Changes considered to upgrade local election procedures

At its March 8 work session, City Clerk Christine Rivera presented Las Cruces city councilors with proposed changes to streamline and modernize the city election process for both candidates and voters.

The council also heard proposed changes to the city’s animal ordinance.

The city adopted the Local Elections Act (LEA) in 2018 that combined local elections and used ranked-choice voting for the first time in 2019.

After that election, “some administrative issues became apparent involving campaign finance, community education, and accessibility of information to the public,” the city said in a summary of the election-process review. Rivera presented the review.

The changes she proposed would include moving from paper to online packets for candidates filing to run for city offices and installing campaign finance software to create online and searchable documents for candidates.

Other changes would mandate candidates close out their campaign accounts after an election is over, which Rivera said some losing candidates fail to do; regulate the size and placement of campaign signs; and revise the city campaign finance ordinance to bring it into full compliance with state requirements.

Rivera said proposed changes to the city ordinance would include definitions, adding, for example, a definition for in-kind contributions and campaign contribution limits. The current city ordinance limits contributions to $2,300 per person, while the state’s limit is $5,000, Rivera said. She said proposed changes to the city ordinance will be presented to the council for a vote in April.

Rivera said she is hopeful changes can be in place before the November city elections, when three city council seats will be on the ballot.

The changes proposed by Rivera would update the city election system “to reflect current trends and standards, which I think is really beneficial not only to candidates but to the public as well,” Councilor Tessa Abeyta-Stuve said.

Rivera said the city also will take the lead in educating the public about ranked-choice voting , which was confusing to some voters in 2019, so the city is creating a robust education program in both English and Spanish.

Rivera said the council also could again require petition signatures for candidates running for mayor and city council, and add guidelines to city code regarding campaign signs. These issues would be for the council’s future consideration, Rivera said. Any changes would not be enacted before this November’s city election.

Rivera said the city removed the requirement for petition signatures for mayoral and council candidates when it adopted LEA. Before that, the city had required 25 signatures of registered voters within his or her district for a city council candidate and 150 signatures citywide for a mayoral candidate, she said.

Mayor Ken Miyagishima said petition signatures should be required for candidates for mayor and city council.

Animal control ordinance revisions

From the work session summary of the city’s Animal Service Center of Mesilla Valley ordinance review

“Since 2017, the Animal Care Task Force, consisting of informed members of the community, city staff, and staff from the Animal Services Center of Mesilla Valley, reviewed Chapter 7, Animals of the Las Cruces Municipal Code.”

Based on their review, the task force proposed the following changes:

• Repeal the old form of pet licensing with the modern and more-effective procedure of microchipping.

City Animal Services Supervisor Gino Jimenez said the proposed change is based on a decline in pet owners licensing their pets and a “tremendous amount of participation in microchipping.”

• Regarding barking dogs, revisions “clarify the proof needed to prosecute a violation, ensure witness cooperation in prosecution and enumerate an animal control officer's authority to mediate between neighbors.”
• Allow aviary enthusiasts to maintain special breeds of pigeons and drakes with the proper permits.
• Provide a humane alternative to euthanasia for feral cats. The revisions include a trap-neuter-return program, which is consistent with a community cat policy, provides financial and educational resources for the care, spay and neutering of feral cats, includes a four-strike policy for problematic cats, provides the community with affordable options to humanely repel cats, and prohibits the release of cats to locations that are harmful to the community or local wildlife.

Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley Executive Director Clint Thacker said 321 feral cats were euthanized at the shelter in 2020, while 404 cats were trapped, neutered and released. Thacker said it costs $50-$60 per cat to trap, neuter and return and about the same cost to euthanize a cat.

Task force member Athena Huckaby, a public health professional, said the task force’s proposed changes create “a workable, enforceable, functional ordinance that all can live with. All sides made compromises and came together to create this ordinance,” she said.