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[Music]
you're on
good morning everybody it's uh 9:00 a.m.
on Thursday January 16
2025 and uh thank you all for joining us
at this board of directors meeting for
the animal service center of the msia
valley uh meeting we have this morning
I'll uh start with the Pledge of
Allegiance so if you would rise if you
can and we'll say the Pledge of
Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all
okay all right then we'll move on to a
roll call all right we'll start with uh
ex member Ben
Koo
here uh board member Williams Pres board
member Gates here ex official member
Ward present board member Campbell here
board member P good morning here Vice
chair Graham good morning president all
right councelor corn here and
commissioner shz happy New Year here
happy New Year and uh chairman Sanchez I
am here so all right so we'll move on to
item number three which is the
acceptance of the agenda if I can get a
motion a second to approve the
agenda so moved second uh second Corin
thank you we have a motion in a
second um so with that I'll take can oh
sorry please can I propose that we move
um and I haven't brought my agenda the
action item about
electing uh
new new officers to the top of the
action items right yes sorry so yes
agenda item 8.3
uh that is for the approval or sorry the
the selection of a board new board chair
and vice chair as well as committee
assignments um if if we're if there's no
uh concern with that I'd like to move it
after our closed meeting statement uh
part of the reason is is I'd love to
hand over the Reigns to a new
chairperson I have a personal commitment
that I have to be at at 10 10: a.m. and
so if there's no objections to that from
the board I I move that we do that okay
sorry so we'll take that Mo that motion
uh so we'll move item 8.3
to uh P after item four and I'll take
and Mr uh board member Williams are you
okay with
that yes thank you
okay all right so then if I can I'll
take a roll call of the uh with with the
approval of the agenda as With The
Changes noted board M Williams
yes board member Gates yes right board
member Campbell yes board member peek
yes Vice chair Graham yes councelor cor
yes commissioner Shel NES yes uh and
then I vote Yes so our agenda is
approved thank you all all right agenda
item number four which is our closed
meeting statement um the board of
directors of the ascmv met in close
session on December 13th 201 24 here at
City Hall at 9:00 a.m. to discuss Li
mitted Personnel matters related to the
identification of an interm director for
the
ascmv the following member board members
were present at that time it was board
member Gates board member peek board
member Campbell councelor Corin
commissioner Shel geord nandez ex
official member Ward ex official member
bomo and myself uh commissioner Manu
Sanchez uh we were joined by Miss Liz
cely at 9 40 a.m. and the session was
concluded at 9:53
a.m. I don't know if there's any
questions on that
statement if not thank you all right
then we'll move on then agenda item
jumping back to agenda item 8.3 it's a
selection of the ascmv board chair and
vice chair and then committee
assignments so what I'll do is I'll
start with the board chair I'll ask for
nominations uh and then once the word's
closed we'll uh once the nominations are
closed we'll do a roll call to
select so okay I nominate Becky Graham
okay thank you we have a nomination for
councelor Graham any other
nominations all right hearing
none I will uh do a roll call then for
uh councelor gr as chairperson board
member Williams yes board member Gates
yes board member Campbell yes board
member pack
yes F
Graham yes councelor Corin yes
commissioner sh NES yes and I vote Yes
and
so counselor Graham yes yeah would you
love to give a speech thank you so
much so I I'd like to I'll ask if you
want I can I can do the do you want to
take over now or do you want to take
over after we complete this section or
when would you like to
I'll let you finish this out it can be
your swan song okay thank you all right
so then we'll move to nominations for uh
board Vice chair uh which would be from
the
county and so I will nominate
commissioner sh
nandz it's one of the
two or I don't know we can make the swan
song a year long Manny if you want to be
Vice
chair all right
but that's fine yes I'll accept thank
you all
right then I'll do a roll call for uh
commissioner Shelor nandz as Vice chair
board member uh Williams yes board
member Gates yes board member Campbell
yes board member peek yes chair Graham
yes councelor Corin yes commissioner
shanz yes and then commissioner sanches
I vote Yes so congratulations our second
all right all right thank you so much
should I start we'll need to committee
assignments oh is that sorry yeah that
was the last thing on this agenda item
so I know we have board members we have
uh three committee
assignments um the only one that uh I
know so the executive committee is
generally set with the uh chair Vice
chair and outgoing chair um
I the finance committee and Facilities
committee are available and I don't know
who would be I know that's normally
chaired by uh ex official member Ben KO
that that's uh chaired by the city of
Las Cruses um but I don't know board
members if you have any requests or on
which committee you would like to be
on I know you can either go down the
list or don't go down the day
or um I guess we can do that if that
works
I'd like to remain on facilities if I
may okay Mr chairman yes sir I'd suggest
that with unless there are objections we
just leave the Committees the way that
they are
okay okay then are there any objections
I just sorry again I think last year we
we said exactly what you're proposing Mr
Williams and then we weren't clear but
some of that means so for instance um
I I don't know if
functionally as an executive committee
member I was on the finance committee as
a function of being so then that would
suggest someone else should be on that
committee or not so that's I guess some
of that I'm not sure of um or I can I'm
happy to just stay on I'm happy with if
they stay exactly as they are except for
the executive committee but I just want
Clarity because I wasn't sure if I don't
think we have explicit sort of roles or
call outs on the Committees but um that
is something that we should figure out
when we redo our bylaws perhaps um if
they're like proportional but I just
want to clar get clarity it just means
exactly the same people not the same
titles on the board yeah okay just thank
you I understand okay so I guess for for
the record I don't know which board
members have been on and so I if you
don't mind me telling I what I'll do is
I'll read them off and then we'll
approve we'll we'll just have it for the
record if that's okay board member
Williams I I don't know which uh
committee you were on I'm on facilities
okay board member Gates I am on
facilities
okay and then board member Campbell is
on facilities board member
peek Finance Finance
okay and then uh CH gram you were well
I'll be shifting to EXA I guess I think
that's the only okay change
I was on fi I'm I'm on finance and I I'm
not on the executive committee anymore
okay and commissioner Shel on this were
you previously on finance or finance and
now exec
okay okay so what I have here now is uh
see uh board member Campbell Williams
and gates are on the facilities
committee for finance committee we have
board member peek councel Corin and vice
chair Shel Jor nandez and then for the
executive committee it'll be chair
Graham Vice chair Shel nandez and
commissioner Sanchez myself as the
outgoing
chair okay all right if I can get a
motion a second to approve those
assignments so moved all right we have a
motion by board member Williams second
second by Vice chair Shel right we'll
take a roll call Board member Williams
yes board member Gates yes board member
Campell yes board member peek yes chair
uh grah yes Council Court yes Vice chair
shelz yes and commissioner Sanchez I
vote Yes and so we have those thank you
so
much all right chair the floor is yours
thank you so much um moving on to item
5.1 approval of the minutes from the
regular ascmv board of directors meeting
held on October 24th
2024 I'm hoping folks have had a chance
to look through there but I will give
you a really quick scan if not and
please let me know if
you note any items that would need to be
edited move approval
second I have um an edit on not the
actual minutes but on the forms that
we're supposed to fill in I'm not
included and trust me I every day wonder
if I've been fired from this job but I
don't think I have been just yet so um I
I say that because it's on the two
minutes that we have I'm not included
but I am mentioned in the minutes so
that does make me think I was present
and at the board and still here as far
as I can tell so I don't think that's in
the actual um document it's sort of on
the formal documents that we file so
I'll be alone with my existential crisis
now thanks I can attest to the lack of
her name Schrodinger's board member here
is she here is she not we don't know
Madam chair I amend my motion to approve
to include uh everybody's name on the on
on the minutes thank
you I will also amend my
motion okay thank you so
much so I'll have roll call to approve
the minutes from the regular meeting of
October 24th 2024 uh with the inclusive
edits board member Williams yes board
member Gates yes board member Campbell
yes board member peek yes oh wait I
abstained I wasn't here okay
um councelor Corin yes I was
here Vice chair Shalo
Hernandez yes and I chair Graham vote
Yes motion passes I also vote Yes oh
God uh outgoing chair
Manuel Sanchez yes sorry I know I'm I'm
on on an island over here I I'm so sorry
okay see I see the uh councelor Corin I
mean we here not here know this is okay
so we're extra approved thank you so
much um next up 5.2 approval of the
meeting minutes from the special ascmv
board of directors meeting held on
December 133
2024 um same included in
packets anyone I move we
approve and
second she was
there thank you so much uh so we got a
motion by board member Campbell second
by board member pek and I'll call roll
board member Williams abstain I was not
here okay board member Gates yes board
member Campbell yes board member pek yes
councelor
Corin yes Vice chair Shalo Hernandez yes
commissioner Sanchez yes and I chair
Graham vote Yes motion
passes and then moving on to um item 6.1
city and county ACO reports so whoever
would like to be first thank you
there it
goes board chair members my name is
Brian Hy I'm the case worker for Don
County Animal Control here to present
the October through uh December 2024 uh
monthly
report for our reported stray animals we
had 834 rep reported stray animals we
had 411 stray animals picked up out of
those were 120 stray cats and 291 stray
dogs we had 46 sick or injured animals
we had 25 cats and 21 dogs and we had 40
owner surrender animals and they were
all
dogs this is our reported stray animal
call comparison for the uh four
years and this is our four-year uh field
return to owner
comparison uh for October we had 17 for
November we had 18 and December we had
15 and our grand total for the year was
254 uh filled return to
owners we have had for our additional
pickups we had zero um owner surrendered
cats we had 40 owner surrendered dogs 46
sick or injured animals we had 13
welfare holds um for those that are new
welfare holds are if um let's say a a
sheriff's unit or border patrol anybody
is arrested or anything like that um and
they have animals with them uh they call
us out and we go pick them up uh to do a
w welfare hold for them
um for neglect abuse cruelty cases uh we
had three cruelty cases throughout that
time uh we had 19 shelter quarantines we
had 12 home
quarantines um our courth hold
quarantines uh cases were uh just the
three cruelties that we
had um as of um the 13th of January we
have 17 live evidence uh animals being
being held in our facility some of those
are through um cases that are currently
being um in the process of going through
and then um a big chunk of those were
actually from our cruelty case we had a
mom and litter um that was involved in a
cruelty case um that we are currently um
trying to um go through that's also in
litigation we had one rabies submission
that was negative we had 40 diverted
intakes um diverted intakes are animals
that that um we ended up not having to
take to the
shelter uh for education for those 3
months we had 876 opportunities for
education and our total calls for those
three months was
1,929 um these are what we picked up
through each district so district one we
had zero cats and 15 dogs picked up in
District Two we had 26 cats and 34 dogs
in District three
we had 10 cats and 65 dogs in District 4
we had 39 cats and 53 dogs in District 5
we had 24 cats and 51 dogs and District
six two cats and 13 dogs and then
district 7 is 19 cats and 60
dogs uh this is our four-year um
Straight Cat picked up by District
comparison
um the biggest one for us was for um
December um in District 4 we had a lot
more cats than we were having um in
November and then our stray dogs picked
up and then our reasons for owner
surrenders we had three that were
involved and vicious and or dangerous we
had three for livestock attacks three
for aggressive uh Behavior
we had four that the owners weren't able
to keep on the property and they didn't
want to get citation so they just uh
owner surrendered the dogs we had three
that they weren't able to take care of
or were able to afford we had two that
were uh one was sick and then one was
old um and they wanted a euthanasia
request on it um we had one for
euthanasia we had tin um which I believe
was a litter that was exposed to
parvo we had a nine um that all came
from from the same house they were
getting evicted and they had nowhere to
take the dogs and then we had two for
behavior
issues and this is just a slide we added
at the end for the end of 2024 our total
straight calls was
3,75 our straight cats picked up was
548 our straight dogs picked up was
1,500 our field return to owners was 254
and our total calls of service was
8,639 and for that I'll stand for any
questions thank you so much board
members any
questions thank you
good morning Madam chair members of the
board for the record my name is Gino
henis I'm the animal control supervisor
for the city I will present to you our
last quarter of 2024 numbers um as
requested I kept this as a monthly
report however my December report will
give the year to date for uh 20124 so
for the month of October we we responded
to 403 calls for Strays 223 of those
were Goa meaning that the officer did
not have contact with that dog or that
cat 180 were
apprehended 142 were impounded at the
animal shelter 72 of those were dogs and
70 were cats we were successful in field
ring
38 uh dogs back to their owners out in
the field however we were unsuccessful
in field AR toing 21 of those uh those
were dogs or animals that had some sort
of identification however for some
reason they were not able to be returned
to the owner at that time giving us a
total of 59 identifiable animals for
that
month here is our chart for the
three-year um stray animal calls again
uh 403 giving us a total for that month
a running total of
4,296 calls for service this is also one
of our Peak Performance uh issues where
we are asking or we are attempting to
meet the goal of 65% of all stray
animals apprehended we were able to uh
achieve
59% here is our
three-year field RTO comparison again we
were able to uh field RTO 38 bringing us
to a total for that month to
43 uh our Peak Performance goal is to uh
field RTO 25% of all SEC cure animals uh
however that month we were only able to
do
18% here are the other two Peak
Performance reports uh number three is a
10% reduction in stray animal bites we
had a
5.5% decrease uh so that's why it's
marked in red because we still didn't
meet that goal uh we had 108 reported
stay bites for 2024 and
114 for the year 2023
and uh goal number four is a 10%
reduction in owner victim bites we had a
12% increase in that one um 101 for the
year running total for the year and 89
for the previous uh
2023 here is our stray uh Community C
program chart we responded to 55 cats
and traps however we were able to
release five if you look at the totals
that's
557 Straight Cat calls for the year uh
and 72 were
released here is a November um report
again 5 403 which is
coincidental uh we were able to uh I'm
sorry 228 of them were Goa we were able
to apprehend 175 173 were taken to the
shelter 86 were dogs 49 were cats we
were able to fill successfully fill our
to 40 animals and we were unsuccessful
in field R22 bring us to a total of 52
identifiable
animals here is the Stray chart for
November again 403 calls for service for
Strays bring us to a total of
4,699 for the year again Peak
Performance report 6 65% goal and we
were able to achieve 57% for that
month here is our three-year failed RTO
uh comparison 40 for the month of
November bringing us to a total of that
that time to 443 animals that were
successfully returned to their owners
our goal was 25% we were able to achieve
18% the other two Peak Performance
measures temp % reduction in St animal
bites again another 5% decrease um 121
of those uh reported stray bites
compared to
124 for the year
2023 and a 10% reduction in owner victim
bites we had a 14% increase in that one
um 108 owner victim bytes for this year
at at November I'm sorry and 93 further
Community cat program chart uh we
responded to 41 cats and traps however
we were able to release 11 of those 11
that were already had all the
requirements as a community cat uh to be
able to be released back to where it was
uh initially impounded bring us to a
total of
598 calls for service and 83 cats were
released and Fin finally here is uh
December which will also give us our
year to date or a total for
2024 we responded to
363 calls for service for straight calls
in uh December 191 of them were
Goa we were able to apprehend 169 of
those animals 120 went to the Animal
Services Center 79 were dogs and 41 were
cats we were successful in field ring 49
uh uh animals back to their owners in
the field and again those are animals
that never crossed the threshold of the
Animal Service Center uh we were
unsuccessful in 21 bring us to a total
of 70 identifiable animals for that
month here is our grand total for
December um and for the year to date so
for December we responded to 363 calls
for Strays bring us to a grand total for
the year
5,062
calls um again our Peak Performance goal
is
65% for that month we were able to
achieve
56.5% our three-year field RTO
comparison again 49 animals were
returned to their owners bringing us to
a grand total for the year of 492
animals again I've got to say this these
are animals that never cross the
threshold of the Animal Service Center
our goal is 25% of those animals to be
returned to their owners we were
successful in 19% of
that here the number three and number
four Peak Performance goals 10%
reduction in stray animal bites we had a
1.5% increase uh for the year 2024 we
responded to 134 stray animal
bites um in the year 2023 it was 132
hence a 1.5%
increase and then uh number four ATT 10%
reduction in owner victim
bites um however we went the other way
and had a 10.5% increase in owner victim
bites a total of 114 owner victim bites
for 204 2024 and 102 for 2023 Madam
chair yes board member Williams
Gino I really appreciate that you set
these goals for biting dogs but there's
no way to control that I mean I I I like
that you would like for those numbers to
go down
but I I just don't see a way for you for
you to do that because a dog is either
going to bite or it's not going to bite
it's not like your educational efforts
where you can control how many hours
you're going out into the community it's
not like your RTO where you're really
ramping up your efforts at both at the
city and county levels to uh to to to
get RTO numbers up and so I guess I'm
wondering Madam chair and Gino why are
we measuring this when it's completely
out of your control
thank Madam chair board
member and I agree completely with you
um especially with the owner Vic bites
there is absolutely no way that animal
control can can
um uh have any type of influence on that
if you know especially if you have dogs
that are resource protecting you know
food water toys bedding whatever in
their own house Animal Control isn't
going to be able to do a thing about
those however I you know we have to
stress that our
educational uh Outreach for the Stray
animal bites you know not approaching
being able to identify when an animal is
doesn't want to be touched and leave it
alone better yet call us we can take
care of that um and taking your input
into consideration we are talking about
revamping our goals so this is something
that came about about 9 years ago um we
sat down with some of the officers and
some of the other um department heads
and these These are the five or four
goals that we came up with at that time
we do understand that these may be dated
so therefore we're coming up with new
goals that are more obtainable for
us thank you very much Gino that's a
great explanation and i' look forward to
seeing what the new goal structure is
because this one just doesn't make any
sense to me I appreciate that thank you
thank
you I also have a comment real quick
please board member Gates um so it's
actually funny because our minds must
have been in the same place because I
was like these goals are great and I
appreciate that you have goals I think
that's really important important but I
do disagree I I agree that there is some
level of Outreach that can happen in
order for you to meet those goals and I
do think that there is a way to resolve
that and that is with education and
Outreach not just for stray animals I
think educating the community period is
what's needed in order to reach those
goals so I actually when you're you were
finished I was like in my brain I'm like
ready to go like okay well you know how
are you going to like let the community
know because it's the only way otherwise
you're just relying on like eh maybe
like you know chance will happen and I
can meet my goals so I think I don't
think the goals in in themselves are bad
I just think the way you need to improve
those percentages has to change because
you have to be in control of the
Improvement you can't just expect like
like I said just one day something to
click in somebody's head like oh I
should maybe train my dog or you know I
should maybe fix my fence things like
that so I think I don't think there's a
lot wrong with the goals I think we
should be tracking those in a lot of
ways but we should have a better idea of
how the those goals are going to change
and even if that's I mean that's a
relationship with the center you know
making sure that we can start building
more robust Outreach programs having you
know this connection with animal control
is really important so that we can work
together in the services we offer the
community that isn't just services in
the context of buying things from the
shelter but actually learning things
from the shelter so just wanted to
comment on that and you know I like I
said I love seeing percentages and goals
and numbers obviously so I do appreciate
that exist and it is awesome to hear too
that you're going to review them because
you think maybe these there's some
changes that need to be made so so thank
you for that absolutely thank you
ma'am yeah councelor Corin I just wanted
to add to this again thank you Gino and
thank you all for your inputs also just
as a functional matter um Peak
Performance measures are a requirement
of All City departments and so just so
you know this is part of a bigger like
kind of um City measuring thing and I
think I I don't I I don't want to say
that Gino is not an agent in that but
the city the city sort of imposed the
idea that we would have these types of
goals onto all the Departments and
that's partly why I think they exist as
they do and perhaps um are less mutable
like I there this is part of a bigger
system I think that just to give some
context to where where these come from
and why um why they've existed and why
they do exist and why it's part of the
report it's it's part of a bigger city
movement related to to analyzing
performance and understanding what
they're doing and and that that even
adds to sort of all that you all have
contributed but just so you know that's
partly why I don't want you know to get
too hard of a time because like that
this is a city related um measuring
process so thank you ma'am commissioner
Sanchez thank you madam chair I think
one of the things to to keep in mind and
if I as we talk through the the Peak
Performance and I think this is um it's
still relatively new with while the
city's been doing this rolling it out
and I think as they continue to gather
data I'd be kind of curious if if you
unless the the the metric changes in the
future I'd be curious to see if they'll
if we'll reach kind of a saturation
point or because I think is is as we
collect data as people start to
recognize that or as we get better about
getting that information you tend to
have a rise in in in in data in those
data points because of the fact that you
are starting to have a better collection
system and so I'd be curious as we move
forward whether you know that might
actually you might actually start to see
a decrease with that because after after
everything kind of normalizes your data
normalizes or your data collection
normalizes you know now you're you you
you you have a good data set and now you
know maybe you will start to see some of
that decrease I don't know I think it's
like all external you know I think like
I said is is this is all kind of a
relatively new um say relatively new
this is from the data from the past
couple years but I think as you start
looking at it I wondered if if that
might you know in 2025 would you see
that as you move forward because you
know you're you're not just picking up
maybe things you wouldn't have picked up
or data points you wouldn't have picked
up in the past so or or or I think I
thing as we've talked about you know are
these the right metrics that to to to be
measuring for animal control and I think
as the others have noted because of the
fact that we don't have direct impact on
these but you do have so it'd be kind of
curious to see how the the data
continues on into the next year
absolutely Madam chair commissioner
Sanchez I believe that um you know as we
talk about this in our in our uh staff
meetings I'm hoping that in the fiscal
year 26 we'll have some different
measures and something that are more
obtainable for us hopefully we're still
talking about
it any other comments then what I would
suggest to my fellow board members um
and it sounds like we're thinking on an
FY timeline rather than a calendar year
timeline so perhaps not for the April
meeting but for the what would it be
although July is I mean it's technically
the start of the next fiscal year um
perhaps we can add a discussion item to
the agenda um I'll look to board members
would you want to hear that April July
if at all to board member Williams Madam
chair I would suggest that uh we have
that discussion in April to guide the
the acos uh give them a little bit of
guidance from the board in terms of what
kinds of goals we'd like to see um so
that when they get to the fiscal year
they have that guidance ahead of time
yeah I would agree um then I would
suggest again at the at the smiles nods
and thumbs up of my for uh fellow board
members that for April we can have a
discussion item youo where you can um
speak to both your perspective from the
Peak Performance side of things and
where you
feel um
more relevant or meaningful or actually
indicative statistics might
be Madam chair absolutely um I think any
new goals that we can discuss and then
of course with the approval of uh the
chief all the way up the the chain of
command would be absolutely um welcome
okay great chair Graham over here oh yes
sorry if I may uh just wanted to let you
know you're absolutely right um with
respect to the context of the Peak
Performance goals uh being um cascading
down really from the city strategic plan
through to the Department Strate
strategic plans the current city plan is
valid from 2021 through
2026 I believe that there will be an
initiative to update the city plan uh
later in the spring or to start that
process once that is complete then the
department plans will be updated and
that will of course um include some new
uh measures and goals for each of the
lines of businesses and and programs
that we have in the various departments
so that should be coming later in this
calendar year um we we we don't really
follow the the fiscal year with respect
to the setting of those goals but
they're really through the establishment
of the department strategic plans so
just wanted to add that context thank
you so much thank you yes board member
Williams oh I'm sorry I thought you were
I guess you're just waving okay thanks
uh Gino I'm sorry we stalled you out on
slide 15 here so continue a very good
discussion thank you for that
I believe we hit this
one if not I I'll go over it again so
for the month of December we responded
to uh 39 cat calls for cats and traps
eight of those were uh Community cats
that were already met the requirements
so that gave us a total of
637 cat and trap calls and we were able
to release 91 back where they were
initially
impounded so here for the last quarter
these are our reasons we were unable to
fill RTO 31 of those were for dogs that
had uh no contact by phone or at the
residence 13 were for dogs that the
microchip was not updated or registered
three were for cats where the chip was
not updated or registered two for cats
the owner was evicted and they left no
forwarding phone number uh one was for a
cat with no contact at the uh by phone
or at the residence one cat the owner
passed away and again there was no
forwarding address or no um secondary in
emergency information and one uh dog
where the owner refused to pick up the
dog out in the field and actually hung
up on the
officer here are our reasons for owner
releasing animals uh 23 the owner could
no longer care for uh seven the dogs for
aggression seven dogs for Behavioral
issues five dogs unable to keep in the
yard five dogs the owner uh landlord or
property manager does not allow four
dogs for health issues and uh two were
for euthanasia
request two dogs the owner admitted to
the dogs being
dangerous two dogs uh not compatible
with the other pets one dog for
lifestyle change one dog killed another
dog and finally one cat the landlord or
property manager did not allow on their
property so here are calls for service
for o October we responded to a total of
1,137 calls November
1,1 and December
936 bringing us to a grant total for the
year
calls and with that I will stand for any
questions board members any followup
questions all right thank you so much
thank
you next upep 6.2 the shelter statistics
and activities annual
report invite up interim director Liz
cely is this your first official
presentation yes in front of the board
well welcome thank you delighted to have
you
so um Liz zely ascmv interim director um
I just want to make note on the agenda
that um I'll be presenting the annual
report but our quarterly report is going
to be in your packets and it's also
going to be available on our website for
a public
view sounds great thank
you
so let's get into it uh the intake stats
so this is going to be how animals came
into our shelter last
year um this first slide is going to be
total animals brought in from the city
so any animals within City Limits um the
highest one is going to be Strays from
Animal Control so that's going to be
City Animal Control in the blue is the
dogs 1,100 and 19 and in the green is
the cats um the second highest is going
to be owner renders so 742 dogs
cats and this next slide is going to be
the same stats but for County so that
includes Anthony hatch MSA senin Park
white sense Missile Range um again the
highest is going to be Strays from
Animal Control County Animal Control um
dogs
1,883 and cats
678 and then the second highest for dogs
is going to be the owner
surrenders so this is taking those first
two slides and combining them so this
gives us a total combined um intake of
9,139 for
um the highest again stay from Animal
Control both city and county and then
owner surrenders is
second um this kind of averages out to
about 25 animals per day sometimes we
get more sometimes we get less sometimes
we can get up to 40 so
um so
yeah so intake comparison so this is
just our intake numbers throughout the
years going all the way back to
2009 um we are down by 11% from last
year so um that's a good sign um we're
having happy to see that we didn't
continue trending upwards um and we hope
to see that number continue to go down
next
year monthly intake so um this is just a
picture of our intakes throughout the
year for each month we usually stay
pretty steady about six months out of
the year and then it's typical to kind
of see the summer months increase so um
our Peak month last year was May
species so these are the types of
animals that came in uh the majority 67%
were dogs 31.8% were cats and then we
always have a few others that come in um
we had a lot of rabbits pocket pets are
going to be hamsters uh guinea pigs
things like that and Aven um we had
quite a few uh chickens roosters and
Ducks um and if if I recall we had over
25 of them coming from the same home at
the same time just a couple months ago
um they all found homes pretty quickly
they were all adopted out or sent to
rescue um this is a comparison just of
all the intake methods combined so um
4,693 were Strays brought in from Animal
Control the next highest one was Strays
brought in uh by the public public and
then owner surrenders was
1,643 that's a huge number um it's can
be
frustrating to some of our staff but
there is a lot of different reasons
people own or Surrender their animals
we're always here to help um as animal
control pointed out you know sometimes
the animals are aggressive or they're
just not able to keep those animals but
we do really want to kind of change the
way of thinking in our community to have
um people think of their pets more as
family members and less as objects that
they can just dispose of you know at the
slightest inconvenience so I think we
can work on this number a lot um through
education um so we hope to see that
number go
down diverted intake comparison so the
diverted intake as mentioned previously
uh with the acos is uh when somebody
finds an animal they bring it into our
shelter and we try to um give them other
options uh so you know we usually give
them a list of local resources local
rescues sometimes we ask them to hold on
to the animal while they look for the
owner so last year we were able to
divert
2,112
animals and the outcome statistics so
this is how animals left the shelter
so the number one way was going to be
euthanasia at
269 um that's obviously not the number
we want to see all of our efforts are
geared towards making this number as low
as possible um so that was uh 1,96 were
dogs 683 were cats and then 20 were
other our second highest outcome though
is something that I'm really proud of um
it was uh transferred out to rescues so
2,295 animals left to rescues um both
local and out of state so we're super
grateful to all of our rescue
Partners if we didn't have that resource
then the number that I'd be presenting
today for euthanasia would just be so
much higher so we're really grateful to
have those Partnerships um we also did
pretty well in our adoptions 1
981 animals were adopted back into the
community so these animals are all
spayed and neutered now they're
vaccinated um they're microchipped and
vetted and uh return to owners was
1,12 and we had uh 879 Community
cats this uh slide is um our youth in
Asia breakdown so I kind of want to take
a minute to talk more about this um I'll
focus on the top euthanasia reason which
is the first one space Behavior so um if
you kind of remember that I mentioned we
got on average 25 animals in per day so
the shelter is really like a revolving
door you know when we're getting 25 in
per day and we don't have 25 animals
leaving then we have to make space and
behavior Can Encompass a lot of
different traits um I'll just use timid
as an example so when we're going
through and we have to make room for 25
animals that day there's you know they
have a choice between a dog that's
really friendly um up at the kennel
Tails wagging versus a dog that's hiding
under his bed um really terrified and
this is a natural behavior you know we
understand that that shelter is a scary
environment um even the fact that their
inside can really freak some dogs out so
we understand that this is a completely
natural behavior however we have to go
back to remembering you know space is
the issue at this point so these are the
heartbreaking decisions that we have to
make each day so um that decision was
made 461 times last year um the next one
is just going to be space General so
this is if space is needed and there's
no Behavior animals there's no medical
um that's just uh euthanizing for where
of room and um a lot of people think
that with our new shelter um you know we
have tons and tons of room but we have
to go back to think about our capacity
for care um you know how many employees
we have um we have to keep that to a
number that we think is Humane um and
the next few reasons um for
euthanasia parvo and failure to thrive
those are going to be uh puppies and
kittens um and I want to go down to the
140 the medical
ringworm this is a number that um we're
really going to try to eliminate or
bring down as much as we can this year
um we're working our medical director Dr
Haden is coming up with the plan to kind
of keep more ringworm cats and I say
cats because it's mostly cats um but it
can be in dogs as well ringworm is
really really treatable um the only
problem is it's highly contagious so it
takes a long time to treat so we really
have to have a good plan in place to be
careful not to spread that to our other
population um but we are working on that
because we think we can um decrease that
number or eliminate it altogether to
save the ringworm animals that come
in and um are youthanasia comparison
this is just a comparison of the number
of euthanasia throughout the years so we
were down um from last year which is
good to see um and if you look back all
the way to 2008 we've made huge strides
in euthanasia here in the county so um
we're hoping to make that number even
lower lower this
year animal transfers these are animals
that left to um rescue organizations so
2,295 um I would say about half of those
left to rescues out of the state um but
a lot of rescues here are local and they
are helping us out I'm grateful to each
and every one of them um and we're going
to just continue to grow our transport
Network and hopefully see more animals
be saved by these
rescues adoption
comparison um we did pretty good with
adoptions we were a little higher than
last year um 68% were dogs
um and uh we're kind of maybe go back
and look at what we did in 2019 because
that was our highest year for adoptions
ever and I can't recall what we did back
then but we need to kind of look back
and see so maybe we can get up to those
numbers because we do know it's
possible so our live release rate so um
for dogs that are in the blue it was
67.5% cats were 76.2
this slide is interesting because if you
look back to um the year prior to
2022 um the live release rate for dogs
had been higher for cats and in the last
three years the cats have been higher so
um we can maybe credit that to the TNR
program um but I know a lot of rescues
in the um in Colorado have been helping
us out with cats in the past few years
so we're happy to see that our cats live
release rate has um gone up
and so if you combine those uh it brings
us to a total live release rate of
70.7 so that's up uh about 5% from last
year so um we did really well in 2020
again we know it's possible so we're
going to do everything we can to
increase
that public services and community
outreach so these are our uh total
visitors uh to our shelter in 2024 this
is up by I want to say about 2,000 from
last year and uh we saw our most
visitors in July it's pretty typical
when we see the most animals we also see
the most people so um we encourage
everyone who's interested in animal to
not only look at our website but also
come by um and check out our new fairly
new Adoption Center
surgeries for 2024 um we did
[Music]
4,361 um Dr hen and her team uh did
really amazing I mean they really
average around 350 surgeries per month
um we spade and neutered uh
1,659 cats under the TNR program so
those were all um fixed and released
back into the
community 100 and or 1,100 148
adoptions and the 843 shelter Fosters so
this would be what we call our in-house
surgeries so we uh pick an animal that
we think has high potential for adoption
and we span neuter them um with hopes
that um if somebody does choose them for
adoption they could take them home that
same day so we do that with both animals
in shelter and and Foster so we did 843
of those and the
7 11 other that's going to be a lot of
our surgeries for
rescues our vaccination clinics uh since
2019 we've had over a dozen vaccination
clinics uh this was something that our
previous director Clint dcker started
and we've to date we've done over 15,000
vaccines either free or at low cost for
Community pets um and over
3,200 um microchips so we did over 800
uh alone just last year so we had a
three microchips uh in February June and
October and we are at the Field of
Dreams so we are getting ready to do a
uh our first microchip our vaccine
clinic of the year in uh February so
February 2nd that's going to be on
that's posted on our social media if
anyone's
interested Facebook reach
uh last year we have hired a digital
content specialist her name is Carol um
she's done wonderful work you can even
see in December of last year um we had
our highest amount of Facebook views um
so she's got a lot of great ideas um you
know we're we're getting a lot more
active on Facebook so we think this is
going to increase in the coming
year web views um we also think this is
going to increase in the coming year
here because we used to post our daily
stats on our Facebook um however there's
a few issues with that um it wasn't very
user friendly for people who wanted to
go back and view a certain date they'd
have to just scroll through uh a bunch
of post so we've kind of switched to
putting that all on our website now um
they are posted monthly but it's a lot
more user friendly so um we also want to
drive people to our website to kind of
look at more of the other resources
um adoptable animals so we hope to see
the website views increase as
well and then our foster
program uh so it's going strong um we
had
1,831 animals in Foster last year and
you can kind of see the breakdown here
of each month towards the end of the
year we tend to see less animals in
Foster just because of the holidays a
lot of people are out of town um but I
really want to thank our foster
coordinator Vanessa um she
single-handedly handles all of these
Fosters and she's really trying to grow
the
program so thank you to
her and foster parents these are going
to be active foster homes um so we had a
total of 795 and this breaks it down um
per month so this number is going to be
lower than the Foster animal because you
could have uh 50 active Fosters but you
know one person has a litter of puppies
um
so um this numbers just going to be a
little bit lower but we are doing pretty
good right now and um we have a lot of
foster sleepovers happening so if you're
interested in signing up for one of
those um we encourage you to go to our
website and fill out the application
there's lots of good information that
you get from doing that and we can set
you up as a foster
our volunteers did um increased
significantly this past year
um this is the volunteer hours uh per
month so we started new program called
dogs playing for life um it's basically
um a play group for for dogs where they
it's the controlled setting um it's
volunteer run the majority of it is
volunteer run um dogs just get to get
out and play with each other um and it's
not only beneficial to their health um
it's also helps us learn more about the
dogs and it helps adopters kind of see
them at their best so once we know more
about the dogs we can place them in a
more appropriate home but um a lot of
our volunteer hours go into that uh we
do it three days out of the week for 3
to four hours and we're really grateful
that our volunteers have stepped up to
come and run this program for
us this next slide is going to show the
breakdown of what volunteers do so again
the dog handling the 111 active
volunteers those are a lot of them going
to be involved in dog walking or in our
play groups and if you go down to
playgroup leads um we have 15 um so
during these play sessions we have
someone that's called a lead and they're
kind of in charge of running the entire
group so these 15 volunteers were really
grateful for them for stepping up um
they're highly experienced um they've
got a lot of
training um and if you look up to the
spicy kitten that's going to be um 16 of
our volunteers um have taken our spicy
kitten training so that's kind of um
where they sit with cats that are what
we call spicy maybe uh hissy or flighty
or something that's under socialized and
they just spend time with them and it
really helps them open up and helps them
be more adoptable
and we will end the report with our
mission statement and a picture of Dolly
Parton one of our dogs who was in Foster
and actually went to rescue
recently so with that stand for any
questions thank you so much um board
members yes thank you madam
chair is just real quick um going back
to the pet sterilization slide on the
surgeries I just had a quick question on
the other surgeries you had reported
711 does that include the community
surgeries as
well um the
711 um that will include um just any
other surgery that's not an
adoption um sorry let me go back to the
slide here there you go thank you so um
the what we're it will include the
public surgeries as well but it also
include um surgeries for rescues and any
other thing that's not a spin neuter
okay thank
you yes board member Gates um well first
of all thank you this was great um I
appreciate the presentation and your
knowledge that you brought and I do want
to say like I know you said you're
especially proud of that rescue number
but like thank you because that number
is from you so that's awesome like
literally if if you hadn't done your job
the way you do it half of the animals in
the shelter would have been euthanized
so more than half actually so thank you
thank you and I can't take all the
credit um I um my coworker yeah um I
have a cooworker Amy who's um also our
rescue coordinator so you know we do
everything we can to get these animals
out you and your team there we go um the
one thing I do want to kind of bring up
more so I guess to the board um is
something that I think I would like to
think about or see more at these
meetings is thinking about our numbers
whether it be animal control numbers um
or shelter numbers in the context of our
population and the reason that I bring
that up is because if you look at most
major cities if you look at their
numbers they like our daily numbers are
their weekly numbers so I think we need
to start looking at it in that way just
so that we're not just looking at a raw
number and seeing these raw numbers over
and over but thinking about the fact
that you know we have a population of
what like a 100 th I can't remember what
our population is but like you know um
and just kind of having a different way
of looking at the numbers because we've
been looking at them in that way for so
long that it's starting to I don't want
to say I'm becoming numb to it but it's
hard to find the context so I think even
not only looking at our own population
but looking at you know similar
similar either similar or different you
know like big cities and being able to
really um drive home that like our
numbers are really bad and and and to
really understand that by comparison to
other municipalities other cities we're
struggling um with the amount of of
intakes that we're getting so just kind
of like a thing like I said you know I
think looking at population is nice
because that's something that we can
like it's like a contextual number that
we can see the ratio of you know per
person we have this many dogs coming in
per per day um so I think that's just
something you know that I would
personally like to see um to give a
little more context to to numbers
overall I think both in Animal Control
context as well as um
shelter so are you talking like a per
capita number or something
okay Madam chair yes just one moment
just before we lose that thread um I
absolutely agree with that and ideally
I'm I'm I'm maybe looking for a unicorn
here um we you know we're looking at a
city within a County so I think City
population is about
110,000 is right now and County
overall the same okay so we're looking
about you know 220,000 and I know we
always you know we split out city and
county here but just kind of throwing
that in the mix as well so we have a
fairly large Geographic County with one
hardcore population Center so just
throwing that out there board member
Williams thank you madam chair just to
add to that I I I really appreciate
board member Gates and and her
suggestion to put this into context I
know that you have a network of other
shelters that you work closely alongside
I have to believe that all of them uh or
a great number of them are doing similar
monthly reports and it would be
interesting to find similar population
centers to ours to see what the
comparison of those numbers are if it's
easy to get those numbers uh per
population uh so that we could see how
exactly how we're doing compared to
other similar sized uh facilities in
similar sized communities so if just to
plant that bug in your in in your brain
if if we could do that I think it would
be helpful thank you thank you councelor
Corin thank you and thank thank you Liz
for presenting this good I really
appreciate your your thoughtful
presentation and and um I Echo what what
a lot of folks are saying that it is
helpful to have that context I I just
wanted to add a little bit of Tim
related comparison um you did this
somewhat in your presentation but while
you while you were chatting I was just
looking at some of the things and again
this isn't to say that our intakes
aren't disproportional
our uncared for population of animals is
is
um really problematic but I do want to
just highlight a few things looking at
2024 versus 2014 statistics um the in
intake and again the variables related
to intake are um our Myriad so I don't
know that this is necessarily something
that we're having an effect on although
I would argue when we have an ongoing
strategic conversation about what kinds
of things we can influence understanding
how we're influencing intake matters
intake decreased by 23% from 2014 to
2024 uh transfers increased by 19%
adoptions decreased by 9% and I think
this is another variable that you sort
of alluded to like we want to influence
this I also think there is a saturation
point at which every home in our area
has as many animals as they possibly can
so I think that also should be part of
our consideration and understanding the
euthanasia rate and to me this is
something really important and I think
Liz you've been there for a large
portion of this time I think that it's
been a concerted effort of the ascmv the
youth and asure rate at the shelter
decreased by 42% in the last 10 years um
and to me that is the thing that we that
we have been asking for all that is
fundamentally what we want to not be
happening and so um I think for us it's
really compelling to think about the
Strategic and then surgeries have stayed
about the same so so um again I think
when we have our conversations going
forward as far as strategic dials that
we can affect um the shelter has a very
concrete narrow view of the things that
they can do within the community Animal
Control has that where are we where are
we placing our influence where are we
placing our investments um I think it's
really critical that we that we keep in
mind that the shelter
has done an extraordinary job of
reducing the Youth and Asia rate over
the last 10 years in ways that in in the
ma maximizing the ways that they can do
that that you can do that so I think I
just wanted to take a minute to sort of
recognize those things and understanding
that we have a collective conversation
to have to understand where where can we
most influence these numbers and what
does it
mean um in terms of our investment and
how we encourage the shelter to move
forward because you all have met the
challenge in that in that context of the
euthanasia rate despite variables like
take that you can't really that that
it's really hard for the shelter to
influence directly so um anyway I just
wanted to add that context and and sort
of I think it's sort of incumbent on us
to have a ongoing strategic conversation
about the data how we invest in in
services in the community and at the
Animal Services Center and and also just
give you a lot of appreciation for the
work that you've done in this way to to
dramatically change that
um some of those Dynamics as much as you
possibly can so so thank you Liz for
presenting and also um everyone for
giving your your inputs so that's all
thanks yes thank you madam chair and
thank you Liz nice presentation uh we
were talking earlier about Peak
Performance goals do you have internal
Peak Performance goals and I recognize
the effect you of the same PR as ACO
much of this is out of your control but
is there something you're striving for
and maybe have some some particular
action items in mind for reducing some
of these numbers um we have talked about
prior to Clinton leaving uh putting in
place a strategic plan um this is
something that we hope our new director
um can put in place pretty quickly
because that includes a lot of goals um
for our shelter because right now um we
don't have anything really internally
other than you know just saving as many
animals as possible but we really need
to outline that and put it more in a
strategic plan okay thank you very
much anyone
else well I too want to thank you uh not
just for the great presentation but for
all the work that you do
um when situations are this
heartbreaking the tough side of it I
know people just want someone to blame
and that is a valid and an
understandable concern or reaction um I
know that you shoulder a lot of that a
lot of that blame and I just want to
acknowledge the amazing work that you're
doing um and to thank you personally for
what you're doing and what you will
continue to do so thank you so much
thank you so
much next up is our committee
reports um starting with Finance CEO
Beno good morning madam chair and board
members uh so just for context the
finance committee meets the third um
Thurs day of every month that typically
gives us time to close out the books
send the financials over uh to uh staff
so that we can start analyzing and
preparing reports for the committee so
with that uh this month's meeting was
canceled since we are meeting as as an
entire board on on this date but we did
meet in December uh reviewed financials
at that time identified some adjustments
that needed to be made in anticipation
of the January close um and with that
what I would like to do is to introduce
Miss Amy Tron the management analyst for
the Animal Service Center who will be
presenting the financials that these
will be through December or the first
half of fy2 so I'll go ahead and turn it
over to Amy thank you good morning Madam
chair chair members ladies ladies and
gentlemen my name is Amy tront I'm the
management analyst for the Animal
Services Center of msia Valley and this
morning I'll be presenting financials
for period ending December 31st
2024 our current assets are at pulled
and cashed Investments 1 million
71,7
188 our receivables are 350
15,9
156 uh which includes the November and
December payments of
$157,450 from donana County um usually
post around the 15th of each month uh
yesterday the city coordinated with
Deborah wear from the County's manager's
office and she has Pro process the a for
this on Tuesday so these numbers for
receivables will go down in the next
month
we have Capital assets of
277,000
so total assets
[Music]
1,665
1178 our total liabilities stand at
271,000 with a total fund balance of
1,393
835 so our total liab ilities and fund
balance stands at
[Music]
1,665
778 our statement of revenues expenses
and changes in fund balance budget and
actual for the fund
7440 total revenues for the actuals is
2,664 350
that puts us at a
54% in the budget
parameter um the revenues are ahead
attributed to both the city and the
county providing upfront
contributions our total expenditures at
2,127
697 so that puts us set of
[Music]
43.1% the change in net position is 536
653 fund balance at the start of the
year was
51,0
735 so our net position at the end of
the period was 1,
188,000
389 the budget and actual for our
executive director
is 59 I'm sorry
um uh 90 89,00 668 that puts us at a
26.5% the entry you here Ser see here
for capital for
136,137 2,27
so that should post in the next month so
these numbers will actually decrease on
the
actuals but you can see that the total
expenditures he's at
26.5% that's well below the budget
parameter of 50% at this time of the
fiscal
year budget an actual for a medical
director the actual is 59,000
147 that puts the medical director at
38.3% also well below the budget
parameter for this time of the fiscal
year our kennel
director actual expenditures
644 the percentage of budget is
46.7 continuing below the budget
parameter of
50% administrative operations budget and
actual actual expenditures 10 I'm sorry
74,900
so the percentage of budget is at
46.9 which again is below the budget
parameter of
50,000 excuse me 50%
and total
expenditures salary
56% benefits 20% Services
133% supplies at 8% we have other at 3%
this covers Transportation travel
insurance repairs and
maintenance any
questions questions
from the
board all right thank you so much thank
you so much for your time next report is
on the executive committee um
commissioner
Sanchez uh has left us and I've not yet
moved into that committee I'm not sure
councelor Corin thank you um I can just
give a brief update we talked about what
we were going to what was going to be on
the agenda today
um um some plans for who all might be
speaking which you will see the the
upcoming but items on the agenda that
that we sort of talked to Liz about we
also talked about how um some of the
community related issues that came up in
the context of things that we were we've
been hearing from folks um and Liz I
think has been following up on those
directly
so
uh I'm just sorry I didn't I didn't take
notes in in our executive committee
meeting admittedly um it's fine I feel
like I was there you
were I know not to give you a hard
time um but we were both there that so
those are the the basics we talked about
the fee topic which is going to be
coming up for a discussion item um
shortly so Liz gave us a preview and and
we had that conversation about what that
will be we also highlighted that it we
do there is some ambiguity related to a
number of these things in our jpa versus
our bylaws and we did identify and this
keep continues to come up as something
that we need to do in the middle to near
future in addition to the executive
director search we do need to have a
bylaw update to to make sure that we
address that and I think some ideas have
been floated related to how how we'll do
that in terms of a subcommittee but um
that was the other briefly covered topic
sorry for not remembering very well now
that was perfect thank you so so much
and finally facilities ex officio member
Ward thank you madam chair um for the
facilities meetings we did meet um we
managed to meet um November the 21st and
so the due to the holidays the other
meeting was cancelled but during this
time we had um of course we the new
buildings one-year warranty had expired
so at this time the following items were
reported addressed addressed and
completed which was the shelter medical
Wing breakroom water heater that was not
working had been completed the shelter
lock issues with the employee area the
med door Center was resolved the
adoption building the women's toilet was
leaking but that was completed worked on
um the shelter the Ada door latch was
broken that was completed so all those
things were completed and then these
following items were reported they were
addressed but they have not started
working on yet the shelter door with the
Green Door pod was broken was reported
um it hasn't been started on yet and
then these following items were reported
addressed and they're in progress so the
shelter flag poles um were unable to
crank up they're reported and they're
actually in progress and the shelter
North Lobby door lock mechanism in the
lobby that will not lock it's been
reported and it's in progress and it's
um still reported the shelter Cory fobs
the card readers um are still in
progress and the technicians have gone
into the facility um they reported that
they need to assign an active card for
each person and then that's still in
progress and that's all I have to
report thank you so much yes sir Madam
chair I would just uh point out the
overlap of the the finance committee uh
presentation and and uh board member
Mary Le
presentation that uh when we heard
finance that there we're we're part of
facilities is part of 3% of that budget
in terms of uh maintenance and and
supplies Etc that that we need to keep
the facility running and uh so when you
hear Maryl say these things have been
reported and they're they're in progress
a part of that's because it we have to
the the executive director and the
shelter staff have to be very careful
about how much money do we have and how
are we going to spend it uh and so those
things have to be prioritized and then
City staff comes in and assists us with
that for which we're very grateful but
it is a very little tiny little piece of
the
budget thank
you all right moving on um to item 7.1
uh discussion item ascmv adoption fees
hi um Liz cely uh asnb interim director
so just to give a little bit of
background information on the adoption
fees um in 2021 um we changed our
fees um and the idea was that we were
going to offer our spade and neuter
animals at a lower price to kind of
hopefully promote them for adoption
quicker um and since the few years that
we have been doing this we found a
couple of things uh the first one is um
adopt the animals really speak for
themselves so adopters are going to
adopt an animal that fits in their
lifestyle rather than an animal that's
at a lower adoption fee that's just how
it is um and second it was uh created a
lot of confusion around U especially in
the community because the wording kind
of sounded like we were adopting out
unaltered animals um for a higher fee um
which we we weren't um everything was
Spain and neutered before it left for
adoption um so in revamping our website
and we were kind of going over our fees
page it got really complicated because
you have so many different categories of
fees we also do our senior discounts our
military discounts so um we decided that
we would just do every dog at a flat fee
a flat rate whether they're spayed or
neutered and uh same for every cat so it
kind of simplified the fees a little bit
um and during the executive committee
meeting um it was kind of uh we were
unsure on who um was in charge of
setting those fees uh with the city
ordinance saying one thing and the jpa
saying another so um that's why it's up
for
discussion thank you let me open up
councelor Corin and thank you for
presenting on this and I think we the
the board has some named capacity in
terms of setting fees uh uh the city is
working on a municipal ordinance update
which will relate to re reclamations and
um what fees are associated with things
like reclamations of animals there's
also there are also state laws that have
sort of very specific um guidelines for
what kinds of fees can be charged how
they how those fees are called and I
think I just want to sort of share that
this is in the domain of conversations
that I think we need to have on on the
on the board but there are also a number
of variables that that aren't really
necessarily that we're still trying to
figure out I think in in this
conversation definitely the municipal
ordinance component we want to make sure
that we when the city does our Municipal
ordinance we don't do anything that's
across purposes with the as cmv's goals
and we don't want to do anything that's
at Cross purposes with the state laws
related to um Fe fees for service versus
adoption fees versus sort of fines
for behav Behavior I guess I would say
and so I'm just naming the various
variables that are that are at play that
we know our our issues I think and have
to figure out collectively both the city
as we write our ordinance and in
collaboration with the am ascmv which
they are part of those conversations as
well but the adoption based fees I think
from my perspective and I I'm going to
make the the case to us all that there
is while the jpa talks about our role in
setting fees I don't believe that we
should take away the discretion of of
the as cmv's executive director to do a
lot of the things like we see constant
sort of promotions and I think those
make a big difference in how folks can
if folks are considering adoption and it
really just gives a a bright spot to
sort of be able to say oh you know these
folks are sponsored it this is what this
means this is what's in context so
um I think that the ascmv has a future
the board has a future role in in having
those conversations including how much
things actually cost which is one part
of of the many calculations and I think
that's sort of what caused the initial
confusion in the first place
was using a cost-based model versus
uh a public understanding model for
altered versus unaltered and so that was
um not necessarily something that we
understood the impacts of in that
context but I guess all all of this to
say I think this conversation is ongoing
and and not something that
um Liz is Liz and and Clint by extension
are proposing simplifying this and
making it really much more clear to the
public in terms of adoption fees um and
I think that I I I just want to say that
we're supportive of that and also that I
think these conversations are ongoing
and I think um understanding all the
different variables is still a work in
progress for for the ascmv and for us in
terms of what our role is in setting
those fees Andor um giving authority to
the executive director to have some
discretion in that in that context so
that's that's all I wanted to say is I
want to maintain that that discretion
and ability to do things like have
promotions on the part of the ascmv as
we do that but also think about things
like how much does a spay neuter cost
what does it cost to reclaim what is a
reclaim fee those conversations are
still ongoing so that's that's all I
wanted to add to that thank you so
much wow no one
else um thank you counselor Corin for
covering that succinctly and cogently no
I
promise
um I I agree um I agree with what
councelor Corin said in regard to
allowing that discretion you are the
boots on the paws the paws on the ground
the you are most familiar with the
population and their needs um and I I
have to laugh because the last dog that
we adopted from from ascmv we were we
were like it was a coin flip between the
two dogs that we were trying to choose
between and they were both they were
both great and we ended up choosing the
one who was unaltered just kind of
figuring like uh you know we've we've
gotten a dog through postop before um so
we'll go ahead and take this guy because
you know I was working from home so it
was not a big deal um but I do regularly
hold it over that dog's head like hey
man you know what you were you were this
close to not being my dog but I I really
do appreciate that um are there any
members of the public who would like to
comment on this I mean and of course we
are always we're very reachable by email
phone happy to meet with folks but I
just wanted
to okay seeing none well thank you so
much for speaking on that
and now we'll move into our action items
first up 8.1 a resolution approving the
2025 holiday closure schedule for the
Animal Services Center of the msia
valley I can get a motion to move
approval second thank you uh was that
was that you board member Williams great
motion by board member Williams seconded
by board member
Campbell and is there someone presenting
on this
or sorry um this is just a resolution to
um adopt what the city has for the
holiday
closures okay great and I'm seeing that
list um board members if you're
following along that's on page
and looks pretty standard any comments
okay thanks I can't tell I'm sorry for
every time no every time someone moves
because I can't necessarily see
everyone's lights I'm like laser focused
on okay seeing no
discussion I'll call roll board member
Williams yes board member Gates yes
board member Campbell yes board member
peek yes councelor Corin yes Vice chair
shjo Hernandez yes chair Sanchez is
absent or former chair Sanchez is absent
and I chair Graham vote Yes motion
passes next up
8.2 which is resolution providing for
determination of reasonable notice of
meetings and meeting date of the Animal
Services Center of the msia valley board
of
directors move
approval thank you second it's been
moved by board member Williams seconded
by councilor
Corin so um yeah this is just to uh set
the future uh board meetings for this
coming up year which we um hope to do um
really both of these resolutions we
would hope to do um prior to the
beginning of the year so uh I believe in
October we would want to have these
resolutions again okay great appreciate
that preparation any questions or
comments from the board just a quick
comment the commission will be out of
town April
24th we do have our alternate positions
that can join um but if we wanted to
maybe consider that meeting we can if
not no harm no fall but commissioner
Sanchez and myself will not be
here okay um and but you have proxy you
have voting
proxies
uh oh
they nope
nope Mary Lou would be here Mary Lou
will be
here I'm not sure what date is it on the
April 24th probably
not Madam chair doniana County will not
be here I'll be here he has board member
Williams I would hate to lose the
institutional knowledge for an entire
meeting of the county delegation
I would suggest that we find an
alternate meeting date that uh we would
be able to have them attend uh would you
be amendable to the second Thursday of
the month that month
sure that's my suggestion Madam
chair we love that suggestion I I think
that suggestion is is taken the it's
generally dependent on whether or not
the space is available that's probably
the biggest other variable that we
aren't necessarily able to account for
in this moment because of
the uh broadcast ability of of here so I
would say I would say propose that
Amendment depending
on on Space um
availability that would be the the
caveat to that I don't know of any
reason not to do that but Madam
chair um
commissioner shelu Hernandez would you
be willing to see whether the commission
Chambers might be available um because
it has the same C capabilities as this
Chambers you said the same for sure we
can do that we will find a space
okay yes um yes Bernice Navaro from um
the
ascmv uh we just had one concern as far
as the financials to be able to present
those as the second Thursday of of the
month is the 10th and that would be a
very
close I'm not sure that that would be
possible to get the financials by that
date so just a a
concern yes oh thank you madam chair
would the 17th work because you said the
24th you're gone would the 17th work we
we will be here so yes it is the 17th is
the Thursday before a holiday so I think
it's dependent if you all are going to
be with us but that works for
us yes board member PE Madam chair um
the third Thursday of the month is
normally reserved for solid waste and
several of you are on that
board it gets real my
recommendation is to approve this as
it's posted the director can change the
and call for a special meeting after
they coordinate that at any time so you
can move the date um and basically
cancel the the April 24th meeting due to
lack of an agenda but it's going to take
a little bit of time because you have to
balance rooms and other schedules and
everything else to change these meetings
around in time and I I respect what you
say about not having you know not the
county not being here but I think that
the director needs a little bit of time
to check on availability and they can
call a special meeting at any time time
and just schedu this you know scheduled
around I've always known Patrick Peck to
be the voice of reason in the room uh so
I I'm happy to go along with that all
right perfect agreed any other yes
yes um thank you madam chair and so
again just for the reminder and the
financials and thank you Bernice we we
can make a third Thursday work as we did
today um but probably no earlier than
that to receive the financial report
okay thank you for the input so it
sounds like we will stick with what we
have pending various
Logistics okay okay great um all right
then I'll do roll call Board member
Williams yes board member Gates yes
board member Campbell yes board member
peek yes councelor Corin yes Vice chair
shjo Hernandez yes commissioner Sanchez
is absent and I chair Graham vote yes
thank you thank
you moving to 8.4 discussion and pre
preliminary plans for selection process
and timeline for hiring the next ascmv
executive
director hello good morning Madam chair
board I'm Joe Richards the HR Director
for the city sorry I'm I'm over here at
the end no fantastic I always call that
the voice of God when I'm like what who
thank you I'm in trouble then um thank
you for having us here today we
appreciate the time um and our efforts
and and helping you with this next
election and outlining some different
options for you that we can certainly
discuss um today I have with me our
Assistant Director of Human Resources
Jose Vargas he's um going to present to
you um some information
that um we can review and um see how you
want to go moving
forward thank you so much Mr Vargas yes
good morning Madam chair members of the
board um like we said vgas from HR um so
today I'm here to present to you couple
of options that we have to review both
the job description for the director um
and also a couple of options on how we
can move on with the recruitment for the
next director of The Animal Services
Center right
so we'll begin with the job description
R youw hopefully you guys like my little
animations here um if you guys choose to
go ahead and move forth with reviewing
the job description there's a couple of
ways we can handle that or go about that
um the first one is if the board chooses
to review as a collective during an open
meeting to provide any revisions for
that job description we can definitely
do
so thank you sorry um and then also the
board has the option to delegate this
task to a subcommittee um that is chosen
by the
board so whichever option you guys
choose to do so if you want to review
that job
description Madam
chair yes I strongly uh suggest that we
appoint a sub committee uh for this
purpose um this board doesn't meet
frequently enough
for this need is kind of urgent and I I
think a subcommittee could meet more
frequently and could move us through the
process and keep the board
apprised um also I was on the board for
the last two times we did this and so I
would be happy and eager to serve on
that
subcommittee thank you for that input um
I suppose we can go Slide by slide which
I know will start kind of start and stop
you uh other thoughts from the board yes
councelor Corin I was just going to say
I think I I agree with um board member
Williams input but I do think there
might be other um options as the as the
show goes on I think not these I
understand that this might be two
options but I think um there might be
other things to also consider as part of
the possibilities um especially related
to the the whole process overall so um
if if it's okay I can presentation if
you like har absolutely yeah please
continue okay awesome all right so once
the job description has been finalized
uh we can begin recruitment for the
position itself and there are a couple
of options there to fill that vacancy so
the first one would be the board can
leverage the city of Las crus HR
department uh to help create a selection
process that will be facilitated by HR
staff and either the board or a
subcommittee if they choose to do that
um that's up to you guys is again how
you decide to go about that route uh the
board also has the option to go through
a professional search firm to handle all
aspects of that
recruitment um and again that is up to
the decision of the board and there's a
couple of slides later I'll give you
guys a few stipulations of that as well
if you choose to go that decision I do
want to point out that the decision to
use a board or subcommittee and a search
firm or leverage of city of Los Cruz's
HR department should be discussed in the
open meeting
okay so what will working with the city
of Las crusis HR include so HR staff
will post the position via our standard
advertising venues which will include um
government jobs.com these are going to
be our standard ones uh city of Las
Cruses email distribution list Fort
Bliss uh also New Mexico workforce New
Mexico Municipal league and then also
with NMSU through handshake and pink
jobs if the board would like to
advertise via any other specific types
of platforms we can definitely help with
that as well um the only thing to
mention there is that that cost will be
need will need to be paid by the animal
services if we choose to go through any
specific platforms that do have a
charge uh neogov which is our
recruitment platform that we use to
advertise on governmentjobs.com they
also can provide a list of advertising
venues like indeed LinkedIn um if that
will be helpful for you all but again
the terms of payment will follow the
same thing where will be incurred by the
Animal Services Center and then HR staff
will partner with the board or committee
to create and facilitate a structured
selection process that's going to
outline the steps of their recruitment
um and these documents will be mutually
agreed upon by both HR staff and the
board or subcommittee however you choose
to do that and HR staff will also work
with the city clerk's office to follow
all compliance and
regulations all right so steps of the
recruitment with the city of Los Cruses
so the first thing is we enter a
requisition in our platform so that we
can post that position and advertise it
on our standard ad advertising platforms
uh once the closing CL posting closes
I'm sorry and this established election
process begins and that again is those
documents that will be mutually agreed
upon um there will be a review of
applications for
qualifications and then alignment on
applicants between HR and the board and
or committee interviews will be be
scheduled and completed and the
selection of the most qualified
candidate will then follow and this is
just a brief overview of what those
steps would look
like okay if you all choose to engage
using an outside vendor to fill that
vacancy meaning a professional search
firm um the board will need to partner
with finance department to follow that
procurement process to acquire the
search firm uh depending on the amount
there's a specific amount of quotes that
need to be obtained as you you can see
here anything below 25,000 requires one
quote anything above that requires two
quotes uh the other thing to mention is
there may be a different timeline for
that process as well depending on the
search firm that you use and then going
through that vendor process um and the
vendor will need to work with the city
clerk's office to follow all compliance
and regulations as
well okay and with that I'll open it up
for any type of discussion
board
members yes councelor Corin thank you um
so it sounds
like a search firm would not be a part
of modifying the job description correct
okay so that's something that we have to
figure out on our own without help from
a search firm um again if it comes from
the board doing that and reviewing that
I I don't know necessarily I can defer
that to if you necessarily have to let
us know that you're working with the
search firm we just need to have that
before we post the position uh that has
to be finalized before then okay I guess
what I would say is for me the most
important parts of this are one that
we're able to do it in a pretty
expeditious fashion but not so
expeditious that we don't have ample
participation but I also think um we
might have a conversation about where we
see Community input being a part of this
and that is um in on the front end with
the job description versus on the second
end and that's a specific question that
I would ask to you is um on if there is
a subcommittee or the full committee are
there opportunities for uh both
Community potentially forums Andor
community members to serve on the
selection committee um those would be
two questions that I I think I would be
curious and I would like us I would just
like to speak that I think that we
should have both I would I would say we
should have both of those things and
then the last part that I would say is I
don't I think this is a really really
specific and pretty narrow even though
the qualific ations from the past job
description
aren't the required sort of education
and experience are um leave it open to a
lot of folks I think it also leaves it
open to a lot of folks who are not not
really qualified or able to take on this
pretty big job and so I I feel like
there is a little bit of a special call
that I would ask that we consider having
a recruitment a facilitated recruitment
process with someone who's typically
involved
in in um I would say this kind of an
adjacent kind of of role filling because
I don't think um I don't know that there
that these the types of expertise or
things that we're going to ask the
person are necessarily going to be
easily found through traditional um
recruitment methods it seems like
something we need a head hunter for
frankly what from my perspective but I
don't know if others agree or or um have
that perspective so
that those would just be my questions
where we can incorporate community
members outside of the board and their
inputs and then secondarily I just think
um I would like us to have an abundance
of really great candidates to choose
from and so that's why I would say I
think it might be I I just think about
some of the city positions uh that I
thought were very appealing um from a
salary perspective and from a um sort of
benefits of working at the city
perspective that had you know zero
qualified applicants for eight eight
months in some cases and so that would
be a situation that I don't want us to
end up in um just like our veterinarian
position so so I would put that in the
hopper as considerations
too yeah and in terms of public
participation um Christine you can
correct me if I'm wrong but I think you
guys have the autonomy to design that as
you're creating that selection process
whether it be through a subcommittee
through the board or even through a
search firm of when you want to
incorporate that and how you want to
incorporate that in terms of um members
of the public being on either an
interview panel or or anything like that
again that's that's up to the discretion
of how you guys want to approach that as
well board member Gates yeah I think I I
mean I agree with that I think we
definitely need to have something a
little more specialized um whether
that's a you know a head hunter like you
mentioned or specifically some sort of
uh uh whatever they're called that my
brain is losing um but I also um think
that it's important to listen to the
staff of the center as well in some way
um in this process because we need to
make sure that you know whoever is
coming in kind of fits you know their
needs and the culture um that's there um
already so um I just wanted to point
that out that you know along with
community members I think having some
sort of Staff feedback or input in the
process in some way is really important
um to make sure that their voices are
heard um and dreams of what a director
might look like for them um I think that
was I think that was it for
me
oh go um yeah Joe I just wanted to add
that uh in the past when we have used
search firms some of these things that
you all are mentioning um as an example
involving others and getting their input
those things they've done with us uh
including uh reviewing the job
description so that those are some
things that I think if if you decide to
go that route they may be incorporating
some of your concerns
already if that helps it does and let me
just ask a quick question then I'll move
to you board member Campbell and then on
to um Joe understand understanding that
so making sure that I understand if we
went with an external firm and did
modify the job description that would
still need to come back to HR for
approval we would be a part of the
process okay um and you know giving
feedback and and those types of things
so not necessarily our approval um but
again just making sure we're consistent
with um how we've formatted and done
done other similar job descriptions
understood and that's something that we
could again recognizing that we're
juggling moving quickly with
moving comprehensively is that would we
be able to move that
along fairly rapidly through HR I'm
gonna defer a little bit to Barbara on
some of these items because she's been
heavily involved in some of the other
ones and I'm not sure about the the
timelines that we've experienced
before do you
recall um Madam chair so I I think that
it depends on what the process is how
the process is going to be
defined um what elements are going to be
incorporated are we going to look at for
example uh with outside assistance for
either um you know a firm um doing an
RFP or piggybacking on a contract that's
already in existing in in existence with
another uh entity that fits our
requirements for doing so um so there
are quite a few variables associated
with that okay good I think then that's
just that should be in in mind for
everyone when we're Imagining the length
of process board member Campbell um I
was GNA say that too the search firms I
have worked with also seek input from
the current staff and from the the uh
Community if if needed there's really
kind of five elements that I see to this
so one is the development of the job
description and that's something that we
will do but could do with a search firm
the second is where do we post it a
search firm can also help with that but
we probably have a good feel for that
but then there's a review of the initial
applications and the initial interviews
which can be very time consuming and
that is something that a search firm
will take off your hands but then the
final interview would be our
responsibility once final candidates are
identified and referred to
us commissioner shelo
Hernandez um I think I was just going to
touch on the timeline aspect as well um
and is there a way since we already have
a contract with slavin Barbara this is
probably for you um with South Central
solid waste authorities since we're
doing an executive level search there is
there a way that we can expedite getting
a contract done using that contract so
as to not have to go through the rigma
role if you know what I mean because I
know that was a couple month process
just to get them on board can you help
us with
that so of course I thank you um Madam
chair and board members I would defer to
the our purchas interesting manager on
this um the the nature of the the scope
of work would have to be there are
requirements for piggybacking if you
will on another contract and it would
entail you know looking at what was the
scope of work to be performed the um
time frame for that contract uh that's
in place Etc but I see Alicia Hernandez
our purchasing manager coming to the
podium so I'll defer to
her good morning Madam chair board memb
members um I will say when we did the uh
when we hired the search firm for South
Central Solid Waste we were we were
unable to find a contract to piggy back
so what they did was obtain two quotes
because it exceeded the $25,000 limit
and that was the cheaper of the two so
with that being since we did that now
and we have that contract in place is
Animal Services able to work off of that
contract they are not so because we did
not do um proper competition okay so
what would our boards if we decide to do
an executive Search firm to basically be
that head hunter to help us procure a
the next executive director what does
that time frame look like it's just as
quick as someone from um the board
obtaining quotes or whoever you delegate
to do that uh we have a couple of
options for you of search firms that
we've used in the past of course if you
guys have or are aware of others that we
may not be um you can contact them as
well we have not ex seen it exceed
50,000 in the search firms we've hired
probably in the last three or four years
so really it's just about obtaining two
quotes from someone okay and then what
is the internal timeline as soon as we
get quotes to you um we can turn it over
fairly quickly as long as the vendor
works with us and sets up a proper
vendor profile if they don't already
exist in our system if they do it's just
just a matter of animal services putting
in the requisition we obtain insurance
and um we can get a purchase order out
the door all right thank you thank you
madam
chair yes Madam chair I'm going to swim
against the tide I don't think we should
to hire a search firm um I've been
through this Rodeo twice the city of Los
crus human uh resources department does
a fantastic job of getting the word out
um in it across the country
uh they worked in the past two times we
did this they worked closely with the
facility staff to determine where we
could post the the jobs besides neogov
so that we are getting people within the
animal services Community uh we're
getting this posting in front of
them the and the way we've done it in
the past was we we we set a a posting
date we set a closing date um then City
HR did a did a great job of going
through the applications and determining
which met the minimum requirements and
then forwarding to the selection
committee
the the packets that did meet the
requirements the committee then Narrows
that down uh and and comes before the
full board usually in closed session um
although those rules rules may have
changed a bit um to say here's who we
recommend as the finalists to bring in
for
interviews and uh then those people come
in we certainly bring them in front of
the public so that the public can ask
questions the staff can ask questions um
if we do a search firm we take the risk
of hiring somebody who doesn't know our
community um as board member Gates
mentioned earlier in regards to um our
our numbers we are
atypical and we know our community
better than anybody
else we may find a search firm and those
people may or may not be animal people
and we are animal people this is our
passion this is why we're here gathered
in the same room the budget impact
$25,000 is a significant amount of money
out of this budget
that I don't I don't see any need to
spend uh personally we we have we didn't
do it in the past and we got two good
executive directors who lasted a good
long time each time and then again as
was just asked uh how long is this going
to take well it doesn't take any time if
we don't go that route we can proceed if
we do it as a board in conjunction with
city of Los cruus Human Resources I've
done it I've worked with them twice they
do a great job and uh I that's my
recommendation is that we go that
route thank
you commissioner sh Joo
hernandz I agree with uh board member
Williams I believe that we should try it
internally see what we can
produce um without using an executive
firm and give it a shot and go from
there
M so I have mixed emotions on this
having gone through this recently and
slavin when we hired him at South
Central did come in at $24 99.99 it was
amazing that you know they they knew the
number
um I've done some research on
this and and there are firms that you
know specialize in going to find n
you and specialize in this and um so I
think but then again you're going to be
looking at a minimum of 30 to 45 days to
bring in an another firm to get them up
and
going so I'm I'm sitting here
considering the staff and everything
else
a uh Jess is correct board member
Williams is correct we need to do this
through a subcommittee form that
committee um let the board you know give
the board give that subcommittee the
discretion to either you know hire
outside or not I'm kind of tending
because of the time frame to do this
internally and let Joe and her staff run
at it if we're unhappy with the results
we're unhappy with the results and we go
hire an external firm um and but if
we're going to try to get this filled in
the next 90 days to 120 days I think
that's the best option at this point in
time thank you
any do you want to weigh back in on the
I'll I'll offer a I now feel like I'm at
like model un or something so I'm going
to let rebuttal no I don't I don't
necessarily have a rebuttal I just have
I just would argue
um again I I think I think of two
positions that had significant requests
from the community for them to be filled
so significant import I think this is of
a more significant Import in terms of
um getting someone on board in a timely
fashion and getting someone who is
really qualified for the job um and and
this is subject to a lot of community
sort of feelings as board member
Williams mentioned um those two
positions that and and I say I just
don't the reason I lean toward
suggesting a an external firm term is I
think about our active transportation
coordinator which I think in the city of
Las crusis took quite some time to to
eventually fill that position or find
someone who is suitable and it's a very
Niche sort of area um and I don't and
then I think about our historic
preservation specialist position also
something that the community is asking
for for follow up on and I don't think
that the that um and I don't know but I
know that that process took way longer
than the community was hoping to fill
those two specialized positions um and I
don't think those were necessarily
things that we searched um beyond our
our area so and I I think um while I do
think local knowledge is really
important and I think that the process
would needs to value that um and and
that actually I think speaks to the idea
that we should revise the job
description to sort
of I think about things like when you
see a perspectus from a search committee
it gives a profile of the community and
talks about the experiences that folks
are having and I don't think that's
necessarily part of what we have the
capacity to do and I think it would be a
powerful part of a search would be
characterizing the community and giving
folks a clear picture of what they're
stepping into so um I still lean toward
us hiring someone because I think um
uh I
think it would help to have a a third
party to say this is these are some of
the things that are part of a search and
and ways that we can maximize the number
of applicants but I also understand the
budget related impacts and the timing
related impacts although I I I don't
think that an internal process will
necessarily yield the numbers of
applicants that we imagine who are
qualified and able to do the job in a
short amount of time so so I would argue
an internal process isn't inherently
shorter um than than hiring a search
firm based on the the the experiences
that I've had within Niche sort of
recruitment for very specialized and
difficult
jobs board member
Gates I just want to say I agree um I
think this is a very specialized field I
think it's a very serious position um I
think we need to make sure that we're
targeting the right uh people um
regardless of where they're at um I
think that you know having a lot of I
think I think it opens up more
opportunities for involvement in the
process of like I said the community as
well as um the staff input um and gives
a little less of that burden on the
board admittedly um because then it kind
of has has professional searching for a
professional and then doing something
that they already have experience doing
again filling a very new
field very um particular position that
we really want to see a strong leader in
um and I think that finding you know a
search firm that has experience
obviously in um Animal Welfare would be
ideal um but even just having a search
firm that has experience in you know
finding an executive for nonprofits I
think that's really
important yes commissioner I just have a
question really quick for um um either
your yourself or the director of HR So
within if we did decide to go with a
with the city of Los crisis's HR
department to go forth with this um
recruitment process do you guys have
tools um do you all have contracts
available that you all can do to kind of
get this out into other fields besides
just the ones that were listed on that
slide is there a way that you can kind
of solicit um going through like the
municipal league and NM counties and all
these other organizations that you might
have access to is that something that
you all can do is there someone that you
work with to get this out to those
networks
already Madame chair board yes we
actually all of our positions get posted
on a national
platform uh so every job that we post
goes out if there are specific specific
professional related organizations that
departments or organizations want to
post with we can certainly do that as
well um and we have done that um I'd
like to also speak to um the committee
and involving the public um we've had
executive level positions that have not
been posted through firms that we have
structured and organized those uh public
input
committees um so to try and address some
of your concerns I think there's a
multitude of things that uh our HR
department has has done that may not
necessarily be known to you all
specifically um but we do have those
capabilities
yes okay thank you
Madam chair let's go ahead I'm I'm sorry
interrupt uh I just want to point out
that uh when we hired Dr Beth she came
to us from Ohio when we hired Clint he
came to us from Utah the city's HR
department does have a national reach um
they're fully capable of posting this in
ways that are going to get qualified
applicants from across the country um
and in fact when we hired Clint it was
there were three people that we were
looking at and all of them were
supremely well
qualified um I just I I have absolute
faith in city Los Cruz's HR department
and uh I have faith in this board to be
able
to bring to the
community um finalists and finally a
recommendation for hire um and then the
city
follows through on that to make sure we
get the very best person from among that
pool of applicants and we will get a
good pool of applicants I can tell you
that from experience thank you okay
thank you I'm gonna I'm gonna Christine
I'm putting you on notice I'm gonna have
a question for you in a moment um not to
move away from it seems to me we have
two two things that we need to make a
decision on and that is internal HR
versus external and sub
versus whole board can we can we talk a
little more about the subcommittee or is
there is there General agreement that
subcommittee is the way to
go Madam
chair my recommendation for the
subcommittee is based on a couple of
things one thing is uh there won't be a
quorum of the board so we're not F we're
not running up against open meetings
issues uh we can meet frequently and we
can meet uh frequently with HR at hr's
discretion to say here here's where we
are and and we need some direction from
you um and then this board since we only
meet
quarterly
um what the subcommittee is going to
have to do is come back in April and say
Here's where we are and the the entire
board at that point we may be able to
make recommendations I don't know I
can't predict that but at some point the
entire board's going to have or as
Patrick said earlier member PEC that we
can call a special meeting if if if we
need to depending on the timeline um the
subcommittee gives the if the board
invests in the subcommittee and says we
believe that these three people can do
the job working in in hand inand with
city of Los cruus HR department uh I
think we expedite this and we do it in a
way that is not impactful to an already
tight budget at the ascm
thoughts on not having a
subcommittee okay good well that seems
so I just I I just wanted to say that um
I don't I mean I don't know if this is
twisting it too much but I mean I think
having a subcommittee is necessary
however I don't know that I necessarily
agree with the idea that the
subcommittee makes the decision about
whether or not to use HR or use the um
uh search firm I think think that should
no I I agree thank
you uh councilor Corman are you going to
jump in I I was just going to say I
think if I think we can move today can
we move action items and I I I don't I
think it's possible we should have
public comment also in this but I think
we could
consider two motions and I'm not
proposing them I'm just I I'm checking
in with Christine that this would be an
appropriate action one is to appoint a
subcommittee um and probably talk a
little bit about what we expect the
membership of that is so that it's sort
of representative of the of the bigger
larger board um and then two general
direction on something like if it should
go internally using our HR process
versus a search firm those would be two
fine motions to make we would just have
to come up with the Motions right now
correct that's actually what I was going
to recommend to you guys was that you
make a a motion and vote on the
subcommittee and then also a motion um
and vote on internal versus
external so I will craft em motion on
the Fly I know Christine does not love
that but this one is the easier of the
two um
I move that the the board today um and
then we can have public comment on this
after right I think after we have a
motion in a
second okay I I so I don't want it to be
like I'm trying to move away from it
having that um but I move that we create
a subcommittee of the ascmv board that
will work to do the follow the
administrative work related to this
search
um to
include job description search process
and timeline um
roughly uh that is representative of the
board and that it has Representatives
both from the community and elected
officials and from the county and the
city so that would be my motion
which is lengthy but I I think that you
all get the gist per perhaps I hope
second okay let me open it up to public
comment
then yes please come
forward absolutely
not I'm going to um sorry I don't know
how to work the clock so I'm going to
time on my phone and I will not start
until you
arrived and I also want to note that I
don't know what the timer on my I don't
know what the alarm is going to sound
like so I apologize if it's horrible so
3 minutes
and please Ander good morning I just
want to say from my perspective as an
animal advocate in this community I
wholeheartedly agree with Becky Karan
and there definitely needs to be public
input you're going to get crazy amount
of pressure if you don't do that and um
you know we can we can however you want
to decide who those people are if you
need advice from other Advocates or you
have ideas that' be fine too I also
think that you should go external uh
because it is as everyone says such a n
position and with all due respect to Mr
Williams I've heard I wasn't here but I
have heard not great things about Dr
Beth and um Clint worked out well but I
think that you do need a search firm
that specializes in animal
welfare and um that's it thank you madam
chair if before you get away could you
identify yourself for the records so for
the minutes she did okay I I missed that
part thank
you
and I wasn't sure if you were were you
waving because you would also like to
speak or were you just waving
because Jerry wanted to speak no okay
and and we will also um for other sub
motion we in terms of discussing the
internal versus external will allow
public comment as
well so um any other comments on
subcommittee would would we need to say
who the members are now if we pass this
motion just for clarity sake um
councelor cran you can do a separate
motion to appoint people to appoint
people yeah okay volunt tell people
yeah yeah okay we'll do a separate then
thank you okay great so on the motion to
form a subcommittee um consisting of
board member representation including at
least one from County one from City and
then also uh having community members
represented as well and and CMV
staff board member Williams yes board
member Gates yes board member Campbell
yes board member peek yes councelor
Corin yes commissioner shjo Hernandez
yes commissioner Sanchez is absent and I
chair Graham vote Yes that motion
passes um so do
we do we want to now make a motion or do
we want to discuss is going to be on who
will represent oh I can just pick no I
think we maybe should have a discussion
uh not um so well
I Mr Mr Williams I know you've indicated
that you do not want to Ser I'm kidding
on the subcommittee but I'm going to
presume that you're throwing your hat in
for
subcommittee okay
then others and the grand total would be
four which is the not
approaching the Quorum of the board
correct um councelor cran you have eight
members so you it would be I would do
three three okay yeah
three
um no I I volunteer myself to not be on
this committee thank you just
yeah oh true I under understood okay
great so Mr Williams is representing
City on this okay great
misunderstood why are you looking at
me cuz I can't look at Manny oh is this
where we volunt tell someone Madam chair
I volunt tell Manny no just kidding
please board member Ben oh sorry I'm
sorry who Beno oh I'm sorry Barbara
Madam chair just a point of
clarification I'm not understanding how
the city is
represented um because board member
Williams uh was one of the
um okay now now no longer Community but
Community Representatives um appointed
by city
council to serve on the
board so I shouldn't have said elected I
I guess I should have said City
representation County representation
but I think I suspect you're also
alluding to the idea that the someone
from City HR or Associated things would
be there or no that's not I I guess my
question is the board is currently made
up of representatives from the city from
the county and those representing the
community so and so I I was confused
then by the the designation so that that
was my question okay I understand
um so then we do need to have a city
elected and a County elected as such so
I I you're making a face I can volunteer
to this but it but it sounds
extraordinarily timec consuming and so I
again I know that's why I'm making the
the same face um no and for we For
Better or Worse we both have other jobs
and that can make scheduling really
difficult and that's why we're in a star
down now sorry just to be
transparent I I mean I don't know I
don't mind throwing my hat in there as
well um I know that doesn't then have an
elected City official in that
subcommittee but I just wanted to put
that out there
so can we push to four people and still
be
safe cuz wouldn't Quorum be six five
Okay so so we could do
four what I would recommend is is that
we do an elected from the county an
elected from the city and then two
community
members okay then board member Gates
you're willing to be the
second Committee Member specifying that
we this is not discounting people not
sitting on the board in the community as
participating on the subcommittee just
trying to be clear with that so that way
you have two electeds in two
City or two electeds and two Community
they're both c-words I mean we're we're
hdden somewhere near the head of the
nail um but that's what I would
recommend
and uh sure I'll serve on the
subcommittee I will also serve on the
subcommittee okay thank you with the
understanding that this is my third
executive Search in less than 12 months
I'm so sorry
Madam chair so um I would move that the
subcommittee will consist of board
members Williams Gates commissioner
Shalo Hernandez and
myself Madam I'm sorry I think we need a
I need a motion in a second on that so
moved thank you a second
please second again board member
Williams is there any public input oh
I'm so sorry
we got a thumbs up for the record board
member
Williams uh yes board member Gates yes
board member Campbell yes board member
peek yes councelor
Corin yes I'm sorry commissioner shelo
Hernandez yes I'm sorry too commissioner
Sanchez is absent and um I chair Graham
vote
Yes so in terms of
motion um
I guess I have to phrase it like a
question in term because we have to be
able to vote yes or no on whether we're
doing external or
internal so I suppose the motion could
be
phrased either way or Christine would
you recommend doing two
motions one for internal one for
external and then we have like a vote
count yeah I would I would start with
external internal if you get all the
votes for that one then that's that's
the way you're going to go but if you
don't then I would take a vote for the
second one if that makes sense no do a
vote for going internal if if you you
get a majority vote oh I see okay so it
can be either one correct yes councelor
Corin I again um because for lack of a
motion I move that we um move to hire a
search firm to conduct the community
input job description development and
Outreach for the ASC MV director
position can I get a second
seconded thank
you commissioner shelo
Hernandez so with that being
said and with the motion on the table
being the to hire an executive Search
[Music]
firm if this motion passes are we then
giving
the
subcommittee the authority to hire and
choose said search
firm I I would presume yes okay and is
that said
subcommittee uh in charge of developing
the job
description I have all the answers today
I I I would presume so
yes and to set up the community outreach
portion of this search Madam
chair sorry one moment um I think that
when we get into the community outreach
if we did just it seems that the firm
would be setting that
up correct so the subcommittee would
then charge the firm
[Music]
to do
this I thought that's the point yeah I
guess that would be the point of the
firm I'm just making sure I'm not
misunderstanding yeah no I'm just trying
to understand exactly what we need to
include in like probably an amended
motion to do this to kind of outline
what
exactly this firm is going to be doing
for us or if we're just going to leave
it up to the subcommittee because the
thing is is that we're not back here
until next quarter so if we then the
four members of the subcommittee meet
you myself and our two community members
are meeting and we start putting all
this into place I mean there's a good
chance that we will then hire the search
firm we will start instructing them that
hopefully we'll have a completed job
description um in those next four months
which means that we're going to pre be
presenting at the next meeting probably
a pretty complete package um with a
possible posting already being made and
recruiting already starting I just want
to make sure that we're going to get the
Buy in of this entire board so that
we're not going to be having a lengthy
conversation about
what we did the decisions that we made
the direction that we're going and all
that kind of stuff I want to make sure
that this board is completely sure that
we understand exactly what the
subcommittee is going to be doing um I
just don't want to be in a position in
four months where we're
definitely going over the job
description again because there's
questions or we're going over what these
community outreach meetings look like um
um it it's nothing against the board
it's just I want to make sure that I
know because you two have another job I
have another job and three kids too so I
just want to make sure we're not going
to be wasting our time meeting and
getting this ball rolling um so I just
want to know exactly what we're
expecting this external search firm to
do one and what powers I mean in the the
motion we did give that subcommittee
power to I there was three things listed
and please don't ask me to repeat them
because I'm not even sure I remember um
so I just want to make sure that we're
understanding exactly what we're doing
okay good yes board member Campell it's
my understanding that we are entrusting
this subcommittee with all of that and
whether there's a search firm or not
that we uh we are not to Second guest
the subcommittee we're to the whole
board is to end up doing the final
interviews but not second guest the
subcommittee on their inter steps that's
my understanding that's my understanding
as
well any public
comment for the record that was another
agreement and so on the just making sure
that I'm phrasing it correctly on the
motion to hire an external search
committee uh external firm I'm sorry
external firm uh board member Williams
no board member Gates yes board member
Campbell yes board member
peek
yes councelor
Corin yes uh commissioner Shalo herandez
yes uh commissioner Sanchez is absent
and I chair Graham vote
Yes okay thank
you madam chair yes board member PC
could I talk Leisa can I ask you
something I'm s oh can you speak a
little more into the mic
sorry Elicia does the board have the
power
to contract or spend the money or does
that go to the interim director Madam
chair board members uh it would go to uh
employees of the Animal Services
Center so understand that the hiring of
the firm
everything else would have to go through
the exist the interim directorship Liz I
hope you're okay you doing all
right it's it's like breathing it's like
breathing through a fire hose but you're
going to have to you're going to have to
manage the search to a degree at Le at
least getting the requisitions and all
that stuff gone
through and Lisa does she have the same
signatory Authority as the I used to
they do not okay but does she have over
25,000
um we they've Trad traditionally sent
everything to our purchasing program and
we sign everything for them right right
right but I mean she anything under
25,000 but she can yeah okay that's what
I was checking on is that we don't have
to come back to the board to hire The
Firm okay thank you
pardon I think anything under 25 has
always come to this
board I'm pretty sure under 25 has come
to this board as
well okay well we can clarify this we
will clearly need to clarify this at
some point because
everyone no we're good I mean the Animal
Service Center has followed our
procurement code with respect to the
thresholds okay so we're good so
basically the
subcommittee will ask our interim
director to
to submit on our behalf a request for an
outside search firm and you two will
then be working together is that
correct Madam chair and board members I
would just like to clarify are you are
you directing the interim director to
get
quotes and to um submit those for
selection
of a search firm that would not you're
saying that is not at the direction of
the subcommittee I'm I'm unclear so
that's what I'm asking is that
subcommittee authorized to instruct the
exe interim executive director to do
that work and to work with purchasing to
get that
done that's probably more of a question
to the board I
guess I guess as far as the quotes were
concerned I figured that was a
subcommittee and if it's like more of
the like submitting of the quotes once
they've been obtained then I would think
that that would go to interm
director okay and board member Campbell
did you have a comment I thought you had
your letter okay thank
you um okay moving on um to General
Public input are there any members of
the public would like to come forward to
speak seeing none chair and board
comments um
I will mention that we at the
adjournment of this meeting we will be
moving into a closed session the closed
session meeting notice is printed on the
agenda as required um in the future we
will publish those separately and I'll
be providing a Clos session statement at
the next board meeting um other board
members comments yes please miss W thank
you madam chair just um real quick just
going back to clarification on some of
the stats in regards to the population
for the city and the county and the
number of animals in the city and the
county I was just kind of looking at it
real quick so according to the census in
2023 and looking at the number of
households the C's got about
93,94 households and the city's got
about um 46,0 661 households and looking
at the NOA chart and figuring those
numbers out so the County's got about
[Music]
225,000
11,986 pets um per household I mean for
the the city so if you combine those
you're looking at about 337,000
that's if those those numbers are still
correct as from the 2023 census thank
you so
much other board
members comments yes councelor Corin no
no I was just going to say no I don't
have
comments well actually yes sorry C you
were correct you're 100% correct in your
assessment of my desire um I do think
that the city's ongoing update of their
uh animal ordinance is still happening
and I think those convers ations are
still happening I do anticipate and and
I think it's expected that that will be
um coming up for a vote probably by the
end of March so I I don't know I know
that some of those conversations are
still ongoing but just as a heads up it
is still on the on the on the near
Horizon nearer than the next ascmv board
meeting so for folks who are listening
who are invested in those animal
ordinance updates um that's that is also
happening still in conversations with
both the ascmv community members and
other acos are all are all part of that
conversation
so thank you appreciate that reminder
one
more oh
I'm I'm sorry do you would need to
approach the podium if you had a okay
board member Gates um I don't know how
it happened so if the city folks want to
um elaborate I haven't looked at City
Council meetings but I saw that snap is
now zero cost cost to Las cruus
residents I think that was a city
council doing and hasn't been it didn't
happen by October so I don't think it's
been told to folks so I just wanted to
comment yep it was among the budget
priorities from last year so the city
has uh is trying to match the counties
the county has historically given to
snap for locost SP neuters but this is
the first year that the city has
included that as as one of their things
so thank you City sure
any other
comments okay uh can I get a motion to
adjourn
please so move sheler Hernandez do we
have a second second third second by
board member Campbell and we are
adjourned at 11:37 a.m. thank you so
much e