort of top page on our website for the city as a whole, so as people get more familiar with it, they'll have that direct link. And it's also on the Planning and Land Use webpage as well. So we're really trying to get the word out for sure. >> Wonderful. And I mean, from what we saw in the demo, I think it is very user-friendly. Obviously, we're going to look into how to improve it, how to make it more accessible, how to make sure everything is translated. We are very excited to work with you. But thank you, and no further questions. >> Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Cassett. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'm excited to see this type of resource available to the community. However, as I am looking at it, what happens if you don't speak land use ease? So, for example, I'm looking at the City of Santa Fe Planning and Land Use Map. As you know, I spend a lot of my brain in land use. And I'm looking at the zoning districts and there's BCD, which I know in my brain is Business Capital District. Most people don't know that. I'm not seeing anywhere where it says it, but then there's all these like other BCD ALA, BCD BAR, BCD, and I have no idea what any of those are. And so I think, and I'd be happy to be your test, whatever creature we use, mouse, gopher, pigeon, to dive around this thing because it is interesting as I'm looking at some of the, for example, the land use cases that may be active. I don't really know what it means. I'm there's a case number, but you know, how we actually connect this so that it becomes a really accessible and usable resource, we still need some work on some of these really technical areas. And I will admit, I do not know enough about GIS to know if all of those like the grid with all of the crazy numbers need to be there and if they actually mean something. They mean nothing to me. And so that very well may be, but how do we move forward with, with, you know, piloting this, having people who have not been using it professionally, because I know a lot of this has been used internally within the departments, and so I'm sure this is a breeze to walk through. But how we can help create this in a way where, you know, I'm looking at things and and really understanding what they mean if if I don't have any any background at all in them. Thank you. >> Mayor Garcia, Councilor Cassett, we haven't had the chance to do the test, so we definitely welcome your comments. The launch date for this was late last year. We're still adding data to it. We're still improving things like we have historic, I was sitting there thinking we need to designate, you know, instead of just Land Use Board, the Historic Districts Review Board. There's cases that are listed up there, the Planning Commission, the Board of Adjustment, whatever the case might be. So, there are improvements that need to be made and really appreciate your offering to help us navigate sort of the layperson point of view and understanding things. And to the project team's credit, I do want to say that a lot of this came over from our existing layers we have on GIS that's available in our current interactive mapping system. But yeah, we do need to take a look at that. And this is all part of the general plan budget and process. >> And yes, Mayor Garcia, Councilor Cassett, I would like to add that not only is this all within the same budget as the general plan update because it is the second half of that project, it also is going to be perfectly in alignment with our OpenGov transition. So the software that we have purchased that we are in the process this year of switching over to will seamlessly meld with this other Esri product. So we'll see a little bit of exponential value there where these two purchases will work together to the benefit of the city and the constituents. One way where that will be extremely helpful is with our archived information from previous discretionary reviews and permits that will come along with the OpenGov transition and those will be tied to the parcels. Mr. Puckett can speak with a little more detail on that if it's needed. But we also are before the OpenGov launch is complete, we also are currently working on uploading information for our projects that are currently under review. So, the planning staff will load not just the case numbers will be in there, but it will say exactly what the request is, who the requester is, and have a link to the packet of application materials, and then also have a link to the staff report that will be coming to you or to other decision-making bodies. So, that we're actively working on right now. >> Good. Good. I'm glad to hear that and I again, I know that this is new and we're launching and so that's why I'm happy to beta fish. I have no idea what this, I'm happy to test this and and sit there with you and talk about some of these things. Quick question though. This is coming out, all of this is coming out of the land use budget because I'm seeing some data here that's helpful for some other departments. I'm seeing some public safety. I'm seeing historical and cultural, which may be, you know, arts and culture. Some basically every department is being included here. Are you, are we getting support from other budgets in order to providing and housing this data that people want across the board, not just from land use? >> Mayor Garcia, Councilor Cassett, we are setting the stage and so we're not getting budget from other departments, but even if we don't get it, we need to have the public have access to that data like the residential pipeline and the affordable housing numbers. That's a really important piece that this governing body has been very interested in. So, not with this, this project and we'll have to have additional dialogue with other departments regarding that, but we will provide access to their information. >> Well, I do appreciate that and the Land Use Department really diving in and taking the lead on this because it is extremely important. Will you all be in charge of updating? So, for example, I know with one of the capital projects that says it's under construction, it's actually been completed for a few years. Is that going to be your responsibility to fix or is that going to fall into Public Works? You know, who's going to be in charge of maintaining and making sure this thing is up to date? >> Councilor, we'll be collaborating with the different departments. But the city, the planning staff will be updating and making sure that all of the documentation that's necessary goes on the website after the conclusion of the general plan update project. >> Okay. Okay. I appreciate that. I think that's a, that's a big conversation point as we start to talk about the efficiency of land use and the conversation around the, you know, what does land use need to really be? I mean, you're a department that deals with a lot. of complex things from the public on a regular basis, and they get very frustrated if those things do not come at a fast pace. It impacts a lot, impacts construction, it impacts being able to put up a fence, fixing a roof, all sorts of things. So, I think that'll be a really interesting conversation for us to be having as we get to conversations around staffing in different departments and budgeting. And I will request that you are very forthcoming with us regarding Land Use's ability to really make sure that the information on here is accurate and up-to-date while also still performing the essential functions of your department, because this is a heavy lift and is going to be such an incredible resource to the community. It already has a lot of really wonderful things, but I want to make sure that this is done very well while also protecting the primary functions, multiple very important functions of your department. So, thank you, and let me know when you want me to come and sit and play on this thing with you. I'm happy to do it. Mayor: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Garcia. Councilor Garcia: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And just to piggyback off of some of that information, that really piqued my interest as well because the data, where is it being stored? Who's updating it? How is it being kept? How is it being checked for accuracy? And I think some of those things are going to be a very big lift for your department if you're the only one doing that. Obviously, in discussion that I've had, it's like, how do we look to the future on how we use information and technology? And this is actually pretty, it's pretty amazing. The thing is, when you have the information on there, how do we make sure that it is accurate and when people are looking at it and utilizing it for specific things, that it's not giving them the wrong information? And so, I think it's more of a comment than a question, but I do hope that there's a focus on that because it's a lot of work. Mayor: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Any other questions or comments? None. Thank you, Director Lambo and team. Just one request. The first presentation, can we get the copy of the PowerPoint added as part of the packet? Speaker: Yes, Mayor. We'll make sure that the entire council gets it and it gets uploaded on the website as well for this agenda. Mayor: Amazing. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay. What's the next item on the agenda, Madam City Clerk? City Clerk: Thank you, Mayor. The next item is item 10. This is action items discussion agenda. 10A is a request for approval of amendment number one to linking agreement item number 25-0454 with UKG Kronos Systems LLC to increase the compensation by $46,114.80 and to add Teles Staff Cloud Storage to the scope of services. Here to answer questions is ITT Department Director Eric Candelaria. Mayor: Floor is yours, sir. Director Candelaria: Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, City Council. So, we're here this evening to talk about the UKG contract that is our timekeeping system. Because of time constraints as well as planning, we had to kind of quickly provide and put our renewal for our UKG contract. This would include the Teles Cloud Storage as well as additional services that are rendered by UKG and supporting not only the Fire Department, but as we look to migrate PD, the Police Department, to our UKG system. Mayor: Thank you, Director Candelaria. Any comments or what's the governing body? I was just wondering if we could get a little more clarification on those services. Director Candelaria: The services are the ongoing support services for the cloud migration as well as support services for the cloud that holds all the data within the UKG system. Mayor: And so that's just something that we have available. It's going to be a set fee that isn't something that's based on hours that we are using them. Director Candelaria: No, just set standard fees for cloud storage. Mayor: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Any other questions? Move to approve. Speaker: Second. Mayor: Okay, so we have a motion to approve and a second. Any discussion? Seeing, hearing none, Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? City Clerk: Certainly, Mayor. Councilor Castro. Councilor Castro: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Chavez. Councilor Chavez: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Falner. Councilor Falner: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Fagali. Councilor Fagali: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Garcia. Councilor Garcia: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Barrett. Councilor Barrett: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Bamante. Councilor Bamante: Yes. City Clerk: And Councilor Cass. Councilor Cass: Yes. City Clerk: Motion passed. Mayor: Okay. Next item on the agenda, please. City Clerk: Next item is 10B. It's a request for approval of amendment number two to item number 20-0041, services with Altura Communication Solutions to increase the compensation by $411,1661 for a new total amount of $1,238,7668 to extend the termination date to December 31st, 2027, and to amend the scope of services to add Avaya maintenance and support services. This is also IT Director Eric Candelaria's item. Mayor: Director, floor is yours. Director Candelaria: Mayor Garcia, members of the City Council. Thank you. Again, this amendment approval is to meet our renewal status for our support system for our Avaya phone system. So, the compensation increase is so as we begin to kind of move away and slowly migrate away from Avaya phone systems, we're looking to move to a cloud-based phone system leveraging our Microsoft Teams environment. Because of planning, we decided to not only extend the contract for one year, but for two years to allow us to ensure that because of the technical perspective of this implementation, that we have no roadblocks or issues as we migrate from on-prem phone system to a cloud-based system. Mayor: Thank you, Director Candelaria. Questions. Mr. Cass. Councilor Cass: Thank you, Mayor. I feel like we talked about this before, but please, please jog my memory around what this actually means for like our hardware. I mean, are we moving away from desk phones? Does this, what does this start to look like in a practical sense? Not that I use my desk phone. Everything gets forwarded to this thing anyway. But is that, are we trying to move away from that on the whole as we do this? Director Candelaria: Mayor Garcia, Councilor Cass, yes. So, the way that we're looking as we migrate into a cloud-based solution is looking at more instead of landline hardwired phones to more soft phones. So, every cell phone can be turned into a desk phone, every computer can be turned into a desk phone. So, as we have teleworkers or people who move from one office to another, their phone number never changes. They can answer their phone on their cell phone, and they can answer their phone on their laptop. It gives us the capabilities not to be tied to a wire. So, a landline. Councilor Cass: Got it. Interesting. So, when we, I know that we don't necessarily have city-issued cell phones for every city staff member, obviously. Are we going to be doing more of that, or if we're doing the computers, are people going to have headsets or, I guess maybe we're past headsets, we're earbuds, or actually now we're going back to like the giant ones. So, is that type, you know, what people would have so that they can still have, you know, not everyone's hearing everyone's conversations throughout the offices, or what does it start to look like in practical terms? Director Candelaria: Mayor Garcia, Councilor Cass, so we can do all of those. And I think one of the caveats for a cloud-based solution or leveraging a softphone solution is the ability for us to, if we have a constituent phone number that our constituents call, it doesn't ring to just one phone. It can ring to multiple computers. So, we never miss a phone call. It never reaches a voicemail, so to speak. So, it's really ways that we can kind of remove that aspect to provide better customer service. Councilor Cass: Interesting. And that's, we like that idea. What does this do to kind of our overall hardware costs? Are we going to see an increase if as we move away from desk phones, you know, and we're moving more towards computer, cell phones, is that going to increase our costs for, is it called hardware? I don't know. You speak it. I don't. The physical stuff that we will be answering calls on. Director Candelaria: So, Mayor Garcia, Councilor Cass, so we will see a reduction in cost because we won't have to purchase as many land handsets. But it will allow us to leverage our existing technology such as a laptop, desktop, iPad, or current city-issued cell phone. So, it gives us more options, but it is going to give us a better cost saving because not only are we going to save money because this service already exists with our Microsoft licensing, now we're just going to be able to take advantage of it and remove that extra cost for the Avaya services. So, we will see a significant cost decrease. Councilor Cass: This sounds like a win-win situation. So, thank you for your work on this. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor: Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Bamante. Councilor Bamante: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm just curious. Is this a flat fee that we're just going to pay regardless to extend for two years, or if you finish the migration early, will it not reach that amount? Director Candelaria: So, it may not reach that amount. We're padding it a little extra, an extra, you know, six months for testing to make sure we don't run any issues. But it doesn't mean that we get invoiced by the company. So, we may not even have to leverage all of it. Councilor Bamante: Okay. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor: Thank you. Any other questions from? We got a motion to approve and a second. Any discussion? Hearing or seeing none, Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? City Clerk: Yes, Mayor. Councilor Chavez. Councilor Chavez: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Falner. Councilor Falner: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Fagali. Councilor Fagali: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Garcia. Councilor Garcia: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Barrett. Councilor Barrett: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Bamante. Councilor Bamante: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Cass. Councilor Cass: Yes. City Clerk: Councilor Castro. Councilor Castro: Yes. City Clerk: Motion passed. Mayor: Okay, thank you. Next item on the agenda, please, Madam City Clerk. City Clerk: Next item is 10C. This is a request for approval of Kinda Beautification Program grant agreement with New Mexico Department of Transportation to support litter control and beautification efforts in the total amount of $90,000 through June 30th, 2026. And here to answer questions is Interim Park Ranger Superintendent Sydney Snyder. No, please. I'm sorry, Melissa McDonald. I'm sorry. I'm a robot. The floor is yours, Director McDonald. Is the mic on? Director McDonald: There we go. Sorry about that. Mayor Garcia, Councilors. It's been a while since I've been here, I guess. And there's so many new faces. It's nice to meet you all. I'm here to talk about the agreement with the New Mexico Department of Transportation, the K Linda Beautification Program. The Ranger team and the River and Watershed Section have applied and received a grant for this year for $90,000. This is the second year we've received it, and it really aligns quite nicely with our goals and objectives in terms of litter pickup. We are required to have three events in the community with groups that we already work with, but it's going to help us get that word out more. And we're also going to be purchasing some trash bins that we're going to be placing along the Santa Fe River. So, with that, I'll stand for any questions. Mayor: Thank you, D. Director McDonald: Mayor, may I also, there's a second part to this caption. It's also a request for approval of a budget amendment resolution to allocate New Mexico Department of Transportation funding in the total amount of $90,000 to FY26 Parks and Open Space revenue and operating budget to support litter control and beautification efforts. Thank you, Madam City Clerk. Any questions from committee members? Move to approve. Second. We have a motion to approve and a second. Any discussion? Hearing and seeing none. Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Councilor Falner? Yes. Councilor Fagali? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Barrett? Yes. Councilor Bamante? Yes. Councilor Casset? Yes. Councilor Castro? Councilor Chavez? Yes. Motion passed. Okay. Thank you, Director McDonald. Madam City Clerk, next item on the agenda, please. Next item is item number 11, matters from the City Manager. Mr. Mayor, councilors, I just have a few things. I missed last week. I was a little nervous, but I want to thank my staff. We had a lot of department directors step up and take interim roles. So, I just want to thank all of them. I think I have nine or ten. So, I want to thank them all very much for helping me get through this big transition. The second thing I just want to remind everybody, February 2nd is Santa Fe Day at the Roundhouse. We're all going to be there. So, we just want to let the community know that we'll be there on February 2nd at the Roundhouse. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Interim City Manager. Next up, we've got an executive session, and I know we're close to the 7:00 mark, so what's the committee? That was my next question. Shall we move into executive session? We could suspend our rules and go early, or we can take a 10-minute break. It's up to the committee to decide. Yes. Councilor Cass. How about if we skip over matters from the City Attorney, go through the next, because the next few things probably will get us close to seven, then we can go back to petitions, then go to executive. Second. Is that a motion? That is a motion. I made that decision for you. Sorry. Thank you. I appreciate when you do that. Yeah, we'll go to. Okay. So, there is a motion to skip and come back to item number 13, no, 12, because there is 13. Is there an action item, Mr. City Attorney? There's no action item tonight. Okay. So, the motion is to. I move to move right now to matters from the City Clerk and continue with the agenda until 7:00 p.m., at which time we will go back to petitions from the floor and then go back to matters from the City Attorney. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Certainly, Mayor. Councilor Faggali? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Barrett? Yes. Councilor Bamante? Yes. Councilor Casset? Yes. Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Falner? Yes. Motion passed. Okay. So, with that being said, take us to our next item, please, Madam City Clerk. The next item will be item 13. Sorry. Item 14, matters from the City Clerk. I have nothing to report this day. So, we'll move on to item 15, communications from the governing body. Okay. Thank you, Madam City Clerk. I think last meeting I went from my left inside out. I'm going to go this time from my right inside out. Councilor Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I actually don't have anything tonight, but I do want to welcome our new councilor, Mr. Councilor Bamante, to the panel. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Councilor Barrett. Same welcome to Councilor Bamante. Yay. My partner in District 2. So glad you're here. Councilor Faggali. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to wish Councilor Castro a happy birthday. And welcome Councilor Bamante. So, welcome, Paul. I also wanted to let folks know that there will be a bike ride on Saturday, a memorial bike ride for Alex Prey, who was killed in Minneapolis, as we know. I believe that is rolling out from the railyard at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. There's information online. I have shared it on my Instagram, and it is available to the public. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Faggali. Councilor Falner. I just want to welcome Councilor Bamante as well and just a little report on the Finance Committee. We are going to spend the next couple of months getting well educated on all things finance, gearing up for the budget hearings. So, we have several study sessions, not study sessions, but presentations that we're looking into getting done for the Finance Committee. So, anyone who would like to join us, you're more than welcome. We're just going to try to get up to speed on all things finance. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Castro. Also, I will echo the sentiments. Welcome, Councilor Bamante. Thank you all for being so wonderful. This has been a wonderful beginning of the year for all of us, I think. And I want to just acknowledge that on Monday, we did have Immigrant Day of Action at the Roundhouse. So, thank you so much, Mayor Garcia, for being there and showing your support for the community. Thank you, Councilor Falner, for acknowledging what's happening in our community. I'm looking at some not-so-exciting news about the Immigrant Safety Act, but I will refrain until I confirm that. But thank you all for your support. Thank you, Councilor Castro. Councilor Casset. Thank you, Mayor. Also, welcome, my new neighbor. I'm very happy to have you here. As I told our other members, you may want to start questioning your sanity at this moment in time, but that is okay. You are among good company. And I did also want to wish Councilor Castro a happy birthday. And as it is her birthday, Mayor, if you will indulge me. I think that if you actually show up to Governing Body on your birthday, you should get a cake on the dais because that is commitment. There's also chocolate cake for reference. So, am I allowed to light a candle in here, Chief? Are you cake? There's cake involved. Oh, I want to open this. Oh, I thought I was going to be so prepared. Anyone got scissors? Thank you for being here on your birthday and spending your evening with us instead of out to a delicious dinner, which is what I normally do. If other people could turn on their mics to sing so it's not just me on the Zoom, I would appreciate that. All right, ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear. Happy birthday to you. And see, we'll do that after, Councilor. We got that you'd have to lead that one, not me. And I'm going to step all over Councilor Bamante on his first round. I'm so sorry, but I really, that was legitimate. Thank you all so much. You're amazing. This year has been great, and this team is wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Happy birthday. And that's all, Mayor. Thank you so much. Now we have cake for executive session. Thank you, Councilor Casset. Councilor Bamante. I just want to thank all of you for the welcoming comments and for the votes of confidence. And happy birthday. That's all, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Okay. Yep. Sorry, Councilor, you're from far, but you're still here with us. It's okay. And I apologize. I'm at a conference training educators here in Albuquerque, so I'm sorry I'm not there. Welcome, Councilor Bamante. Happy birthday, Councilor Castro. I wish I was there to give you a hug, but I'll give you plenty when I get back. And I just, I really want to just give some credit to these three staff that are sitting right there that I see in a little window. Chief Moya, our City Clerk, and Marcos Martinez, our Interim City Attorney. You guys have been amazing. You stepped up quick. You've been working fast, furious, and efficiently. And I just, I feel super supported in everything I'm doing. The communication has been great. The consistency and just how you operate and how professional you are has been super impressive. I have been to City Hall super frequently. I've had plenty of meetings opening up this month, and the feeling walking into your areas is just refreshing. And so I just want to say that that is your leadership. I hope that we can experience that impact long-term. For those of you that are interested, because the feeling that we have right now in City Hall is something that I hope we don't lose. So, thank you, leaders that are sitting there tonight. I just want to give you that shout-out and say I really appreciate it. The last thing I want to say is Magro beat St. Mike's in basketball. My son had a game, and they were super nervous, and everyone was saying we were going to take a loss, and we didn't. So, congratulations, Magro, eighth-grade basketball. Big win for you all. And that's it, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Chavez. Safe travels home. I don't have much. Just thank you all for the participation in last week's budget session. As you all know, there's a lot of work ahead as we work to develop the fiscal year 27 budget, and all the input you gave last week is going to be very, very helpful. And then, other update, over the next upcoming three days, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I think I've scheduled 26 Meet with Mike events. That's half-hour events. We are feverishly working to schedule February's events. I'll ask for your input in regards to locations. So, the first one, Southside Library, probably will be bringing the second one to La Farge Library, but they do not have to be at libraries. They can be here. They can be anywhere. We just need to have meeting space to coordinate with folks. So, look for your input. Best way to get out there and meet with constituents. That way they don't have to come to City Hall. Other than that, thank you, everybody. I think we hit the 7:00 mark. Mark, I feel I busted enough with that, Madam City Clerk, and we go back to petitions from the floor. Well, it's the will of the body because we, the motion was to continue. So, what's the will? Move back to make a motion to go back to petitions from the floor at 7:00. Second. Okay. So, there's a motion to go back to petitions from the floor and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Certainly, Mayor. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Barrett? Yes. Councilor Bamante? Yes. Councilor Casset? Yes. Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Falner? Yes. Councilor Faggali? Yes. Motion passed. Okay. With that being said, are there any members of the public that would like to address the body tonight? Two minutes. Not seeing anybody want to rush up. How about anybody on Zoom? Madam City Clerk. Mayor, we do have one hand raised in the Zoom room. Stephanie Benonato. Okay. Benonato, you've got two minutes. Okay. Could you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, great. So, I'm curious as to when or where you are in the process of getting permanent City Manager, City Attorney, etc. And I just want to bring out, you know, you were talking about accessibility in the general plan, and particularly there were comments about accessibility to downtown for community members, but again, I want to point out to you that you approved in the land use code that developers no longer have to have off-site parking for developments in downtown, which will make it nearly impossible for people who don't live in the downtown to have parking in the downtown to come there for events or for just to be there. And also, I want to point out that neighborhood associations often are morbid. There are people who said, "I'm the head of the neighborhood association, but we haven't met for 10 years." So it might be interesting to update those neighborhood associations. And I'd love to know who the community partners are in the general plan and have actual public participants be part of the planning, not just reacting to the planning. Then the other thing I'd like to say is that I have an IPRA lawsuit for three items that the city has not provided me. The lawyers that you've hired said I was provided with these documents. I think it's very clear that I haven't been. I just got a notice that it's still too burdensome to go look at the HR file. This was well after the lawsuit was filed and the paid-for lawyers responded. And just recently, I got a permit that I asked for in 2024. And what really astonished me is that the city requires licensed electricians and licensed plumbers to pull permits if you're an owner-builder doing a project, but they don't require that person to show their license. They don't have their address on the permit. They don't have their license number on the permit. And in the one case, the one I was looking for, it's handwritten in a plumbing company in town, but all the receipts I got from the plumber show a totally different company that I'm being billed to. So, I think that should change, that if you're requiring a plumber or electrician to pull a permit, they should be required to show their license and put down a real address and their real company name. Thank you. Mayor: Thank you, Miss Benonto. Are there any other folks on Zoom? There are no other hands raised in the Zoom room. Mayor: Okay. With that being said, just one more ask person. Seeing anybody, let's move on to the next agenda item, please. Do we want to go into executive session or do we want to go into introduction of legislation? I think we return back to order business. Mayor: Okay. The next item is matters from the city attorney. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the governing body. I recommend that the governing body go into executive session for the matter stated in the agenda. So, thank you. So we have a motion for threatened and pending litigation. I move that we enter an executive session pursuant to the Open Meetings Act, Section 10-15-1H, subpart 7, for discussion of threatened or pending litigation in which the governing body is or may become a participant. Second. Mayor: Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Mayor, if I just, I just wanted to make sure that I'll receive a link for executive session because I haven't yet. So, I just wanted to plant that seed so I could join you all. We'll make sure to get that sent to you, Councilor. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Certainly, Mayor. Councilor Barrett, Yes. Councilor Bamante, Yes. Councilor Cassett, Yes. Councilor Castro, Councilor Chavez, Yes. Councilor Falner, Yes. Councilor Fagali, Yes. Councilor Garcia, Yes. Motion passed. Mayor: Okay, we stand in recess until we come back from executive session. Ready? Oh, wait. Okay. Back in session. Councilor Garcia. Okay. I can make a motion pursuant to the Open Meetings Act, Section 10-15-1J. I move that the governing body reconvene in open session and state for the record that the matters discussed in the closed session were limited to those specified in the motion for closure. Liz, you want to second this? Second? Mayor: We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Yes, Mayor. Councilor Bamante. Yes. Councilor Cassett, Yes. Councilor Castro, Councilor Chavez, Yes. Councilor Falner, Yes. Councilor Fagali, Yes. Councilor Garcia, Yes. Councilor Barrett, Yes. Motion passed. Mayor: Okay. Next item on the agenda, please, Madam City. Next item, Mayor, is 16, introduction of legislation. Item 16A is consideration of Bill Number 2024-14, adoption of an ordinance sponsored by Councilor Amanda Chavez and Councilor Alma Castro. It's a bill amending Section 25-25-4.1, Exhibit A, Rule Number Two, to adopt new definitions and adopting a new Rule Number Seven imposing requirements for backflow prevention and control for certain customers, imposing fees for administering the program, and imposing fines for violations. Mayor: Councilor Chavez or Councilor Castro, would you like to speak to this item? Yeah, I think the caption says most of it, but backflow prevention and control rules are necessary for the city to prevent contamination of the potable water supply. So, it's just about keeping our systems clean and that's what this will help do. Mayor: Councilor. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Next to you, Madam City Clerk. Next item is 16B, consideration of a resolution. This is sponsored by Councilor Amanda Chavez. It's a resolution authorizing City of Santa Fe representatives and agents to sign agreements and request for payment regarding New Mexico Environment Department for Grant Agreement Number SAP25-J2459-GF to plan, design, and construct a wastewater treatment facility. Mayor: Okay, Councilor Chavez, this item is yours. This just makes available funding for what we know is necessary, which is work on the wastewater treatment facility. Mayor: Thank you, Councilor. Madam City Clerk, next item, please. Next item is 16C, consideration of Bill Number 2026-01 and adoption of an ordinance. This is sponsored by Councilor Amanda Chavez. Be it ordained by the governing body of the City of Santa Fe authorizing the execution and delivery of a Water Project Fund Loan Grant Agreement by and between New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA) and the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the borrower/grantee, in the total amount of $7,750,000, including a loan in the amount of $3,100,000, evidencing an obligation of the borrower/grantee to utilize the loan grant amount solely for the purpose of financing the cost of construction of new flocculation and sedimentation improvements to the Canyon Road Water Treatment Plant, including demolition of existing clarifier equipment, structural additions, new flocculation and sedimentation equipment, all associated power controls, process and chemical piping and valves, new flocculation master control center, electrical building and associated grading and paving, potable water yard, piping relocation and all associated instrumentation, electrical, architectural and HVAC design components, including related work and revisions and solely in the manner described in the loan grant agreement, providing for the pledge and payment of the loan amount and administrative fee solely from the net revenues of the water utility system of the borrower/grantee, certifying that the loan grant amount together with other funds available to the borrower/grantee is sufficient to complete the project, approving the form of and other details concerning the loan grant agreement, ratifying actions heretofore taken, repealing all actions inconsistent with this ordinance and authorizing the taking of other actions in connection with the execution and delivery of the loan grant agreement. Thank you, Madam. And I have nothing to add because that was detailed enough and our City Clerk did amazing in reading it. Thanks. Mayor: Thank you. Maybe we can get it recorded like Chapter 14 title as well. And with that, thank you, Madam City Clerk. I think we've completed our agenda for the evening. With that, we stand adjourned.