What
[Music]
do you do?
You're live.
Good morning. Um, it's Wednesday, March
19th, 2025, 9:00 a.m. on the dot. So,
I'm going to call this uh special
meeting of the board of directors of
animal services center of the Messiah
Valley to order. 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.
Thank you so much. Oh, and I'll I'll
wait since we have another esteemed
board member making his way to the DAS.
I'm watching the camera. let me know
when he gets in
frame. And there he is. Good morning,
Commissioner
Sanchez. So, at this time, um, me take
care of determination of quorum. So,
Commissioner Sanchez, present. Oh,
exeicio member Bencomo,
sorry, I went out of order. Board member
Gates here. Board member Peek present.
Vice Chair Commissioner Shaw Joe
Hernandez
present. Are you not vice chair?
I am.
And I chair councelor Becky Graham am
present.
Um before we jump into our action items,
I am going to read a closed meeting
statement. The ASCMV board of directors
met in close session on January 16,
2025. Um, following members and staff
were in attendance. Myself, Becky
Graham, Becky Corin, Christopher Shaw,
Joe Hernandez, Jennifer Gates, Bernice
Navaro, Elizabeth Cely, Brad Douglas,
Jess Williams, Barbara Brinko, Joan
Campbell, Mary Lou Ward, Patrick Peek,
and Ben Young who was uh outside council
representing city of Los Cusus.
The purpose of the closed meeting uh
meeting was closed pursuant to NMSA1
1978 section
10151H7 to discuss pending or threatened
litigation in the following manners.
One, Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters
Insurance Company versus Murray at all.
Case number 124
CV1039 GJF JFR 2 Moore versus Animal
Services Center of the Messia Valley
D307CV
202441615 and Patrick Dumpy at all
versus Animal Services Center of the
Messia Valley at all
D307 CV
202300522. The closed meeting discussion
was limited to the items as stated in
the posted notice. Meeting began at
11:41 a.m. and ended at 12:09 p.m.
Okay, so moving on to our action items.
Uh first 3.1, a resolution authorizing
the governing board for the animal
services center of the Messia Valley to
accept the annual financial report for
the year ending June 30th, 2024.
So moved, Shel Hernandez.
Second, Sanchez. Thank you. So we have a
motion by Vice Chair Sheldo Hernandez
and seconded by Commissioner Sanchez.
All right. Thank you. Good morning,
Madam Chair, members of the board. My
name is Josh Safel and on behalf of the
finance department of the city of Los
Cusus, I would like to introduce our uh
auditor uh Chris uh Chris Garner with
Patio Brown and Hill. Um, we were
experiencing some technical
difficulties. So, with the help of uh uh
Bernice and her cell phone, hopefully
Chris will be able to present. Uh, so
let's hope this works. And so now, uh, I
will introduce Chris.
Thank you, Josh. Uh, can you all hear
me?
Yes.
Yes, we can. Thanks. Okay, perfect. So,
Madame Chair, um, and members of the
board, we have a presentation that
Bernice can forward to you. Um, it's
highlights from the exit conference that
we had. Um, there are no required
communications technically that we have
to do at this. So, I just thought I
would give because of the technical
difficulty just a quick oversight of the
audit. We ended up issuing what we call
unmodified opinion. Um, I always put on
the presentation a clean opinion because
that's exactly the type of opinion it
is. It's the uh type of opinion that the
organization wants to receive. So, it is
a good report. So, that's a good thing.
Um, we did not have any difficulties as
we went through our audit process. Um,
you know, we didn't have any journal
entries or any changes to any of the
numbers that were presented to us um by
your staff. So, the audit went extremely
smooth. Your accounting records were in
good order. We did not have any
exceptions as we tested tested internal
controls. So we actually had no findings
as a result of our procedure. So overall
the audit went extremely well and you
ended up with the type of opinion that
you want to receive. Um with that I'll
open up just any questions that anybody
might have.
Thank you so much board members. Any
questions?
Seeing none and I don't believe we have
any members of the public. I think this
are all all just family members. Okay,
wonderful. Um, great. Well, thank you so
much for that. And, uh, now I will call
for vote. Uh, Commissioner Sanchez, yes.
Board member Gates, yes. Board member
Pek, yes. Vice Chair Shalo Hernandez,
yes. And I, Chair Graham, vote yes.
Right. Thank you so much. And and I do
just want to say um Bernice Navaro from
ASCMV administrative operations manager
um that if there is anyone from the
public that would like a copy of that,
please email us and I am able to go
ahead and obtain those copies and get
them out to you. So great. Thank you so
much and thanks for holding the cell
phone up. Thank you. And thank you
Chris. Thank you Chris. Thank you.
Okay, moving right along. Item 3.2, a
resolution to adopt the
FY2026 proposed annual budget for the
animal services center of the Messia
Valley per exhibit A. Can I get a
motion, please?
So moved. Shall Hernandez second. Peg.
Moved by Vice Chair Sha Hernandez and
seconded by board member PAC. Good
morning, Liz. Hi, good morning. Liz
Cely, interim uh director for ASCMV. Um,
and I'm here to present the uh
ASCMBB uh fiscal year 2026 proposed
budget.
So, uh, ASCMV is requesting, um, an
increase in
FY26 of about 629,348,
um, which equates to a
10.2% increase from
FY25. Um, the rationale and details of
this increase are going to be depicted
in this presentation. So, um, we're
going to break it down by funds. Um, our
budget has four funds, the executive
director fund, uh, medical, kennel, and
our admin operations fund. So, we'll go
over each of those. And then, um,
towards the end of the presentation, we
have some highlights for some of our
bigger requests.
So, some of the key considerations when
looking at this request um is that we
have experienced some significant
shelter growth in the last few years. Um
that includes our new adoption building,
our playyards,
um our dogs playing for life program,
our enrichment program. Um we do have uh
plans to expand our foster and rescue
program. So, we really want to view FY26
as a time for growth for the shelter um
strategically and
operationally. So, um we have currently
303 animal housing units. That's not
including our medical kennels. So, it's
pretty hard to put a number on how many
animals those actually hold because you
could have a litter of puppies in one.
You could have two or three dogs. A
rough estimate would be about 400
animals. That's kind of uh what we see
every day on site. That could fluctuate
between uh time of year and number of
intakes. Um but that's kind of a rust
estimate for the amount of animals that
we have. We are fully staffed with uh 65
shelter personnel. That includes 32
kennel staff.
Um, and so when we're looking at our
capacity for care,
um, it's kind of tricky to see what that
might look like.
Um, our medical director, Dr. Haden, has
done a lot of research into this, uh,
our capacity for care. And there is some
formulas that we can, uh, look at to
kind of give us a better idea. So, in
all the research that she's done,
um, we think this calculation might be a
little bit more accurate. So if we think
um about 15 minutes per person per
animal is what was required for basic
care. So this is just feeding, watering,
housing. Um this doesn't include any
enrichment or anything like that. So it
kind of comes out to about 100 hours of
uh care per day that's required just for
basic feeding, watering, cleaning. And
our staff right now of the 32 kennel
staff, we have about 14 working each
day. So they're putting in about 140
hours. Um if you take out the 100 hours
just for cleaning, that really doesn't
leave them any more time to do any of
the other, you know, extra duties. Um
some of the other things that they do um
involve enrichment uh walking dogs,
gathering information on the pet's um
behavior to put in uh notes for their
online profiles. Another big one is the
socials that they have with the public.
So they're bringing animals out to meet
with family members. Um it's been one of
my goals to um introduce a matchmaker
program for the shelter. So some of our
kennel staff could be trained in uh
matchmaking. So, uh, families can make
appointments with them to kind of go
over their type of, you know, their
lifestyle, what they're looking for, and
then our kennel members, kennel staff
can kind of match them up with an animal
that they think fits their needs. But
right now, we just don't have the staff
to do that kind of stuff when we're
looking at our capacity for care and
they're putting so much time into just
cleaning and feeding and basic needs for
our animals. So, we are going to be
asking for a few new positions that
we'll go over.
Um and then another thing to consider is
the increases in the parah and the
benefits. So that's going to be the next
slide. So these numbers um were provided
to us by HR and the budget department.
So overall um the numbers that we're
going to present include a 4% wage
increase. Uh that's kind of to
um we're going with a 4% right now. We
don't know if it's going to be three or
4%. We're kind of following what the
city and county are going to do, which
we don't know at this moment, but that's
kind of a safe zone to keep us up to
date. So, we're not getting behind on
our raise
increases. And then our parah is
increased by
05%. Insurance is up by 12%. Uh our
vacant positions are budgeted at 50%. We
have been fully staffed thankfully. So
other than our um open veterinarian
position, most of our positions are
filled. Uh the vacant positions health
insurance is budgeted at the employee
plus one
rate. And these are our new positions
that we're going to be requesting.
So, we really could request probably 20
full-time positions and have something
for them to all do, but we want to be
realistic on what we're asking for um
considering all of the other needs
throughout the shelter. But, um we are
asking for three part-time caregivers.
Um the main objective really is going to
be to run our play groups. Um you know,
they could possibly help with the
matchmaker program should we get one of
those.
Um, so the play groups are run three
days throughout the week and right now
they're run fully by
volunteers. So if we get these new
positions, um, it would allow us to get
more play groups on throughout the week,
maybe five or six days throughout the
week. Um, and it really is more
beneficial for us to have three
part-time caregivers than maybe one
full-time. uh because these playgroups
require more than one person to be in
the yard at a time. Um we also have
other people bringing dogs in and out of
the yard. So really having more than one
person is more beneficial for us. So uh
that's why we're asking for three
part-time
caregivers. And so now we'll get into uh
some of the numbers. This is a general
an overall view of all of um our funds
combined. So if we go down to the salary
and wages um we can see that's up by
12.9%. This does include the new
positions um that we're asking for. This
also includes an increase for our
veterinarian position. Um we're boosting
that up by I believe 14,000 17,000 in
order for us to attract more applicants.
Um and then this also includes the 4%
wage increase for all of the employees
just across the board. Uh benefits and
deductions. So these numbers again are
provided to us from the HR's department.
Um those are increased by 20.2
overall. Temp agencies, uh those will be
going away since we did hire a staffing
specialist last year. So she's been
doing a really great job on keeping us
fully staffed. As soon as a position
opens up, we fill it pretty quickly. So,
we no longer have a need for the temp
agencies. Repairs and maintenance. Um,
this one is down a little bit. So, this
includes um all repairs for the entire
shelter along with vehicle repairs. In
the past, we have used a lot of these
funds for um one of our rescue vans
always had breakdowns. So, right now
it's not operational. So, um we will be
asking for replacement funds for to get
a new van. Uh services and supplies. So,
the new way of doing the budget this
year, the base budget method has allowed
us to kind of move some of our funds
from services and supplies into our
admin fund where they fit more
appropriately. So really the admin fund
uh kind of absorbed some of the services
and supplies from the other three and um
we can kind of get into that in just a
moment. Travel, this is one of the big
areas where we're asking for an
increase. So um we're asking for an
additional
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$12,543 for travel. This is not just
travel for personnel. So this is um also
includes our rescue and relocation
program. So, if you remember back in
February when I was presenting the um
2024 yearly stats, rescue was our number
one life outcome. So, we want to be able
to increase those funds in order for us
to get animals out to different states
and continue doing that work um to save
more lives. Um and it does include a
little bit of increase for our personnel
to travel and go to different
conferences. This will be um explained a
little bit more towards the end of the
presentation. We have a slide um that we
can get more into details
about. And then our insurance that has
gone down thankfully by 26%. Um and the
that includes um liability insurance,
unemployment, and workers comp. So the
reason for that um reduction is that we
were just able to decrease our premiums
by going with a different insurance
agency.
Um the other is not up by very much at
all,
only.3. That's going to include
licenses, permits, and
certifications. And then the capital, um
we had
uh
136,154. Um those were funds that rolled
over from two Petco grants that we had.
uh we have used most of those funds now
and the rest of those are earmarked for
a few more projects that we have coming
up. So we don't foresee any of these
funds rolling over to
FY26. But we are asking for additional
uh,445 in order to cover the replacement
of our transport van. And that is in one
of our highlight slides that we'll get
to in just a moment. So an overall
increase that we're asking for again is
10.2%.
2%. So, now we'll get into some of our
uh one of our funds. Uh the first one is
the executive director fund. Um salary,
wages, and benefits. Those we kept the
same because we're not sure what our new
executive director will be hired on at
um or you know, at what rate. So, we
kind of just felt safe to just leave
that as is for now. Um services. So, um,
we are, this is really to cover
memberships and dues. Our previous
executive director, Clint Decker, he
had, um, renewed a lot of his
memberships and dues before he left, and
those will carry over, um, into
FY26. However, we did want to allow for
a few more funds for our new executive
director um, to maybe incorporate some
of their own ideas and suggestions for
their own membership. So, we are asking
for an additional $450 um in that fund.
Supplies. Uh this is one of the areas
that we um moved some of these supplies
over to our admin fund um where they
kind of fit better because they really a
lot of it was a lot of operational
things. Uh we are keeping $1,700 in this
fund. Uh $200 is for um what the city
suggests that you um account for for
each employee for supplies. So, it's
$200 per person. And then the other
1,500 is to cover food and beverages for
our um special events like our off-site
vaccination clinics that we're having
three times per year. Um you know, we
have to feed all of our employees and
volunteers. So, um the rest of that
money um is what covers that. So, we're
asking for um 1,700 to be kept in that
line. Travel. Uh this is um there wasn't
a huge budget in our executive director
for uh fund for travel. So it was only
at
14.88. And again if you consider we're
getting a new executive director, we
want to allow them funds to kind of um
incorporate their own ideas, attend
their own workshops, things like that.
So we are asking for more travel funds
this year.
And the other that's down by $200. The
other other just covers licenses and
permits and the capital uh this is where
I mentioned the Petco love grants are.
So we had two Petco love grants that
rolled over. Um to date um we've used
all most of that. I'm sorry. We've used
$72,000 of that and we have 63,000 left
and that is earmarked for a few things
um that we have in mind. One of them is
to uh wrap some of our vehicles. Our new
adoption trailer needs to be wrapped
with our logo and things like that. And
then um we are looking to use some of
these funds to build our new uh to fund
our new field trip
program as well as tops for our kennels.
So, our new adoption building, although
it's great, the outside areas didn't
come with covered tops. So, they're
chain link and we have had instances
where dogs can climb out and escape
overnight. So, we're using the majority
of the rest of the grant funds to
um get kennel tops for those so we don't
have that issue.
So this fund overall is down uh
39.7%. And now we get into our medical.
So salary and wages, this is up
14.4%. So although there's no new
positions in this fund, um this is where
we account for the raise that we are
giving um on our vacant um position for
a veterinarian. Uh the current listing
is 120,000 and we want to bring that up
to
137,000. Um that's more on par for what
the county hired their vet at which I
believe was 140. So we're just going a
little bit below that to try and attract
new applicants. Um and then again that
includes the 4% raise for um the rest of
the
employees. Benefits um is up
13.6%. the services. Um so this includes
um any all professional services from
things like um IDEX data
um health certificates that we need in
order for animals to cross over state
lines um support for our anesthesia
machine. So uh those are up just a
little bit 1.8%
8% and our supplies.
Um, this is where we calculate again
$200 per employee. The medical fund has
12 staff members. So that's
$2,400. And then supplies also includes
things like uniforms, um, minor
equipment, medical supplies, all of our
vaccines, and things like that. Um, we
also have blanket POS with Patterson Vet
Supply and Medline Industries. So, all
of that's covered in this line
item. Travel. Um, we had a budget of
$10,000 and we are asking for just a
little bit more um for when you take
into account we might be hiring a new
veterinarian. So, that's one more person
on our medical staff that may need to
travel to different conferences to gain
that experience.
Uh the other so we had historically
$4,000 in this account. Um this covers
things like license permits and
certifications. We haven't uh used most
of those funds in the last few years. I
think we were only using about 33% of
those. So we kind of brought that down
to see, you know, what certifications we
really need. So that's down 76%. we're
only keeping uh $960 in that account in
that fund. So overall, there's an
increase of 11% in our uh medical
director
fund. And then our kennel, this is where
the majority of our staff are. So, uh
salary and wages is up 18.9%. And again,
that's including the three new positions
and the 4% wage increase for all of the
employees. Uh benefits and deductions up
21.1%. Maintenance and repairs, this
one's going to be down a little bit. Um
we may not be needing to repair our van
that's obviously not in working
condition anymore. And then the temp
agencies, that's going away. Services is
remaining the same at about
$5,000. the supplies has increased uh
16.8%. Um there are 32 kennel staff on
uh in this fund. So that's um taking
into account the $200 per employee,
that's
$6,400. Um but this includes all of our
pet food. So all the food that we
purchase to feed, you know, 10,000
animals throughout the year um comes out
of this
fund. Uh travel. Uh so this is where we
see our uh rescue and transport come out
of. So this travel fund um of 21 uh
21,500 that included all of our
transports and rescues. So we are asking
for an increase of
5,862 which equates to
27.3%. And again we'll kind of go over
all of that in a little bit more details
towards the end.
other um that one's down by a little
bit. That covers our euthanasia
certifications and our PACFA license um
which is a license required in order for
us to transport animals into
Colorado. And then our capital, this is
where we are asking for the replacement
funds for our new transport van. So we
do have a slide on that as well, but the
total is five uh
56,445. So, the kennel fund sees an
increase of
21.3%
overall. And then our last fund here is
our admin op operations fund. So, this
one kind of absorbs some of the um funds
from the other three salary and wages.
Um that's up for 4.2% to account for the
uh wage increase. And then if you look
at the uh benefits, that one seems a
little high at
29.3. Um we did double check these
numbers and they were provided to us
from HR. So um they do seem correct when
you account for um the 4% increase, the
increase in insurance. Um there's a few
reasons why it might be higher than the
others. Some of the reasons might be um
you know maybe our vacant positions
um that we had before or possibly I know
we had one of our employees move from
part-time to full-time. Um the benefits
um family size could have changed. So
there's a few different factors why that
could be up. Services and supplies. So
uh services in this category
um include things like software
licensing and banking fees. Um, this is
where we moved some of the other line
items into just to kind of better align
because they fit under the overall admin
operations. Um, the supplies. Um,
there's 20 staff members in the admin
fund. So, accounting for the $200 per
staff member, that's $4,000. Um, that
includes our front office staff and that
includes things like u desktop hardware,
building rentals. Um we do pay for the
rental of the field of dreams when we
are doing our vaccination clinics. Um
cleaning services and pest control
contracts. So those all fall under that
category. And then our insurance again
that one is
down. Travel, we we have never had a
travel fund for in our admin uh
operations fund. So, we are asking for
uh
$2,97 for travel. So, again, this this
fund includes our front office staff.
So, a lot of these staff can benefit
greatly from training um trainings
related to community engagement,
adoption events, adoption counseling,
um anything that can help them better
work with our community members. they
have traveled to in the past to
conferences. Um, and since there was no
budget in this fund, we've had to pull
that from other areas or charge it to
other areas. So, we'd really want to see
more funds in order for um some of our
admin staff to attend some of these
conferences and workshops. Um this also
might include um our um staffing
specialist um you know attending
staffing and hiring training and um
getting better information about staff
retention and things like
that. Other is going to be uh we moved
these funds from other. So $1,000 of
that I believe was for the building
rental of the field of dreams. So that's
been moved into the supplies area and
then $200 of that was for licensing that
was moved into our medical
fund. So we see an overall increase um
in this fund of
7.5%. So that brings us to our city and
county contributions. So in FY25 um our
total revenues uh operating revenues was
uh 300 is we predict will be 30063,558
um with the contributions from the city
and the county at
2,220,136. So, in order for us to make
this budget work, we are asking from an
for an increase from um each the city
and the county of $314,674
um that'll help us meet uh this proposed
budget. There are some other options
that um the board may consider um as far
as uh maybe pulling funds from our
general fund. Um, so that's something
maybe you guys might want to think about
as an option. I don't know if we've ever
historically done that, but it is an
option if you choose
that. So, uh, where our money comes
from. This slide just shows um, where
it's coming from, a little bit more of a
breakdown for FY25. You've got the first
two um big contributors there at the top
and then the rest are the revenue we get
from shelter operations, things like
adoptions, microchipping, spayneuter
revenue. Um that includes um community
cats, uh low-inccome spayneuter
services, shelter services, um might
include things like owner surrender
fees, euthanasia fees. Um if you go down
to Anthony Sunland Park and Hatch,
that's what we um collect from each of
those uh for the number of intakes that
they bring in. Uh so if you go over to
FY26, that shows the breakdown with the
um increase from each the city and the
county and then the historical uh
budget. So, this is kind of helpful to
see where we're at as far as what we've
done for the past budgets. Um, going
back to FY23,
um, the budget was
8,800
3,870,523. So, um, from FY23 to 24, we
saw a
17.1% increase. So, it's a pretty big
jump. And then from FY24 to FY25, we saw
an 8.8% increase. Um, so this year we're
asking for a
10.1% increase. So we think that kind of
aligns with um a historical increases
and it allows us to improve uh the
health and well-being of the animals in
our
care. And then some of our budget
highlights. So, um, I'd like to invite
Amy Trant up, our management anal
analysis analyst to, um, kind of go over
some of our highlights. She's done a lot
of research, spent a lot of time, um,
looking into all of these things. So,
um, she can kind of give you a better
idea of what we're asking for and why.
Thank you.
Just enter.
Good morning, madame chair, uh, board
members. My name is Amy Trant. I'm the
management analyst of the my animal
shelter as Liz said and um I'm going to
be presenting some of the highlights to
you. So the first thing we're asking for
is a minor equipment acquisition for new
revenue generation. This is going to be
an increase of
3,499 to make this purchase. It will pay
for itself. We believe that we'll have
uh six-month return on the initial
investment. How we calculated that is um
we have about
1,981 adoptions every month. So that
could automatically be somewhere where
we ask folks when we give them their
adoption packet with a little food and
toys and stuff like that. We can say you
can also have a personalized
uh tag engraved. And so we can offer
that to them. Um we can uh ask them for
a minimum donation of $4. And it's quite
surprising sometimes that people will
say, "Well, we'll give you 10 or five or
20." So a minimum donation of $4 we
believe would be able to generate about
$6,160 per year uh additional revenue.
This is going to be in in-house and
offsite. So, we will ad we will have the
machine in-house and we will offer it to
everyone who comes to the shelter, but
we can also take specialized forms that
we create out to the farmers market to
Petco and Pets Smart and other off-site
adoption events where they can fill out
the information for personalized tag and
give us the money there. And then we
have given them an option of coming into
the shelter and retrieving the tag which
will bring people into the shelter or
they can have us mail it to them in
which we can add different types of
materials for the shelter and for events
and um get more information out to the
community that way as well. And this
will also help us to expand our services
to the community.
The second item is for transport and
rescue improvement. Uh this is a rolling
equipment acquisition of
$50,000 with a depreciation annually of
$3,800. Uh as Liz had mentioned. The
current transport van that we have is
decommissioned. It broke down a couple
of times on the road.
uh once on a trip to Arizona for
transport and rescue, once up to
Colorado. So, it
incurred such expenses as putting those
folks up in hotels, um getting a rental
car so that they could drive back to Los
Cusus, and then once the van was
repaired, we had to pay for airfare to
fly them back to pick up the van. So,
this one van cost over $15,000 in
repairs, and we reached out to um City
of Las Cru's fleet and said, "This is
what's happening with this van. What can
we do about it?" And they did tell us
about a policy where it's a one-time
repair policy where it is no
longer feasible or financially
um feasible to continuously repair an
item that's going to continuously be out
of commission. So under that policy,
they said that we could possibly ask for
the funds to get a new transport van. We
would like to save as much money as we
can on this. Just
repurposing the containers that are in
there currently will save us about
$50,000. And what we'll do is our
maintenance facility folks will take out
the other the the old containers and if
we can get a similar van with the same
configuration, we can just take those
out and put those into the new van and
it'll save us a lot of money. Um, the
only thing we'll have to pay for is some
labor for HVAC, which is going to be
about
$1,200 because the containers are
controlled heat and cooling for the
animals during transport. But the rest
of it we think we can do inhouse on our
own. The second thing is um moving on to
playyard improvements.
um when they built the playyards,
because we live in the desert, there
wasn't a whole lot of consideration
about how much rainwater we would
obtain. So, as you can see in these
photos, there's quite a bit of flooding
that goes across all three playyards.
And we worked with city engineers on
different types of resolutions. And they
said, well, because of a playyard where
animals defecate, um the rain water
cannot be run off into the desert. So it
has to be seeped into as standing. So
that means we have to dig huge ditches
in there and then layer it specifically
with gravel and then bigger river rock
and then bigger boulders on top of that.
So uh our facilities manager did the
first playyard with volunteers and staff
that came out on their own time, dug all
this stuff up and actually filled in the
the craters and got that first playyard
operational. But an itemized list that
he presented to me, it's going to take
about
$4,695 additional for supplies for the
mini backhoe rental. And then we once
again will do all the labor
inhouse and get all three of these
playyards
operational. Um, professional
development.
We keep talking about how we're fully
staffed and and and we are and um what
we want to do is institute a robust in
training or in-house training program.
So what we're thinking of is instead of
sending four people, one from each fund
uh out to the same event, the New Mexico
animal welfare best friends or any of
those con conventions will send one or
two from each of the funds, one from
kennel, one from medical. They'll come
back with all the materials and then
develop subtype of in-house training
with that material program material and
then we can train the other folks.
Another thing we're going to move to is
more online conferences, online
workshops, and online um certification
programs that have credible
certification programs. Something that
our staff can use so they can become uh
certified in in TNR workshops and uh
community cats program that we have.
They can surrender prevention. That's
one of those reasons why we're asking
for admin to have their own travel funds
now because they're our first line when
people come into the lobby. Um, and they
can work with the community members who
are coming in to surrender their
animals. If we have some certified
surrender prevention folks on staff, we
can possibly stop some of those
surreners from happening. So, um,
another thing is to prepare for the
medical facility expansion. There's a
couple of, uh, highly regarded medical
conferences, uh, out east that
specifically talk to shelter medicine,
shelter procedures. My our, um, medical
uh, director wants to put more dental
services for the community. This
conference right here actually shows a
lot of those different procedures and
they have panel discussions and special
workshops where she can attend and
network and get that type of support to
ramp up those types of
services. So this is what the
professional development and our
transport will cost. So you can see on
the bottom line there that's the
transport transport and rescue. Uh
that's the 19,000. We're asking for
22,000 for a $3,000 increase. And that's
for like almost 25% of how we uh of our
outcomes for the
shelter. Uh the other items Liz had gone
over the numbers. I just wanted to put
them side by side. This is for travel.
This is for registration for online
conferences and workshops. And it's also
for the registration for on the road
conferences and workshops. So the total
would be
12,543 for all four funds plus the
transport
program. Um operations improvement,
we're asking for a major equipment
acquisition of
5,795. Depreciation calculation would
get 599 annually.
Uh the reason for this is if you see the
first photo with our control officer,
you can see the
load base for this is at four
feet. How our euthanasia disposal
process works is we take the animal
carcasses from the freezers. We put them
onto rolling carts and then the rolling
carts go out
to the pickup truck and then they are
loaded from the pick from the cart to
the pickup truck. So if you're talking
St. Bernard's, you're talking shepherds,
you're talking huge animals, we just had
the one facility manager that was
hauling all the
disposals and he really ruptured his
shoulder pretty bad. So that was medical
costs, that was time off work, that was
physical therapy. And now he is unable
to do
this work using the the pickup truck.
And it's a three-man operation now. So
he oversees, two people come out, and
they do a twoman lift up into from the
cart up into the pickup truck. So, if we
have a two-foot load level on a carry-on
trailer, then it's just from the cart
dragging it down into the cart. So, we
can go back to one person having to do
it. It's more efficient, um, less time
consuming, and we will alleviate
hopefully any issues of injury to the
staff that have to perform this process.
Madam Chair,
yes, please. Commissioner Sanchez. Thank
you. Just a quick question and I and I I
apologize for you know I think the
question regarding the finances and I I
know this is pretty negligible but in
terms of what is considered a capital
expense versus just supplies. I I look
at this and I'm wondering where we put
the depreciation. Is there any reason
why for a
$5,000
uh purchase that we're having to
depreciate this or take it on
depreciation? Well, uh, this would be
it's a major equipment acquisition, but
it will be a capital. Okay. Uh, piece.
So, there will be a depreciation to it
if I if that's, you know, how we want to
calculate it out. But it will No
problem. And I think my the only reason
I ask is because I when I see the the
depreciation comment on there, I I I'm
not I'm not against this at all. I I
agree. I think especially from a safety
perspective when you talk on uh you know
having having injuries and and finding
ways we can make things safer and uh for
for the teams whether that's ASMV or any
of the ACOs that interact with with with
uh the shelter. Um, I I'm all for I that
I would just want kind of curious
because it seemed like such a small
purchase in the grand scheme of things.
When I think of capital expenses, the
kennel uh fund will absorb this. So,
it'll be the kennel uh capital will
actually be the $50,000 van plus this
575. So, when you look at the two of
them together, um I guess I was just
trying to lessen the the blow. No
problem. Okay. Thank you. That's Thank
you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Okay. And
also, it's a sanitary re sanitary
reasons as well because we use this
truck for other things. When we do our
our um community vaccination clinic, we
load up the big igloo coolers and things
like that. And that's what this truck
hauls around sometimes. So if we could
just separate out the dis animal
disposal from this other
uh vehicle, it would really help. And
Madam Chair, just curious and I I know
this is a site maybe discussion in the
future, but if we're looking I I think
this brings to mind and I think I always
I I don't ever ask this, but I think
when we think of safety, is there any
other items that like I said these to me
are like small dollar things that we
could look at in the future. Are there
any other suggestions that that maybe
staff or you know if there are
suggestions I'm not saying that there if
if it doesn't exist great but if there
are opportunities for us to look at
small things that
make the the staff's life safer better
productive I'd be curious to to maybe
have some discussions in the future to
see because they said I I I would have
never they said we people do their their
day-to-day activities so much and then
until somebody gets hurt and then we're
we're looking at it. But if there's an
opportunity for us to maybe think about
that in the future and I think, you
know, I I think me even just me as in in
the county and all the operations we
have, I think that's something that I I
need to be asking our teams as well. So
I sorry I I know I'm stuck on this
because it's just such a small thing,
but it it it but it's a big but it's a
big thing, too, for for keeping our
people safe. So thank you. And Liz, I I
I don't mean to put you on the spot, but
just maybe in the future if there's
opportunities to maybe look at, I I'd be
curious to see if there are other
suggestions um improvements.
The shelter has instituted safety
protocols, especially in the kennel area
based on some of the kennel staff that
they they need to go into a kennel with
three or four dogs and you know, and
those are things that we teach also our
volunteers that come in those safety
protocols. So that that is very dynamic
and it is always happening. So
and thank you for for allowing me to
take us off onto a little tangent, but I
I appreciate the answers and the
discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. No,
thank you. I appreciate it because I
will add while we're on this topic, I I
support fully, yeah, let's please have a
discussion about other, you know,
potential safety hazards, but then just
also quality of life issues for the
staff because having been someone um who
worked at a place that had that one
vehicle that always broke down and you
were always like, "Please let me not be
assigned to that vehicle." like I know
that so deeply or where you're like come
on let's make it to Colorado that's
that's something yeah so safety but also
what I'll just yeah call quality of life
issues for the staff please like let us
know and thank you commissioner Sanchez
for taking us on that
tangent so today we're asking um the
council to review the information that
we have presented Ed and possible votes
today. Yes to approve, no to deny, a
vote to amend, and also a vote to table.
Thank you, Amy.
So, is there any questions or comments?
Um, yeah, please. I want to thank uh
Bernice and Amy just for putting all
this together. They did a lot of work
and research into all of this. I'm just
presenting it. So, so thank you, board
member Gates.
Um, so I just had a question regarding
the new um the three new part-time
positions. How are you going to
distinguish since they all kind of have
the same title? How are you going to
distinguish within that department that
there's going to be dedicated, you know,
people to enrichment or like how are the
duties going to be divided in a way so
they don't just end up being actual
kennel techs? Yeah. So um right now
being fully staffed um you know we are
able to provide the just the basic care
for each animal. So these ones we can
kind of uh the new positions we can kind
of think of as being a little bit extra
with a focus on enrichment. So um we do
have a behavior consultant on staff and
she has a lot of these enrichment
programs already. Um the problem is we
kind of rely on volunteers to do all
these programs and it's not being done
consistently. So we would assign these
new positions to do some of those things
um in addition to maybe doing some
kennel uh care as well.
Other questions, comments, thoughts?
Commissioner Sanchez. Thank you. Um when
we look at the the new van that we're
trying to plan on, is there been any
discussion at all uh or possibility
feasibility I guess more than anything
of possibly looking at rather than just
using a regular
uh van to maybe looking at using an EV
transit van? Um, we did do some research
in. Um, the problem is, um, there's not
a whole lot of huge,
uh, vans out there that we that fit this
bill. Um, these are built-in kennels
specifically for transport. So, they
have, um, ventilation, they have drains.
If we're going to use the same kennels
from our old van, which would save us
about $50,000 if we can, we really have
to look at getting another Ford Transit
in order to make that configuration
work. Um, I don't know if they make an
EV in that type of van. Um, I know that
they discontinued the diesel model,
which is the model we have that is
causing us all of these problems. Um,
like Madam Chair said, I was one of the
um, people driving in one of these
breakdowns. I had to spend five days in
Colorado when I thought it was just
going to be like an overnight trip. So,
yeah, the problem is um you know, just
the diesel model in that uh Ford van.
So, Ford might make an EV model that we
can look into. Um I know that Amy uh T
went to go uh talk to some of the local
dealerships as well here to see if maybe
they can do some inind donations for us
or try to give us get us a discount on
the type of van that we're looking at.
Okay. Thank you. And I and I appreciate
the idea to of of utilizing the in the
inside so to save us a significant
amount of money. Um I I will say that e
that that the Ford Transit does have an
EV model. Um I don't know if it means
it's still compatible with the existing
equipment. Um but I know as as the
county we've purchased several uh Ford
Transit uh EVs uh one that we've also
leased out to uh Kasa Peragino. So, um I
and but but also I think the idea that
if there is an opportunity for an inind
contribution or donation from a local
business, even better. I I don't think I
just was curious if we had looked at
that. Um I I will I just want to say I
appreciate this this budget
presentation. I think in the it's it's
it's thorough um very detailed and
appreciated the time to put into
discussing all of the you know I think I
I' I've written down kind of all the
notes the breakdown of what's increasing
why it's increasing and
um thank you I I appreciate it because
it made it made it significantly easier
to follow understand and and take it
from from the beginning to the request.
Um I I will just say this. I I do have
reservations in terms of the budget. I
know overall um you know we're only
talking
$300,000 from the county perspective,
but I also know that um we are looking
at you know while we're trying to I
think I'm I'm thinking we're at the
county level we're also going to have
some significant increases increases in
in our budget but are constrained by the
amount of revenues that have increased
this year which has not been as high as
it has been in the past. Um, so I I I
will probably have reservations when I
vote yes because I don't know how
that'll fully um fit into on the county
side of things. But um I I think I like
I said every one of the asks seems
um reasonable in the request. So but
thank you so much for that. Thank you
for that. And um yeah, again thank you
to um Amy Trant and Bernice. Um Amy
worked really hard to justify each one
of these asks. I think there was um 90
documents attached to this budget that
just justified every little thing.
Other
questions? Board member Peek, nice job,
Liz. Thank you very much. Amy, Bernice,
great job. Vanessa, good job on the
overall. Um would you touch a little bit
about since I'm on the finance committee
I know this so it's a loaded question
but I think it needs um this you know
when you looked at these numbers the
city did back off their physical agent
fee is that correct I'm sorry can you
repeat that the city backed off their
physical agent fee in this when you were
doing the budget it was originally over
four $450,000
yes um it had actually doubled I believe
from FY25 so that was um this
presentation did change a lot when we
were thinking thinking about that. Um we
didn't have a lot of these requests in
to account for that. Um and that was one
of the options we were going to consider
um asking to be reduced. Um but that did
get reduced um on its own. So it is I
think uh the same as from FY25 which was
around 200,000 I believe.
And and
Liz, you're looking at a 12% increase to
health insurance for 65 employees. Is
that right?
Um, let me just double check.
Trust me, you are. Yes.
Plus a half a percent in your pair of
increases. So, the overall increase to
benefits is impacting this as well. So,
I really think that you've done a good
job. I guess my only concern is a I
think in the future you need to do a
thorough look at your capital or to your
to your fleet. make sure it's maintained
because that'll keep your I think your
depreciation is probably too low and
that you're extending the life of this
equipment too long and you need to put
on a rotation. So, I'd like to see that
number increase a little bit in the
future. I'm not talking about changing
it today, but let's get some realistic
numbers. And
then I know based on some emails that
there is a fund balance that's out
there. you're carrying a little bit of a
fund balance and I in I'd like to
know in the future not I'm not going to
put you on the spot but I'd like to have
a plan for that either we spend it down
or it's used for new equipment or
something because we can't I mean keep
coming back to the city and the county
and just you know bumping the number up
every time it it hits everywhere. So, I
think developing a plan, capital
replacement plan would be smart. Um, so
we don't have the the diesel van
breakdowns and leave you stranded in
Colorado even though I was just there.
So, anyway, those are my thoughts, Madam
Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Any
others? Exopicio member Ben Como.
Uh, thank you, Madam Chair, board. uh
regarding the available fund balance. Um
so there have been discussions in the
past with the board as to whether the
animal service center should um carry a
fund balance or what amount it should be
because the primary supporting entities,
the city and the county are required um
to to have a one 12th uh fund balance
for example, but there's not that
requirement for the animal service
center. So, uh, we did have a a a brief
email exchange about this after the
presentation yesterday because I do know
that some other JPAs when they have
requested in increases to their budgets
have taken it from their fund balance.
Currently, the projected fund balance um
for the animal service center is at
688,000 by the end of the fiscal year.
most recent financials right now show it
at just over $900,000, but we of course
anticipate um some uses of funds uh
through through the year. But in any
case, I'm not advocating for the um
entirety of that fund balance to be used
for the potential uh increase that we're
seeing here.
However, I do think that is prudent to
consider a portion uh of the fund
balance to be utilized for this purpose.
And um I I think from a financial
standpoint it makes sense. Um again, it
it could be anywhere from $2 to
$300,000. That would still leave almost
$400,000 in the fund balance. And then I
agree that there would it would be a
good idea to discuss this further with
respect to the amounts uh that should be
kept there or what they should be spent
for. Effectively, when you're looking at
a fund balance, um we're saying that we
we budgeted for a certain amount. We
didn't spend that amount. It goes to
fund balance at the end of the year. So,
and not that I'm saying that this could
happen, but you don't want to give an
incentive for someone to overbudget and
then to build up that fund balance for
other purposes. We want to be very
intentional about what we're spending
for. Do we need to purchase more fleet?
You know, are there safety concerns? We
want to be able to to utilize our funds
to the best ability. And so, um,
philosophically, that may mean that, uh,
the amount of fund balance that is
maintained by the animal service center,
you know, not be, uh, beyond a certain
amount because that's what it's really
reflecting, sort of a a disconnect from
the budget to the to the actuals. So,
thank you. Great. Thank you so much.
Board member Peek, just forformational
purposes, I just ran a quick number
calculation. It's a one2th reserve would
be about
$450,000. And so that would leave about
$200,000 as
u ex official member Bencom just said um
that we could potentially trim back on
the allocation from the county
and the city.
Thank you for
that. Anyone
else? Well, I just want to uh Oh, were
you Go for it out loud. I'm thinking in
my head before I say it out loud.
What's the verdict? Do it. Do it. Do it.
Um, no, just a question about that, too,
because the city and the county already
allocate 112th of our budget in
reserves. that would make up the 112th
for animal services and any other JPA
that we already have. So technically the
county and the city already allocate
that reserve. So there's no reason why
we would have to ever apply the 112th to
a JPA
because we it's a joint venture that we
already allocate that. So why duplicate
the 112th city, county, and animal
services?
So, we do need to figure out a plan of
what we're going to do with that because
I mean I
Oh my god. Oh my god. You It was not
Let the record state that Vice Chair Sha
Hernandez did not break the mic today.
He fixed it.
Um, but I do agree. I think we do need
to come up with a plan. I know that we
had several discussions
um last year when Clint was executive
director about doing like a capital
improvement plan.
Um, I don't think you have to do that
right now, Liz. I know that is a heavy
lift, but that is something that when
this board kind of moves to hire a new
executive director that we have to start
having that conversation about because
it is a sparkly new building and we are
doing fixes and Amy, thank you for
putting that on there about what fixes
are being done, you know, when it comes
to the playyards and all that kind of
stuff. That's really great information.
Um, but something that I would like to
see, not today by any means, but in the
future is is okay, this year we spent
$50,000 on those critical upgrades to
keep the animal services new building
new, you know, and kind of understanding
exactly how much money we are dumping
into that um for things like the
playyards, the fencing, all that stuff.
So, I do agree that we do need to come
up with a capital improvement plan to
keep that building as an asset, not as a
constant headache. Um, but yeah, the
112th thing, we're already doing that
from the county and the city already.
So, I don't think necessarily we need to
duplicate that. Um, because that's just
wasting money. It's just keeping money
in account.
Um, so not your job by any means, but
when we start looking at that new
executive director job, I think that
needs to be one of the big questions
maybe on our interviews that we ask is
like, how do you how do you see capital
investment into the animal services
center? So, just a thought. I did all
that in my head prior to saying it out
loud, too, by the way. That's
impressive, Commissioner Sanchez. Thank
you, Madam Chair. Ju just for the I I I
believe and um that I I can't remember
if it was in the last year or two that
we actually did remove the the res the
previous resolution that required the
ASMV to have that 1112th reserve. Was it
two years ago? I I know it all blurs
together. The propos Oh, it was
proposed. Okay. So, and I know that that
was that was part of the discussion was
is there a requirement or not? But I do
like the idea that you know if if if we
want to even if we don't approve it
understanding what that minimum level is
I think is as as uh board member Pek has
has noted you know if it is like a 112th
you know if that's kind of the even
though it's not officially there if we
set that and then allow us to maybe come
up with a plan for um capital investment
or such I I'd love to figure out you
know where where it makes sense as the
board how do we how do we you knowffect
effectively use our our budget for the
the the center. And I think as as the
vice chair noted, um, with the
new the the investment with the new
building and such, obviously, we're
going to have some of those those
maintenance items that come in, but how
do we continually find ways to to grow
and improve? And so I I'd love the I
love the the tenor of the discussion
that we're having. So, thank you, Madam
Chair.
Exicial member Beno. Uh thank you madam
chair and board. Um yes I the I do
remember that there was a proposed
resolution with lots of discussion about
that w with respect to the um fund
balance for the animal service center. I
would like to clarify that today the
action that you're going to take is to
either approve or not approve the
recommended budget. There are still um
uh more discussions to be had. We've, as
we've alluded to, the city and county
are both going through budget
development as well, so that we can also
determine our ability to to support the
changes and in what ways. And at that
point, there could be further
discussions with respect to the use of
the of the fund balance. But today with
respect to the request that's before
you, the the proposed increases, what
they're going towards, you know, that's
really what this board is is uh either
going to recommend or or not recommend.
So there could be some minor changes
coming down later, but just wanted to
clarify that action today. Oh, thank you
so much for that reminder that this is a
multi multi multi-step
process. Any other questions, comments?
Well, I'll just add my thanks for this
presentation and for doing a really good
job of kind of putting us in in the
situation in the place, you know, the
the playyards. Here's a photo of the
playyards, dogs poop in the playyards,
you know, things that things that we
don't often have to think about. And I
really appreciate the investment that
this shows in the people that we have
and that we are hoping to bring on. And
also a reminder um you know that there
are a lot of lives at the shelter, the
the employees, the animals. Um, I know
on Monday, uh, my colleague on city
council, councelor Mccclure, shared that
she just adopted a puppy from the
shelter and she said she had so many
kudos because they went five separate
times and did a sleepover. and she's
like, "Thank you so much for your
patience, but for making sure that this
was the this is the family member who is
going to fit in with a 15-year-old cat
and a couple of kids and her mom and you
know, all of that is just it's time and
it's investment and it's training and
it's um it's matchmaking just like you
said. So, um, thank you for the
thoughtful investment that this budget
reflects. And if no more comments, um,
let's go ahead and vote. Commissioner
Sanchez,
yes. Board member Gates, yes. Board
member Peek, yes. Vice Chair Shall
Hernandez, yes.
And I, Chair Graham, vote yes. So, thank
you so much. Oh, yay. Yay, Amy. Me, too.
Me, too.
Thank you.
All right. And I believe that finishes
us off. So, we are adjourned at 10:09
a.m. Thank you.