CITY COUNCIL BRIEFS

The meeting of the Las Cruces City Council yesterday including two items on their agenda of interest to the residents of Las Cruces.

The first, was the franchise agreement between the City and El Paso Electric presented to Council for it's first reading. Mr. Robert Garza, Assistant City Manager presented the agreement to City Council as its "first reading."

There are a few residents and councilors who are not in total agreement with the contract and the benchmarks for increment 5-year extensions on the contract.

Sen. Steve Fischmann who has been a critic of El Paso Electric spoke against the agreement and asked the Council to not consider it in its current form. However, members of the Ad Hoc committee who served on the negotiation team asked Council to approve the contract as is.

Mr. Clay Dole, Vice President for the NM El Paso Electric answered questions from Council and the public. Attorneys for both sides were also present to and answered legal points from both the Council and residents.

The agreement will be reviewed again on August 16th for its second reading and the changes are recommended by Council.

NOTE: As a member of the AD HOC committee for the City, I will not make any personal comments until the agreement is passed.

Second, in s special Work Session, Council was briefed by Mr. Craig Uchida, President
14 recommendations have been made in a draft report by Justice and Security Strategies Inc., of Bethesda, Md. The report included the following:

• The hiring of a police auditor who would conduct periodic audits of public complaints of the Las Cruces Police Department, reviews of police department operational policies, improving the process for community outreach; and creating greater openness of the police department.

• Results of the study have not yet been shared with police department administration.

• 74 allegations of use of force, by 37 police department employees, were made by the public from 2000 to 2008.

• Of those, one police department employee received nine complaints and another employee six.

• A city council work session to further discuss the recommendations is planned for Aug. 16.