The public is invited and encouraged to provide public comment by email for the Monday, May 4 virtual Las Cruces City Council meeting and subsequent meetings. The council is conducting virtual meetings in order to comply with the state public health order limiting public gatherings to five or less. In order to provide opportunities for the public to continue participating in the meetings, City Council unanimously approved a public comment resolution for virtual meetings during an emergency at a special meeting on April 24.
The resolution allows the public to submit input by email to the mayor and/or city clerk and the mayor will read the emails during the meeting. The emails for specific items should include the resolution number, resolution title or description, and the participant’s name for the record. Other emails not related to a specific resolution will be read during public participation. The mayor and city clerk are accepting public input by email at: mayor@las-cruces.org and crivera@las-cruces.org.
The mayor may limit the number of emails he will consider during each meeting and the emails must comply with the city manager’s social media policy. The guidelines will be included with each agenda.
Provisions of the social media policy include the following restrictions:
· Comments not related to the original topic, including random or unintelligible comments for items on the agenda;
· Profane, obscene, violent, or pornographic content and/or language;
· Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, ancestry, sex, age, physical and mental handicap, serious medical condition, spousal affiliation, sexual orientation and gender identity;
· Defamatory or personal attacks;
· Threats to any person or organization;
· Comments in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaigns or ballot measures;
· Solicitation of commerce, including but not limited to advertising of any business or product for sale;
· Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law;
· Encouragement of illegal activity;
· Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems.
Items on Monday’s council meeting agenda include a resolution in support of the governor’s proposal to re-open business in New Mexico and requesting more representation on the state economic recovery council, and a proposed ordinance placing a moratorium on the section of the Las Cruces Municipal Code that authorized the use of recreational off-highway vehicles on city-owned streets.
Monday’s virtual meeting begins at 1 p.m. and is available for viewing at CLCTV.com and Youtube/clctv20 or lascruces.civicweb.net. The meeting will also be televised on Comcast channel 20 in Las Cruces.
And, in an effort to expand accessibility and transparency, the Las Cruces Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) held its first virtual meeting on April 28. The virtual meeting complies with the state’s public health order limiting mass gatherings related to the coronavirus pandemic. The P&Z meeting can be viewed at:https://lascruces.civicweb.net/document/7101?splitscreen=true&media=true P&Z meetings are held at 6 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of the month.
City of Las Cruces news releases can be translated into Spanish and multiple other languages using the Select Language feature on the lower right side of the home page of the City website at las-cruces.org under News & Announcements.