| Dear Las Crucens, We need your help! Public participation at City Council is being suppressed. Will you please email, call, and/or attend the March 4 City Council meeting to make a public comment? See below for more information and potential talking points. THE SITUATION Las Cruces’ new Mayor, Eric Enriquez, is planning to move public participation to the end of the City Council meetings beginning in April. We have one month and two City Council meetings between now and then to try to put a stop to this. Whether or not this is intended to suppress public input, this WILL make it much harder for people to make public comments at the meetings since the time for the public participation will be very unpredictable. City Council meetings sometimes end in 2 hours, sometimes they drag on for 4, 5, or 6 hours. By moving public participation to the end of the meetings, far fewer people will be able to participate. |
| TWO WAYS TO TAKE ACTION Potential talking points are at the end of this email. PLEASE EMAIL/CALL CITY COUNCIL Make sure to send individual emails instead of one group email if you want a response. Please be respectful in your communications for the maximum positive impact. — Mayor – Eric Enriquez – [email protected] – 575-541-2067 — District 1 – Cassie McClure – [email protected] – 575-541-2073 — District 2 – Bill Mattiace – [email protected] – 575-541-2068 — District 3 – Becki Graham – [email protected] – 575-541-2070 — District 4 – Johana Bencomo – [email protected] – 575-541-2071 — District 5 – Becky Corran – [email protected] – 575-541-2072 — District 6 – Yvonne Flores – [email protected] – 575-541-2069 — City Clerk – Christine Rivera – [email protected] – 575 541-2115 All email addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ATTEND THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TO MAKE A PUBLIC COMMENTThere will be a City Council on Monday March 4 at 1pm. We need as many people as possible to attend and give comments on this issue. WHAT: City Council Meeting WHEN: Monday March 4 at 1pm WHERE: City Hall, 700 N Main St, Las Cruces 88001 |
| POTENTIAL TALKING POINTS Here are some potential talking points about this issue. Please do NOT copy-paste these verbatim. Your communications will be most effective if you add in your own words as well. Please be respectful to make the most positive impact. —Please do not move public participation to the end of your meetings. This will prevent many people from being able to make comments at your meetings. —The public needs to be able to address the Mayor and City Council at your meetings. Our concerns are important and you were elected to represent us. —The working people in your community have to miss work to attend your meetings. Moving public participation to the end of the meetings will make it impossible for many people to participate. —We have families and jobs. We cannot afford to sit through many hours of meetings in order to make our voices heard. Do not move public input to the end of your meetings. —The previous Mayor had a good system for handling public input. By calling out each row, it was simple and easy for people to know when to go speak at the podium. This system worked well and I ask you to please use the same system instead of changing things in such a way that I will no longer be able to participate. |
| Please take action on this to help us convince the Mayor that it is not right to suppress public input. Standing with you in solidarity, Sarah Smith and Juan Garcia |
