[Music]
you on light.
Good afternoon. Welcome to our work
session. Today is Monday, July 14th.
It's approximately 1 p.m. I'm Mayor Eric
Henriquez. Uh we will start with a
moment of silence.
uh first of all for our deputy sheriff
in our county that uh was killed in the
line of duty, Antonio Alman, and then a
moment of silence for the victims of
Rioso and the the catastrophe that
they've had there as well.
If you join me in the pledge. 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.
Uh, first on the agenda is jobs of the
week, Sarah Rainey.
Good afternoon. Thank you, mayor.
All right. My name is Sarah Rainey. I'm
the onetop coordinator for the southwest
region of America's job center New
Mexico. For jobs of the week, we have a
police cadet for the city of Los Cruus
starting at $24 an hour and that posting
closes in September. We also have an
engineering technician too for the city
starting at 22.85 an hour and that is a
continuous posting at this time. For
brake masters, we have an automotive
mechanic that depends on experience for
the pay and the posting closes in
August.
For Donana County, we have a court
compliance secretary lead starting at
1673 an hour and the posting closes on
the 15th. So, very quickly. Also, for
Tyson Crop Materials, they have multiple
positions. Um, just three of them
starting out as Milright for $35 an
hour, a quality inspector for 31,000,
starting at 31,000, a machine operator
starting at 32,000, and there's a couple
more that they listed.
Just a quick recap on our events that we
have coming up this week. On Wednesday,
we have our monthly community at home
job readiness. Invite any one of you to
come out and meet the attendees there.
They're looking for job readiness
skills, interview skills. We help them
with resumeéumés and applying for jobs,
all of the above. So, that's open on
Wednesday. And then in August, we have
Mountain Shadows will be at our office.
They are doing on the spot interviews.
Bring your resume. come ready for an
interview and they're interviewing on
the spot and have offered jobs. So,
that's a big one. And then we have our
career essentials. That one is our TANF
office that gives job readiness skills
and help. So, we have a lot coming up.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Yes, sir.
Next is pets of the week. Carol
I am Carol Nelson, digital content
specialist with the Animal Services
Center of the Messia Valley. U as a
reminder, our dog and cat of the week
anytime they are promoted are available
at no cost through the week. This week
we have Rolley. His number is 87393 and
to look him up on our website. I have
found with I was found with my brother
in the desert. And thanks to all the TLC
I've received, I'm blossoming into a
playful companion. I might take a moment
to warm up, but once I feel comfortable,
I'm all about gentle pets and cuddles.
I'm people motivated and playful, though
I can be a little jumpy when I'm
excited. I promise I'm gentle when
taking treats. I'm looking for a patient
and loving family to help me build my
confidence and create beautiful memories
together.
Our cat of the week is Pineapple. His
number is 92658 to look him up on our
website. Just like my name, I'm a little
sweet and a bit tangy once I get to know
you. Part of my journey growing up in
the shelter is that I can be a bit
unsure of humans at first, but I'm eager
to learn and explore. The more you get
to know me, you'll see me get into all
sorts of fun shenanigans, just like a
playful kitten should. If you're looking
for a sweet companion with a dash of
adventure, I might be the perfect match
for you.
We also want to highlight our long-term
residents. um to get them out because of
course the longer they stay at the
shelter the harder it is for them to
thrive. And just as a reminder, all
adoptions throughout the month of July
are just $25. It's a great time to
adopt. Peppa has been with us now 344
days. We would really love to see her
find a home. Fessa was our dog of the
week last week. Didn't get adopted
unfortunately. Has been with us 251
days. Eley 236 days. And Luther has been
with us 223 days. and he is one of our
red zone dogs. Um he is heartworm
positive and so it means he's at risk of
being euthanized as we are at capacity
right now. So we would love to see him
get adopted soon. And this weekend we'll
be at Petco on Saturday from 9 to 12. So
definitely come on out. We always have a
variety of our shelter pets there to
adopt. And then also even if you can't
adopt, bring a friend, say hello,
socialize with the dogs. It's helpful
for them. And as always, you can find
more information on our website or
social media.
Thank you.
Thank you, Carol.
Next, I'll read a closed meeting
statement.
Excuse me. The city council met in close
session today at 11:35 on July 14th. The
following were in attendance. myself,
Mayor Enriquez, Mayor Prom Bencomo,
Councelor Mccclure, Councelor Graham,
Councelor Karan, uh City Manager Econup
Paya, uh City Attorney Brad Douglas, and
City Clerk Christine Ria.
The purpose of the closed meeting was to
discuss pending or threatening
litigation regarding Margarita Ree and
Mercedes Ree versus the city of Los
Cusus.
the meeting adjourned at 11:42
a.m.
And with that, we'll start with our
agenda items. First on the agenda is 4.1
Neighborhoods Tree Program, Jennifer
Cites.
Thank you, Mayor and City Council, for
the opportunity to present today.
Let's see.
I'm I wanted the opportunity to talk
with the mayor and city council this
morning this afternoon because uh
several years ago the city of Los Cruus
supported the Donana soil water
conservation district in our effort to
get a grant from the forestry service.
Uh, in 2022, Shannon Horse from Tree New
Mexico made a presentation to the city
council about Tree New Mexico's
neighborhoods program that they conduct
in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and we were
in audience at that presentation. A
little later that same year, uh, Tree
New Mexico had a pilot planting of 40 50
trees in the neighborhood around Apadaka
Park, and we participated in that event
as well.
In early 2023, the Forestry Service
published a notice of funding
opportunity for urban and community
forestry projects, and we collaborated
with Tree New Mexico and submitted a
proposal. Our proposal was supported
with letters from the city of Los Cru's
parks and recck department, the
sustainability office, and the city
manager's office. We were very grateful
for that support. We also received
support from the city of Sunland Park.
In September of 2023, we were notified
that we were awarded a five-year $1
million grant for our project project.
And the goal of the project is to plant
2,100 trees in the city of Los Cruus in
Donana County and give away 2,100 trees.
Part of our project proposal brought in
the study that the city of Los Cusus had
done a couple of years before on the
heat index in the city of Los Cusus. and
using those numbers and that data that
helps support I believe the reason we
were funded for this project. So we
wanted to let you know what we're doing,
how we're doing uh as we have gone
underway. We're uh in year two, halfway
through year two. And so since the
beginning of the program, the soil and
water conservation district has had two
plantings, one 50 tree planting in the
South Solano area and one 50 tree
planting near University Hills
Elementary School. What we have found is
that we use the ele the schools in the
area as our staging areas. So these
plantings, we do the preparation work.
We identify the neighborhood. We reach
out to local homeowners in the
neighborhood and collaborate with them
if they are willing to water and care
for the tree. We bring in a team and on
one Saturday morning we the holes are
already dug. The trees are where they
belong and we have teams of five to six
people who have knowledge about planting
trees and we plant them in those
neighborhoods. Then we come back to the
staging area and people gather and we
celebrate our volunteers. It takes a lot
of wonderful volunteers to do this and
then we give away 50 trees. We are
getting ready for our fall plantings. Uh
the there's going to be two 50 tree
plantings in the area of Lynn Middle
School in October and there's going to
be one 100 tree planting in the area of
Sierra Middle School in November. And
we're also going to do a 50 tree
planting in Sunland Park in the Siara
Madre subdivision.
We wanted to welcome you and let you
know where we are with this and we'll be
reaching out to the counselors in these
different districts because we would
love your support. We also wanted to let
you know that we are grateful for the
trees that we were given from your parks
and recreation department. They got them
through the Apache tree grant. our
uh nursery high desert native plants is
taking care of them until we have our
tree planting events and then they will
be part of our uh giveaway trees. Uh you
can see here where we've got some trees
lined up. We've got our volunteers
there. Uh there's little instructions on
the different kind of trees that they
are. These are drought tolerant trees.
They are uh picked and selected
particularly for our area. Um, and here
everyone is getting ready to go out in
their teams. They're getting their last
instructions.
They go out. As you can see, the holes
are already dug. That's a big selling
point when we're trying to get our
volunteers. You do not have to dig the
hole.
And we have a lead on each team who's an
expert in an arborist or has gone
through tree steward training. uh two of
our uh wonderful volunteers. One is Les
Finley. I know that for many many years.
Less was the uh horiculturist for the
city of Los Cruus for many many years.
And John White. John is an arborist. He
does a lot of work planting trees here
and helping folks in El Paso. We also
have a wonderful team of in uh from
Truth or Consequences. They're the Scat
Cats. They're an Environ team. They have
just won their 13th national title this
year. And they come down to Los Cruus
and help us plant trees. We go up to
Truth or Consequences and help Tree New
Mexico plant trees. They come down to
Sunland Park. We all work together to
plant trees in this area. We're very
grateful.
And here's some more uh pictures of
folks planting trees, getting them just
ready. And and um
uh we have a good time. It's hot, so we
only plant like between October and
February because then it's just too hot.
But we do get a lot of trees planted.
And um I also wanted to let you know
that we thank you for this opportunity
to give you the update. We're grateful
for the support from the city of Los
Cusus Parks and Recreation Department
and sustainability
uh department. We're halfway through the
second year of our 5-year program and
look forward to the next three years
planting. We are also looking for ways
to get more funding so after this grant
is over, we can continue to plant trees
in the city of Los Cusus and in Donic
County. So, thank you very much for the
opportunity. Uh, one other thing I did
want to say is that uh, the mission of
soil and water conservation districts as
outlined in New Mexico stat state
statute is to conserve and develop the
natural resources of the state to
promote the health, safety, and general
welfare of the people and to conserve
water and soil resources for the benefit
and of current and future generations.
Through the neighborwoods program, we
are putting this mission into action.
Enhancing our urban forests, improving
soil health, conserving water through
smart tree placement, and creating more
livable neighborhoods.
These community tree plantings are not
just beautifification projects. They are
long-term investments in our
environmental resilience, public health,
and shared future. Thank you very much.
If you have any questions, I'm do my
best to answer.
All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank
you for all that you do. Thanks for all
your hard work. It's very much
appreciated. I'll see if there's anyone.
Uh, councelor Karen.
Um, thank you so much. This is such a
cool program and I really appreciate you
sharing. Um, I know um I I know those
heat maps and I don't think I I don't
anticipate my district will will is
necessarily represented on those heat
maps as far as places that that are
targeted for this grant. But I do think
that some of us I just want to put in a
request not just the ones who the
counselors who are have these schools in
their districts and stuff. I would ask
if you could share it with everyone. We
really some of us have you know broader
networks that we can share these two
that might reach to um expand volunt I
know folks are always asking me for
volunteer opportunities and also um
potentially people who who want to have
trees that that would be in the targeted
area. So please if you can share it with
all when you have events coming up,
please share it with all of us. We would
be happy to elevate it in the ways that
we have sort of places to share that
information and maybe gather some
volunteers to help support you.
Most definitely. We do have a QR code
and we have a website just for our
neighborhoods program. People can sign
up to be volunteers or they can sign up
if they want a tree in their area. That
helps us designate. Um according to the
grant restrictions, it has to be a
siegous neighborhood. However, most of
the city of Los Cruus and Donana County
is in a sieges area. So, we're really
not having too much trouble with that.
And then we do use GIS mapping to look
at the the
canopy and find the neighborhoods and
areas that need to be addressed. And so,
uh, we certainly will do that.
Thank you. And I will look up and find
the QR code to share, too. So, thank you
so much. Thank you.
I have a question. Great.
Thank you. Thank you so much. I agree. I
love this um project. I whatever we
could do to continue supporting you um
whether in our individual capacities as
counselors or as citywide, we'd I'd love
to continue supporting this program. Um
I did want to sort of just add a little
perhaps uh potential partnership. I
recently saw online that um planting
more trees in some streets can be used
as um traffic calming measures actually.
Okay. And um I'd wonder if there was an
opportunity for you all to talk to our
traffic uh department at public works
and see if there was any opportunity.
There's so many um folks in our
community who are constantly reaching
out to us about people speeding in their
neighborhoods and what do we do and what
can we do in this and honestly those
processes take a really long time. And
the other day I saw that u planting more
trees can can help calm traffic. And so
um wonder if there's an opportunity for
you to you know certainly do that kind
of partnership and I think that would
be so uh just reach out to the director
of public works.
Yes.
All right. We'll do that. We love
partnering with you all.
Thank you so much. Shout out to David is
right back there too. So
Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
Council,
I just want to say also think it's a
great program. also think that we should
use trees as traffic calming and as a
way to say hey you know there's a we
create a shades just for people walking
from one area to the other and
right
um I'm just curious I think last time I
was vaguely involved did you were you
able to find enough homes for all the
trees or is there any way that you need
help with that this time as well
uh we have just we're going to start
canvasing uh one one second our program
coordinator for the neighborhoods
program Cat Buckman Cat come on up here.
Um, she's just getting started now
canvasing for the Lynn neighborhoods.
The Lynn neighborhoods. Yes, we're
starting with the one neighborhood for
October 4th planting.
Sorry about that. We're starting our
first neighborhood is October 4th. My
name is is Katherine Buckman.
Thank you.
Um, our first neighborhood that we're
planning in is on October 4th around the
the Lynn neighborhood. It's a very big
neighborhood, so we have split it into
two sections. So, we'll be canvasing
starting tonight in those areas.
Well, if you need any help canvasing,
let us know. So,
if you would like to to canvas with us,
we would absolutely love your help. We
got a training coming up. I will be
having a training coming up and I will
get an email out to everybody with all
the information for all of it. I know
I've emailed you before,
um, but I'll get an email out to
everybody. I will let you know when our
next canvasing training is and when we
will be canvasing. Thank you,
Council Mitch.
I was going to ask Katrina,
have you worked with this? Oh, you you
have a card. You know, I was going to
say that we have a neighborhood
captains, neighborhood associations,
watch watch groups, and that'd be great
if Katrina Scott and your organization
can work together.
Definitely.
Thank you. Great program.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you all very much.
Now, I just want to say thank you again
and I want to add another group to to
this program and that would be the
mayor's top team. I think that would be
great for our youth in our community and
kind of somewhat have control over that
group.
So, they'll be volunttoled.
Oh, okay. That's terrific. All right.
No, part of the part of the thing they
do cleanups, they do other things like
that for the community. I think this is
a great opportunity.
So, we'll definitely reach out to you
and get the mayor's top team in
Baltimore. Thank you. Thank you very
much. Uh because the other thing that is
another program of ours that we want to
get up and running, I told you about the
Environ team that's in the city in uh
Truth or Consequences and we have four
high schools and we have a lot of kids.
We should have five Environ teams in the
city of Los Cusus and we don't even have
one. So, um I'm not sure who to start.
We're we're looking for leaders because
they just help the kids study and do all
that work and then a group of six kids.
So,
okay, with that, I I'll bring it to the
superintendent Reese's attention and he
usually meets with his team of leaders
and we can bring this pro program up to
him as well.
Direct. Great. Okay. Thank you. Thank
you very much.
Great. Thank you.
So next on the agenda 4.2 delegation to
Neimberg, Germany
and I may add that myself and councelor
Mccclure we had the privilege the honor
to go and visit Newberg and had a great
experience and we're looking forward to
the presentation. Katrina
Let's put it up.
I don't know why it's taking so long.
us to load. Okay. Good afternoon, city
councilors, mayor, staff, and public. My
name is Katrina Godz. I'm with the
city's community engagement program. I'm
here today with our sister cities
foundation. Uh we would like to give
city council an update on our trip to
Nmberg uh Germany's thousand-year
celebration and an update on the sister
cities foundation. Uh we will start with
our sister cities foundation update from
the president of our sister cities
foundation Elaine McKini. Then you will
hear from our chairman to the Neandberg
committee uh Allison Smith
and let me go ahead and open this and
thank you and I leave you with uh Miss
Elaine McKini. Thank you.
Yeah, you're just gonna go there.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, city
councilors,
members of the leadership team of Los
Cusus, and our guest. We're happy to be
here today, and we thank you for this
opportunity to give you an update on our
uh Sister Cities Foundation. I want to
give you a little bit of a background
for those of you who may not be familiar
with it. Sister Cities was founded in
the United States in 1956 as the result
of President Dwight Eisenhower after he
came back from World War II and seeing
the interaction between cities in the
European arena and how they worked
together and he wanted to encourage
peace through people and as a result
sister city's international foundation
was formed. Uh it now is housed out of
Washington DC and we have in the United
States over 400 communities within the
United States that are partnering with
over 1,800 cities around the world in
400 more than 400 countries. So you can
see how we reach out as citizen
diplomats to cities and places around
the world forming a bond and partnership
and it is an official agreement that is
signed between the s cities when they
become sister cities. Los Cusus had
their first sister city partnership
formed with Lero Mexico uh in 1989
informally earlier than that in 1982.
You can see on the map where lo uh Lelo
is located in the state of Durango,
Mexico. It's about a 10-hour drive from
us here. If you fly down, it's probably
about a three and a half hour flight.
So, relatively close.
Our second sister city was formed with
Neberg, Germany in 1993.
And as you can see on the map, Nimberg
is located in the northern part of
Germany uh southeast of Braymond, which
is on the coast and northwest of
Hanover.
It's about a 12 to 15 hour flight, and
those who went know how long a flight it
is for you to go over there. Plus, after
you you land, there is a little bit of
time on the ground, either by auto or by
train to reach our sister city, which is
about a uh
45 miles or so from uh this city of
Hanover.
Each of our partner cities relationships
began as the result of a student
exchange. After our partnership was
formed
in 1992, we established the Los Cusus
Sister Cities Foundation, which is a
501c3
organization. And for the past 35 years,
the foundation has been facilitating
exchanges between our sister cities and
activities between our sister cities and
representing
all of the city of Los Cusus and our
city government as well.
exchanges have included the high
schools, both Mayfield High School and
Arrowhead
uh Academy out at NMSU as well as John
County Community College began with um
student exchanges. We've had
internships, musicians, artists, and
you'll probably see some pictures of
what Tony Pinnock did in Deanberg. Uh
and it's really uh represented over
there. Uh I think you'll be impressed.
So we've we've shared a lot of knowledge
and training with these exchanges
including medical, water, police, and
fire.
This helps us to broaden our cultural
understanding between our cities and
also for us to learn from one another.
Los Cruus Sister Cities Foundation
includes me as Katrina said, Ela McKenna
as the president and of the foundation
and our board. But we also have uh
chairman of each affiliation committee.
One for Lero is Tim Chapel and our uh
chairman of our affiliation committee
with Neberg is Alanson Smith who you'll
hear from shortly.
Each sister city signed a formal
agreement.
These relationships are recognized
through Sister Cities International.
Los Cruus Sister Cities Foundation
represents Los Cusus to provide ongoing
communication and a working relationship
with our partner cities
after
2025.
can't say that it's a result of COVID,
but that's part of it, too. Uh, our
membership declined and we were
considering discontinuing operation
after an appeal to the members,
the community, including the city, uh,
some city employees. A meeting was held
in January of this past of this year
and it resulted in a resolve to continue
the foundation.
With that, a new board was formed.
We and our current and new members
committed to helping to strengthen the
foundation. We currently have 36
members, which believe it or not is
about 166% increase. So, we're reaching
out. In the past six months, we've
revised our bylaws in a response to the
members directives.
We're currently updating standing rules,
a memorandum of agreement with the city,
and we have a new website.
We are current with all our reporting to
the New Mexico Secretary of State and
IRS. We're working to train leadership,
promote membership, and increase our
involvement from the community. We need
to reach out. We need to get more people
involved.
Let you know of our financial status.
We're in good standing. We do have over
31,000
in our accounts, various accounts uh
that we have which supports the
foundation. So we are very positive in
that regard. We want to continue to
promote world peace and cultural
understanding through peace through
people and through citizenship
diplomacy. Everyone that uh represents
our city to our sister cities are they
are diplomats. They represent you and me
as well as the whole city and the state.
We want to promote sharing ideas and
learning in such areas as education,
art, journalism, law, water, medical,
fire, police, and historic preservation.
just to name a few things and a few
areas where we can learn from one
another. Our commitment remains strong
to work with the city of Los Cusus, our
community and our sister cities.
In June, as Katrina mentioned, an
official delegation went to Neber to
celebrate their, that's not a typo,
their 1,000th anniversary as a city.
All the planning, training and
coordinating of this trip was done
through our affiliation committee and a
similar committee in Ninburgg. Today,
the GE delegation will share with you
some of their recent experiences and
what they learned.
Allison, if you'll come forward, please.
Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, members
of the council. For the record, my name
is Allison Smith. I am the chair of the
Ninberg affiliation committee. It is my
honor to be able to share with you some
of the highlights that of our delegation
trip. Uh we were honored to be
accompanied by Mayor Enriquez, First
Lady Ivet, uh Councelor Mccclure, and
Miss Godz. Uh it was a really fabulous
delegation that went. We're going to
show you a little video. It's about an
eight minute video. And in this I'm
going to point out some of the
highlights that you're going to see. You
will see us interacting with the the
mayor and a lot of folks around town.
You will see us interacting with members
of the sister cities from um from VIPs
in Bellarus. You will also see us
planting a tree. Um I know the the
previous group talked about planting
trees. It was very important for
Nineberg this year to have 1,000 trees
planted in in honor of their 10,00
years. So, we got number 300 and we
actually had to dig the hole and you'll
get to see that. Well, the the ground
was loosened a bit, but um you'll also
see tours that we took of the waterworks
of the Albert Schweitzer Shula, which is
the school that um that Elaine
mentioned. That was our our um exchange
with Mayfield. So, that spurred on the
need and the desire for us to maybe
revisit this exchange one one more time.
We also participated in a 10,00-year
parade. So, you will see us interacting
with the citizens of Ninberg as we hand
out some pretty fabulous pens. And also,
Mayor Enriquez uh gifted the city of
Ninberg a beautiful Nambbe platter that
was provided by Sister Cities. So,
without further ado, I'm going to go
ahead and play the video and then we'll
be open for questions on the other side.
I think I'm going to do that.
Go.
[Music]
Tanya, this is the burger master from
last cruises.
[Music]
Heat.
[Music]
Heat.
[Music]
[Applause]
Wasn't that a beautiful snapshot of the
trip that our delegation made to
Neimberg?
And believe me, I just want you to know
that when they go over there, not only
are they representing you and me and
everyone else, they're working. They're
doing a lot of things, interacting with
leaders in the community, going to other
uh
departments, learning about water, fire,
whatever is uh the interest and the
opportunities at the time. This is a
time that we are sharing and at the same
time we're learning the cultural
differences. We're promoting world peace
and understanding and we want to
make our community stronger and we feel
very
strongly I feel very strongly that the
way to do it is to understand another
community and another culture and we can
share that information that we have. I
want to encourage each of you to join
and by becoming a member of Sister C's
Los Cusus's Foundation.
I want your help to promote our
foundation and encourage citizen
participation. This is what it's all
about. We are here. We want the
community involved and to be a part of
that. That's how we learn uh and
understand the differences between
peoples. So, we appreciate your support
and involvement and your commitment with
us there. We do have more information at
our sister cities foundation website.
Keep in mind that this is a new website.
We're working on it. So, please bear
with us, but we're getting there. So,
let me go back there. Uh we want to take
time and Allison if you want to come up
with me to answer questions either about
the Sister Cities Foundation or the
delegation trip to Nemberg.
Okay. Well, I want to start off by just
saying thank you. It was a great
experience. Uh I can speak uh for Evette
as well, my wife. she came she's in
attendance today to support and um you
know it's it's it's not only about uh
the diplomacy the the the
trip the events the the the work and all
there was another aspect and it was
being um
being hosted by a family a couple there
and ours was Armoot and Anukica
did I say her name right Ana, Ana,
Ana, and And they were wonderful. They
were beautiful. The way they treated us,
they opened up their home to us and just
learning about their culture and
everything. It was it was just it was
just wonderful. So, it was a great
experience. And when we went to the
school and they said they want to bring
back the exchange, I'm all for it. I've
already spoken to the superintendent.
He's talking to his his team about
getting the teachers and and and getting
everything going so that we can do that.
I've spoken to members of Rotary already
that said they used to sponsor it, they
want to continue, they want to look at
that. So doing the leg work on this side
because I think it'd be great experience
for a 16 17 year old to to experience
that and for them to come over here and
experience and we want to extend that
invite to them next year. uh our the
United States is 250 years. So that
could be a celebration there that that
we could share with them. Not a thousand
but 250 and um I I just want to just say
that thank you for that great
experience. It it was truly uh a
wonderful time for us.
You're welcome, mayor, and we are
delighted that you went and represented
us in Nberg. We thank you for that.
No, thank you.
And if I may add, Mr. Mayor, members of
the council, um the uh one of the things
that I neglected to mention on the front
side of this is every member of this
delegation had a slightly different
experience based on who they stayed
with, based on some of the free time
that we had when we weren't working. Our
hosts took us to various things that
weren't official. And so each member uh
please reach out to them if you have
questions about their independent
journey because everybody was touched um
slightly differently on this trip.
Comment.
Thank you. Yes, Council Fus.
Thank you, Mayor. Well, thank you. It's
so good to see you. I was supposed to be
with a delegation two years ago. I broke
my foot and I couldn't make it this
year. But um I've spoken with Katrina
and she came back with her eyes as big
as the moon and um and she was telling
me how lovely her uh ghost uh ghost her
host um was and how uh she invited her I
think to go to Paris. She turned it
down. Invited her to go to London. She
turned it down. And I said, you know,
it's like when you go to Europe, it's
like you're in Disneyland. you just hop
on a train and there you are a few years
a few hours later in a totally different
country. But um I we the city I grew up
in in California um had its sister city
in um the high school had its sister
city in Munich. So Fred Fred Schmidt,
I'll never forget her um was actually
half Colombian. So, she was fluent in
Spanish, fluent in English, fluent in
German, and um and she wasn't our guest.
She stayed with a family that had the
high school student and whatever. And um
my sister and I were already in college,
so she invited us to go. And my mom
said, "You can't go." And my brother
said, "Yes, they can, Mom." Because he
had been stationed in Germany. And he
said, "Mom, it's Disneyland. just you
know everybody is so kind and and I
think um I propose of what the mayor
mentioned it's and you too I mean the
the whole idea is to have people see
people as human beings and not
representative of some governmental
uh
um governmental uh whatever I don't want
to get too uh but um you know certain
leaders aren't people that we really
care for. Um they don't care for us. Um
you know, but um but in terms of people
to people that that's what makes all the
difference in the world. And um so I
want to thank you all for being there.
I'm glad I'm so glad Katrina went uh
because uh it's good for them to see who
we are as people. And um you know we're
really a nation we are a nation of
immigrants and um maybe maybe one day
we'll have a Native American join
the group and that would be wow
but but that just came to me anyway but
thank you it's very
wonderful to see you and thank you
and I will emphasize that
sister cities is apolitical
we're not a member of any particular
party when we are visiting with them and
they with us we are learning learning
about them as a people and they are
learning about us as a people. We're
learning from their experience and the
things that they do that may be somewhat
different from ours. It may or may not
work for us and vice versa. So, we're
all working together and we want to
continue to be here as a foundation to
support Los Cruus and the Sister Cities
program. And again, I would request your
help and support in being able to do
this. I think it's very valuable for our
community.
Any other questions?
Councilor McClure.
Thank you, Mayor. I I also wanted to
give a shout out specifically to Allison
for her leadership and coordination.
This is not a hard thing or easy thing
to uh pull together. Um getting a bunch
of herded cats in one group and I know a
lot of times we're like where where did
where did Mccclure go? Where did where
did uh Enrique K go? Like this is this
is hard to do. So I want to thank you
very much for your leadership on that.
Um I want to riff off a little bit.
While while that group is not political,
I think I see this as a very political
uh experience too because you want to
demystify what people think about us as
Americans. And a lot of times they're
going to have preconceived notions and
misinformation that they've had or
things that they've experienced in other
ways. And that is our role to to make
sure that they understand who we are as
people. And I think that was a very I
think watching, not to steal your
thunder here, but the watching uh our
mayor interact with the Bellarus
delegation were just plum happy to meet
with him because it they were also
firefighters what he didn't I don't
think anybody mentioned that yet and
they were just so excited to share that
bond of brothership just crossing you
know worlds and still having the same
experiences. So, and then I got very
excited because when we went there, a um
firefighter's wife had made the cake and
that's when you know it's going to be
good. It's some somebody's wife that's
making the cake. Amazing. Um yes, of
course, our experiences were different.
I I think um I I am a German. Uh it was
nice to visit my aunt Gutwin there and
have her tag along on some of the
experiences. For me, it was coming home.
it was seeing what it was like and
comparing it to my present home because
a lot of people don't understand you can
have two places that call to your heart
in the same way and um I think we can
show that to also looking forward to
Leardo and I think the in these times
where we are there's misinformation
there's animosity between countries it
is up to us to make them realize that
there is not hate from all ends here
I'll close with
Thank you. And let me emphasize that uh
Nineberg had five have five sister
cities. They're a a population of just a
little over 33,000.
They can do it. We can do it. And the
more that we learn from more people,
whether it's from the Bellarus area,
from Mexico, from Nineberg, Germany, or
wherever, uh it's important. It's very
important for all of us.
I have a question, Mr. Council Flores,
thank you. Uh, so, uh, when is the next
delegation from Leo and when is the next
delegation from Neandberg?
Do you is is that I'm sure it's already
scheduled.
U, Mr. Mayor, members of the council,
uh, the the plan for Ninberg is to
invite them over to Los Cusus uh, for a
delegation trip from their side to come
here. At that point, we'll be um asking
members of the community to host some of
them, become those hosts and learn from
them. The plan is to hopefully have them
here next fall. Um they don't want to
travel um for Fourth of July. They said
that's a little hot for them and so uh
we think maybe October, November might
be a really fabulous time of next year.
Uh uh so it'll coincide with our 250. um
we we are the much younger sister and so
um yet it'll be that 250 and hopefully
we'll have a a nice delegation coming
from Neenberg at that time. That's
that's our our current plan.
And regarding Lair though, uh we have
not had an exchange with Laro for quite
a while. uh there has been a recent
change of leadership down there and so
we are working now to get together with
our committee down there and uh discuss
how we're going to move forward and I
think that 2026 would be a great
opportunity to have both Lero and
Neneberg here if that works if it
doesn't we'll find something else but we
did have both of our sister cities here
for the year that We celebrated our
150th anniversary as a city. So, we'll
see. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
very much for all your support. We
really do appreciate it.
Mr. Mayor and city council, would it be
possible if I if we get a picture with
the foundation and the delegation to
Neandberg?
Sure, that'll be good. All right. Again,
thank you all. Wonderful experience and
we'll continue to build on it.
What do you want to say?
We also have gifts from Namburgg to uh
our city that we'll they're displayed
over here.
You want us to
Yep.
Okay. Next on the agenda is item 4.3,
the AMR update.
Uh, Chief Daniels and City Attorney
Douglas. Uh, before they get started, I
just want to say a special shout out to
Chief Daniels and, uh, DC, uh, Tibbor
Cos and uh, DC. Heck, I know I was up in
Rio uh, this weekend and was able to go
to the EOC and Tour DC.
uh Kosas was there in action and uh also
met with the mayor of uh Ridoso Lynn
Crawford. He was uh very thankful and
grateful and sends his appreciation to
the city of Los Cusus for the support
from the TRT team and from management at
the EOC. And then I know on Saturday uh
Chief Daniels went up there on his own
to check on staff and see how things
were going. So thank you. Thank you for
your contribution and thank you for the
support that you offered Riddle. So yes
sir.
So go ahead.
All right. Uh
[Applause]
Mr. Mayor, members of council, thank
you. Mike Daniels, fire chief, Los Cruus
Fire Department. Um, I'm here to present
to you a little update on the AMR or the
transport system. I I I really hate to
just make it about AMR. Really, what it
is is about our prehosp transport
system.
And I wanted to make sure I made the
comment highlighting Tibbor after I gave
my name for the record. So, Tour, thank
you for for that.
Tour's shy. So,
um, so really what we're going to talk
about is the ambulance transport system.
We'll talk about the background. Um, I
think that's important. Our current
professional services agreement and then
the fire departments and city's current
resource capacity. Uh, our next step,
and then I'll stand for any questions.
So, just background, we've historically
operated in what we consider or what we
call a two-tiered system. A two-tiered
system is when somebody calls 911, they
dispatch a first response unit, which in
most cities is the fire department when
it comes to the medical side or fire
side. And then for medical call types,
they utilize or often communities will
utilize a private ambulance system for
the EMS transport side of that. Um, it's
a strategy used when an area doesn't
have the resource capacity to put both
fire department resources and their
transport services into the system and
allows the private provider to leverage
their 911 response in a community and
also serve the inner facility transport
needs. What we generally find throughout
communities is communities will outgrow
that model as their facilities demand in
facility transport transfer demand and
also 911 services demand increases. It
just doesn't ma remain a costeffective
option.
So
until the current contract uh that we
have today, the county managed the
ambulance services contract they with
our input, not necessarily
what our needs were. And I I think
that's important. Uh we started a
process which I'll talk about um shortly
that really allowed us to say hey we
account as a city for the largest amount
of transports in the county and we need
to ensure our citizens are receiving the
highest level of service within a
contract. But in 2012, uh, we were
noticing a significant amount of times
where we were remaining on scene for 30,
40 minutes, an hour, waiting for an
ambulance to arrive on scene and it it
was just tearing at our what we expected
our our citizens deserved when it came
to emergency response. So we started
having dialogue with AMR in the county
on the system and in 2012 we put our
first transport capable unit into the
911 system. It was stationed out of
station 2 on Foster and Chapato which is
our busiest uh single single company in
the city. Uh that ambulance was actually
donated by AMR. was one of the ones that
they were cycling out of their system
and it was used to transport life and
limb emergencies in the event that AMR
wasn't available. And for reference,
because I'll I'll talk to you how our
our transport uh system has grown since
2012, but that unit transported less
than 10 times its first year in service.
A single unit transported less than 10
times. It was primarily used to run
those overload calls and low acuity
calls where it didn't make sense to send
a million-doll engine and four people
to. So, they ran a lot of vehicle
lockouts throughout the city. Really low
acuity call types.
Um, in 2019, as our demand for service
continued to increase, we went from 10
in 2012 to
500 to a,000 to 2,000 to 3,000
transports. And and we got to a point to
where we said the Los Cusus Fire
Department is transporting way too many
times for us not to have our own
certificate and for us not to be able to
dictate the terms that our citizens will
receive prehosp care. So uh under at
that time Chief Enriquez we uh we we
filed our for our own certificate of
convenience and public necessity which
gave us the ability not only to control
the terms within the city but also
also bill for those services to private
insurance which we weren't doing prior
to 2019.
So, we filed our certificate. The county
and AMR intervened as protesters. They
protested our our ability to do that.
And we had a settlement agreement that
was reached in 2020
to work as a system together. That
system was pretty much in in a nutshell,
the cliffnotes of that agreement was
that we would manage the contract for
services for the whole county and the
county would contribute the
the stipen with us providing service in
the community as almost an inind
response to the financial commitment
that the county was making. So that's
where we are today. uh from the time we
reached the settlement to the time we
had a contract was in place was a little
over three years as the previous
contract terminated and because it was
slated to terminate in February of 2023
or 2024 and we took over in March of
2024.
So the current contract it placed
emphasis on the 911 system. It ensured
the county had dedicated units that were
only used for 911 calls. So, four units
were dedicated into the county for 911
calls. They couldn't be pulled into the
city to perform inter facility
transfers.
The central zone units, which include
the city, were ones that could be
leveraged for transfers, but it also
forced AMR to have transfer units that
were only dedicated to interfacility
transfers. So, the county was
responsible for the subsidy, the $3
million as I discussed, and the city was
providing units and absorbing the
critical call types within the city to
help free up those other units to
respond in the county surrounding the
city in what we call the central zone.
Um, we currently work on a priority
dispatch system. So it not only gives us
the call type but it also gives us the
call acuity based on the caller's
information and what our dispatch
receives.
So uh there are liquidated damages. Uh
AMR pays a fine when services or in
essence they they have damages taken
from their stipen whenever they don't
meet the contract's demands. And those
in the central zone surrounding the city
aren't based on unit hour. They are
purely based on response time
compliance. So they have to meet the
85th percentile and they receive a pen
penalty for every percentage underneath
that 85th percentile.
Um there are also pen penalties for
excessively late calls where they don't
respond in the heart of the city or they
can't provide a unit on scene within 22
minutes. At that point we dispatch one
of our rescues. We take the call and AMR
receives a penalty for not being able to
respond to that call in a timely manner.
All that to say, year 1's liquidated
damages out of $3 million, uh, they
received $2.859
million in damages for year 1. Uh,
which
for the city, this is what it means. So,
in the county, there was a lot of
discussion on their level of effort
areas. uh they did increase and
prioritize being able to serve the
unincorporated area of the county. So
they they were meeting 90 plus% of their
unit hours for there, but it does come
at a cost. And when you when you only
have units available for transfers
within the core or the city,
this is what we saw for critical
emergent calls in zone A, which takes
into account the majority of the city.
And if you look at the PowerPoint, you
can see that faint purple line. That is
the zone that I'm speaking about, zone A
for critical emergent call types, which
they were required to have a 10 minute
59 second response time for critical
emergent and 1259 for non-critical
emergent call types.
The contract stated 85%, they were able
to meet those response times 44% of the
time for critical eent calls, which
means um if somebody was having a heart
attack or a stroke, 44% of the time they
would be able to arrive within that call
time. Um non-critical emergent, 54% of
the time they were able to meet those
call types, which could be an overdose,
a breathing problem call, an asthma
attack. Uh so for us we had we've had
significant amount of concern with that
and I want to say that I don't think
this is a a flaw with AMR per se. I
think this is a flawed system with
having a contract with response time
standards that are 2 years old before
the contract is even executed or worked
upon it. There's no flexibility within
this and the flexibility has to come on
our end to continue to put units in
service and that's what we're doing as a
fire department to deal with that
demand. We are putting units into the
system to ensure that we have the
ability to back up the contract when the
contract isn't uh successful.
Historically we see about 3 to 6%
increase in call volume every year. So
by the time we used data for this and we
took actual response data with
reasonable expectations for growth and
by the time the contract was executed
the system status plan couldn't meet the
demands of the system. So
these are some of the concerns that we
see and and I just want to reiterate
that that I I think it's a problem
within the system status plan and when
you have a private contractor coming in
and providing the service
they have margins they have profit
margins they have to make or you know
they're they don't stay in business if
they lose money. Um, and for us that is
that's always going to be a concern
because our concern is the safety and
welfare of our public regardless of our
capacity to make money.
So on May 23rd,
given the the nature of the contract
after the first year, I I believe
understanding the penalties that were
associated with it and also because of
the inner facility demand and and some
of the concerns from the inner facility
or the facilities in our area, two other
providers entered the process to get
their certificate to provide ambulance
coverage. Um so that in lie of some
other things that I believe AMR felt
which I'll address. Uh we received a
letter stating there was a change of
circumstance and instead of $3 million
they were now requesting $5.2 million of
subsidy.
When we performed an analysis of the
response system
for a little over $3 million we felt we
can put enough units in the county to to
deal with the entire response system.
So, we all met uh in early June. When I
say we all uh the ambulance oversight
committee, our legal, the county's
legal, and the response community met
and said and and and really entertained
whether or not we felt this would be
valuable in in renegotiating or if we
were just at a position where I the city
has been prepare has been preparing for
since 2012 and we took a deliberate step
to do in 2019
if it was going to be in our best
interest to continue that process of
having a contract under this system and
unanimously
city of Los Cru's representatives,
Donana County representatives, Sullen
Park representatives, Messia, Anthony,
uh I'm sorry, Anthony wasn't
specifically there. Um but Messiah
because the county currently provides
service to Anthony and Hatch.
We all unan unanimously felt like it was
a be in the best interest for the
firebased model to be the model for the
county at large and and so we notified
AMR that we were not going to be
interested in renegotiating a contract
with them.
Uh some of the things they highlighted
were the possible new entrance which I
mentioned uh we had two providers who
submitted their certificates to provide
services in Donana County. the lack of
radio system interoperability and
possible and then MVDA errors creating
issues. Uh to some of that we we were a
little taken back because
the contract went into effect in March
of 2024. By April of 2024, we had
already provided AMR not only with the
how to get onto the radio system, but we
provided them quotes from the provider
that we used to get them onto the radio
system. they they just didn't have the
radios or didn't buy the radios until
later in the year. And then with the MVA
eras under under our contract, for the
first time in their history in in Donana
County, they have direct access to the
CAD. So they don't even rely on
communicating with the dispatcher for
response times to mark on scene. And
that's the first time that's ever
happened. And that that was done under
this contract. And they've had that
capacity since August of last year. So
just four months into the contract.
So all this takes me to our our current
demand and resources that we have for
the city. So last year demandwise
for transports we performed over 4,500
transports in 2024 calendar year. So,
our demand increase is going to be to
between 10 and 12,000 transports is what
we believe, which would equate to about
from about 8,500 calls to about 15 to
16,000 calls for our transport units to
respond to because they don't always
transport on every call, but it is going
to increase their demand significantly.
So, we currently have four 24-hour
transport units in the system,
and we've already been funded by council
for our for a fifth 24-hour unit in
Rescue 9. That app that apparatus or
transport unit is fully funded in the
FY26 budget, so isn't going to require
any additions.
We're just putting it we would just put
it into service a little earlier than we
anticipated. uh the the staffing for
that unit
is currently finishing their EMT class.
They have three weeks left, four weeks
left of their EMT portion and they will
be coming they will be coming online
early to mid mid August.
The
there will be um and there's also going
to be a significant amount of I believe
need in the area surrounding the city. I
don't believe the
surrounding agency are as prepared as we
are to take on take this on. So as as we
always are good partners, we're going to
do our best to support the system at
large so that uh regardless of where you
live in Donana County,
there are services available. So I I
expect that you will see our department
responding quite a bit in the area
surrounding the city limits. So the
county has the ability to focus on the
more uh rural areas of the county as
they build up their capacity.
So as far as next steps, we do have we
have established the need for three peak
hour units.
So the that is to manage the demand we
increase that we expect on the 911
system.
We will need to add additional personnel
for those units.
Uh we're currently exploring a single
role option which is a non-firefighter
EMT paramedic. So
um and we're currently working on that
through through with the city and and
through labor management with with our
our union.
We also expect the need for additional
transport units. We have the ability to
put transport units into the system, but
we don't have any reserve depth once we
do this. So to get eight units, we that
will leave us with one reserve. So if we
have more than one transport unit down
for maintenance or repairs, we will have
to shut units down. Uh which we don't
want to do. We want to ensure that we
have an effective response force and
that our that our reserve depth is
adequate. So it'll allow us to take some
of our older units, place them as
reserves. So when there are units out
for maintenance, we don't have to
actually take units out of service and
and have them not responding to the
community.
We expect that we need four additional
units for where we're at today. Uh on
June 10th, uh county commission
approved
funding for the surrounding areas. Uh
we're waiting to hear back from the
county on what specifically that's going
to look like, but what we've been told
preliminarily is that it should be
enough to fund two of the four units
that we're going to need for the system.
And they they did that out of their
their version of the tailshore fund.
So we will need to secure the balance of
the units needed over the next fiscal
year or two. Uh the these
units take a while to come in. uh
they're generally 12 to 24 months from
the time we order them to the time we
actually receive a unit. There are some
units that will be available later this
year. That's what we're hoping to
leverage the county funds to purchase so
that we can we can commit to some ones
that are coming in later next year.
fiscal impacts. Uh 2024 net revenues
from transports, our current transports
and mind you. So this was 1.53 million
out of a little over 2.5 million that we
build out
based on the demand and a 50% collection
rate. We expect that would go up to
about 2.5 million very conservatively. I
was speaking with the DC coaches about
these numbers. These are very very
conservative numbers. We realistically
think that we are going to be collecting
in the 3 to three and a half million
range for for the year with the current
demands and what we expect the cost of
these of the personnel to be is about
$1.2 million. So we expect that we will
receive more in billing revenues as well
as supplemental funds based on our
Medicaid transports cuz as a government
entity we receive what they call
ambulance supplemental payment program
funding which is
center for Medicaid Medicare diversion
funds. So it comes back to transport
entities for cities and counties who
also transport. Uh na naturally I I put
a bullet point that says based on
recently passed legislation. I'm not
sure how that's going to impact the ASP
portion of of Medicaid and Medicare
funding. So we believe these funds will
offset the cost of the additional
personnel. There will be some initial
investments in
in apparatus or or transport units and
supplies that I believe will not be
completely offset immediately but will
come over time.
As far as interfacility transfer
impacts,
because we've made the notice to AMR
that we don't intend on renewing their
contract, we have really kept an eye on
these cases and and have tried to
facilitate those cases or those
companies being able to provide service
in in Donana County. Uh, it looks like
they will be receiving their
certificates, but it is up to the New
Mexico Department of Transportation. So,
while I say it looks like it,
it's still a guess. Um, AMR AMR is also
looking to maintain their footprint
here. They have filed to amend one of
their one of their certificates so they
can continue to provide service within
the community and they're agreeing to
enter facility and backing up the 911
system as needed so that the impacts as
we transition to a firebased EMS model
aren't so
they're we're we're not impacted as
negatively by that transition. I I
really expect that that's going to be
something needed in the rural areas of
the county.
So, this has the potential to place more
units in service for inter facility
transports than has been available
without taking away from the 911 system,
which is where we're at today. Um, it
will decrease weight times for our
citizens needing critical transfers.
It'll also increase the capacity of of
current facilities who are having to use
the 911 system to perform their
transfers because the wait times are too
long. So right now when a when a
facility doesn't receive a timely
response from the inner facility side,
they just call 911 because we will show
up and get them transported. Um that's
it's the same concern we have with
people who don't have access to primary
healthcare. people who don't have access
to primary health care use urgent cares
and the ERS for primary health care. We
see the same thing play out with the
transfer system in that. So that creates
a backup for everybody and if hospitals
can't move patients,
the ERs get backlogged, our personnel
are waiting an hour holding a wall with
a patient and they're not getting to
definitive care. So we believe that we
are taking steps to create efficiencies
in the system that improve patient
outcomes.
And then in conclusion, I did promise
this would be quick. So uh so we have
been preparing for this since 2012. This
isn't something that we haven't kept on
our radar. Uh and and in 2019, had we
been successful with our certificate, we
wouldn't be having this conversation
today. we would have just been providing
this service as a fire-based EMS model.
So, we are committed to continuing to
work with our local partners, both fire
departments and private ambulance. Like
I said earlier, I don't think this is an
AMR issue. I think this is purely the
relationship or the the situation that
you you come across when you have a
private model within the prehosp 911
system. Our goal is to minimize some of
these and and and truly provide our
citizens with the level of service that
they deserve. We have the ability to
adjust and adapt that model when we
control the 911 response side of that.
It's probably not a great analogy, but I
used this earlier in a conversation.
Like, we wouldn't hire a security
company,
even though they're great people, to to
police our streets. Like, when somebody
calls 911, they should receive a
representative
from the fire department.
So, uh, this end of the contract has
nothing to do with field level service.
I I just want to reiterate that and and
and and highlight the fact that we think
our partnership with AMR and the private
entities is is instrumental in ensuring
that we have a robust response system
and their their field level providers.
They take make the same commitment that
our personnel do in providing the
highest level to the community. I don't
want that to get lost in any of these
conversations. Uh but I do believe this
is a natural progression for communities
who have outgrown the two-tiered system
model. Um and and I think it's just now
as we believed in 2019 when then Chief
Enriquez tried to do this. It's it's our
time to kind of make this step into a
firebased EMS model where we can ensure
that our citizens are receiving adequate
timely response and transport to the
hospitals when they call 911.
And with that I stand for any questions.
Go ahead, Mayor Pro tip. Go ahead.
Oh, May first.
Thank you.
Thank you. Um, and thank you so much,
Chief Daniels. Um, again, it's been
quite the year for you as your first few
months of you being as chief. So, um,
deeply grateful for all of you, um, and
for us being here. I know it's been a
long time obviously and um
I I do just have some questions. Um I'm
curious if you can talk a little bit
about the billing needs. Obviously right
now the department already does some
billing right with an external um
contractor. I'm curious if you can talk
about just continued billing needs we
will have in this new model.
Yes, mayor. Mayor Prom the currently we
have a contract with EMSC who is our
billing company and they take a
percentage I believe it's 4%.
4 and a quarter% which is actually a
very reasonable rate uh for for billing
and I don't believe we are going to need
any new infrastructure for billing.
They're designed and they are perfectly
capable of managing the the demand that
we are going to see when it comes to
increased billing. The uh the nice thing
for what I I think for our public when
it comes to billing is now they're only
receiving a bill from one person. They
can expect to receive it from one
organization and the members of our
public aren't going to be treated
differently depending on who gets who's
sending them the bill.
Yeah, absolutely. I think I I do think
that's an additional plus honestly.
Right. I think that um yeah so and I we
are a public interest right we are we
don't have p private interest attached
to our services and so I do think
that'll be an additional plus I imagine
that additionally uh folks in the county
can have access to the indigent fund
through the county if they're not able
to pay for ambulance service as they
would as they do now correct
correct
yes um I wanted to really appreciate
that you did note um the current
legislation that passed in Congress
Congress a couple of weeks ago. I
um I was going to mention it if you
didn't. So I'm I'm very very glad that
you are sort of tracking that. I do feel
like it is that's almost that's almost
like terrible timing of we're shifting
to this model knowing that our
population highly uh um
um rely Oh my gosh, thank you. rely on
Medicaid. And so I do think uh city
manager that this is yet another one of
those things that we we have to be very
clear about what the big betrayal bill
will be doing to our communities. And
you don't have to frame it that way. I
will. Um but I do just want to note that
it's important. I think it's really
important that you added it on here as a
potential risk to be aware of in the
future. Um, and then I'm curious in um
in terms of the fines that you talked
about that were accumulated, are those
going to be paid? Have they been paid?
What's what will happen with those?
Mayor Mayor Prom. So, we were in
discussion for I would say quite some
time. I look at Brad just just to see
what his uh reaction was going to be,
but um we were in discussion. We we have
been able to reconcile that amicably
with AMR. So they did bill us for the
remainder of their year one. We have
processed that. We had a PO in place.
We've processed what that payment would
be to them. Uh total for the for year
one it was pretty I want to say just
over a hundred $180,000.
Oh, 133 that has been processed and they
should be receiving that payment and
we'll be able to close it out and and
whatever money is remaining goes back to
the county because that was that initial
3 million they provided was part of
their indigent fund reserves. So, uh we
want to work to get them their that
funding back as quick as possible. Uh
under the current agreement, the
contract will end September 20th. We
will at that point we will be able to
completely close out with AMR and and
every bit of money that the county has
paid for out of the indigent fund should
be able to go back minus whatever AMR
receives in the form of their uh their
billing.
Okay. Thank you. Um can you talk you
talked about two additional providers
that are seeking certificates. Can you
talk about who they are or that's okay
if not I'm just curious.
Yes I can. Uh one of them is a local
company called EP Medical Transport and
the other is Elite Medical Transport who
already operates uh in facility
throughout the state. They have several
bases and and all of this is public
record on the DOT. Uh with regard to
some of these specific I I will have to
defer to Brad, but um but those are the
two providers who who I believe we will
see awarded by the DOT uh certificates
and the capacity to transport
and they're private uh providers.
They are private providers.
Okay. How does that work in the 911
system then? So some in the new model,
how will that work? So it'll you tell
me.
Yes, Mayor Mayor Pro.
I was going to try to guess but never
mind. You tell me. So, so right now in
the 911 system, they would not be a part
of the 911 system. We would call upon
them if we had a a mass casualty
incident or through whatever agreed upon
mutual aid process that we have for
those two providers.
Um, and we've been very specific with
them that we believe anybody who is a
private provider in Donena County should
be a part of a mass casualty uh
system
agreement if if we have that. and and
and they've both been very willing to be
a part of that. So, uh to the point one
of them's even sent us a draftou of what
they use in other areas. So, uh they're
they're working with us to create a
model that that has that. And and also
AMR has agreed that they would continue
to be a part of the 911 backup system
since they already have the
infrastructure within that. So, every
one of the private providers is on board
with continue to be a or to be a partner
uh with our local response entities as
well.
I understand. So the backup, they're
part of the backup only if you call
them. So 911 wouldn't dispatch them.
That's correct. 911 would not dispatch
them if if we ran into a situation where
we just had a a really rough series of
calls that has all of our units and our
immediate backup tied up, then we would
contact them as our next in response
entity.
Okay. Thank you. Um, do we have any
maybe this for the city manager if there
are any additional budget requests or
needs at this moment as we shift and
transition?
Either one. I guess you can answer it
too. Yes,
Mayor Mayor Prom. I expect that there is
going to be we're currently finalizing
what those numbers would look like um in
the form of we we have an idea of how
many positions we're expecting that we
would need 12 positions for the peak
hour units which are single role
providers. We're like I said we're
working with the with our union and our
labor management on what that looks like
where where I I I believe we're we are
in agreement on what that would look
like. we just have to go through the
formality or the formal process of of of
getting that situated and and going
through the the position request forms
and then the additional resources. We we
know we need four ambulances. We expect
to receive some funding for up to two of
those ambulances and and we we will
likely be requesting either through ICIP
or or through other um avenues to get
the other two to to see what we can do
with regard to that.
Okay. Thank you so much, Chief.
Appreciate it.
U Councelor Flores.
Uh thank you, Mayor, and thank you so
much for your for your uh fast work on
this. just really moved beautifully. Uh
I was pleasantly surprised to see uh
that AMR would no longer be working um
uh with our fire department. I read it
in the uh the uh Las Cusus uh you know
the newspaper. Um was it the bulletin?
It was a bulletin. Okay, whatever. But I
read it and I was very pleased because I
remember how contentious it was um when
the uh and he's still the head of
something u the head of AMR and it
wasn't it wasn't nice. So I I'm really
uh I want to congratulate you for um
doing this so smoothly and I I just hope
though that you know that it really
materializes. It just somehow it was
difficult for me to follow how the
funding would be um coming in to support
um uh prompt service for our community.
Um but I want to thank you very much for
for all of that and thank you Brad um
for working with the chief uh to
finalize all this and uh thank you.
Thank you,
Council Cor.
Thank you. Um, yes, I just wanted to
thank you and echo a lot of what my
colleagues have said. Thank you. Thank
you all for the long work that I know
you have put into it. We I remember the
conversations about this back in the day
when we were talking about the
certificates um in the TSI committee.
So, I know that you all have been
working on this really diligently and I
just wanted to echo, you know, as new
budget needs come up. I hope that
you'll, you know, really make sure that
we know about them and understand the
cont like this gives us a lot of really
powerful context to to make sure that
those things are included in our in our
budget conversations. Um, I I am going
to get a little nerdy public health for
a minute. This is um I think this is my
field in public health. we talk about
the TR and also I really appreciate your
extraordinary diplomacy, Chief Daniels,
and talking about these things. Um,
again, that's I I I know that you all
are really extraordinary collaborators
um with with the community. But I I'm
just going to talk a little bit about
the the triangle of of healthcare in
America that we have uh cost, access,
and quality. And those are the three
things. Any change to one of those
variables can dramatically affect the
other two. Um, and this is my nerdy
public health pitch. Um,
when when everything is focused on cost
and and I think I'm I'm just going to
lay this out there as as um I think is
known AMR is as is part of a a private
equityowned
um corporate entity. I think the things
that I've heard are not that the folks
who work for AMR aren't great, but that
it's really that they're like being paid
uh wages that are inappropriate, asked
to work hours that are also
inappropriate. I I just want to point
out that in our system
I the fire department provides
extraordinarily high quality service and
it is the single thing that I hear most
commonly about in my position that the
city does so well that residents trust
enormously like like enormously. Um I'm
so proud that you all are seeing that
you're the best at this and taking that
on. And also I want to acknowledge that
this is a function and you didn't
necessarily mention it but um part of
this is also has a lot to do with um I
would argue the fire department doing
healthcare is taking away from some of
your other essential duties. Uh I think
fire being one of those and I and I just
want to sort of articulate what it means
when a system that is focused on on
keeping costs as low as possible. And I
would add to this things like nursing
homes um thing things like well in
particular nursing homes, assisted
living facilities that are also oriented
toward keeping costs at a minimum. They
disproportionately impact public
benefits, public systems like the 911
system, like the transport system of of
how to people get from one place to
another. Um, and so I just want to sort
of appreciate you and the city for
thinking about this as we're our focus
is quality and access and um in that
triangle. We're going to do those things
the best and and I think I just really
want to appreciate that. I I have
absolute faith that you will do this and
and um I commit to us making sure that
we do everything we can to to enable it.
So, cost, access, quality. In case you
guys wonder, it's a triangle. Uh, public
health lesson ended. Uh, thanks, Chief
Daniels.
Thank you.
Thank you, professor.
Is there anyone else?
Okay. Well, thank you, Chief Daniels.
Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I I got so
excited about professor professoring.
Um, I did just want to give me them all
again, please. I promise to be quick. Um
I do think just talking about you
alluded to it very briefly 2026 I would
guess it's estimated that between 12 and
probably 25% of people in our community
will immediately lose um
in at that time people will lose health
care completely and and that will make
us mean that we're struggling to to fill
that gap as far as reimbursement goes.
So I hope we I I would also like to ask
that we really consider because a 12 to
25% hit to $3 million
um in terms of reimbursements is a big
is a substantial amount of money and so
I I hope that we can keep that in our
conversation and and not affect the
access um component that we're that
we're providing fundamentally at this
but acknowledging that that's going to
be uh a definite at best 12% but but
again potentially up to 25% of people
will will not be able to have that
reimbursement anymore. So um sorry I
just wanted to elevate that part too.
Thanks. Sorry my mulligan's over. I'm
done.
You're good. Thank you. Thank you for
that information. And um now I just had
a couple of questions. You know, it it
was asked about the 911 with the private
uh what about the inter facility
transports? How are those going to be
handled?
Mayor, council, the the inter facility
transports
right now. So, we are still our our
first transition meeting is scheduled
for this coming Wednesday and and
because we don't know how the the DOT is
going to rule on the other two providers
generally when they're not tied
together, they will they they will have
the ability the facilities will have the
ability to contact the individual
providers and and and really work with
those providers, the IFT providers on
the private side to to set up the most
appropriate time for their patients
transfer and when it aligns. That's kind
of the value of having multiple
providers in the system. One of the one
of the issues or one of the areas and
we've contested to it when you only have
a sole provider and and you have a mixed
system where inner facility units are
being also used for the 911 system or
911 system units are being used for
inner facilities. One of the concerns is
that you're going to have an inter facil
a 911 unit
and a a private provider tied up on the
same interfacility transfer request and
then it creates inefficiencies in the
911 system. What we believe is that uh
we will be able to work with the
providers so that they can work that out
and then educate the facilities that if
they have them set up, they need to call
and cancel in a timely manner so they're
not burdening the rest of the inner
facility system. But that's something
that in speaking with the leadership of
all the providers, they're all willing
to continue to get to the get at the
table. uh we intend on continue
continuing. So for the first time in in
this systems history to my knowledge
last year we started an inner facility
stakeholder meeting where we invite all
the facilities to just listen to any
roadblocks bottlenecks things that are
bothering them about the inner facility
transfer system and we hope to continue
that. uh we started that with AMR. We
hope to continue that with any of the
entities that are a part of the system
because we believe we still have a
responsibility to the system at large
and we don't want because we're not just
because we're not enforcing that side in
the form of a contract. We don't want to
lose sight of what is going on in the
system at large. So, we want to we want
to maintain situational awareness
because well, as I stated in my
presentation, we believe that backlogs
into the inter facility system will
trickle down and affect the 911 system
negatively. So, we want to make sure
that those uh that we have effectiveness
in all areas and we're not sacrificing
one for the other.
Okay. Thanks. And the other thing is um
glad to hear that AMR is still willing
to work uh get their certificate and and
be be of service, not being a contract
position, but being of service to help
with the 911 and the inter facility
calls as well. So that's good news.
That's good to hear that they're willing
to to work in this community. And um I
know you know this as well as I do and
uh just just want to share with the rest
is is that you know part of that two
tier why we got away from that was
because of the membership the membership
of Los Cusa's fire that started as EMTs
and then went to intermediate at the
time now they're AEMs and then to
paramedic
um individuals like uh DC Hec
you know, DC uh or battalion chief
Machete that that came into the
department as paramedics and and led the
way and were the pioneers that others
followed. I know the dilemma is that
they all get promoted. You know, that's
the thing all the paramedics get
promoted, right? uh because you you you
uh aspire to that highest level and it's
a reflection and um at one point in 2018
AMR had 32 paramedics,
Los Cru's fire had 42 or 45. That's why
the investment, that's why the two-tier
went away. We had the resources, we had
the personnel, we were providing the
quality and we had the access as
councelor Karan uh educated us and and
so that that's what it's about and
that's what we continue to do. So, thank
you and and keep up the good work and uh
we're here to support you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. To add to
your fun fact, right, in 2002 when uh
Deputy Chief Hec got into the
department, he was one of three
paramedics in our department. Um and
today we are to your point the largest
employer of paramedics in Donana County.
We we have 60 plus we have three people
currently in paramedic school and
another three identified to start in
August. So we're we're continuing to
build upon that.
Mayor,
yes council,
if I may ask chief just for the public
to understand, could you just name a few
of the stakeholders the inner city the
that that call the ambulance services?
is that the hospitals and yes,
maybe the public would just appreciate
that.
Yes, mayor, councelor Matise, the So,
when I talk about the our facility
stakeholders, I'm speaking to
our urgent cares, any one of our nursing
homes within the city, any of our
advanced care areas. Um, even the
hospitals, the hospitals are part of the
transfer system, whether they're
transferring between local hospitals or
they're transferring to El Paso to a
higher level of care or they're
transferring people home to discharge
them from the floor so they can get at
so they can get to their home and either
in home health care or in the care of
their families. Also, our hospice
agencies um in town are are also part of
the inner facility transfer system. So
we uh
it's a most of the time it's a lot
broader than than one can imagine. Most
of the time we think it's it's these
short trips but it's dialysis clinics.
It's any any entity in our area who
either transfers patients who need to be
on a gurnie home or in between
facilities are are affected by this.
Yes sir. Thank you, Chief.
Yes, sir.
Okay. Thanks. All right.
Appreciate you.
Thank you.
Thank you, DCS.
Well, that was our last item. So, a
motion to adjurnn.
Move to adjurnn.
Second by
this is on a motion to adjourn the work
session. Councelor Mccclur.
Yes.
Councelor Matise.
Yes.
Councelor Graham.
Yes. Councelor Karan.
Yes.
Councelor Fletus.
Yes.
Councelor Bencomo.
Yes.
Mayor.
Yes.
Excuse
me.
Next, we'll have the agenda set and
meeting for the July 21st
um city council meeting.