[Music]
You're live.
Good morning everyone. We are 900 a.m.
on the dot. So I will call us to order
for this board of directors meeting for
animal services center of the Messia
Valley. If you'll please join me for 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 not necessarily determination of
quorum, but we'll just go down and do
our good mornings.
Exeicio member Bencomo
present. And Mary Lou, are you an
exeicio also? Exeicio board member Ward
present. Board member Campbell present.
Board member Gates here. And a welcome
to our new board member, our new
community member uh for city of Los
Cusus. Uh board member Guly Guly here.
Hi. Board member Peek. Good morning,
Madam Chair. I present solely
representing the county today. So, thank
you. No, no, no. I there's other people
in the county there, but True, true.
Yeah. No, that's right. Um, Councelor
Corin here, and I am your chair for the
morning, Councelor Becky
Graham. Um, this time I'll call for a
motion to accept our agenda.
Move to approve. Second.
Thank you so much. Moved by councelor
Corin, seconded
by board member Campbell. And I think
we're good for voting without our
exeicios. So board member Campbell, yes.
Board member Gates, yes. Board member
Gulie, yes. Board member Pek, yes.
Councelor Corin, yes. And I, Chair
Graham, vote yes.
uh minutes for approval. Looks like we
have a couple. Um hopefully we took a
look at those in the packet ahead of
time. So at this time I'd call for a
motion to approve our minutes.
Um I think do we have can we approve
them move to approve them both at the
same time or do I have to do one and
then another? Do you think I say we move
to approve them both? Okay, I do that
unless someone protests. I move to
approve. Thank you. Do we have a second?
I'll second.
Thank
you. Um, so we'll go ahead and vote on
that. Board member Campbell, yes. Board
member Gates,
yes. Board member Gulie,
yes. Board member Peek, yes. Councelor
Quorin,
yes. And I, Chair Graham, vote yes. So,
moving right into our reports and
presentations. uh beginning with 5.1. Um
we have great guests this morning from
Action Programs for
Animals,
APA, which I always still think of as
the American Psychological Association
because that's my undergrad degree, but
this is more fun. Good morning
everybody. Um I'm an underachiever today
and I did not get a presentation done in
time. So I'm just going to speak. I'm
going to give you an update about APA.
So APA, we're Action Programs for
Animals. We're a nonprofit animal
welfare um in Los Cusus and we primarily
run an adoption center where we house
and care for up to 100 animals at a
time, cats, kittens, and dogs. And we
also in 2020, we also opened a second
chance thrift store to help us with
funding. Um just briefly on
statistics since
2012 we have rescued more than 6,500
animals in Las Cusus in Donana County.
We are very specific to only Donana
County and we are very um much invested
in our partnership with the animal
services center of the Messia Valley. So
from the beginning we have pulled the
majority of our animals from there and
even today even though the percentage is
a little lower of what we get from the
animal services center um we do when we
have room still go there first. So we
pull cats and kittens whenever we have
space from the animal services center.
We also divert kittens from the animal
services center by taking them in
directly and and them not having to go
into the shelter to begin with. We can
work in community kittens we call them.
Um, and we also go pull small dogs when
we have space. And primarily one of our
other bigger programs is the PAUSE
prisoners and animals working toward
success prison training program that we
run in partnership with the Southern New
Mexico Correctional Facility. We run
about 50 dogs through there and I would
say 95% of those dogs come from the
animal services center. We go in and
particularly um assess and pull the
longest term dogs. Usually not the most
popular types of dogs. We do a lot of
pit bulls. We do a lot of bully mixes.
Um and
so last year we rescued 299
animals, 81 dogs, 64% from the
ASMV. Um 218 cats, 58% from the
ASMV. Another partnership we recently
started is with Cru's Cool Cats. So, we
work very closely with them on getting
also kittens out of keeping them off the
streets and out of the shelter. And they
also help us with very shy adult cats
that are not well suited for adoption
and we kind of trade out. So they'll
bring us friendly cats and we give them
a a more shy cat that's better for their
sanctuary or just needs more time to
come around and they than they have, you
know, the opportunity and time to come
around. So sometimes we'll even take
those back. Um first quarter of this
year, we've taken in 22 dogs, 14 from
the
ASMV, 43 cats, uh 35 from the ASMV and
CRUS school cat. So now we kind of have
that other partnership. Other
partnerships we have and how we get cats
moved out is to move them out of the
area. So, in recent years, we've been
sending kittens and cats to Animal
Humane and Bernal Leo Animal Care in
Albuquerque. And they actually need and
want cats. They're constantly asking for
them, which is ironic, but um it's great
to have that resource now. We had wanted
that for for years, and now we actually
have it. So, we can send many cats and
kittens over there now, especially
kittens.
Um, one of our other programs is the pet
food bank. So, we've been running the
pet food bank since we founded in 2009.
We help approximately 500 families a
year. We run it twice a month. We give
out about 50,000 pounds of cat and dog
food supplies, but also what this
program does, it's it's also an
education program. It's an opportunity.
We sit down with each family and we look
at their situation and we advise them
because many of them have five or more
animals. Many of them are not yet
altered. So we we work with them on who
to alter first. Unfortunately, it's
still the case that we have much more
demand for spay and neuter here than we
have resources. And I'm talking not just
low cost, that's another thing, but just
veterinarians. We ourselves have to
drive our kittens to TRC to get spayed
and neutered at a decent rate and in a
larger quantity. So here you can't get
10 kittens anywhere fix at one time. We
have to drive all the way over there for
that. So it's still an issue but we're
dealing with it. Um so the pet food bank
is responsibility is written into it
being responsible caregivers if they're
going to use the program long term. So,
it's a way for us to help educate people
at the same time besides just giving
them things. Um, at our adoption center,
we purchased that building in 2020 with
a with a large request. We're at 537
North Solano. Um, I now run the adoption
center. I'm also the executive director.
We used to have a manager that had to
leave um last year, so I've taken back
over and running the adoption center,
too. We we're supported by eight
part-time staff and many volunteers. The
staff are mainly caregivers. They clean,
they care, give. We have three shifts a
day because we have an an a building
full of animals and we have trainers
inhouse, too. We have an in-house PAUSE
team. So, when the dogs graduate from
the prison and come back to us, we're
still working with them in-house. And
then our pause team also does a lot of
outreach in the community. They go to
schools. They go to classes at NMSU to
speak and show the dogs. They go do um
staff enrichment at hospitals. And so we
do different things with the dogs. We
take them out for adoption events to to
get them more out in the public. Um
so we also have started giving former
inmate handlers a chance at employment
when they are released from prison. So,
right now we have one of our employees
in the PAS program who's a really good
trainer. He's been with us for almost a
year. He's been working for
us.
Um, we have other volunteers that do
things like we have one volunteer that
takes dogs to visit people at Hiendas at
Grace Village. So, we're always looking
for more volunteers and opportunities to
do those kinds of things and get animals
to people and to to offer enrichment and
information.
I think that's all I
have. Um,
honestly, every community has an
organization like ours, but we're
struggling in Los Cruus. So, in in
Donana County, and we're not the only
nonprofit struggling. We're struggling
ourselves to survive. So, right now,
we're going through a hard time. I'm
going to be honest. We're trying our
hardest not to have to close our doors,
but
there's kind of weird. I I I don't know
what to call it, but in Las Cruus, it's
Donana County, there's
this belief that all animal welfare
groups are supposed to be all volunteer,
and it's just impossible when you run a
an adoption center like ours. El Paso
Humane Society is not all volunteer.
Animal Humane in Albuquerque is not all
volunteer. So, I don't know. there's
that kind of idea that we're supposed to
be all volunteer for some reason. Um,
but we do actually take pride in being
able to employ people and to pay them a
fair rate for the work that they do
because it's very hard work and it's
it's requires daily dedication because
we don't let our animals go without
being cared for. If someone doesn't make
a shift or someone else can't cover, the
buck stops with me and I go cover it.
So, we always have to have the animals
taken care of. So, we're just asking our
community for help and support. We don't
want to close. We're all We're also
looking at ways to maybe downgrade. And
we've sat and met with on Zoom some of
the biggest in the nation to get their
advice. Best Friends Animal Society,
Albuquerque, and Albuquerque Animal
Humane sat down with us. You know, we
just need to work more on on growing our
board and growing donor development.
It's hard when you have one person
wearing three or four hats trying to do
everything. So, um, just know that we're
working to stay here and to still
support the ASMB for and our animals
because we are committed to our animals
for a lifetime. We sometimes pay vet
bills for a lifetime for certain animals
that their vet care is so high cost that
no one's going to adopt them and commit
to taking care of that. We call it we
call it um um the conditions that they
already come in with us. The
pre-existing conditions is what we call
it will sometimes support adopters for
the lifetime of the animal with
pre-existing conditions. And we take our
animals back even 10 years later. You
know, we always take them back. So,
we're we're trying our hardest to to
remain here and keep doing the work that
we're doing. Does anyone have any
questions?
Thank you so much for being here this
morning, but a much obviously more
global thank you for all you do. Um I'm
gonna turn first to Counselor Corin um
just because I know she has some APA
alumni she wants to talk about. I do. So
um thank you for being here, Michelle.
And my um as I started fostering with
with Michelle back in the day. I started
with one ringworm cat who had a litter
and I still have her. Her name is
Ginger. Um all of her babies were
adopted out sulfurous as they were for
quite a quite a while. This was this was
in 2012. Um and and then I start so I
failed foster failed with Ginger and
then I then I also fostered a dog named
Charlie who is still with me. So I was
batting literally zero when I started
fostering. Like I was the worst. It was
going to go I think Michelle could
already see it was going to go downhill.
It's going to have 40 animals. But but
working with APA really helped me
understand the the economies of of
fostering and volunteering and working
with folks in in animal rescue. I and so
I of course
um have APA in my heart always when I'm
thinking about um what we're doing here
on the animal services board. But I also
just want to sort of talk about Michelle
in particular who I I think has um whose
philosophy has really shaped how the
animal services center works as well in
terms of how we look at dogs, how we I
think things like playgroups might have
started with you all. um being sort of
um not breed specific. Michelle has
always APA has always been at the very
front of what the most the best
evidence-based animal rescue practices
are uh in our community and we are
extremely lucky to have have you as a
resource and have APA as a resource. So,
I just want to thank you for always
keeping it real and and of course for
all the animals that you've saved um and
for what you do in the community. and I
urge my colleagues to donate heartily to
to APA as you as as much as you can. So,
thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Thank
you, board member Gates. Um, I just want
to thank you and your organization for
all the work that you do, all the
programs you've created in our
community. Um, I mean, I think the fact
that you do have paid employees is why
your organization has been able to do
the work that it that it has done in our
community. Um, I mean, paid employees
are reliable. um they're not just going
to one day, you know, decide I can't
volunteer anymore. I have too many other
things going on. So, I think there's,
you know, a lot of benefit to that.
Maybe I'm biased because I also work for
a nonprofit, but um I just want to say
that, you know, I appreciate the work.
I've I've lived in Los Cusus since 2020
and even just seeing from then till now
how much organization has grown and how
much they've done for the community, how
much they've done for the dogs at ASMV,
cats as well obviously, um it's
incredibly appreciated. Um, so hopefully
you can keep keep up the work that
you're doing and continue to do amazing
things for our community. Thank you. And
that's one thing to note is that most
human
um human welfare
nonprofits have employees and they also
get most of them get some kind of
federal or state or funding and and
animal welfare groups don't. So, we have
no resources for any type of of
government funding whatsoever. We have
to raise every dollar. Yeah.
Anyone else? Yes. Board member Peek.
Thank you, Madam
Chair. I'm very intrigued about your
your inmate program um as a previous uh
the puppy trainer for Guide Dogs for the
Blind. Um is that socialization only?
Are we to you know doing service
animals? Are we doing any type of what
what kind of training or what are we
doing with the inmates? So, the dogs
once they're assessed for the pause
program, they have to, you know, they
have to have pretty good temperaments to
go out there. You're not going to send
send send dogs that are going to be
aggressive to people or other dogs out
there. But once they they pass that
assessment to go to pause, they go to
pause for about two months. There's
eight handlers out there, eight dogs at
a time. And what they teach is basic
obedience,
uh, basic manners and also, um, crate
training, house training, you know,
they're they go through that just kind
of basic to become we're training them
to be good family members. So it they
they learn mostly the basic obedience
and also um, socialization. And then
when they come back to our building, we
have the trainers keeping that up. We do
doggy playgroups that helps keep them
very social and and highly adoptable.
And most people who have adopted our
paws dogs are really happy with them.
And then just real quick, Benam
chairman, a shout out to the thrift
store. I'm a regular shopper there. I
really like it. Nice job.
And another thing I forgot to mention is
uh our bottle I mean our our ringorm. We
tried a bottle baby wart. That didn't
work. Our ringworm wart. So, we're one
of the few who who pulls and treats the
ringworm kittens. Um, and I know they're
not able to do that at the shelter. So,
we take in as many as possible a year.
We um give them a tender loving care and
they have a nice patio and an area to to
play and be kittens in while they're
getting over that treatable fungus. So,
it takes time. We bathe them three times
a week. We give them oral and topical
medications. It just takes time to
clear, but we we're very very dedicated
to that as well.
Thank you for that, too. I know that's a
huge gap. And I believe uh Counselor
Corin, you were recently fostering a
ringworm kitten, right? And how did that
go?
We've all recovered.
Kitten's still there. Foster fail. Three
for three. Just an unofficial foster
fail. Thank you so much for everything
you do and for being here this morning.
Yes. Thank you. Have a good day.
Okay, next up, uh, city and county
acco. Good morning, chair and board
members. My name is Brian Holy. here to
um report the county January through
March
numbers. Um for the 3 months, we had 910
reported stray animals. Out of those, we
were able to pick up 526 stray animals.
Um there were 78 stray cats and 448
stray dogs. Uh we ended up picking up 29
sick and injured animals. 13 were cats
and 16 were dogs. And we had 61 owner
surreners and they were all
dogs. These this is our reported stray
animal calls um for the four years. So
you see that we were a little bit um
higher
[Music]
um for the month sorry for the month of
March. Um we had a little bit of a dip
in February. Um, our highest number was
in
January. This is our four-year uh field
return to owner. Uh, for the uh month of
January, we had 22. For February, we had
19. And for March, we had
16. And the additional animals that we
picked up, uh, we didn't pick up any
owner surrendered cats. We had 61 owner
surrendered dogs, 29 sick and injured
animals. We had 30 welfare uh welfare
hold animals. Um that was uh a lot
higher than what we normally get. Uh we
had a lot of agencies that were picking
up people. Um I think Border Patrol was
the big one. Um that had um a lot of
animals in their um in their um cars or
vehicles. And so we ended up picking up
a lot for welfare holds. Uh we had no
cruelty cases. We had 12 shelter
quarantines. We had seven home
quarantines. Uh we did not have any uh
courold quarantine cases. Uh we
currently have four animals being held
at our live evidence facility. Um some
are awaiting cases and some uh we're
trying to get out of there. Uh we had
one rabies submission which was
negative. We had 63 diverted intakes. So
there was an extra 63 animals that
didn't go to the ASMV. We had for our
education we had
945 educational and our total calls for
the 3 months was
271. Uh this is broken down in each
district that we had of what we brought.
So for district one we only had 32 dogs.
In district 2 we had 17 cats and 56
dogs. In district three we had 21 cats
and 90 dogs. Um, it seems like every
year, uh, when it starts to get a little
bit hotter, it seems like district 3
tends to turn up a little bit more and
then it goes back down when it gets
colder. Don't know why that's the trend,
but it's the trend I keep seeing. Uh,
District 4, we had 20 cats and 92 dogs.
That one still remains our big area for
for animals. District five, we had 12
cats and 75 dogs. And District 6, we had
one cat and 15 dogs. And district 7, we
had seven cats and 88
dogs. And this is just our comparison um
for the three months for the cats that
were picked
up. And this is our comparison for the
dogs. And now our big one is the reason
for the owner surrenders. Um we had 11
that were vicious and or dangerous. We
had 11 that were aggressive. We had five
that uh the owners just weren't able to
keep on the property and they didn't
want to get citations. We had nine that
they just weren't able to afford. We had
six that were sorry, six that were
either injured or sick. We had one that
um they were having behavior issues with
the dog and they couldn't keep it. We
had 12 that they were unable to care
for. We had two that the ASMV turned
away, the owner, so we owner surrendered
it for them. We had one that the
landlord would not allow. Uh we had one
that was moving and they couldn't take
the dog. And then we had one that they
were um unable to control. They said it
had too much energy for them. And one
the owner passed away. And for that I'll
stand for any questions.
Thank you so much. Questions?
Yes, please.
Can you expand about the surrender of
the animals from the other agencies that
you were talking about? I mean, are we
seeing, you know, with from the border
patrol, I mean, a massive influx of
animals from that? Um, well, it's not
just um border patrol. That would seem
to be our big one this time. Um, usually
it's like state police or NMSU that'll
um pull someone over and they're
detaining them for whatever reasons. um
and they call us out because they have
animals and we go and take them uh for a
welfare hold. So, it's multiple
agencies. It just seemed like for this
for this uh three months it was Border
Patrol that I think one of them had
multiple animals in it and so that made
the higher um thing, but it's usually a
multitude of agencies in a mix. Just
seemed like this one was a lot of border
patrol for some reason.
Thank you. And building on that
question, um I recently noticed just
while driving through Messia, it looks
like Messia has a an animal control
vehicle now. Okay. So, is that another
feeder
into county ASMV or what's happening
with that? Not to make you answer for
the town, but if you know, cool. Um so,
we do have anou with them. Um but they
usually have at least one um officer
with them. Um, and we don't seems like
lately we haven't had to go into Messia
for I would say probably like five or
six months. So, it's been a while. Um,
and we usually end up helping them out
and we'll um partner with them if we
need to um for warrants, for pickups,
for whatever. So, okay. So, more of an
as needed Yeah. relationship. Great.
Thank you so much.
Oh, sorry. Yes. Expio board member Ward.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to clarify
a little bit more, um Donana County does
haveus with several different um
incorporated areas like Messia, um
Sunland Park, Hatch, White Sands,
um and um what other areas? Sunland
Park. Yeah, Sunland Park. Um so those
areas they would um go in and NMS issue.
So those areas the officers would go in
as requested by that agency and either
go in and take care of animal control
issues or go in and just assist. Um so
you might see some of those um animals
coming in and those numbers being up
from those different agencies on that.
And then just to add on those other
numbers from Border Patrol, um sometimes
that would be like maybe Border Patrol
or state police or somebody pulling
someone over and arresting someone and
they might have an animal in a vehicle
and then they have nowhere to take that
animal. So, they're going to call out
animal control to come in and and assist
and and hold the animal until they so
they can arrest that person.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate
the background info. Yeah, I just
noticed the vehicle out of nowhere. I
think I'm just probably remarkably
unperceptive. I was like, "Hey, that's
new." But it's not. Um and just as one
more clarification um with that, um I
know one of our owner renders was from
White Sands Missile Range, so it was um
one I believe that was the only one we
had out of that out of ourus.
Great. Thank you so much. And also,
thank you for the hard eye contact since
I'm not used to looking down to see if
somebody has and you're like, so I
appreciate that. And anyone who is
pushing their button and I'm not
noticing, just just yell at me.
Thanks. All right.
City. Good morning, Madam Chair, members
of the board. My name is Gino Himenez. I
will present to you the quarterly report
for January through March. I'm going to
fast forward. As you can see, I I
included my typical report which has a
monthly breakdown. Uh if there's no
objections, I'll move into March, which
will give us the
totals. So, as you can see here, this is
the running total for January through
March 2025. January, we responded to
458 stray calls. In February, we
responded to 457. And in March, 440,
giving us a total of
1,00 Let me load this up a little bit. I
can't read it.
1,335. Just a
second. Thanks,
So again, here is our three-year
comparison. For January, we uh filled
our toed 39 animals. In February, 57 and
in March, 48, bringing us to a total of
144 for the
year. Our peak performance measures,
this is for uh March, but it gives us a
running total. Uh one of the goals is
10% reduction in stray animal bites. We
had 53 running total for uh 2025 and 20
for 2024 giving us an increase of 62% of
stray animal bites. Measure number four
is a 10% reduction in owner victim
bites. 2025 we had 37. In 24 we had 25
giving us a total of a 32% increase in
owner victim
bites. Here is a graph for our community
cap program. So in January we responded
to 72 cats in traps. I mean in January
I'm sorry. In February 89 and in March
78 giving us a total of 239 cat and trap
calls. However our uh release rate in
January we released 15, February 21 and
in March 17 which means that we released
53 community cats. So those are cats
that never went to the animal service
center. Reasons we were unable to fill
RTO 32 were for dogs with uh no contact
by phone or at the residence. One was an
Arizona address and the other was a
Donana County address. Seven uh dogs the
chip was not registered. Seven dogs the
chip was not updated. Two dogs the
owners were out of town couldn't reclaim
their animal or had to reclaim them from
the animal service center. Uh, one dog,
the 24-hour pet watch could not give the
acco the information of who owned the
dog. One cat, the chip was not
registered. And one cat, no contact by
phone or at the resident. And finally,
one dog, the owner was in the hospital.
The brother was the emergency contact.
However, he refused to pick up that
animal. Here is our reasons for owner
releasing animals. 16 of dogs. the owner
was unable to care for. 15 dogs uh
behavioral issues. Four dogs for
lifestyle changes. Four dogs the
landlord wouldn't allow to keep at their
property. Uh three dogs they keep
escaping. Three dogs they were moving
and according to one of the residents of
rescue refused to take it in. Uh two
dogs they could no longer afford. Two
dogs for aggression. Two dogs the owners
were leaving the country. the owner was
leaving the country. Uh, two cats the
landlord did not allow at their
property. One cat was not compatible
with the other pets. It was aggressive
towards the smaller dogs. Uh, one dog
old age euthanasia. One cat old age
euthanasia request. One cat for
behavioral issues. One cat uh the owner
could not afford vet care. One dog
resource guarding. One dog for health
issues. and one dog the owner had a high
risk pregnancy and uh the dog put her in
risk at jeopardy in
jeopardy. So our total calls for service
in January we responded to
1,124 calls February
1,157 calls and in March
1,155 giving us a year-to- date total of
3,436. And with that I will stand for
any questions.
Thank you so much. You're welcome.
Okay. Good. Now, gotcha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Do you know with
respect to the statistics uh related to
owner victim bites uh going in the wrong
direction from what what we'd like to
see? Is there anything that you could
share with us to help um explain that
trend or maybe our our approach um to
working the statistic in the in the
right direction? Yes, ma'am. Uh board
member.
Uh that one is really hard for us to
explain because we have no control over
that situation. you know, for our stray
animal bites, what we can do is go out
in an area where we have uh a lot of
calls that are coming in and we can
focus the officers in there to address
the stray bites. So therefore, we reduce
the possibility of bites. However, with
an owner victim bite, um this is an
animal that is in the household that for
some reason bites. I mean, it could be
resource guarding, it could be
aggression, it could be food, it could
be toys, it could be anything or just
the animal was in a bad mood.
Um, so to reduce that number is going to
be very very difficult for us. Um, we
really don't have that much of an
influence in those
situations. The only thing the only
remedy that I can think of right now is
education. Um, educate, educate,
educate. And that's why the majority of
those bites, owner victim bites are
children. So that's where we focus in
our school presentations is for children
to be responsible pet owners, know when
their pet is going to do this, know when
their pet may be in this kind of
situation so that the child can
recognize it and possibly reduce that
number. Thank you so much, Gino. that
that really helps to explain um both the
the situations and and the responses
that we could have and and I was
thinking about education maybe referrals
uh to uh training or I don't know if if
that might be uh something that we could
do as well. Absolutely. I agree. Thank
you, Gino. You're welcome.
Thank you. Anyone else?
Well, thank you so much. You're welcome.
Okay, next up are shelter statistics and
activities. Morning,
Liz. Good
[Music]
morning. So, I'll be presenting the um
ASMV first quarter statistics.
So, the current animal count, I believe
this was as of yesterday, um, we
currently have 277 dogs and 24
cats. And then the first quarter intake
total, um, we got
2,150 animals,
100, 1598 were dogs, and 538 were cats.
And you can just see the comparison for
the past two years
there. So the intake methods are how
they came into the shelter. Uh if you
scroll down to strays by acco that's
going to be the number one way they came
in at
53.9%. And then if you go back up to the
owner surreners, uh that's the second
highest reason. Um 18.6%. So, in the
first three months of this year, we
already got 401 animals owner
surrendered. Uh, just below that is
going to be strays brought in by the
public. Uh, we had 395 of those and
those are really our top biggest ways of
intake. The rest there are pretty
low. Um, this is our year-todate
information. So, since it's the first
quarter, it's going to be the same as
our total intake. Right now it's going
to sit at
2,150. Um, and next quarter you can kind
of compare the year-to- date from the
last two
years. So, our uh
returns um after somebody adopts an
animal, they have three weeks in order
to return that animal for whatever
reason. um after the 3-week period, they
can still return the animal, but at that
point, uh it's considered an owner
surrender. So, uh in the first quarter,
we had 18 dogs and one cat that were
returned. Um the main reason for return
for the dogs is behavior problems. So
that could be anything like jumping,
escaping, um destructive behavior, or
maybe they just didn't like the family,
a family member. So they can always
return the animal. Um we don't hold it
against them. We know things happen and
they can adopt another animal that maybe
fits their lifestyle better.
So, our first quarter outcomes,
adoptions, we did
418 reclaims, um, we did
308. Rescued animals, um, we did
527. Community cats, um, 282 were
released back into the community after
being spay and neutered, of course. Um,
euthanasia, 653.
So this number does include owner
requested euthanas. So we did 158 of
those. However, that does not uh that's
not included in our live release rate.
So excluding the owner um requested
euthanasia, our live release rate is
75.7 which is up a little bit from last
year from this time last year.
our transfers. Uh these are going to be
all of the rescues that we worked with
in the first three months of this year.
One of the biggest ones on there is uh
Rebel Angel Allreed Rescue. So for those
that don't know, that's a local rescue.
Um they really specialize in transport
and relocation. So they took 132 dogs. A
lot of those ended up being transported
to out of state, other rescues out of
state.
Cruise Crusaders and Halo Animal Rescue.
Those are um our Arizona
partners and Nick of Time and Front
Range Freedom. Those are some of our
Colorado rescues since we're starting to
see a lot more kittens. Um I'm pretty
sure we'll be doing a lot more
transports into Colorado because they do
specialize in taking cats and kittens.
And then a lot of our local rescues
continue to help us action programs for
animals. Like Michelle mentioned, they
took in 14 dogs and a lot of those dogs
are going to be harder to adopt. Pity
Breeds um that they spend a lot of time
working with to make them
adoptable. Um Animal Spaces Rescue,
Animal Rescue League of El Paso, and
um a few other rescues on here are some
of our local ones. Um Shedding El Paso
Rescue Dogs, that's one that's located
in El Paso. um they really specialize in
the uh German Shepherd and Malininoa
type breeds. So they're really
experienced in finding those dogs the
correct home. And they took in 20 dogs
from us the first quarter. So thank you
to all of our rescue partners for
continuing to
help. So our youth in Asia, we actually
ended up doing um
495. So that's
um not counting the owner surreners or
the owner requested euthanas. The number
one reason is space behavior for dogs.
So this is where they have a behavior
that could be worked with if there was
space. If the shelter didn't have a
revolving door and we had all this time
and you know space to work with them. We
absolutely believe that they could be
adoptable but space was the issue
ultimately that they had to be
euthanized. And the second um biggest
reason is behavior aggressive towards
other dogs. So we have to be able to
co-house dogs at the shelter in order to
um save as many as we can. There may be
some times where we can have a dog
that's in a single kennel but not for
very long. If we get a lot of um a huge
amount of intake that day, sometimes,
you know, the dog that's not dog
friendly um is chosen for euthanasia
because we need to make space and use
that kennel to house multiple
dogs. So, our surgeries um for the first
three months we did,
169, 170 were shelter foster surgeries.
So, these are going to be our in-house
what we call in-house surgeries. Um, 250
were adoptions and 442 were TNR cats.
The 207 other, that's going to be our
our lowincome public span neuters and
also some of our rescue
spayneuters.
Our volunteers continue to do well and
do good work um especially with our play
groups at the shelter. We are in the
process of um hiring a new volunteer
coordinator. So they should be starting
within the next two weeks and we're
excited to see um you know what kind of
fresh ideas she brings to the program.
But we still get new volunteers every
month. You can see in January we got 22
new volunteers. In February there was 18
and in March there was 16. So there was
over 2,300 hours put in in the first
quarter for volunteer work. So we thank
our volunteers for coming to help enrich
the pets at the
shelter. Our foster program
um in January we had 105 animals in
foster. In February there was 112 and in
March there was 96. Um, as I mentioned,
since we are getting into kitten season,
we'll probably start seeing a lot more
people signing up to be fosters. We're
already starting to see neonates and
bottle babies come in. So, that's
normally where we see our foster numbers
increase. And our foster coordinator
does such a great job. Um, she did hold
a kitten shower um, I believe last
weekend. So, kind of teaches people how
to bottle feed babies if you're new, but
they do require so much work. So, we
really really love our our fosters at
taking in the bottle
babies. Year-to- date visitors. So, we
actually had um
5,810. This is up from last year by
about 1,400. If you look down at the
months of January, February, and March,
you'll see um each month we had a an
increased number of visitors to the
shelter.
our marketing report. So, the Facebook
ads, um, an impression is going to be
every time that one of our ads shows up
on somebody's screen if they're
scrolling. Um, and a reach is going to
be any time um, a unique user viewed
that ad at least once. So the reach is
always going to be lower because um you
know the same user can view multiple ads
of ours as they're scrolling. So each
one of those is an impression. But the
um reach is the important one because
that's how many users we're reaching,
how many new users that we're reaching.
Clicks to our website, that number is
going to be uh clicks to our website
from our Facebook
ads. And then our social media reach on
Facebook. That's going to be the overall
reach. Um not just the Facebook ads. So
we had um
375,000 on there and uh 20 over 22,000
Instagram. Total website views um
97,000 with 17,000 new users. So, we
still continue to do well on our um
marketing. Uh our April events coming
up. So, this Saturday we're going to be
at Sesparro at their springfest over off
of Valley. And then on Sunday, we're
actually having a uh adoption event at
the shelter called Bark and Bloom. So,
we'll have a food vendor there with um
door prizes and lots of animals up for
adoption. So that's from 11 to 1 on
Sunday at the
shelter. And here are some of our May
events. So PetSmart, Petco, Roundhouse
Reserve, I believe that's off Solano,
and Farmers Market. Those are all going
to be in May. And actually every Friday
in May, we're going to be at PetSmart.
So we're trying to increase our
adoptions and get our animals out into
the community as much as possible.
And our dog of the week, Aaron, was
actually already adopted, so they
renamed her
Shadow. And our cat of the week, goblin,
was actually already adopted as
well, probably because of that
photo. With that, I'll stand for any
questions. Thank you so much. And I know
this is being a Gen Xer, but of course
as soon as I saw that photo, I thought
the George Costanza and then Seinfeld
like where he did that pose on the
couch. Thank you. A couple people in my
age group are nodding and laughing.
Um, yes, board member Gates or sorry,
board member Campbell. Thank you, Madam
Chair. I have two questions. One on the
401 people who returned their animals,
how many of those actually gave it
another try and adopted another animal?
Sorry, let me go back to the returns.
So, we actually we only had 19 returns.
Oh, wait. Where did I get
um I was thinking of something else. But
anyway, how many go on to adopt
something else? I'm not sure. I could
probably get those numbers for you.
Um the reason for that we have the
return policy is just if it's not
working out, they have that option to
come and adopt another animal. Um but
I'm not sure how many actually adopted
another animal. Um, I'm assuming the
ones that the landlord doesn't allow
probably didn't. Um,
some people, uh, lifestyle changes that
could be like they're moving and they
didn't know. Um, so I imagine some of
those probably didn't adopt a dog as
well, didn't adopt another dog as well.
And my second question, when you talked
about the traffic to the center, is that
just physically those who came to the
center or does that include your mobile
adoption events? Um, it includes um,
it's the visitors to the center. Okay.
Thank you.
Now, board member Gates,
I don't know how relevant this is um but
I'm curious if you even if it's just
like in your head, it's not necessarily
the actual numbers, but generally like
what are the outcomes for the returned
um animals? Um it just depends. I mean,
we don't hold it against the animal
because a lot of these behaviors,
especially like the escaping and
destruction, there things that we don't
know about the animal previously, you
know, we we don't see that behavior at
the shelter, but it really helps us put
that in their notes. That way, if they
get adopted again, we can say, "Hey,
they're a jumper or they're a digger."
So, um, yeah, if anything, it really
just helps us learn more about them.
kind of like a foster, you know, they go
out for a little while, they come back
and we have a lot more information that
could put set them up for success later
on. Great.
Okay. If no one else, um, two from me.
Um, so we had awesome volunteer numbers
in February and I think it said guest
volunteers, 50some guest volunteers.
Yes. Um, what was the source of our
guest volunteers? Um I believe those
numbers are going to be um if somebody
brings someone with them. So you know a
lot of the um adults with disabilities
come in and they do social socializing
with cats and things like that. So I
believe the guests are going to be if
someone comes with the registered
volunteer. That's huge. And an an
enormous jump in the total volunteer
hours too. So that's really cool. Yeah.
Bring a friend. Um, and then my other
question, I should have asked this
question first so we could end on a
happier note. Um, I see the parvo
numbers are still pretty troubling. Um,
and I was wondering,
um, I know that that can be if
unintentionally a
foster person gets a parvo animal, that
kind of wipes them off from fostering
for a pretty significant amount of time.
And I know we had struggled with that. A
friend of mine was in that situation who
was a serial dog foster, ended up with a
unintentionally with a parvo puppy. And
it's a pretty long time period, but I
was wondering if we're still struggling
with that in our foster program.
I I don't know of any that have been um
in foster um any of these parallel
cases. I believe they've all been at the
shelter, but um it doesn't really
exclude them from the program if they
want to foster adults. Um if anything,
it would just exclude them from
fostering puppies. No, that makes sense.
It she was a serial foster puppier and
this was a few years ago, but I'm glad
obviously you're never glad to see
Parvo, but you know, glad that it's a
little more contained. So, yeah. Good.
Anyone else come up with anything? All
right. Thank you so much for everything
you and your team does. Thank you.
So, we'll move to our committee reports
starting off with
finance. Ben Ko. Thank you, Madam Chair.
And this
Oh, sorry. Did you Yeah, go for it. I
just wanted to add one thing. um with
Diana County on our ASUS program when
we're going out there and doing our
vaccination the microchips um Dr.
McKenzie's also started adding the parvo
and dister vaccines to the dogs in the
community and the cat vaccines. So a lot
of we're trying to get that out in the
community already. So, we're not taking
it. If the dogs get picked up, they're
not getting exposed to parvo or they're
not getting parvo and it's not getting
taken into the shelter as well. So,
we're trying to get it out in the field
as well. So, that should be a good a
good thing going forward for that. I
appreciate that so much and for ending
it with a more positive spin. Board
member Gates, you better not be a
bummer. Just kidding. Go for it. Uh, no.
I just I think on that note, um, I mean
it I just want to say this so that we
remember it and it exists on the record,
but I think we then also need to maybe
break down the parvo cases of the
shelter by the county versus the city
just to see whether their program is
actually contributing um, which I would
presume it will, but I think that that
would be kind of cool to see if there is
a change in what we're seeing um, now
between those two um, places and now
that this has been included in the
vaccines. No, I love that. Thank you and
thank you for being a champion for data
as always. Um, so good. All right, back
to finance committee report. Thank you,
exeicio member Ben Como. Appreciate it,
Madame Chair. So, this month's uh this
quarter's finance committee meeting, I
actually was unable to attend. However,
um our assistant director of finance, uh
Laura Higin was there and provided me
with some notes uh from the meeting
which included an overview of the
financial statements and we'll be seeing
those here shortly. um a review of the
budget resolution also that will be
coming forward and um a discussion
regarding the recruitment for the
executive director just the purchasing
process for that. Um and so without
further ado what I'd like to do is
introduce Miss Amy Trant uh to come
forward and share with us an overview of
the quarterly financials for the animal
service center.
Thank you so
much. Good morning, Madame Chair, ladies
and gentlemen of the board, ladies and
gentlemen of the audience. My name is
Amy Trant. I'm the management analyst
for the animal shelter, and I'll be
giving you the financial briefing this
morning.
Um right now we have to date uh total
assets of
1,392,260. Our total liabilities
$24,114 with a fund balance of
1,188,146. So that gives us total
liabilities and a fund balance of
[Music]
1,392,260. For our total revenues, we
are sitting at an actual of
3,752,448, which is 76.1%.
We also have total expenditures of
3,47,400 I'm sorry $47 which gives us a
a total expenditures of
69.1%. So we are well above the budget
parameter of 75% for our total revenues
and also below are for our expenditures.
Net change position
$345,41 with our starting fund balance
of
551,735 gives us a net position of
$897,137. Moving on to the executive
director fund. Um we have uh two that
are a little high. The services are at
90.8%. Um, this is because our exiting
director had gone through and did a lot
of the membership renewals so that we
wouldn't have to worry about that for
the rest of the year. So, we are taken
care of for that. Um, that included the
National Animal Control Board and also
Society for Animal Welfare. So, we're
good to go for the rest of the year for
them. The other one is travel. Um, this
fund is close, but we have no additional
travel expected for this fund for the
rest of the year. And if so, then we can
always make a transfer of funds if need
be. Moving on to the actuals for the
medical director. Um, total expenditures
at 60.1%. So, you can see that budget is
doing very well. It's well below the 75%
budget parameter for this time of year.
um the 100,000 or 105,000 for community
cats program now has been assigned uh
project codes. So that has been split
up. Uh so those funds will be taken out
of where they need to go for classified
and for services and for supplies.
Um, this fund also just received a or is
in the process after you approve it, a
$50,000 grant, and that's to help the
medical facility, uh, change from the
CAT room over to the surgical facility.
So, uh, more funds will be falling into
the services and the
supplies for this medical director
fund. Um, for the kennel
director, they are at
74.8%. That is close, but it is still
below the budget parameter. Since we're
getting closer to the end of the year,
we will be doing a lot more polls from
Ununice and taking some very close looks
uh especially at salary and for
benefits. Uh
this budget or this fund also is seeing
uh $25,000 grant increase. So that's
going to be for
transportation and that's going to help
with the transport and rescue
efforts. and bars have been completed
for those as
well. Moving on to the administrative
operations, this is total expenditures
at
71.9%. Again, it is below the budget
parameter of 75%.
and it is doing
well for the total expenses year to date
3,47,047. This is the percentages break
broken out of what was spent. So most
was spent on salary uh and benefits. um
services were to 12% supplies and then
our little group of other which covers
transport, travel, insurance and
maintenance and
repairs. Any questions from the board
today?
Questions? Looks like no. Thank you so
much. And Amy, you just have an NPR
voice. I love it. I'm like you could
soothe me into anything. So, thank you
so much. Thank you.
So, the executive committee
um is primarily me learning what it
means to be the chair of this board with
a lot of help. Bernice, thank you. Um we
were primarily discussing um as I
already alluded to the hiring process
for the soontobe new executive director.
Um, board member Gates, um, I think we
can leave that, you have 100% been
leading the charge on that. Um, and I
guess we can leave that to board
comments. If you you'll chime in on that
at that time. Well, actually, we just go
ahead and chime in now. Yeah. Yeah. I
mean, I think it's a quick a pretty
quick summary. Um we've selected a um
search firm. So we are just waiting for
all of that um to go through with the
city and then we can really get moving
and get somebody in there and um
hopefully do as awesome of things as our
interim director has
done. So I think I think that's it for
updates on that. Okay, great. Yeah, and
moving along nicely. Um again,
appreciation to Bernice. thanks for
keeping us up to date on everything. And
yeah, it's primarily um just me fumbling
my way through being the chair. Um
finally,
facilities. Thank you,
Liz. Hi, board member board. I thought
you were not going to be here today, so
I put myself on to give the update if
you're okay with that.
Um, so, uh, the facilities committee met
on April 3rd. Um, in attendance was
board member Ward, board member
Campbell, and myself. And I believe, uh,
board member Gates was not able to
attend that one. Um, some ongoing
projects and issues that we discussed
were some cracks in the cement in our
social areas that were covered under
warranty. So, repairs for those should
be starting soon. Um, we did have some
issues that have been reported to
facilities that are still waiting to be
repaired, which is our main flag pole in
front of our adoption building is still
broken and two of our doors on the
um, one door on the east side and one
door on the west side of the adoption
building are not working properly. So,
um, facilities is aware of those and
they plan to fix them. We are also in
the process of rekeying um, a lot of
doors in our adoption building. So, um,
we did have a locksmith come out and,
um, the main purpose of this is to get
all of the locks, um, to be the same.
There's quite a variety in the adoption
building. Um, and for security purposes,
we want them to all be on the same key,
so um, the appropriate supervisor has
access. Um we are also in the process of
demolishing two sheds behind the medical
facility with hopes to replace those
with the um shipping container for
storage. And then um lastly, we did
discuss I shared with the uh committee
the renovations that um were drawn up
for the medical building. Um there was a
feasibility study done in 2022
um to convert the medical building into
um just renovations for it to be a more
functioning medical center. Um back then
I believe the plans were to use the fund
balance for that but I did let the
committee know that the fund balance is
now being used towards the budget. So
our new director um might have to come
up with new ideas for funding for that.
Um, however, we did get the $50,000
Petco grant to start the step one of the
process, which is to move our surgical
area into a what we're calling a surgery
suite, which is our old cat room at the
front of the building. So, that was all
that was discussed and our next meeting
is scheduled for May 1st.
Thank you so much. Any questions?
Thank you.
So, moving on to section six, we have a
couple of quick discussion items. Um,
and these are just true discussion
items. I don't think we have any uh
presentations planned. Um, just a way to
get uh daylight on a couple of topics
that will probably be coming up in a
more formal sense in the future. The
first is a discussion on updating the
ASCMV board bylaws and formation of a
bylaw update subcommittee. Um it's a big
day for board member Gates. Calling on
you again because you were um the one
who very wisely brought this idea to the
table. So I'll turn it over.
Yeah. I mean essentially our you know as
the board we're responsible for updating
the bylaws I believe per the JPA. um
they have not been updated since 2013 I
believe. Um so obviously there have been
some changes um mostly actually the
changes being within recent years to be
completely fair um which is having
community members on the board um and
then quarterly meetings um instead of um
monthly. So those are kind of the main
things in the bylaws which is
essentially they're written for um you
know council members um on the board
versus having community members on the
board. So more so just like pretty
standard changes if you will. There
might be some other elements like
conflict of interest type things to
update but I think for the most part
that was uh the most glaring um issues
with the current bylaws but um just want
to start get get things moving on those
so we can have um our operating um
bylaws up to date.
Okay, great. I appreciate that. um
ideas. I'm taking your volunteering as
tribute on this clearly to lead this.
Yeah, I mean I definitely uh already
have looked them over far too many
times. So, uh I I'm definitely willing
to if we're going to do some sort of
committee or um whatever we choose um in
order to get them updated, but I'm I'm
interested. Yes. Great. Board member
Campbell, I'd be interested in serving
on that subcommittee with Jennifer.
Fantastic. Thank you.
Um, are you thinking
three
or Well, now we could do four,
right? True. So, okay. But, but again,
good. We can we can throw an action item
on the next meeting and uh force or
voluntel other people or if anyone else
is interested. Um, I too I think both
councelor Korin and I have some
bylaw change in experience, so I'm sure
one of us would be happy to go through
that, too. So, okay, great. Um, yeah,
appreciate that. And, um, yeah, let's
bring us up into the 2020s on our
bylaws. Thank you. Um, our other
discussion item is a discussion of the
current ASCMV emergency plan for
continuity of operations. Um, yeah,
please Liz, come on up. And, uh,
Exophicio board member Ben Ko, I know
you've also had some experience with
this, so I'd love to have you chime in.
Sorry. So, just to chime in um, here.
So, we are um, in the process of
completing the ASMV emergency plan. So,
this covers um this is actually part of
a bigger plan with the office of
emergency management. Um it's going to
be incorporated in their um all hazards
emergency operation plan. So, um it
really deals with countywide emergency
responses, natural disasters, and things
like that. Um our previous director
Clint had started it before he left and
um we have plans to finish it coming
soon and we'll be submitting that as
well. Um so that's really to cover like
the natural disaster aspect of things.
And then as far as like uh you know
in-house I know that um recently we our
medical director um experienced a
medical emergency and had to be out for
some time. Um but we were able to find
coverage for um surgeries by using some
of our contract vets and all in all we
only missed one surgery day. So, we did
reschedule um a lot of surgeries, but um
we still continue to do TNR surgeries
and things like that. So, we kind of
have a idea on um especially, you know,
once we get a second vet on board, um
we're pretty capable of filling those
gaps when needed. So, I just wanted to
put that out there. No, I really
appreciate that.
Um Exeicio board member Ben Como.
Yes, thank you. That was an excellent
summary of the effort too far and uh so
far and we're very grateful for the
guidance of OEM to help uh draft the
plan and and make sure that we have the
right elements included in that. Um one
key area to uh contemplate and I know
that our facilities team has already
been looking at this is the uh emergency
generator situation for the for the
facility. uh scoping that out,
understanding what would be needed, and
then um looking for the funding for
that. So, I know that's already underway
as well. Yes.
Okay, great. And I know
um Doc, we're so happy you're back and
and being really stubborn, so we make
sure that Liz also keeps an eye on you.
Um but we had discussed um and I think
we also our county veterinarian is in
here. Hi. Yes. Um, we had talked about I
don't know if that is something for
which there would be capacity if there
was an in-house emergency at ASCMV. Um,
we had talked about I don't know if we
would need anou for that. I'm throwing
this out to the ethers if anyone has an
answer. Um but for that kind
of if no one knows we should definitely
find out if that's a possibility too in
an emergency for coverage on the vet
surgical side. So if we can look into
that it'd be great just to have some
clarity on that. I mean I county
obviously has an equal stake in ASCMV as
city but that would definitely be good
to um good to throw out there. Um but
other discussion again clearly just kind
of setting the stage that we will have a
presentation sometime in the near
future. Obviously we want to get our new
executive director on board and have
their input as well. But any other Yes,
please. Just going on that, I think an
MOU, having an MOU in place is something
that we would need to look at moving
forward to make sure that we are not
violating any licenses and and
requirements of the veterinarians to
make sure that, you know, they are
covered um covering surgeries in
different facilities and whatnot. Um and
that type of thing. Um and then also
their um work um duties in their their
um contracts working for their agencies,
their appropriate agencies, and we're
not violating anything like that. Okay,
great. Thank you so much. That's exactly
the kind of input and guidance that
we're looking for. And and yeah, I I
want to shout out I know it was a, you
know, scrambling time at ASCMV. There
were a lot of rumors going around and
different uh different perceptions or
different narratives on what was
happening or was not happening. And I
appreciate you saying it was really we
missed one surgery day and things got
covered. So I really appreciate I know I
know what that took. So, very much
wanted to shout that out. Um, anything
else? Okay,
great. All right, on to action items.
First up,
7.1, a resolution allowing for a
carryover of remaining grant funds from
FY2024 in the amount of $2,400 from the
HSUS grant and to adjust the adopted
budget. Move to approve. Thank you.
Okay. Moved by councelor Corin, seconded
by board member Pek.
Hi. So, um, this resolution was just to
correct the clerical error. Um, so the
ASCMV was awarded a, um, $2,400 grant in
2023. Um, and due to that clerical
error, the funds weren't um, expensed in
FY23 or 24. So, this resolution um would
be moving them over to FY25 so we can
finally get them expensed. And this the
funds were to um attend a conference
that some of our employees went to.
Okay, great. Thank
you.
Questions? Good. All right. Uh call for
a vote then. Board member Campbell. Yes.
Board member Gates. Yes.
Board member Julie, yes. Board member
Peek, yes. Councelor Corin, yes. And I,
Chair Graham, vote yes.
Uh, next up, 7.2, a resolution to amend
the recommended FY2026 annual budget for
the ASCMV per exhibit A.
Move to approve. Second, Corin. Okay.
Moved by board member Campbell, seconded
by councelor Corin.
Um this resolution is just to
um adjust the FY26 budget in order to
use um the uh fund balance to cover the
gap from the city and county
contributions uh in the amount of
405,675. Okay. Thank you.
Questions? All right. Move to vote.
Board member Campbell, yes. Board member
Gates, yes. Board member Dulie, yes.
Board member Peek, yes. Councelor Corin,
yes. And I, Chair Graham, vote
yes. Next up, sorry,
I There we go. 7.3. a resolution to
accept the $25,000 PetSmart Charities
Transport Grant and adjust the adopted
FY2025 budget allowing the grant.
Move to approve. Second. Moved by
Councelor Corin, seconded by board
member Pek.
So, um, yeah, this is the $25,000
PetSmart grant that we would be putting
towards the, um, our transport efforts
and our transport program in order to,
um, transport more animals further to
partner up with more rescues possibly on
the East
Coast. Great
questions. Um, just a quick one. So,
currently, I know Colorado is a big one,
right? where we
currently send. Yes. Uh so Colorado is a
big one, but they um are their rescues
are governed by an agency called PACFA.
So that oversees all of the rescue and
animal organizations
um in Colorado. Um this year they have
will be passing a new law uh starting in
July to where um all animals entering
Colorado need to have a rabies vaccine.
So that would exclude any animals under
three months. So the nursing kittens,
nursing puppies, things like that will
no longer be able to be transported into
Colorado. So given that, we may have to
go further to find other rescues for
them. Got you. Interesting. Thank
you. And if nothing else, I'll call for
a vote. Uh board member Campbell, yes.
Board member Gates, yes. Board member
Gulie, yes. Board member Peek, yes.
Councelor Cororin, yes. And I, Chair
Graham, vote
yes. And finally, 7.4, a resolution to
accept the $50,000 Petco medical
facility grant and adjust the adopted FY
2025 budget allowing the grant. Move to
approve.
Second. Little I know a little a little
switch up. moved by board member Pek and
seconded by councelor Quorin.
The $50,000 uh PECO grant um that would
be used to start step one in our medical
renovation. So, a lot of it is going to
be used for equipment um things that are
needed in order for our surgical area to
move to our um old CAT room in the front
of the medical building. So, much of the
$50,000 would be used to purchase
equipment for that move.
Yes, please. I I just have a quick
question. this is, you know, exciting
and I feel like a new phase, but I also
understand um how money works a lot
better as a city councelor and I know
that $50,000 is like nothing in the
scheme of how much um this renovation
like will actually take and I know that
that's been sort of discussed, but could
you just give us sort of a rough
estimate the last time we talked about
this to to just give us context for I I
don't want folks to think like, oh, we
got this grant, it's going to be done.
That's that's not how any of these
things work. Um it turns out so the
feasibility study um calculated and
again this was in 2022 so I imagine it's
much higher uh 7.6 million for the
complete renovation of the um medical
building. Um and it really is the
complete renovation. There's some
additions on there. So it really does
have to be done in steps. And this is
kind of our first step number one on
there. Thank you. I just I just wanted
to make sure that everyone had the fair
context. Like I feel like when we talk
about buildings, nothing under a million
dollars is making any dent in anything
in in our world right now. So that
sounds more more like a better
understanding. So this is really just a
an opening salvo in this in this
venture. So thank you. Thanks Liz. Thank
you for that perspective. Board member
Gates. Uh just a quick question. the
feasibility study, was that something
that the board participated in or was
that an internal ASMV study that was
done? Um, because I want access to it,
which I can get to after and I can uh
definitely send it to you. Um, I'm not
sure how much of the board participated
in it, but I do know that um Clint did
give a presentation um on the results of
that that included the blueprints and
everything. Okay. So, I can definitely
share those with the board. Perfect.
Any other questions?
All right, let's vote. Board member
Campbell, yes. Board member Gates, yes.
Board member Julie, yes. Board member
Peek, yes. Councelor Corin, yes. And I,
Chair Graham, vote
yes. Okay, moving on. Um, public
input. No, the the sole member of the
public is saying no.
Um, okay. Sounds good.
Um, so board
comments. I'm going to I'm going to Do
you have a non a non Bernice board
comment? Okay, go for it. I I just want
to um we we have a new board member, Dr.
Dr. Buling. Welcome. Um and sorry we
just threw you into this. We just
approved her on at Monday's city council
meeting. So, we didn't really have a
chance to to get her fully onboarded
before this meeting, but you've you've
done a great job. Um, so good job. We'll
keep on helping and supporting you as
you as you join the board. So, welcome.
I just want to thank you for
volunteering and and answering the call
in this context. So, we're really glad
you're here. Um, and again, we'll follow
up and make sure that you you don't feel
totally thrown to the stray dogs um in
the next in the next months and weeks.
No, no pun intended. Um, so that's
that's I just wanted to welcome you.
Thank you for for volunteering and and
being here.
Um, so that's all. Yeah, I second that.
Thank you so much. Board member Gates, I
just want to say that I'm happy to hear
that we have a new animal ordinance. So,
thank you for, you know, whatever parts
of it we may or may not agree with. I'm
happy that that's been updated and
hopefully that will prove um positive
for the city and where we're going with
our animals.
Yes. And again, many many thanks um to
the community advocates who worked
beyond
tirelessly for on this for years. very
much appreciated as well as all of our
city team. Um, appreciate you. We did
it.
Um, okay. So, this is trying to say this
without like chokey boys. Um, this will
be Bernice's last board meeting with
us. Uh, yes, I know. I'm sorry, but you
are going to have to sit there and hear
nice things about yourself. Um, well, I
know we're um happy, we're lucky to have
her in her position uh a bit longer. Um,
since we moved to a quarterly board
meeting, we didn't want to let it slip
by. So, I open the floor for Go for it.
Um I'll also try not to get I know right
deary um Bernice you have kept the
shelter really moving forward like you
through a number of really difficult
times that I know um you you have a team
and you you have support folks there but
but from our perspective you know we
look at these budgets we see these
financial reports we hear facilities
reports and and behind every one of
those are a thousand and acts
of paperwork and difficult things and
negotiations and conversations um and
followup and you have done an
extraordinary job of of doing that. Um,
I just can't see dear I can cut myself
off shortly, but you have made an
enormous difference in the lives of the
animals at the shelter and the people at
the shelter and it has really meant a
lot and it has been seen by me as a
person who cares about all those things.
Sorry, I'll stop.
Go for it. Madam chairman, members of
the board, Bernice, congratulations.
Yes.
Um, I have known of you, not necessarily
known you, for over 15 years, long time
since I was with the Solid Waste
Authority. And the board needs to
understand that Bernice set the standard
for reporting and accounting for years
and years and years. And she has gone
through some some tumultuous times. But
from someone on the outside looking in,
working with my staff, I pointed to you
a lot of times as someone to look, you
know, to for them to mimic, you know,
look what they're doing here. If you
have questions, I don't know, you know,
and I I used to send staff to these
meetings to see how they were run and
everything else. But Bernice, your
reputation and your professional
reputation is it's like I said, it's a
gold standard. Congratulations on
retirement. As someone who's just
retired, I thoroughly am enjoying it.
It's good on the other side and I wish
you well and I thank you for all your
years of service and just for you know
what, it's going to be different. You
don't have to get up at 5:30 every
morning to you know and it's just 7
o'clock is a nice time to get out of
bed. I can tell you. So anyway,
congratulations.
Well, I I just wanted to say and I also
want to I want to if you anyone who
wants to approach from down here, um I
kind of just wanted to say I was
thinking um Michelle said from APA said
it better than anyone earlier that
there's kind of this idea that people
who work in animal welfare or any kind
of job that takes so much art. Um,
sometimes they're like, "Oh, well, you
should uh, you know, you should just do
it for free." Um, and I think you
probably would have. Um, your servants's
heart and the mixed with just absolute
line level professionalism is special
um, and is going to be tremendously
missed.
Um,
I don't know. I don't know what we will
do without you. I know you are
crossraining some folks right now. Um,
and I know they're fantastic. Um, but
we'll not be you. And and again, I know
you're like melting out there like,
please stop talking about me. But uh we
just can't just can't let it go without
thanking you on the record from our
hearts for all you do. Thank you.
Are you going to come up and say
something? Yes.
Anyone? Yeah.
My name is Michelle Williams. I'm the
front office supervisor at the ASCB.
I've been there almost 10 years and
Bernice is
she has been nothing but kind
um very knowledgeable and I wouldn't be
where I am today without her. She has
taught me so much and I hope I can learn
in the few weeks we have left. But thank
you Bernice.
Um, this I'm
Bernice. Um, thank you for all of your
kind
words. Just like in any any position,
any any place that you're at, you know,
you have your positives and the the
negatives, you know, ups and downs and
things like that. Um over the years I've
been with ASMV since 2008, one of the
old-timers, so with a couple more there
and stuff. Um I have seen so many
changes go on um at the shelter from the
old buildings to the new buildings to
change of directors to change of board
members um change of
employees, everything. Um and I have
seen so much grow there.
I am so
appreciative of all of the people that
have helped me in my not so bright
moments. Um it it's just been it's been
tremendous working with all the
different people there. Um to see all of
the growth that's going on. Um you can
probably count on seeing me as a public
member every once in a while.
um just to give a little bit different
perspective, you know, of what what goes
on in the shelter. Um I strongly
strongly encourage every one of the
board members, please stop by, go see
what's happening at the shelter. Um just
like we say, you know, our social media,
it can be amazing and it can be
detrimental, you know. So, I would
really like to invite everyone to show
up, you know, see what's going on, um,
and to invite more people from the
community. You know, please step up,
join in. You know, it it can't be run by
just a few people. You know, this has to
be a community effort.
And so, um, I just I just thank
everybody, you know, for all of the all
of the years of support and and I'm
going to go do a lot of
camping, but thank you. Thank you
everybody. And know we thank you if
you'll join
me. All right. If nothing else, I'll
entertain a motion to adjurnn.
Motion. Thank you, board member
Campbell. Second,
Corin. Thank you, Councelor Corin. So,
we are adjourned at 10:29 a.m. Thank
you.