You're live.
Good morning. Um, thank you for your
patience. Um, my apologies that we got
rolling um about 16 minutes late here.
I'm calling us to order at 10:16 a.m.
And many thanks to Nate uh for getting
us live streaming with zero notice. I'll
take responsibility for that one.
Although I will also point out that
Commissioner Sanchez joined us a little
late. So I could I could just say that
we were waiting on him and I appreciate
that. Um so we are called to order. Um
if you'll please join me in the pledge
of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
And I will do our determination of
quorum and just get to say good morning
to my fantastic board mates. Uh,
Commissioner Sanchez,
present.
Board member Campbell here. Commissioner
Shaldo Hernandez,
present.
Who is also vice chair.
Thank you.
Board member Peek.
Good morning, Madam Chair. Here.
Board member Gates
here. Councelor Corin
here.
And I, Chair Graham, am present. Uh,
good morning. And we have our quorum.
So, at this time, I'm going to read uh
two closed meeting statements.
The first, the board of directors of the
animal services center of Msia Valley
met in close session on November 19th,
2025 to discuss limited personnel
matters regarding the hiring of the
ASCMV executive director, which is
closed pursuant to section 10-15-1-H2
NMSA198.
The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. and
included the following ASCMV board
members. um myself, Becky Graham,
Christopher Shao Hernandez, Manuel
Sanchez, Jennifer Gates, Patrick Peek,
Joan Campbell. Scott Riley of Afen
Public was also present. Board member
Becky Cororin joined the meeting at
10:45 a.m. and was present through 2:45
p.m. ASCMV executive director candidate
Jamie Benfield was present from 10:30
a.m. through 12 p.m. And ASCMV executive
director candidate Stephanie Lewis was
present from 1:00 p.m. through 2:30 p.m.
The closed session concluded at 2:55
p.m.
The second closed meeting statement, the
board of directors of the animal
services center of the Messia Valley met
in closed session on November 20th, 2025
to discuss limited personnel matters
regarding the hiring of the ASCMV
executive director, which is closed
pursuant to section 10-15-1-H2
NMSA198.
The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. and
included the following ASCMV board
members, myself, Becky Graham, Becky
Corin, Christopher Sha, Joernnandez,
Emanuel Sanchez, Jennifer Gates, and
Patrick Peek. Elizabeth Cely of the
ASCMV participated by telephone from
10:02 through 10:12 a.m. And the closed
session concluded at 10:40 a.m.
And those are my closed meeting
statements. I felt like I had to put a
closer on that. Um, so moving to our
action items today. Uh, 4.1
recommendation for Aphon public to begin
negotiations with our ASCMV executive
director finalist.
And I guess I
well we'll we'll do the motion once we
Okay, great. Um, so what we're um going
to do or what I'm going to suggest we're
going to do is just kind of go down the
line and give our uh just give a brief
overview of our impressions from the
search to date and then we will finish
with a motion of um the selected
candidate. We'll name the selected
candidate and ask Aphon to commence
their contract negotiations. So, I'll
I'll kick us off. Um, first I just want
to thank um the many many many people
who have been involved in the process to
date. Um, the ASCMV staff, Afon public,
um, community members, uh, my fellow
board members. It's been a really
interesting process. Um and I also
wanted to speak a bit to some of the uh
you know behind the scenes process. Um,
specifically I want to address um some
feedback and comments I received uh from
last week for the community meet and
greet where I think um including some
folks who are here with us this morning
went out and got to um have some
discussions with the two candidates and
there were some questions about why the
board wasn't present for that meet and
greet. Um, I'm speaking only for myself
at this moment, not for any of my fellow
board members. But I thought really
carefully about whether or not I should
attend that. And what I kind of came up
with was that the board had the
opportunity to interview each of the
candidates. We had dedicated time with
them. Um, you know, kind of a one-on-one
opportunity. And I felt that that was my
time and the community's time was the
community's time. So I didn't want there
to be any impression that I was trying
to step on community time when I had
already had my own time or make things
weird as let's face it, we can sometimes
kind of make things weird. Uh, so I just
wanted to say um that I hope that
my absence at the community meet and
greet wasn't seen as um apathy or I
couldn't bother to be there. I thought
about it a lot. Um I really actually
kind of wanted to go but I felt that it
was important to give the community
their own time. So just wanted to
address that ahead of time. Um, in terms
of the recommendation for Afon, I think
that in my in my opinion, we had a great
a great problem in that we had two
fantastic finalists and um both with
amazing experience um
incredible chops in the animal welfare
um in the animal welfare space. Um, and
for me, I come to the I come to giving
the edge to Ms. Lewis, um, based
primarily on her, um, she just had a
little deeper experience on the
municipal animal welfare side of things
and, uh, experience with the scale of
organization
uh, that we are looking for. our next
director. Um,
and I'm I'm gonna just kind of pass it
down the line. Councelor Cororin.
Thank you. I second everything that
Chair Graham um alluded to. And I also
just want to sort of talk a little bit
about the process. Uh, and specifically,
you know, I I'll talk about two parts of
the process that I feel like I see in
the context of all of these things.
First is this is not an easy job for
whoever accepts the position. And and
there are so many constituencies to
think about. Community folks, the staff
at the shelter, um us, although I think
we should not be the main people that
the person answers to, the the animals
in the shelter, right? The animals in
the community that may be in the
shelter, right? These are
extraordinarily diverse pressures that
this person will have to respond to. And
so finding someone that can respond to
all of that um with their experience and
educ through their experience in
education I think is not an easy task.
Um and I I I just want to really
appreciate the the search firm for
bringing us as Graham said two people
who had different but but powerful
experiences that I think would mean a
lot in in Los Cusus. Um,
and to that kind of conversation, I
think I also support Miss Lewis's
candidacy and and beginning negotiations
with her um in in the way that I think
it was a great problem to have to have
such great candidates to to be here and
to get to chat with them and think about
think forward. Um I but the second part
that I also want to talk about is the
community forum setup or community
conversation setup which I appreciate
Afon really taking the lead and and
creating a space where uh we received
something like 35 total individual
comments related to um these folks. And
I I can say that in general um we as a
city councelor I rarely receive more
than five comments about anything. um
any almost anything um that we make a
decision on. And so I think that really
speaks to both the fact that and we
considered those those comments were all
prepared for us and they were part of
our consideration um when we when we met
the second day. So I really appreciate
the community folks who did show up in
in numbers that again are atypical of um
public discussions about who someone is.
And I think that just shows how much
people hope have hope for this position.
And so um thank you to the to all the
folks who gave input to the staff who
also I know gave input through a variety
of means and to the search firm that
brought us such great candidates and
both of them for for engaging in
conversations with us that were really
powerful. So I also hope that we can
begin negotiations with Miss Lewis.
Thank you board member Gates.
So I didn't bring a pen and paper and
I'm gonna try not to ramble. Um, but I'm
going to I mean essentially echoing both
the things that you said regarding the
meeting as well as um the candidate uh
Miss Lewis. Um I think that you know
someone with a behavior background like
her um I think she has extensive
experience. I think that she has very um
progressive viewpoints. I think that she
knows that you don't just follow one
organization's idea of you know the best
way to do things. because I think she
understands that you can pick and choose
what works best for Los Cusus. And I
think that she has, you know, the desire
to really make our city stand at the top
when it comes to animal welfare. And I
think that is one of the the most
amazing um things that I think that she
can accomplish. So um I think those are
most of my bullets as far as uh meeting
with her. Um and so yeah, total full
support for uh Miss Lewis as well.
Thank you so much, board member Peek.
Good morning, Madam Chair, members of
the public. Um
I want to thank Afion for doing a
fabulous job. I've had a professional
career of 40 years and I have
interviewed and hired hundreds of people
in my career and I can tell you that the
interviews that we had last week were
probably top 10 in my entire career. So,
congratulations to Afon for bringing us
great candidates. Congratulations to the
finalists. Uh, good job on the
interviews. It was a pleasure meeting
them both. I wish them all well. Um, and
thank you, Madam Chair, for overseeing
this. This was a good, you know, good
process and we I think we've come out
with we have two great candidates. Uh,
but I I have to agree with the consensus
of those who have spoken that u I'm
leaning towards Miss Lewis at the
moment. So, thank you.
Thank you so much, Vice Chair Shel
Hernandez.
Madame Chair, thank you. Um, I'll keep
my comments really brief. I just want to
kind of say thank you to both the
candidates that came out and joined us
here in Donana County, visited the
animal services shelter, talked to the
team extensively. Uh I thought it was a
great interview process as well. I was
really really impressed with their
willingness to have conversations, their
willingness to explore and see exactly
what's going on in the uh animal
services shelter. I there's a lot of
conversations that were had based off of
feedback that they got from staff, from
public questions, and neither candidate
backed away. Neither candidate backed
off. They're excited at the
opportunities. They're excited to help
us grow and help us understand the full
potential of our shelter. I was really
impressed by both of them. I think they
both come from very unique backgrounds,
whether it's from um the animal control
side or it's from the nonprofit side. I
just think that they really both were
great candidates and I'm really excited
uh for the future with them. I I hope
that we we just can all get together,
move forward, and I hope the community
gets excited with us on on the future of
this board and what what we're about to
do. So, I think it's really exciting.
Thank you. Board member Campbell,
I know there was some consternation
about whether to hire a search firm or
not, but I'm awfully glad we did. and I
was one that advocated for that. I
thought they did an excellent national
search and they brought us two
tremendous candidates. I wish we could
have both of them and for different
reasons. Um, but I thought that Miss
Lewis probably can hit the ground
running a little faster because her
experience is more spot-on to what we
need for this particular position. So, I
was glad to be part of the process and
and thank you for including us all.
Thank you, Commissioner Sanchez.
Thank you. Um, I want to say and just
echo a lot of the sentiments that have
already been shared by the board. Um, I
think Affon did an amazing job bringing
um, some amazing candidates. Um, really
during the time I I felt like both of
the candidates that came in ended up
were
brought some amazing experiences and
from different aspects of what they do.
I mean we we saw from uh the the the
rescue side with uh from one and then on
the other side working on various roles
in uh animal control being from an acco
all the way up to a shelter. Um and so I
think one of the things that really
stuck out to me was exactly the fact
that they were both uh excited for the
opportunity, wanted to be here, wanted
to bring their flavor to the ASCMV. Um,
I I know there was a couple I think as
as um the the chairwoman and and uh
councelor Corin had stated in terms of
public input. I did want to say that we
did as a board receive all of the
comments that were made by um by the
team or by the sorry by the public and
they were reviewed by the team. We we
did review that. So, um, if if I think I
saw some comments online, are they
really going to wa read through these?
Yes, we did. Um, and we did take those
to into consideration. Um, and so, but I
I was really
very pleased with the overall uh, search
process and where we ended up of having
two amazing candidates uh, to make a
decision from. And, um, I'm excited for
the step we're taking today. So, thank
you so much and thank you, Madam Chair,
for uh leading the the the search and
and for for us on this. Uh I know it
took us a while, but I absolutely it was
it's I think I'm really excited for if
we're going to get for the candidates
that we saw, absolutely worth it to to
be able to bring um some some excellent
experience to this. So, thank you so
much for leading the process.
All right. Thank you so much board
members. Um and especially like
so many people helped. It's not just me.
Um
anyone in the sharing the chamber with
us here today like to offer comment?
Madam Chair, I think we need a motion
before public comment.
Oh, okay. I move that the that we give
the search firm the go-ahhead to begin
negotiating with Stephanie Lewis as the
action item says, but isn't specific um
given the feedback we've heard here
today.
Madam Cherry, second that
two seconds. Um thank you for the
procedural. Um I ask again, would anyone
like to come up?
Okay.
Okay, great. Any other discussion
from the board? Okay, then I'll call the
role. Um,
this is on a motion to uh recommend Afen
Public to begin contract negotiations uh
with ASCMV
executive director finalist Stephanie
Lewis. Commissioner Sanchez,
yes.
Board member Campbell,
yes. Vice Chair Sha Joe Hernandez,
yes.
Board member Pek,
yes. Board member Gates.
Yes.
Councelor Corin,
yes.
And I, Chair Graham, vote yes. Um, so ex
Yeah, I know. Exciting. And I'll
communicate this applause. I'll
communicate this uh with uh Scott Riley.
And um Hooray. Yes, please. Councelor
Corin. Just really quickly, again, I I
asked this because we have a long
history of trying to navigate these
things and they're all the answer is
always different. But we will probably
have a special meeting, a special public
meeting to ratify the contract, right?
When that time comes, the next step.
Yes, I believe that's correct. So we
would do um similar to this another
special meeting um at which time yes we
would move to ratify all of those
constitutional sounding things that you
just said. Uh so yes correct.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
All right then I'll call for a motion to
adjurnn.
So moved. Sanchez
seconded. Corin, and happy Thanksgiving
to all you.
Yes, thank you for coming out. And we
are adjourned at 10:35 a.m. And again,
Nate, thank you so much for hustling
over with zero notice. Thank you.