e
e e
[Music]
J good
afternoon welcome to today's work
session today is Tuesday November 12th
2024 it is approximately exactly 1 pm. I
am mayor PM Beno we will start this
meeting today with the moment of silence
for the brave women men and women of the
United States armed forces and the
courageous women and men of the Las crus
police and fire departments as they keep
our city safe
24/7 please join me in the
pledge thank you
before I continue to our agenda items I
do have a closed meeting statement to
read to all of you and hang hang with me
because there's lots of names I got to
read so um let's get started the city of
Las Cruses oh
that's is that right yeah
right yes yes okay my apologies the city
of Las Cruses South the city of Las crus
South Central Solid Waste Metro
narcotics uh mvda and the Animal Service
Center met in close session at 1105 a.m.
November 12th 2024 the following were in
attendance Patrick peek Rosa Montoya
Adolfo cardinas Bernice Navaro Scott
mcal Renee ree laara
Olen
[Music]
um h
le le Lopez Albert Flores Clint dcker
Barbara bomo Jeremy story ji Borgo
Cassie McClair Becky Graham Becky Corin
Yanna benom ion tomow Erica hackz uh
Roberta
Marquez Maria Sanchez Josh saffle and
Chris
Gartner the meeting adjourned at 11:21 1
a.m. statement for the record the close
meeting discussion was limited to the
items as stated in the posted notice the
purpose of the close meeting is to was
to conduct an an audit exit conference
for the fiscal year 24 for the city of
Las cruset South Central Solid Waste
Authority Metro narcotics msia Valley
Regional dispatch Authority and Animal
Services Center of the msia valley which
is close pursuant to nmsa section 1265
to
12614 here we go
up first is jobs of the week and I don't
think we have jobs of the week today um
so second up is pets of the week with
Carol
neelsen good afternoon I'm Carol Nelson
the digital content specialist with the
Animal Services Center of the missia
valley this week for the pets of the
week we have our cat of the week Jack
number 786 685 if you would like to look
him up online I'm a sweet 4-month-old
domestic short hair who can be a bit
timid at first but once I feel
comfortable my playful side shines
through I sometimes have a bit of a
wobble but that doesn't stop me from
chasing other after toys and having fun
I'm looking for a calm and loving home
where I can grow into the confident cat
I know I can be and our dog of the week
is Jesse she is our longest term stay at
the shelter so we would love to see her
get adopted um her number is
66337 I'm always on the Move whether
it's chasing my tail or playing Fetch
with the shelter staff my days are
filled with toys treats and lots of fun
I love learning new tricks especially
when there's a tasty reward involved my
energy is contagious and I'm known for
bringing smiles to everyone's faces but
I do need some help raining in my energy
especially around other dogs sometimes
what I'm really looking for is a patient
and experienced forever home where I can
share all of my love and joy
um and this week we are going to be
teaming up with the Elks Lodge for a
silent auction we will have some
adoptable animals there so come out and
see us on Saturday uh from 11: to 2:00
p.m. and as always you can find us on
social media and also feel free to visit
our website at ww. ascmv org just as a
quick update about our website we are
currently experience some software
issues and so there is a little bit of a
glitch when you're looking at adoptable
pets or recently um found pets that are
brought into the center so if you have
any questions or concerns reach out to
us by phone or you're also welcome to
come into the center to ask questions
and see what we have on site thank you
so much as always
Carol uh first up on our agenda is 3.1
State Legislative priorities that will
be Barbara bomo Natalie Green Christine
Rivera and Larry horen who is our city
lobbyist Barbara
good afternoon mayor proem and councel
uh this afternoon we bring forward for
your consideration um some items of
interest for the upcoming 2025 State
legislative
session before you is the process that
we typically follow as we prepare for
the legislative sessions that start in
January kind of in the late summer we
start discussions and those are
inclusive of our state legislators of
course um we um like to hear about what
the interests and concerns are we are
able to share things from the the city's
perspective as well mostly from our
adopted plans and priorities um we go
through a process where we take a look
at what our adopted plans are indicating
for uh prioritization for our Capital
outlay requests and then here um at
today's work session we have the
opportunity to bring those forward to
you to get your input um on those items
that are proposed for uh Capital outli
priorities we also talk about upcoming
legislation um that might be of interest
to the city and might be of interest for
you all to support and so today
project with grow funds there's always a
possibility that the guidelines change
during the session so I'm I'm providing
what we the knowledge we had based on on
the 2024 session but this is something
that um we need to be able to to respond
to during the session depending on what
the guidelines are um growth funds or
Junior money as as it was known in the
past typically uh was available if there
were funds left over so the funding
amount uh after the budget so the
funding amount varied and I think that's
still the case and that's why there's
with growth funds there's a little bit
of uncertainty about what might be
available and what the parameters might
be but that's something that we're
keeping track of so that if we do have
something that matches that we're able
to
um accessibility of our spaces for a
greater number of our uh population and
also we've noted that there's an
economic impact uh for the larger number
of Playing Fields allows us to schedule
tournaments and other large events here
that have um an Economic and Business uh
impact in our community so the the
capital outlay request for for this
phase of the complex would be 5.9
million the total project would be uh
over $20 million and you can see the
funds that we've addressed or that we
have invested to this
particular project scope um other funds
received which um is 3.4 million we
still have to figure out the $8 million
but this is sort of overall how we're
doing the the project planning for this
scope for East
Mesa so again the Highlight is the
capital outlay request of almost $6
million for this
project the next project is something
that uh will you'll remember because
recently we have adopted the master plan
for the branagan library um uh
renovation uh and expansion of Li
Library services so this scoped project
uh for the branagan library renovation
has an $18 million total
cost um we are anticipating that we
could request this on our 2026 go Bond
initiative perhaps for around $1 million
we have received other funds for from
the state for Furnishings from the tid
for planning in the amount of 1.4
million and our Capital outlay requests
would be $5 million and we would still
be looking at finding uh an additional
$600,000 for the project but this will
follow the master plan plan that you
just adopted uh for facility renovation
of the ground floor Ada improvements um
expanding the lobby Etc uh so this would
be the the phase one or first step in
creating the state-of-the-art library to
with enhanced services for the community
and really this is a regional effort our
library is utilized um not only by our
city residents but those in the region
who come to um make use of the facility
and and to um to check out books and and
other
materials the next item on the list of
potential Capital priorities is
inductive charging this is for our
electric buses um our electric buses
right now cannot meet the duty cycle on
one charge so that means going around
the city and the loops that they're
they're routing um and so what happens
is they would have to be swapped out at
some point for diesel bus is if we were
to be able to
uh plan design and construct an
inductive charging system then every
time the buses would come into the
Intermodal Transit facility they'd be
able to be charging while they're
waiting there uh to get the next
passengers on board and actually that
would provide sufficient charge uh for
their duty cycle this project um has a
$5 million total cost uh with a a
$600,000 city investment we are
anticipating to that we will apply for
federal low no funds and that's the
funds TBD grants that you see there of
$4.2 million so the capital outlay
request for this particular project
would be
$500,000 and the community impact in
addition to our operating efficiencies
would certainly be um improved emissions
uh from the greater utilization of our
electric buses
another potential Capital outlay item uh
with our Museum of Nature and Science is
the re a redesign of the displays at
that museum the request for this uh
capital outla capital outlay priority
would be just under
$400,000 to allow for better engagement
with visitors through the uh redesign of
the
facilities
um um displays
active Transportation this is an item
that has been a capital outlay priority
uh for a couple years kind of like the
East Mesa Recreation Complex and that is
because as we continue to implement our
active Transportation plan there are
elements of many projects that could be
expanded to accommodate act a better
active Transportation scope um the
community impact would be increased
safety uh comfort and convenience for
our facilities and that includes um
streets uh Transit shade structures uh
bicycle facilities trees anything that
enhances the safety of our uh
Transportation uh in the
community the capital outlay request is
$4 million we have received
$400,000 we have spent $2 million of
City funds and and we have still about
$600,000 in other funds to identify uh
for this project uh this the identified
improvements would total to $7
million we have a housing project on the
um list of potential Capital La
priorities although we are still
evaluating funding and financing options
for this project but we bring it to you
for discussion and and consideration we
are still scoping this out um and this
is the project that will increase the
inventory of housing for Veterans uh
work Workforce and Senior uh rental
units it'll be
218 uh units in the ELO MRA and again
this is something that we could
potentially look at uh as a capital
outlay request but we are still
finalizing some numbers so that's why
you see the as risk on this one but
potentially the capital outlay request
could be $4 million on a project cost
that's almost $50 million so large
project one of the proposed Capital La
priorities has to do with ADA compliance
and this is important because it will
allow our facilities and specifically
City Hall and Municipal Court to be more
accessible to the public uh these are
two facilities that are heavily used by
the community and there are number of
improvements that could be made uh to
make these facilities more accessible
including parking ramps um automated
doors uh redesigning floor space
handrails um again specifically at City
Hall and Municipal Court the total
project costs would be about $5 million
$1 million of City funds spent $1
million of capital outlay and then $3
million still to be determined and and
with many of our as with many of our cap
outlay priorities depending on the
funding that we have we actually
received we can certainly scale the
improvements we're able to put in uh but
this is what we uh think would be a
great uh ask and you you may have um
noted that in the governor's portal she
specifically talked about facilities uh
that need to comply with with
regulations so this would certainly fit
that that uh description or that
guidance you all are also familiar I
think with our Capital outlay priority
that's been continuing continuing uh
regarding our Wastewater and septic
systems um this is something that you've
seen for many years because there are
many uh many Parcels or homes that are
on septic systems that are not connected
to our utilities uh utilities let me
know that um back in the early 2000s mid
2000s uh when we started looking at the
inventory of uh Parcels in the city that
were on septic system it was around
1,800
uh units we have been able to convert
about uh
263 to City Utilities so there are many
more that we would like to address um
and as you see here the community impact
of this is in protecting our aquifer
from pollution and helping to ensure the
reliability of the city's drinking water
supply so this will continue to be a
priority for us uh we will continue to
utilize whatever funds we receive uh
towards expanding our our Utility
Systems and potentially connectivity uh
to individual homes and you're going to
hear a little bit about that later when
um Larry talks about the enabling
legislation that we're going to uh bring
forward hopefully in the next
session uh and one note on this Slide
the reason that there's no dollar
amounts in the in the city's investment
line is just because these are
Enterprise funds those of you who are
very familiar with the utilities uh
business in the board know that for
price funds that are generated by rates
this is something that we're unable to
use uh for this particular type of
project so that's why we're always
looking for other funding sources to be
able to to make Headway on
this another potential Capital outlay
priority involves Street and Park
lighting specifically for safety uh
reasons um safety and efficiency we've
got street lights in some areas that
that um don't have uh bulbs that provide
adequate lighting and we have some Park
facilities with insufficient or outdated
lighting so in we're targeting a few
Parks Valley View aaka young and lions
for example with perimeter lighting for
this particular project this project
cost for both streets and parks would be
just over $7 million we've invested just
under 4 million the capital outlay
request would be just over 3 million and
we'd have about 4 $1,000 to to still uh
figure out for completing this
project um we've got some police
regional response vehicles uh as a
potential Capital outlay uh
priority LCPD responds increasingly
outside of the city in assistance to uh
our state police and this specifically
uh pertains to swat uh activi ities so
in order to not uh strain the
fleet we are uh requesting capital
outlay of $500,000 in order to fund five
vehicles that would be assigned to swat
for this purpose and you'll note here in
the community impact over 50% of the
SWAT call outs are call outs are outside
the city limits so this is also another
Regional impact um uh in in the
assistance that we provide to the area
for this purpose
and then finally uh another potential
Capital outlay priority is the police
real-time crime Center you'll probably
remember this from our list last year uh
we did receive some fundings funding
from the legislature last year we've
also received some federal funds as well
for equipment um the the community
impact of implementing a real-time crime
Center is to be able to provide realtime
and intelligence to officers so that
they can respond
uh more safely and act on better info
can also help uh with locating missing
persons tracking stolen vehicles but in
order to do that we're renovating um
part of our police station and equipping
it with um the technology and systems
needed in order to uh bring this uh
realtime crime Center to life also in
the community we would need a number of
cameras and equipment and so the capital
outlay request for this is is a million
dollar total project cost four we've
invested just over a million we've
received just under a million with about
$800,000 still to identify for this
project with with respect to the growth
funds that I mentioned earlier the
proposals for these funds will be
developed over the next month or so and
then certainly during the legislative
session as we get more guidance as to
what the F funds availability is going
to be and what the priorities are going
to be from the legislators but we have a
few things that we'd like to start
preliminarily developing for funding and
one of them includes a library
bookmobile uh this would be a program uh
again to provide a great greater access
of Library services to our community and
and to our region um it would involve
the acquisition of a of a bus uh to to
provide this service so that's that's
one item proposed by our quality of life
Department um another potential grow
project is the acquisition of emergency
generators for some of our facilities
that would help with our community
resiliency and response in um in times
of emergency uh for heating and cooling
stations
Etc um then we also have a potential ask
for retrofits of our transit buses to
provide greater security for our drivers
unfortunately we have had some incidents
where the drivers have um um been
assaulted um and so we definitely want
to make sure that they can perform their
job in a safe environment and so those
retrofits of the of uh existing buses
could potentially be a a grow program
request and then uh finally as the um
Police Department expands uh some of
their use of Technology there's a
proposal for a drone as a first
responder program uh something that has
been implemented in other communities uh
to Target high priority calls with
longer longer range drones and and
similar to the real-time crime Center
providing better information so that
response uh can be made without uh the
same degree of ambiguity that we might
have right now for some some certain
types of
calls um I've I've just got over a long
list of uh potential priorities for the
city as you know we have our partner
agencies that are at the Community of
Hope campus and Natalie is going to go
over some of their Capital outlay
priorities these are not priorities that
we would necessarily be submitting to
the state they would submit them but
they're on our campus they're on our
partners so we think it's helpful to
coordinate and to know what the requests
are so that we can also support them so
I'm going to go ahead and turn it over
to Natalie
good afternoon Natalie Green for the
record um just to note there was a fifth
logo elito it's disappeared over lunch
but there was El Cito logo up there uh
before I left for lunch so I didn't
forget you guys um so the campus is made
up of five Alliance agencies uh the
first is M Valley Kam hope
peros Amador health and elito and so
they work together to advocate for uh
campus-wide projects um the four that
were selected this year for Capital
Outlet priorities is the kitchens uh the
deescalation office uh some solar for
building one and then some master plan
implementation uh the first project is
the kitchens it is a 20,000 SQ fot uh
soup kitchen and licensed commercial
Community Kitchen it's received
approximately $2.9 million in capital
outlay so it's under design um they'll
start working on uh site prep and
demolition it is consistent with the
adopted master plan the estimated total
project cost is about 15 million and so
they would be requesting uh 5 million
this
year uh the second is the deescalation
office so it's the conversion of an
existing patio into additional office
space it would be dedicated to help
people in crisis it gives them sort of a
safe place away from the rest of the
buildings it did receive Congressional
directed spending so we would be seeking
gain capital outlay in the amount of
400,000 and10 410,000
uh the third is again the solar for
building one uh building one is the
building that houses Amador health and
the current uh elal sub kit so it's
approximate 600,000 to to provide uh
solar and that would improve um the
service provision as on the campus so
they can um dedicate more of their
funding to direct Client Services rather
than um costly
electric uh the fourth is just a menu of
options so depending on the funding that
we receive we could select um very
particular projects as part of the
master plan and the traffic impact
analysis that we conduct conducted uh
there was a number of recommendations um
including some Hawk systems on Amador
and a hawk system system on Valley um
some bus lane and turning lane
improvements
a third um emergency exit only driveway
uh right now there's two driveways off
Amador we would like an emergency exit
off Valley um some potential
improvements to the lateral uh as
Council may be a war be aware that
lateral uh that Miko lateral next to the
campus was buried and so it uh provides
an opportunity to do some trail
extensions and
fencing um and some additional uh
pedestrian Improvement in that area and
then uh a parking lot reservation uh
renovation so the city acquired uh this
parcel here and it's currently a dirt um
lot so some additional uh parking lot
improvements would benefit the entire
campus and with this I'll pass it over
to
Larry thank you Natalie yep to go over
legislative policy items we have Larry
heran thank you Larry
uh thank you Barbara um good afternoon
Larry heran lobbyist for the city of Las
cruset it's always a pleasure to be here
in front of you um appreciate to get
chance to talk to you about this
upcoming legislative
session the 2025 legislative session one
thing we're we're definitely going to
see is there's a dramatic turnover in
the members of the legislature out of a
total of 112 members the house has 13
new members coming in and the Senate has
16 out of 42 so that's the largest
turnover we've seen in the New Mexico
State Senate in a very long time um
coming out of this the last election
there was not dramatic change as far as
the makeup of the legislature the
Republicans um both in the house and the
Senate picked up one additional seat and
so the Democrats lost one seat but it's
still a very um strongly
Democrat um majority in both houses as
we come into the session in January this
is a 60-day legislative session as as
just as a reminder a 60-day session is
opened it's open season for the
legislators to introduce anything that
they feel that they would like the state
to consider as a 30-day session they're
limited into what they can the scope of
uh legislation they can consider 60-day
session it's open to everything um as
far far as Trends and
forecast still we are still on a
positive economic growth for the the
budget for the state of New Mexico
although last year we had record excess
Revenue levels in excess of $3 billion
we're still seeing um trends of more and
excess general fund Revenue although
we're the the latest estimate in August
was about 600 million in addition to
what we've what we had last year in
Revenue growth so there's still a lot of
opportunities for um budget increases
for the state what you're starting to
see in the trend is the state is
dependent on oil production and most of
what we're seeing as that positive
Revenue trend is an increase in oil
production it's not tapering but it's
starting to level off some so it's not
as steep of an increase as it has been
in the past but it's still a good
forecast um for the legislature we're
going to get to specific legislation to
watch uh on these further slides and
what some highlights we think are going
to be a Major Impact for the city um as
we've done in the past and as we saw
also during the interim and then in the
last legislation um role of counselors
and staff during the session as you as
you may have experienced last year
there's some there's a couple of times
that I think the council and staff is
planning to come to Santa Fe for the
session not NE in conjunction with or
around Los cruus days in Santa Fe and
then there's also other opportunities if
you're up there on specific pieces of
legislation um that you want to advocate
for and even if you're not there now
following Co they're still allowing for
virtual participation in a lot of the
Committees so as issues come up I notify
staff and then staff can notify you
about if there's issues you have
particular interest and as some of you
experienced last year if you're in Santa
Fe and there's issues you want to work
on and you want to connect with
legislators we're happy to walk you
around and help help navigate that crazy
place um so we can at least find those
legislators for you and then staff is
the same so we we set up a communication
I guess I would call it a tree as far as
what we're dealing with issues funnel
those issues down to staff get input and
then and then we're able to advocate for
the city's interest during the session
so again look forward to you and if you
have a chance to make it to Santa Fe or
you have interest in a particular issue
as you probably heard me say before it
makes a difference if you go to Santa Fe
and see the legislators there they
appreciate the phone calls and texts
especially when they know you've made a
4-Hour trip just to talk to them about
an issue it does make an impact and they
do pay attention and they also like to
hear from other elected officials versus
hearing just from staff or from
lobbyists so if there's an opportunity
or there's something you would like to
to have connection with up there we're
happy to help you make that connection
with the
legislators here just a a a breakdown of
the timeline session always starts the
third Tuesday in January and so this
year it's about the latest it can starts
with January 21st um they've allowed
pre-filing of legislation for
legislators although they've cut down
the time they used to give them about a
month now it's only about two weeks so
starting just after on January 1st we'll
start to see the first of the pre-filed
legislation you don't have to pre-file
legislation to introduce it during the
session but it gives them an early start
to try and get early Bill num some
legislators like to have low Bill
numbers um halfway through the session
is the deadline for Bill introduction so
on the 30th day or February 20th that's
the last day legislators um can
introduce substantive bills except it's
also not the exact last day because
they'll introduce what's called dummy
bills so they'll have about a 100 bills
that only have a title and have no
substance that they can substitute later
in the session um for substantive
legislation and they'll they'll
introduce all those bills on that last
day but by about the midpoint will have
a good idea of what we're looking at and
what the scope of what policy issues we
will see um March 22nd is the end of the
legislative session I always say the
only things I can tell you for sure
about a legislative session and in this
in 2025 it will for sure start at noon
on January 21st and it will for sure end
at noon on March 22nd give or take a few
minutes but other than that everything
else is pretty much still the wild west
um the governor has 20 days to act on
legislation follow following the session
if the governor fails to act on a piece
of legislation by that date of April
11th this year it's deemed to be pocket
vetoed um so she so the governor has to
actually take action to sign or veto
legislation and the governor also has
the authority to use line item veto on
Appropriations bills and so some of
those bills like Capital outlay like the
budget the governor has the authority to
line item veto and if a piece of
legislation does not have an effective
date specified in it June 20th will be
the effective date of all new legis
ation and now for ier changes I think
I'm turn it over to Christine and I'll
be
back mayor proam city council um
Christine Rivera city clerk I want to
bring forward some proposed IA changes
but before I get into that I want to
kind of go over some current data that
we're seeing at the city so as of
October 31st of this year we've had
2588 requests in 2023 we had 1,800
64 requests so we've seen an increase an
exponential increase we feel that we're
going to probably um meet 3,000 by the
end of the year um we've seen since 2018
we had 810 requests so you can kind of
see the difference we've had a a 130%
rate growth in the number of requests
that we've obtained um we've also
realized that we're spending anywhere
from 400 to 500 hours a month reviewing
redacting and researching searching IA
request so just throwing that data out
there as I go into these changes in 2023
we did see some major changes to IA that
we were so excited about but generally
Ira is very vague and very ambiguous and
it's definitely interpreted differently
by different attorneys and different
judges so you can kind of see where we
run start running into some of the
problems that we do but in 2023 there
were some changes and I'm going to go
over a couple of those the first one was
a really awesome change which was body
cam specificity so we were getting
requests for any and all body cam for
this event well now they're required to
put in more specifics related to it so
they have to give us a computer aided
dispatch record number or a police
report number or a date or date range
with reasonable specificity with one of
the following the name of the law
enforcement officer a first responder an
approximate time or an approximate
location and then any other criteria
criteria established by law enforcement
usually we're looking for dates of birth
because that's how they look it up in PD
um the next couple changes that we saw
were actually um very surprising because
a lot of people don't know that we
couldn't redact these things beforehand
and now we can so one of the things that
we weren't able to redact beforehand was
great bodily
harm images of deceased and intimate
body parts now we're able to do that
we're also able to redact death
notification
so if a police officer goes out to a
family member to notify them of a death
we are now able to redact that we're
also able to redact passwords which
surprisingly was not a redaction or an
exemption that we could provide so now
we're able to do that and lastly
employee addresses those were public
record up until
2023 um of course that doesn't account
for elected officials your addresses
don't fall into that um
exemption so the two main changes that I
am proposing are related to what we call
as otherwise provided by law and this is
a really really difficult exemption for
us to apply because there are numerous
laws and so the first one is related to
victim's rights and the reason why we're
bringing this up is because victim's
rights protects the victims but only
their name so it doesn't protect their
visual depiction so somebody is the
victim of an assault we can't redact
their face we can only redact their
name so and then the thing with that is
that we can only redact up until the
case is
adjudicated so what happens is then
those protections fall away from the
victim and so a lot of times my team
feels that we're protecting the accused
a lot more than we're protecting the
victims and we see that as a major
problem so we would like to see that
those protections extend past the
adjudication of
cases next is the children's code which
is another very very difficult exemption
for us to apply so the children's code
limits the protections to Children whose
records are related only to
cfd which means child abuse and neglect
so what we're proposing is that there be
greater um protections we increase those
protections to children that are
involved in any sort of
crime so those are the main ones that
are related a lot to what PD does um the
next one is email searches and you guys
have all seen this when I've requ no not
at all when I've requested iter requests
from you guys but we get these really
really um Broad and burdensome requests
where they're requesting any and all
emails from the city manager for the
past three years that takes us a lot of
time um we do try to work with the
constituents and ask can you be a little
more specific or can you narrow down the
time frame can you give us some keywords
um you know help us help you that
doesn't always happen and so we get
these enormous email files that we have
to go through so what I'm asking for is
for some more specificity related to
email searches kind of similar to what
we have for the body cam
footage um fees this has been an ongoing
um conversation I know at the municipal
league and at the legislature we don't
have a fee schedule we don't have a set
fee schedule right now what we are
charging is for a jump drive to put
information on a jump drive or or if
we're printing copies of a document for
them everything that we do is electronic
for the most part and free and so we're
asking for there to be a change
regarding to some kind of set fee
schedule across the state so
municipalities don't have to determine
that themselves um also what's happening
is that we're putting a lot of hours and
a lot of work into these requests and
people are then saying oh never mind we
don't want that so I think if we have a
fe set fee schedule that'll help with
that
and then lastly I didn't put this on
here so it's just kind of something to
think about in the future but we have a
lot of people requesting body cam
footage that are using it on their
YouTube
channels and they're currently not
paying for those videos because they're
electronic so they get a link for them
well in return by putting it on YouTube
they're probably um monetizing off of
that and so what we would like to see is
our name image and likeness protected at
some point and maybe some sort of
trademarking or profit sharing video
related related to that so those are all
my proposed changes and I believe I'll
turn it over to
Natalie uh Natalie Green again for the
record uh we are monitoring some of the
policies around um housing this session
the first is we anticipate that there'll
be a a a third rendition of the new New
Mexico uh office of housing so we're
monitoring that bill um if it has
substantial Chang es from last year and
I anticipate that staff would be
supportive of seeing that move forward
what it does is it codifies um the
office of housing it exists now but it
only exists under this uh current
governor so this would um extend it past
um whoever's in office uh we would also
like to see additional investment in the
New Mexico Housing Trust fund last year
was one of the largest Investments um to
date so we want to see that uh
commitment move forward Ward uh we would
also like to see uh an increase in
investment in both rapid rehousing
vouchers and permanent Supportive
Housing to address increases in
homelessness uh typically that's through
the linkages program but there are other
programs out there uh we would also like
to support eviction prevention funding
so if we can um keep people from
becoming homeless in the first place and
can address their uh risk for housing
insecurity uh early and uh often than we
can prevent homelessness we'd also like
to support uh flexible funding for
Supportive hous Services and housing
oftentimes Supportive Services are
linked to very stringent and um heavily
regulated federal funds so we want to
see uh broader use and broader
flexibility in those and then we're also
monitoring uh the potential for a
Statewide source of income
discrimination um source of income
discrimination legislation has passed in
the major metos including Los Cruses
Bern Leo County Albuquerque and Santa Fe
and so we anticipate that there will be
Advocates who bring that forward for a
Statewide um so we'll continue to
monitor that as
well again Larry heran lobbyist for the
city of Los cruus just before I get into
anti-d donation and enabling legislation
just a couple of other things that's
come up on the inspection public records
act in the last couple weeks with
meetings of the municipal League um
Municipal league has met with New Mexico
foundation for open government and also
the New Mexico press Association to see
if they can collaborate on changes to IA
because one of the big challenges you
have is a fight between local
governments and open government
Advocates and so the effort is going to
be to try and see if there there's
Common Ground we can come to agreement
on and there's there's a couple areas
that seem hopeful on that part of what
and Christine touched on it about the
the fees what you have in addition to
YouTube is you have companies like Lexus
Nexus calling asking for big information
requests from local governments both
cities and counties and that's data that
they're taking commercializing and
monetizing so there may be some type of
a bifurcation of fees meaning for the
press and for Citizens where're trying
to maintain the intent of era have a fee
structure so that they can get the
information they need but if it's a
commercialization purpose either
treating them differently in another
statute or or charging them in a
different fashion in order to try and um
eliminate some of that overuse some
would call it abuse but excessive use of
IA and the other piece that they're
talking about and it'll probably come up
we're going to have a follow-up meeting
probably within the next two weeks with
fog is a a an administrative review
piece in between the requestor and the
local government and the district court
so if you can adjudicate at or have an
administrative process that you have a
dispute that you can resolve it more
quickly to to determine what people are
looking for so we're not waiting for a
court to to weigh in they're talking
about putting in an additional step to
try and streamline some of the process
as it relates to IA so just another
couple pieces to consider so now we're
on to the anti-d donation and en
enabling legislation we talked about it
last time I was in front of you in the
last 60-day legislative session there
was an exemption to the anti-d donation
Clause that was proposed and passed as a
constitutional amendment in the last
general election that would allow for
the legislature to pass legislation to
allow local governments the state to
give money to private individuals if
it's for what they consider to be
essential household services so the step
we have to have now with the
Constitutional amendment is now we have
to go back to the legislature and ask
them to pass that enabling legislation
that's what we've discussed and what
we're proposing Senator Hamlin has
authorized the draft of that legislation
and essentially what it would do the
idea first came up with us with septic
systems but it's probably going to be
broader than that we would ask the
legislature to allow for local
governments to develop their own program
to
fund projects that could actually be on
private property for Citizens as it
relates to any utilities so for us with
the septic systems where we run into the
problem is we can lay the sewer line you
can run the line all the way to the
property line you cannot go any further
to make that connection to the homeowner
so this would allow the local government
to have the authority to decide what the
program looks like so in this
hypothetical would be you would be able
to to create a program to say we're
going to provide funding on whatever
criteria you establish as fair for those
residents to provide that last um
connection to the septic system or if
you had other utilities where you wanted
where you needed it or felt like it was
necessary to go to that house on private
property you would have the authority to
do that so you would be able to spend
either your general fund dollars State
dollars or other dollars whereas today
you can't on private property and so
that's what the the concept is with the
legislation it's currently being drafted
by legislative Council service um
Senator Hamlin's been has has has
offered to carry the Legislation during
the session this will be the first um
Bill where we've tried to to use this
new Constitutional Amendment so it looks
like hopefully we'll be Trailblazers and
at this point it's going to be broad for
all utilities and possibly Broadband
we're not sure whether broadband's going
to be included or not but the idea that
the senator proposed was she wanted it
broad enough so that we don't have to
keep going back to the legislature and
that's one of the things that was part
of the the discussion we had is if
you're going to create a program like
this where you have to have enabling
legislation if you limit it to just one
or two things and you think oh we need
we should have used it for um water or
we should have used it for electric you
would have to go back to the legisl so
this would be a broad um scope spectrum
of enabling legislation that we're
proposing and that's one of the
proactive pieces of legislation that
will be pursuing this
session Public Safety is not a surprise
we've been talking about it there's been
at least two committee hearings in Los
cruus and and that Chief story has
particip actually Los crusis and Santa
Fe and then we had a special session on
Public Safety legislation so what we saw
in the special session what we'll see
again in the 60-day is legislation
related to mental competency uh
pre-trial detention also criminal
competency fell in in possession um
Juvenile Justice Reform um the da Sam
bregman from The Second Judicial
District is presenting his legislative
priorities today to the courts and
Corrections Committee in Santa Fe part
of that is going to be proposed changes
to the children's code as it relates
particularly to juvenile um gun violence
and so we'll see some of those uh
legislation related to that and then
there's still some ongoing tension
between the legislature and the governor
over the the special session agenda that
the governor proposed just today in the
aluu journal the Senate Democrats have
indicated that they are going to have a
package of Criminal Justice Reform
legislation to include a Behavioral
Health Trust Fund to provide funding for
Behavioral Health positions throughout
the state um some form of firearm safety
and also again a common theme dealing
with criminal competency because uh
Chief story did a good job of
illustrating that impact in Los crusis
that's starting to gain some traction
you're starting to see new stories in
the Albuquerque area where you're where
you have particular individuals that
were having the same issue that they
have multiple arrests and charges but
they those charges are dropped because
they they can they're not competent to
stand trial so we'll see a lot on as it
as it relates to Criminal Justice
Reform um the next piece and we've been
asked to present on is um animal
protection voters is going to propose an
animal W welfare trust fund we have a
couple individuals here um uh Stacy
Kirby and Judy wolf from animal
protection in case you have questions
for specifics on this piece of
legislation this is with a a $30 million
onetime appropriation to create a trust
fund to allow for grant funding for any
um animal shelters throughout the state
so for us if that's enacted then we
would be eligible since we have an
animal shelter to apply for funding for
operations of the animal shelter and
they've also asked um for support of
that legislative effort I I think and I
think and I'll look to them for
confirmation I think it was proposed
last year the second
time so this is the second time we we've
seen it they they proposed it last
session um it did not pass in the 30-day
session and then we get to questions if
you have questions for them they're
available and they traveled down just to
to get to present that in front of you
today other policy items paid family
medical leave that's the the program
proposed um the past few sessions that
would Grant paid leave for employees for
qualifying illnesses of their themselves
or their family members last year there
were two competing proposals one was for
a six- week paid leave program that was
funded through like an insurance program
like an afflac type of program and the
other was for a total of 12 weeks of
paid family medical leave that was
funded by the employers and the
employees and run by the state those
were the the two competing pieces of
legislation they had a vote on the 12we
program it got out of the Senate made it
all the way to the house floor and it
failed by one vote so many of the
legislators that were in the house that
voted against paid family medical leave
either didn't run again or lost in the
primary and so I I I bring it up it's
going to be back it'll be back this
session if it doesn't pass this session
it's going to be back in the next
session some type of PID Family Leave is
going to be introduced and we'll pass
the legislature if it's not this year
it's coming and so that has an impact on
anybody who's an employer including
municipal government as it would apply
so um just to have that on your radar
that's that's something that's going to
be coming back we don't know the format
of the legislation yet it has not been a
draft has not been introduced from
either of the compared to what we had
last year looking at what happened with
the makeup of the legislature I would
anticipate it's probably going to be the
12we program that looks more like
employer employee funded and run by the
state of New Mexico um local solar
access fund was something that that uh
representative Reena sepanski introduced
from Santa Fe last year and with support
of the New Mexico Municipal League it
was a grant program I think they ask was
for $100 million for grants for local
governments to be able to to apply for
and obtain funding to do things like add
um add solar to municipal buildings or
Municipal facilities so it was a it was
a positive program to allow for funding
for increase of solar um throughout the
state every 60-day session there's a
cleanup tax bill um this year I think
it's 342 Pages very various issues
within the tax code I was very excited
to see that in the cleanup tax bill as
you look at the next bullet is the MRA
statute they're already proposing a
change to the MRA statute that we just
fixed last year as far as timing and
there's also changes as it relates to
tax increment development districts and
how the determination how they determine
the Baseline grow receipts tax um in
those tids and so it's something for us
to be aware of Although our tid is
already established and the Baseline is
established as we're dealing with um
tids in the future it would change how
that um how that Baseline grosser seeds
tax is determined although it shouldn't
be too unfamiliar to you because what
they did is they modeled it what we did
in the metropolitan Redevelopment Act
statute last year um so it's something
that you'll probably be familiar with
because they're going to do the same the
same thing to deter a baseline you have
to establish the boundaries of a
district they'll assign it a tax code
they'll take collect a Year's worth of
data for that district and then that
will become your Baseline gross receipt
stack so they're going to use the same
the same methodology that we Ed when we
made the changes to the MRA last
year MRA statute we don't know for sure
but the City of Albuquerque May propose
another change to the uh MRA statute
which would be the third year in a row
they contacted uh um contacted me about
a couple months ago they're talking
about
re the original MRA statute allowed for
use of imminent domain within the areas
of the M City of Albuquerque is
interested in putting that back in the
legisl in the statute um imminent domain
is one of the hardest things if not
impossible things to pass at the
legislature they hate the concept of
expansion of iment domain so don't know
if that's going to happen but it's
possible so we'll keep an eye out for it
um and make sure it doesn't whatever
they proposed doesn't have an impact on
the work we're trying to do with our
Metropolitan Redevelopment areas and
then we know specifically that there's
going to be two different proposals for
an increase in alcohol tax
um one is proposed by representative
Ferrari and Senator sadil Lopez from
Albuquerque that's an an increase in the
and it's based upon the wholesale and
volume of alcohol sales um of note they
it also creates a fund for some of the
revenue from The increased tax to go to
treatment services which includes a
provision for local governments where we
would have availability of a fund um or
Revenue to fund alcohol treatment and
then also the second one is
representative madena from also from
down here and representative poon from
Albuquerque that's a use tax theirs is
completely different they want to tax
alcohol at point of sale much like a
gross receipts tax or the tax on
cannabis where instead of collecting at
a wholesale level it would be a point of
sale a 3% tax in um tax on alcohol sales
that also has a provision to create a
program to dedicate some of the funding
to treatment programs um which also has
a provision for local governments and
others available for that funding um
just one of the things before we get too
excited about potential new Revenue the
appropriators the finance committee and
the House Appropriations Committee do
not like earmarks of programs so it's
not unusual for us to see a proposed
dedication of tax revenue get stripped
from from a piece of legislation like
that because they'd rather they'd rather
allocate it from year to year and and
maintain that appropriating Authority
and I think now we get to questions so
happy to answer questions on any of that
or anything else you might want to hear
about amazing thank you to the four of
you okay yes councelor Flores uh thank
you Madame chair uh thank you Larry Mr
heran um
what I you know last year this uh tax on
alcohol you know we visited with
legislators and um and I'm I'm still not
clear on on the difference I you know it
seems like the one that uh
Mika uh G is is uh
behind um
actually actually addresses lowering the
price of
liquor was that I mean that's what she
said is was that in the
bill you lower the price of Li
the tax goes down but I'm not referring
to the tax I I just want to know whether
that's how that bill was proposed you
know mayor ptim and counselor Flores I'm
not sure as far as it how it ended up
last year but the one that she has
proposed and presented on this year
would be an increase from 2% to 3% so
would be 1% increase and it would be on
per drink and the other the difference
would be on what per drink so if you
went in you ordered you bought an
alcoholic beverage beond the actual
sales so it's like a sales tax currently
and the alternative proposal is taxation
at a wholesale level so right now they
tax on volume at the wholesale level and
The Proposal with represent of Ferrari
and Senator sadal Lopez would increase
that and create a tiered structure so
like smaller like craft Brews and and
craft wineries craft distilleries would
pay a rate based on volume they're
selling but if you had a anheiser bush
that's at a higher volume they would pay
a higher tax rate so it was a it's a
three- tier structure and it also
included an additional fee of a 28
cents and I and I would need to confirm
what on the volume or what the 20 or if
it's on per drink that they create a fee
to to pump into that fund so that has
several moving pieces but it's a
wholesale tax versus a use tax or more
like a sales tax from the uh the
customer the the uh correct and and one
of the potential issues is if it's a
used Tax every time you have a point of
sale that's the taxable incident so you
have thousands of taxpayers at a
wholesale level there's many less
wholesalers a dozen 18 something like
that so it's easier to track and collect
at a wholesale level so that'll be
something they'll have to decide what
they want to do or maybe the vot it'll
go to a vote um I also have a question
about the the um the MRA and what um
Albuquerque wants to do they want to
have an eminent domain on the
district mayor protim counselor that's
correct they want to have the authority
to utilize IM imminent domain within the
boundaries of the
district and what's the justification or
the rationale for that do you
know mayor Port timman counselor I
wouldn't I will I'll speculate I can't
tell you with with certainty but they
did have a proposal for a property tax
on vacant commercial buildings in
downtown Albuquerque that didn't pass so
an educated guess would be if you have
property owners that you're not able to
get to comply on certain things that
would give them the authority um to
utilize imminent domain if necessary um
I'm not sure that that's their that that
that's their reasoning but um that it it
seems to make sense based on the the the
ordinance they proposed okay and then I
have a question about um the anti
donation and septic
tanks uh septic systems is the word that
was on the U monitor here so what
exactly does that mean and how it how
would it be implemented do you
know the implementation part mayor
protim and counsel actually the actual
implementation
the way at least in concept we have it
are proposing it is you give broad
Authority at the state level saying
local governments can can create a
program to fund um utilities to private
property owners essentially based almost
like what you'd see in the Local
Economic Development act that would give
you as the city council the authority to
create the criteria for the actual
program so you could have criteria for
who who it's available for funding
sources if it's if it's an application
process a grading process it would allow
you to have that authority to create the
program that fits best the needs of your
community now but that doesn't include
the hookup is that
correct mayor protim and counselor it
would you would have the ability the
hookup it would be that it would be on
private property so that's the
difference that's the change you could
use public dollars on private property
if we're successful in passing the bill
constitutionally you can do that now we
just don't have the the enabling
legislation to say go ahead and what
enabling legislation would you need
other than it would it would the
legislation would just reiterate the the
law or the whatever the state wants has
approved mayor Pro and councilor Flores
the way the Constitutional Amendment
reads it'll it says you can utilize
Public Funding for essential household
Services if the legislature passes
enabling legislation so that's the next
step that's why we have to pass the bill
right right because it's a
constitutional issue correct and then um
but how
um well I mean you don't have a crystal
ball but you definitely know a lot of
people in municipalities and the
legislators um how feasible is that
going to be I mean I think a lot of
people will argue that it's you know it
falls under the purview of the anti-d
donation Clause but um I I've advocated
against that uh rationale because it's a
health and safety issue and all citizens
everyone I mean those septic tanks are
going to deteriorate and it's
overwhelmingly expensive to remove the
septic tank to only have a septic tank
re removed and then you know the the uh
resident has to or the owner of the uh
of the the structure then has to pay for
the hookup and then but I think and then
what about the the the uh lines that go
up um along the property
lines I mean I would would all of that
be
included mayor Pro Council Flores yes if
we're able to pass the enabling
legislation because this creates a new
exemption to the anti-d donation Clause
yes it's bad luck to say anything will
be not anything less than difficult to
pass it the legislature but the septic
system problem here is an example that
we used in testimony when they were
advocating for the Constitutional
Amendment so I don't think think they'll
be surprised to hear about the problem
and as of now we haven't heard of any
opposition to to the concept of us
allowing um for utilities to be an ex an
exception to anti-d donation clause and
then how how is the money going to be
dispersed among the you know all of the
municipalities in the state of New
Mexico I imagine a lot of cities uh
still rely on the septic septic tanks so
is there going to be a huge allocation
like Millions upon millions of dollars
is there an allocation clause in that
mayor protim and Council Flores no this
bill wouldn't have any funding attached
to it but what it would do is would
would allow local governments to utilize
whatever type of funding whether it's
grants whether it's Federal money where
it's whether it's local general fund and
also in concept we're allowing to bond
against it so if you had an ability to
bond and you wanted to create a fund so
every potential we're trying to make it
as flexible as we can so that way you
have as much flexibility to obtain
funding for
well great thank you so much Mr heran
thank you councilor
Graham thank you so much um just a quick
question um and I'm thinking we'll
probably invite our friends up for the
Animal Welfare
trust uh bill um I believe you said hb1
91 I think that's what I heard
from coming on up thank you
thank you counselor Stacy Sutton Kirby
with the uh with animal protection
voters yes it was House Bill 191 okay
and I I just grabbed the draft from the
from the earlier the session earlier
this year are you looking at pretty
similar language um kind of just
reintroducing very similar language
although there has been some discussion
around which would be the agency or
board or commission that would disperse
the grant money um in the in the draft
from last session it was Department of
Finance but um going forward we're
looking at some possible other entities
uh that's with input from the author as
well as legislative Council on what
would make the most sense for dispersing
the grant money okay thank you um and
anyone interested in this I would
definitely recommend looking over this
because you know extra funding for
shelters is good enough but this
actually has really broad reach um into
empowering um you know better mitigating
threats to Public Safety um reports of
animal cruelty so it goes far beyond
what even I would just think of as a you
know typical shelter support
So mayor proem and counselor I would
agree with your reading of the last
draft from
2024 that the intent of the legislation
is to be able to build out capacity not
only by doing things such as um making
money available for construction
projects Renovations purchasing
equipment but also empowering the
shelters and the nonprofit partners that
they work within their communities to do
things like um Animal Wellness
vaccination clinics chipping um
education the kinds of things that help
keep pets excuse me companion animals in
their homes and keep them from coming
into the shelter in the first place um
as as well as possibly providing funding
for training for animal services and
Animal Control Officers all that
wraparound um wonderful yeah all right
well thank you so much and thanks for
making the drive oh absolutely and I
just want to say you have such a
wonderful community of um constituents
who showed up today in support of this
and that really cheered us when we
arrive because they raising the roof
behind you all your folks in blue back
there so hat off to L crusis and thank
you for having us thank you so much
thank you mayor prot thank you councelor
Graham and thank you I hope you happen
to be here on a good day as our next
item is also about um Animal Welfare so
I hope you stick around well that's what
I heard that y'all have been working
really hard on your local ordinance so
go lost yeah I hope you stick around
thank
you um yes councel
mclark I'm going to try not to get into
the weeds and um I'll just preface with
numbers is not my strong suit um was it
about 30 million that our overall
requests
are uh thank you yes mayor proem and
councelor McClure we have 11 projects
$27 million potentially although as I
mentioned some of them are still being
uh developed nice I actually wrote down
27 but I was just giving it a wider
Okay cool so typically do we do a do we
expect a third to come through is that
kind of what we hope for you know I I
mention that was a big S Larry behind me
sorry I mentioned that the last two
years have been uh we've received about
the same amount just under $112 million
the asks between those two years varied
widely though so we sort of came in at
that same dollar amount but with very
different total ask so I couldn't really
um speak to a trend and I don't know if
you could
Larry thank you Barb um mayor protim
council McLure it really depends and and
one of the things it depends on is
whether or not we get any of the
Statewide funding through the governor's
request so um and I don't I'm not going
to remember the year but Governor
Martinez had year of the water and we
got a lot that year because we had a lot
of projects that fit that and so part of
The Artsy science of it is is trying to
predict what that priority is going to
be both for legislators and for the
governor to try and tap into all that
available funding and so that's why we
that's really what when we're trying to
come up with projects is to try and hit
the trend from legislators what they
like what the governor is indicating
which can CH also change in the middle
of the session what the governor wants
to fund so we try and hit those the
Highlight so that's why it's really hard
to say I see the tap in there I
appreciate that but I was also curious
too how do you kind of make this the
strategy because for for one hand sort
of the septic thing with request is
1.6 with things being more expensive why
aren't our asks more for some of these
things mayor Port Tim and counselor the
dollar amounts that the legislators have
to fund even if their if their available
funding is higher the request go up
proportionally so typically if they have
last year a sentiment out about 4
million they're going to get probably
100 million in requests um maybe 50
million and so is a House member so even
if their number goes up everybody's ask
goes up so so even though the the dollar
amounts go up it it's really difficult
to move the needle much for because
they're trying everyone's competing for
the same
dollars and I would also sorry no go
ahead U mayor and councilor mlar I would
I would add that um you know last year
we we did an analysis of all of our own
legislators um expenditures or
allocations of capital outlay and
Larry's absolutely right you know when
you look at the districts that they are
serving they are they're looking at a
wide geographical area and you many
different kinds of needs in the The
Districts and so yes we are we are
competing with many other communities
and local governments and I definitely
saw as especially from the last session
just because we would ask for more money
doesn't mean we're necessarily getting
it because of that um distribution of
assets or or uh requests from the other
communities as well I was going to ask
if that's a sort of strategy thing to
say we're going to be doing much more
Regional say with the library bookmobile
we're hitting a lot more people that
might be something that they would look
to more kindly um absolutely um mayor
ptim and councelor McClure and that is
that's some of the feedback we received
directly from the legislators they are
looking for regional um projects to S to
support as you know they've been very
supportive of Our Community of Hope um
we we looked at some of our own um asks
for example with the library that I
mentioned that is a regional resource
for our community um some of the the um
police response vehicle request also
serves the larger region um what we
heard from the the legislators is yes
they want to fund things in their
districts but they want also things that
have a regional impact so that that
certainly was part of the consideration
for developing the proposed priorities
that we brought forward today okay last
question maybe this is not a great term
but can we double dip so if you have
like the governor supports something and
gives funding can grow money then
support that in the same way too could
the legislator then work together with
across put that together I guess so the
the types of yes mayor proam and
councilor McClure um we could
potentially as you said double dip for
example last year um for the our Amador
um Crossing project we got funds both
from the governor and for the
legislators for that the grow money is a
little bit different in that the
typically what we're talking about is
capital outlay so we're looking at
larger capital projects the growth funds
uh can can fund um um now especially
studies or smaller equipment it may not
be Capital but it could certainly be
complimentary and one thing that we're
considering for example and and Larry
recommended we add to the grow list was
that for example the uh police drone
program that's complementary to the
capital outlay that we are requesting
for the real-time crime Center that
includes drone pods on on facilities in
order to uh to make that program uh work
better so yes we do do we do try to look
for some complimentary programs along
with the capital outlay requests okay
thank you that's it that's all I had
thank you councelor McClair Council Maz
did you have a question who answer thank
okay great I have some questions and
then I'll get back to you counc Flores
um again thanks to the three of you um
Barbara since you're here I'll just
start from the beginning
um just one quick thing around the
active Transportation plan are you able
to get
us some of the projects that have been
funded with those allocations from the
past I think that makes us better
Advocates when we go up there to talk
about this is the impact you've had
already and this is what can continue to
happen I'm I'm familiar with those
projects um May potim that is such a
great request and question because that
is something that we've been working
towards and one some of the feedback we
were got we got from the legislators
this year is they would like to have an
annual report and so what we are working
towards is a December report so that we
can look at the funds that were
previously received and get some some
more detail um about how those funds
were used and what the community impact
was for that fund funding and that way
you all will be able to have that as
well to speak to that when you advocate
for especially ongoing um projects so
does that answer your question yes
absolutely Barbara thank you so much and
then on on some of the projects I caught
that I think there was just two projects
I didn't write the other one but I know
one of them for sure was the realtime
crime Center which um you had that the
only funding source left to cover would
have been about um
800,000 and so I'm wondering why we
don't just include that in the ask
especially since the governor has made
public safety a
priority yes thank you may Po and you
know um what we brought forward for you
today is definitely still um in
development we want to provide an idea
of the scope of the project the dollars
and we can certainly make adjustments
going forward and certainly with your
guidance what we really want to do today
is just find out are we on the right
track with the kinds of uh projects that
we're proposing for Capital outlay
because what we need to do is now turn
it around into a resolution for you all
uh to consider at your December 2nd
meeting we use that resolution so so
that we can then um uh provide the state
through their portal with our list of of
projects and the the capital outlay
requests so we can absolutely make
adjustments to those requests and and
and this go around as we've been
developing these numbers for you we're
sort of it's sort of coming to light for
us as well where we have big gaps where
we have small gaps and we can certainly
make adjustments to that requested
amount yeah great I can't remember the
other one but it had like six remaining
but since this one is on a priority list
I think it would just be good to try to
get it all funded um so I think that'd
be great great than you um Larry I think
this one's for you since we're talking
about these priorities since 2018 with
this current Administration Las crusis
has not fared well uh when it comes to
the governor's portal what suggestions
do you have that we can break through um
with some of these
requests mayor Pro Tim it's what we're
doing which is and it's where we were
successful last year if if I remember
right we got money for a real-time crime
Center and Edward Crossing from the
governor so we for the first time for
the and so we figured out what the
priority was going to be and we had
projects ready for that not only we do
that we had good
advocacy from mayor counsel and staff
for those project during the session so
it was kind of the kind of the you know
we hit all three of the of the hyp
points that's what that's what you have
the trick
is hitting the right projects for the
right priorities like like street lights
and lighting is on here because during
the public safety Summit the governor
talked about lighting in communities um
realtime crime Center's back um you see
water back that's because that's what
we're trying to do and and the fact and
when coming up meeting with the
governor's staff a couple of sessions
ago meeting with the governor it all
makes a difference and the the advocacy
has been much more active the past
several years um with Council and staff
it's been very good and I think that's
why we've been successful so I think
that's what we just need to we need to
keep hitting on and and when you all
came to Santa Fe the messaging was good
and the meetings were very good and so I
think that's what we just need to
continue okay thank you Larry I I
appreciate that affirmation I think
you're right that we are on the on the
right track and then just so I'm clear
on the Ia updates
um for either of you honestly I think I
just really I I know that historically
it's been really difficult to advocate
for IA because it's almost almost
automatically feels like what are you
trying to hide though what you presented
here today Christine was really
reasonable in terms of the the heaviness
that that ITA has and so you're Larry
you mentioned that this is a initiative
being undertaken by other city clerks
the municipal league and then you even
said um the Press Corp mayor protim uh
Municipal league has met both with New
Mexico foundation for over open
government and the New Mexico press
Association ass and and I'll and to
answer your question the difference is I
think and and I had a good discussion
with AJ 40 who's the executive director
of the municipal League what theyve
trying to do is find common ground with
the open government Advocates meaning IA
being available for the public and for
the Press
is in their view what the intent of IO
was not necessarily the monetization and
commercialization of information and so
by finding common ground with them
they're much more likely to reach a
compromise because that's usually where
where it becomes difficult is fog
foundation for open government in
particular are are very zealous at um
Protectors of open records and so
finding common ground versus being
adversarial to them I think is what um
will be helpful thank you Larry and then
just lastly I wanted to say big Kudos on
the anti-d donation legislation I I was
wondering how that was going to work if
we were going to go up there with the
Los cruus Pacific piece of legislation
and how strange that would be but this
sort of broader legislation to allow
other local governments um I think is
important if there's anything I can do
in reaching out to other colleagues and
other City
councils please let me know and that way
we can Advocate together I think that
would be really important and then um
just also thank you Natalie for the
housing priorities the initiatives that
you mentioned I think codifying some of
those pieces is going to be really
important and I look forward to hearing
from you again soon Larry on more of the
the specific pieces of legislation that
are making their way through so thank
you all right um councelor Florida did
you still have a question U yes I always
have questions I can be here all day but
um so thank you Madame chair um and
Larry thank you again for um providing
all this information for us um so
there's the rainy day
fund the general fund how much money is
in there I know it's billions but how
many I don't Tim and Council Flores I
the general fund budget last year and
I'm trying to it's somewhere between
10.6 and 11.1 but that was for outgoing
expenses what the legislature has done
is there's several now permanent funds
early childhood education fund the rainy
day fund which I forget the proper name
passed by representative Larry laaga
that triggers once oil prices reach a
certain level has I think over three
billion there's different funds now
because what they've done to protect
those revenues we've gotten in the last
couple years is they've created a lot of
pockets like that so they're they're
putting money away for future downturn
so there's not just one rainy day fund
anymore there's a lot there's a lot um
are any of those funds being invested
somewhere I mean where it could really
grow and then we could have have it
dispersed to our rainy day people here
in here in the state of New Mexico mayor
Pro councel yes they're all they're all
invested in one form or another so
they're generating revenue for instance
the the S sax Permanent Fund where
Capital outlay would come from if they
didn't have cash every year that we have
Capital outlay it's based upon the
return on that Permanent Fund and
issuing on bonds as it relates to it so
that is typically the structure the
legislature creates it's invested and
then they'll utilize some of the growth
and the revenue from those funds so the
animal protection fund if it starts at
30 million the idea being the 30 million
Corpus then grows and so the available
funding over the in the out years
becomes more for that that dedicated
purpose of the fund so is there any
analysis as to what a perspective ly uh
These funds could earn over a certain
and you know given all the ups and downs
and all that sort of stuff of the market
mayor ptim councelor there is and that's
provided through the legislative finance
committee I don't know it off the top of
my head but their committee um and then
then their staff does the analysis on
the budget then they also have a
consensus Revenue Budget Group which
which is made up of legislative finance
committee Taxation and Revenue
Department and Department of Finance
Administration and so they all
collaborate also on not just budget
projections but also then they have
knowledge of what the funds are doing
the projections for those funds Larry in
your estimation and if you don't want to
answer don't but um but I'm going to
hold you to it now um I I just don't
maybe because I'm not a multi I'm not
even a
multi-millionaire much less a
multi-billionaire um but it just seems
that there's just so so much there's
billions of dollars and those billions
of dollars must be generating more
billions so why I know uh with all due
respect to Senator uh it's good thing I
don't remember her name um with all due
respect she said no we don't want to
pierce that we don't want to in any way
uh you know draw the money
out but it would be interesting to see
what all the asks are of the legislature
from the different municipalities and
entities here in New Mexico to see how
much money would have to be dispersed to
meet those asks and those needs more
than asks it's like we're not asking for
you know a multi-million doll movie
theater something like that um has
anybody ever done something like that
you know a good mathematician or someone
who really knows the market do you know
mayor Pro Tim and
counselor what what has been happening
in the past few sessions especially
since we've had this excess Revenue the
municipal league in particular has been
working on those type of efforts efforts
they and also um also the administration
so roads they've been funding a lot of
road projects that have been unfunded in
the past a couple years ago we did
airports they're looking at Water
Systems and water projects for local
governments this year what is that need
and is there a mechanism for using some
of these funds to fund those to your
overall question about the billions that
are that are socked away what's still in
the mind of some legislators although
there aren't as many left to remember it
but as recently as
2016 the state budget um
they they had a 05% reserve and we had
to cut Medicaid K through2 education
they cut funding to local governments so
even though we are in a real high spot
here and even as recently as 2020 after
covid the price of oil went to $50 a
barrel and so we see these giant swings
so they're reluctant to spend the cash
um
and that's why they've created a lot of
these funds for the future so that way
if we hit another downturn they can fund
both basic state government and continue
to fund some of these these Capital
priorities versus spending the cash and
then not being able to fund the the you
know the essential functions that they
see of state government and there's been
since 2009 there's been three gigantic
swings like that that we've
endured so there's a little bit of of of
budget shortfall PTSD amongst leg
lators thank you thank you thank you mam
any other
questions great thank you the four of
you I will do two minutes per person if
there is public comment that uh folks
want to make on this specific
item um actually can you raise your
hands if you if anybody wants to speak
about
this wonderful okay
oh come on up
please don't forget to state your
name hi Clint Packer executive director
Animal Service Center msia Valley I just
want to state that we are in favor of
the animal welfare trust fund uh letter
of recommendation or support was sent to
them with our letterhead so I just ask
that the city do the same thank
you thank you CL
oh come on come on up
Loreno good afternoon Loreno Alva for
the
record I just want to remind you that
you kind of set presidents last year by
showing up over there so I hope that we
see all of you over there again because
it made a big impact on our community
and how many millions of dollars we were
able to bring in if you don't show up
and don't allow staff to show up nothing
happens but yall were there y'all showed
up at the governors you showed up at the
meetings I saw you in the roundhouse I
saw a lot of you in the roundhouse and
that made a huge impact on our community
I think that's how it should have been
for a long time but I think if all of
you guys are there and allowing the
administration to do their thing uh
pretty good at what they do
but also the department heads I make a
huge impact on actually getting the
facts to the legislators and really
making an impact on showing them exactly
what we're doing with the funding and
how we're spending it I intend to be
there a lot hopefully I'll run into you
guys and we'll be able to do this work
together
but let's do it let's go get this let's
go get the money let's go get it uh this
community deserves it
uh what we're trying to do at the
Community of Hope is huge it's a lot
bigger than all of us it's not easy for
everybody to understand what we're
trying to accomplish there but just come
visit come spend some time with us
remember that it's not uh just our
around house that we're serving there
we're serving low-income families there
at Cas Perros that's our largest
demographic and what we're doing now in
that building should be evidence that
we're actually doing the good things
with the
money now 20% growth year-over-year on
what we're doing that's showing you that
we can do something special with that
money so let's go do this together and I
I look forward to seeing all of you guys
if you guys want a tag team a legislator
with me let me know I'm really good at
advocacy and God's given me that that uh
gift so thank you so much thanks Lord
Ando okay no one else we okay what if
you're want to speak what why don't you
go ahead and come on down and make a
line in the little pathway
here yeah there we go I'm Stephen Jones
um and um I'd like to uh thank the
council um for um ENT retaining uh uh
funding for the library and Library
Services um believe that libraries bring
communities together um and um
um it's long overdue that uh that we
uh um that we address the library and
Library Services um the bridge gra gaps
between um our differing communities and
uh bring a critical resource to every
person in L crues so thank you thank you
Mr
Jones okay that will be it and thank you
all so much again for that great great
presentation and we will move on to 3.2
Animal Care and Control Ordinance and
Brad Douglas our City attorney will
present
go ahead BR all right thank you mayor
protm uh good afternoon mayor protm and
uh Council uh Brad Douglas from the
legal department um now some of you may
be asking yourselves
why
Brad uh that's a pretty good question uh
so just to give a little background on
this this is something that a lot of our
community Advocates and partners have
been asking be addressed for a couple of
years now and also uh LCPD and and
Animal Control uh as well have been
working together for some proposed
revisions to chapter 7 of our municipal
code and at some point uh I was asked to
come and so I agreed and
U just very candidly uh looked at what
was being proposed by some of our
Advocates and partners and what was
being suggested by our internal staff
through LCPD and animal control and uh I
think what I did is I made nobody happy
because I went through their proposals
and I said know you you can't do that
let's strike that that's not
constitutional let's you know let's add
this
um and so I I view my role as to uh kind
of take any proposed revisions and make
them quote unquote legal and also to
bridge the gap between PD I see
Lieutenant weedz here she's been really
instrumental throughout this process
along with Gino Jimenez our Animal
Control
supervisor uh and so bridge the gap
between uh the proposed revisions and um
and our governing body you all uh to
empower you all to um just give feedback
that's that's what I want this to be is
I want this to be more of a conversation
between um all of us and
so without any further Ado let's get
started and so some some key revisions
that uh that I've seen fit to address uh
are regarding clarification of care and
maintenance requirements for companion
animals uh what we think of as
pets uh but more
comprehensive uh protections for those
companion animals within the city of Las
Cruses uh there is a
proposal um and I imagine this will
probably get a lot of discussion there's
a proposal for mandatory spay and neuter
requirements within the city I know that
some of you on the dis uh support that
proposal and some of you you rightfully
so have some concerns about what that
might mean for some of our uh human
residents within the city of Las crusis
particularly uh lower income persons who
would be subject to this if it were
adopted by Council and so if the
mandatory spay and neuter
provision were to be
adopted uh there is a list of possible
exemptions for qualifying companion
animals uh for example if there is
a an animal a companion animal that
would otherwise be subjected to
mandatory spay and neuter if the owner
or caretaker of that animal has uh a
note from a licensed veterinarian saying
no uh spaying or neutering this animal
would be dangerous to the animal's
overall health and well-being well then
uh that Companion Animal could qualify
for an exemption uh likewise if it is a
ble service animal it would be qualified
for an exemption if it's training to
become a
u oh I'm going to get the this term
wrong but uh to train uh or to maintain
livestock a companion animal like that
livestock dog guard dog thank you
counselor Graham then it would be
potentially uh qualified for an
exemption if it's um well I'll stop St
there but there there are a number of
potential exemptions if Council wanted
to pursue
those um another thing that that uh we
looked at and this this goes to just
overall Animal Health well-being and
safety within the city uh is whether or
not there should be restrictions on
tethering a companion animal uh with the
possibility of eliminating the practice
alog together if that's council's will
and so what is animal tethering it's
just what it sounds like
uh Companion Animal uh being Tethered to
either a stationary object or or through
use of a uh Trolley
system uh and so I know that this is
something that Lieutenant weeda cares
deeply about and I'm going to rely on my
my subject matter experts over here um
but studies do show that if if an animal
is Tethered for long periods of time uh
many times those those companion animals
they become aggressive uh it's not good
for their overall health and well-being
uh and also there have sadly been times
and I've talked to Dino and Lieutenant
weeda about this where it's a uh it's a
strangulation threat and so some of
those some of those animals die that way
um and so that's for your consideration
whether we might want to eliminate that
practice Al together or place
restrictions and limitations on the
practice uh I think I'm down to number
five point number five we've tried to
include more comprehensive prohibitions
on abuse neglect and abandonment within
the
city and I think that we've been
successful at doing that at least within
our
draft number six uh something that we
looked at uh the practice of
devocalization of a companion animal uh
under the current draft that would be
rendered illegal and punishable by law
um the research that that we've done
shows that there really is no uh
legitimate reason to
devize your
animal uh and so that would be
eliminated under the proposed current
draft uh declawing of certain companion
animals of course one thinks of cats uh
would be much more limited
um for example if there is a letter or a
note from a licensed veterinarian
stating that the procedure would be
appropriate if the procedure would
promote the General Health and
well-being of the animal uh for some
therapeutic purpose well then it might
be allowed under the proposed draft but
uh simply declawing your companion
animal because you don't want to get
scratched uh that would not be allowed
under the proposed
revisions uh mayor protm I managed to
sneak in the word robust into the next
uh Point she always tells me that I use
that word too much and of course she's
right uh so more robust enforcement of
prohibition of animal fighting and
possession of uh paraphernalia related
to animal fighting would be
included number nine
is is significant uh because it's being
proposed that irresponsible pet owners
convicted two or more times or actually
that should say more than two times
violating this chapter in a calendar
year may be prohibited from pet
ownership uh for a prescribed time
period another potential key revision is
if mandatory spay and neuter uh is
ordained residents May apply for intact
animal permits pursuant to qualifying
criteria and we talked about some of
those possible exceptions earlier I do
think it's important to note that uh if
an intact animal permit uh is issued
that animal would also be subject to the
uh microchip
requirement the thought crossed my mind
uh and the reason I bring that up is the
thought crossed my mind the other day
well what if an intact animal uh somehow
Finds Its way to the
ascmv and and and there is an exemption
for that animal well uh in order to
qualify for an intact animal permit you
would need to have the microchip as well
and so we wouldn't be wrongfully spaying
or neutering an animal that would
otherwise be exempt if that makes
sense uh there were some revisions or
proposed revisions rather to the
community cat and Community cat
caretaker standards uh this next one is
important number 12 uh Las crusis
Municipal Corp would have more clearly
defined Authority regarding dangerous
dog and potentially dangerous dog
designations with the authority to
enforce handling and registration
requirements so as we stand here right
now the Las cruus Municipal Court does
have the authority to make those
designations with regard to dangerous
dogs or potentially dangerous dogs
assuming that uh the city has met its
evidentiary requirement but something
that I've heard over the past couple of
years is our our judges and the
Municipal Court saying well Brad
we don't feel like our current Municipal
Code really gives us the authority to
impose any sort of sanction if someone
does not abide by the registration and
handling requirements of for example a
potentially dangerous dog um in this
draft uh that's been cleaned
up and then lastly there are some
clarified re Reclamation requirements uh
for ascmv and that this this list is not
exhaustive uh but I do feel like it is
uh it hits a lot of the high points of
the proposed
changes and so the overall goal is to
achieve a more comprehensive Municipal
Code that prevents animal suffering
within the city improves Public Health
welfare and safety and address should be
addresses over population concerns to
empower Animal Control Officers in their
duties to remove ambiguity and confusing
language where possible uh to reduce
unnecessary euthanasia within the city
and to identify appropriate exceptions
or exemptions for mandatory spay and
neuter if that were to
pass so what are some factors to
consider well uh as best I've identified
I do think it's important to note that
mandatory spay and neuter requirements
have been held to be constitutional in
New Mexico that's a question that has
come up it has been adjudicated in
Albuquerque
um another factor to consider is uh the
goal should be to avoid criminalizing
otherwise responsible pet owners who may
be unable to afford uh mandatory spay
and neuter
procedures uh so the city of Las Cruses
has allocated $80,000 to assist with
spay neuter expenses for individuals who
may qualify based on their income levels
uh and so shout out to counselor Corin I
believe that she was very instrumental
uh and getting that to come to pass and
so that is you know uh an option that we
could utilize in the future of course we
cannot necessarily bind future governing
bodies to uh an annual output for that
for that
requirement um another factor to
consider is whether or not there's an
availability of qualified veterinarian
professionals to perform spay and neuter
within the city um it's my understanding
that we are attempting or rather ascmv
is attempting uh to fill some of that
need as I've already uh discussed
whether or not there should be a
complete prohibition on the tethering of
companion animals versus significant
limitations on the
practice uh if a big if mandatory spay
and neuter were to be adopted uh I would
recommend that the requirement have
delayed enforcement for for example 12
to 18 months or any other time period is
deemed appropriate by city council uh
would also recommend that if that comes
to pass there be an initial period of
Community Education and
Outreach uh rather than enforcement
right away something that our working
group has has discussed is uh what this
would look like if that requirement were
codified uh and Gino can correct me if
I'm wrong but I don't believe that
animal control um has the resources to
go around knocking on doors asking to
inspect everyone's Companion Animal to
see if it's been spayed and neutered uh
what we envisioned is uh this would be
something that takes place at the
impoundment phase
so something to
consider uh whether fees collected
pursuant to this chapter should be
remitted to the general fund or
redirected to the as CMV that was a
question that's come up before this body
before frankly above my pay grade to to
make a recommendation on that um but but
really I think that it all boils down to
the very last bullet point here striking
the balance between protecting
vulnerable animals should Rec companion
animals well all animals I suppose and
upholding Public Safety while not
penalizing uh lower income
owners and as I stated when I first got
here uh I would I would just like to
have a conversation with you all and see
what your concerns are what you would
like to see and like iess we're only at
a work session but I I think it's
important to empower councel through
through comment and that's what we're
here
for thank you so much
Brad thank you yes councelor
Corin thank you thank you Brad and
thanks to uh Lieutenant weeda and Gino
and the Animal Advocates that I know
worked on this for a very long time and
have been having these conversations and
thanks for waiting into this to this
Venture um I think I shared a lot of
those and I feel like you brought a lot
of my my concerns to to the four which
is I I think we have we are against
capacity in a number of spaces and I
think we have to build in things to
address those capacity related issues
that is spay and neuter capacity we have
like three or four tools that we can use
that we're using to varying degrees of
ability that I think we need to put more
effort into and that's partly why I
believe the delayed enforcement is
important the educational period of it
that which would allow people to would
allow perhaps us to expand that capacity
in a number of ways more meaningfully um
but I also think to me I really want to
know that I mean we're on the ascmv
board we know that uh most animals that
go to the ascmv which the city funds um
are come from Animal Control right and
so there that that capacity there is
strained there are too many animals
going in which is fundamentally the
issue right like that's why we don't
want any more animals to be born um
that's why mandatory span neuter is a
question of our budget I would argue um
because right now we're subsidizing spay
and neuters on the back end of animals
going into asmv so like where where are
we paying for this but I do want to not
create a situation that leads to higher
rates of impoundment to the Animal
Services Center taking animals away from
people who otherwise would care for
their animals and that's why even the
tethering conversation I think is a
really tough one
because uh animals getting loose out of
people's yards is a huge problem and
those folks aren't necessarily bad pet
owners patently I I don't think and so I
think for me I am really glad we're
having this conversation and I think we
can keep having this conversation but
for me those are the things that I see
as measures and I want us to protect
against that is punishing low-income
home homeowners who can't or pet owners
sorry who can't afford this or you know
it's an eight-week at best eight-week
$300 venture to get one animal in the
market spayed or neutered probably
um so that's a very that's a capacity
issue right that's something that we
it's incumbent on us to address if we're
going to compel people to do that and
then also making sure that we're not
creating a situation where we're
increasing the population going to the
animals ascmv uh inadvertently because
we've written something into our
ordinances that leads to animals being
removed from homes that otherwise would
would be able to care for them so for me
those are the two big big things that I
think are achievable in this
conversation and I think just having
this conversation and even saying we
value spaying and neutering and I would
argue microchipping should be a very
similar thing like we should be
microchipping just the same as we um
because only about 15% right Gino of all
the animals that that they pick up have
microchips so um we don't even know who
they belong to to get them to spay or
neuter so I guess for me I think having
this conversation now thinking about
updating our ordinance and the
conversations that would happen in the
educational period would and us making a
concerted effort to fund span neuter in
the various ways that we can try to
um for me those are the things that I'm
concerned about in this and I feel like
this draft does a really good job of
addressing some of those things so so I
just want to speak to my desire for this
to be about building capacity and not
creating capacity issues in the
community and or at our shelter so those
are the two values that I really hope we
can make sure come through in this in
this conversation and I feel like you
all have done a really good job of
trying to get to that space so thank you
to you and everyone who has been working
on this really hard and and so um I
would like to hear more I'm curious to
hear what other folks are saying and
what folks are thinking but but I really
appreciate you all working on this thank
you councelor Corin thanks Brad uh yes
councelor Flores uh thank you and and
thank you
uh City attorney Brad Douglas
um first of all I just want to say I'm
happy to see that there's a balance here
I've been active with the animals um you
know this committee uh for what was for
about seven years and um we rid the
thing you know the whole thing about how
many members should be there and uh
Becky Graham stepped up so that was
wonderful um so we have these two on the
board um these two the two Becky and um
but I know that um I know that the um
the uh Community who is in report who
these are all animal lovers and uh we
spent a lot of time reviewing uh
reviewing the uh what was it the
statutes or the
requirements and uh you know we spent a
lot of time talking about what
constitutes a bird a chicken and horses
and you know all that sort of stuff but
we're F focusing only now on uh pets is
that correct or is it going to be a
total revamp U mayor proam uh councelor
Flores what I think that this this
proposed draft does is it is a
comprehensive overhaul which does not
mean that all of our existing code is is
going to away away I don't necessarily
want that but I do think that uh the
majority of the provisions uh would
apply to companion animals but it is not
solely for for companion animals so is
this going to be a revision within the
statutes we have now uh yes counselor so
um on page seven can you go back to page
seven Mr
Douglas uh no I cannot you cannot what
the Huda hang on there we go
okay this is uh where I get Dazed and
Confused um in paragraph two or the
second you know bullet point um it is
recommended that the requirement have
delayed enforcement I.E 12 hyen 18
months or any other time period as
deemed appropriate by
Council
so it meant this is kind of ambiguous to
me because
um is the 12 to 18 months from the time
they an owner gets a dog or is it 12 to
18 months in terms of the um the age of
of the pet and I'll tell you why because
uh my son um had a beautiful or yeah
she's still around um Sheba Inu and
actually he had the uh mint pin
miniature pincher his roommate had a
beautiful um
uh uh Sheba in you and um my son kept
telling his roommate to get her spade
and he said no she's too young she's
only you know only a few months old Al
and behold um she uh my my son's dog
Dexter um made love to her and uh they
produced One baby and I have that baby
now um but the point though is that she
was only 6 months old and um so that's
that's the part that I find uh you know
have delayed enforcement and who's
enforcement against I mean
how well I I don't know how we can
supervise this I mean sure it's not what
well no well but it's 12 to 18 months of
what
so when pass we start
okay well then so this is this language
here is not part of the the new uh
provisions of no counselor statute um
but it but it can be what I was well
then that really scares me if it's
ambiguous that's that's my fault what I
what I meant to say here was that if a
if the city of Las crus is meaning you
all uh eventually adopt a mandatory spay
and neuter policy that no enforcement of
that mandatory spay and neuter ordinance
be enforced for a time period uh as
identified by by you all and I would
recommend uh in the interim whatever
that time period is if it were to pass
that uh LCPD and Animal Control uh
engage in community outreach and
education okay I think we're going to
have a lot of puppies running around but
thank you and counselor just to just
to clarify a little the
proposed um in this draft and like I
said it's a draft it's not set in stone
uh for good reason um and I'm going off
of my memory but I believe the
recommended age for uh for for example
uh a feline a cat as uh five months or
more which I believe comports with most
national standards and recommendations
for smaller breeds of canines I believe
that it's four possibly 5 months or
older and then for larger breeds of dogs
so as not to stunt growth I I believe
that it would be nine months or older is
the current
recommendation thank you any other folks
on the council yes Council matis right I
I was just going to ask you if if we can
get passing this uh pretty quickly
correct if if we're pleased with the
overdraft and in the
overhaul uh and then you want 12 months
or 18 months where the Departments will
educate and and get the word out about
the new law
correct mayor protm councelor matis
that's what I would recommend um you
know whenever
there's whenever there's a legislative
change that could have uh uh wide
reaching effect like this uh not always
but usually I prefer um sort of a phased
in approach or or delayed implementation
so that uh we can do our due diligence
and educate the members of our community
with regard to what their new
responsibilities might be okay and then
going back to whyu so with this uh
planned
education who will be in charge of that
and do you have any idea of the planning
and what will what how it will be
implemented with veterinarians uh
Citywide uh web social media ped owners
is there a plan already in in in force
that's going to
be immediately used as we approve this
uh councelor matis with regard to who
would engage in education and Outreach I
think that probably most appropriately
uh LCPD and or well it's an and uh
animal control our our subject matter
experts our boots on the ground the
people that it would affect the most i'
of course I'd be happy to volunteer my
services to help in any way that I can
but as far as an educational campaign um
I think that it would be most
appropriately up to animal control Andor
PD do we have any idea we have any words
on on the plan that anybody want to
speak speak for
we have concepts of a plan counselor
matis far too soon Brad it's far too
soon go ahead Lieutenant con I'm ready
to listen to Concepts Lieutenant Joy
weeda mayor proem councelor matis I yes
I would agree with Brad here that we
have uh conceptualized the whole process
however nothing has been sort of written
in stone so to speak um I think first
and foremost we want to see if the
ordinance is actually passed to come up
with a final draft and then take our
next steps from there but this is why we
are highly suggesting that we do have an
educational process um similar to any
other ordinances that have changed
within the city um we need to get the
education out to the people whether that
be through social media but a lot of the
time it can even be through
um projects on foot in other words going
into the neighborhoods and addressing
the neighborhoods that we see could
potentially be um possibly more of a
concern regarding this area that maybe
they don't have spade and neutered
animals and making sure that we're
educating individuals when it will be
implemented and when it will take place
uh no I like that idea and that's
working with the neighborhood
associations would be ideal you know my
my first month on the job I I had to go
after a a pack of a pack of dogs you
know that had been roaming and killing
uh cats and over there on good sheeper
and Union drive and you know was five or
six dogs and it took a couple of I think
it took maybe four or five weeks to
address that and so I think that's very
important that we work in the
neighborhoods because that's where I get
most of my calls from you know we have
one neighbor that his dog has been Loos
now uh 13
times you know so I I think the overhaul
for this ordinance and and getting it
passed is very important to the to the
resident so thank you all I want to
thank you and legal department and
animal control and the police department
for getting this on on on the books as
quick as possible thank you we
appreciate that sir and just along those
lines yes we could potentially even use
more of our stratified policing models
and looking at the statistics as far as
where those stray animals like you
mentioned are coming from so thank you
anyone else I have a question I'm going
to go and then I'm going to bring it
back to you okay oh yes of course thanks
Brad and thanks to all of you for
getting us here I know it's been long
long time coming I personally think that
I can get behind most of this um I have
pretty serious concerns about mandatory
spay neuter policies and I'll tell you
why one of the biggest things is that I
think we can do that kind programming
without mandatory Spade neuter we can do
the kind of prog the educational
programming that we're talking about
without using the criminal justice
system to try to get to our goal the
other thing I will say is that in all my
research consistently I find animal
advocacy
organizations speaking out against
mandatory policy a the
ASPCA against mandatory policy the best
friends against
it um the national animal interest
alliance against it um I found this
other one the no kill movement against
it
the uh veter the American Veterinary
Medical Association against it the data
consistently shows that mandatory
policies do not work and in fact have
disproportionate impacts on poor people
so I feel like a little bit Deja Vu Brad
that I'm sitting here in front of you
again again saying this policy has
a unintended intended consequence on
disproportionately poor folks and we can
think about more Creative Solutions than
just going through municipal court and
then just giving poor folks another
ticket and before we hopefully in the
future get rid of uh the $100 failure to
appear warrant that is just a debtor's
court so it is like these kinds of
policies are not have not shown the
evidence to say that they are actually
reducing the number of animals on the
street like the goal these kinds of
mandatory policies are not getting us to
where we want to so let's look at things
that
are um otherwise I think I can get
behind most of this and I I will look
more into the tether uh piece but
honestly I I struggle with that because
that's how I got my my dog my little
baby Santo was uh tethered for a very
long time in this man's home and um
that's how he he came to the shelter um
before we adopted him and so I I again I
feel like I can get behind the majority
of this uh
proposal um but I will not be able to
support a mandatory spay neuter and I
just need to say that right now because
I think it's um I think it will have
perhaps an opposite impact and I think
that we can even with the tether piece
or the loose piece um you know and I'm
throwing a curveball here a little bit
but the source of income discrimination
ordinance we passed last year A couple
of years ago codes and housing policy
approach that policy with landlords in a
very educational Manner and not a
punitive manner because we know that
that's actually what is most effective
in getting people to comply with new
policies is through education and not
punitive measures so I will stand
strongly uh by that and hope that
we can come to a um positive and civil
um meeting agreement place on this
because that's just not something that I
that I can support at this moment but
everything else I think um that I'm able
to thank you mayor proam that actually
is helpful input I appreciate it thank
you um any other we won't I yeah we'll
take I'll take public comment in a
little bit I just wanted to ask a
question uh we're not done with the
council comments yet
go
ahead thank you well I I'm not sure I'm
U after hearing mayor proem about uh the
downside of mandatory spay neuter I'm
not sure I'm behind it however um anyway
but
um so has the organiz well it's kind of
like it's not really an organization the
animal uh Service Center or excuse me
the uh anyway um
has there been any effort to U form a
501c3 to fund uh the Spain neuter um the
spaying and neutering of animals does is
anybody here in the organization that
could speak to
that counselor I can't speak to that
right now with regard to a
501c3 formed by Advocates uh as I stated
earlier councelor Corin was instrumental
in getting the 80,00
appropriation uh for SNAP recipients and
that should be to fund uh either free or
reduced cost uh spay and neuter I think
that's a great thing of course um
whether or not it's sufficient well it's
it's not sufficient because sorry that
sounded really harsh counselor Corin
that's not what I meant
um it's a great it's a great move
forward but of course um the funding
need is is probably an excess of that is
is what I wanted to say yeah yeah well
um unless there's a fund that's going to
um pay for that the the spaying and the
neutering I I don't yeah it's going to
be hard on a lot of
people um
so yeah anyway thank you Brad thank youc
attorney okay any other members of the
council okay wait till okay perfect
councelor
mlar okay so now I will take members of
the public and we'll do two minutes um
if you represent an organization and
want to have one person come up that'd
be wonderful um otherwise we'll do two
minutes per
person and please don't forget to state
your
name Kathy Stark with animal advocate
for change crazy cat l
childless um mayor proam City councelor
I wanted to address the points that you
raised with the national organizations
if you dig into those studies what they
are saying and what we have been saying
all along is that you need to remove the
barriers for those low income people
which is number one phas it in number
two there has to be some funding and
there is 880,000 and we thank you for
that um we have a very generous
Community um we've got some rescues here
that will tell you they'll put up six
dogs on next door and say I need $75 a
piece for spay neuter VX and within 24
to 48 hours they've got it so the whole
goal of the phase in period is to number
one build that capacity and we've
presented some ideas in the past of how
we can do that number two look at the
funding um look at the vacant position
at the ascmv because they're doing an
extraordinary job the other thing that
you need to understand is state law and
our current ordinance states that when
you reclaim an animal from the
ascmv you either get a you get it Spade
neutered or get a voucher and have it
done or you get an intact permit so it's
really nothing different there we've
talked with animal control the intent is
not to go into the community and say oh
that dog's looks like it's intact you
got to get a you got to get spayed
neutered or here's a citation it's to
connect those people to the resource
programs that we're trying to build to
eliminate the the provisions which the
National Organization say yeah if you
don't do this it's a barrier and it pen
penalizes people that shouldn't be
penalized so we've tried to build that
into the whole thing thank
you anyone
[Applause]
else Jerry Wheelis Animal Advocates for
change just to dovetail on what Kathy
said um I think if you read the studies
closely that uh mayor proam cited you'll
notice again that it was not
that that mandatory spending does not
work it it does not work if it's not
funded if you have if you
expect low income people to pay for it
themselves yeah it's not going to work
city has to back these programs with
funding and that was what the bottom
line of the studies stated too but
mandatory spay neutering does lower
intake at shelters it does obviously
lower population controls there are many
many benefits to it must be neuter and I
think if you thoroughly read the studies
and we can also provide you with other
ones and the uh proposed ordinance you
will also come to that conclusion
thanks others yeah please come on down
and make a line
please hi my name is Stuart David uh I'm
a newbie I've been here about six months
I worked on I didn't expect to talk
today I worked on similar ordinances
when I lived in rural North Carolina and
uh a little quick note on tethering is
when I did a deep dive on some research
there on anti-tethering laws I really
expected to see that they were from
California or Massachusetts or from
really liberal areas if you take a look
it's the opposite they were from Mostly
the rural Deep South and they were
almost always in response to somebody
getting maimed or killed by a chain dog
and uh it was you know it was usually a
uh happened after the fact and it's
really a public health issue too because
dogs that are chained are so antisocial
kids get in a yard they get mauled and
then they pass a law so I just wanted to
bring that up uh but what I really want
to talk about was uh spay neuter uh
again we passed similar ordinances in
Mur North Carolina bunkham and then
later in Asheville and uh mandatory is a
scary word I know it is and we saw that
word too but first place this isn't
mandatory because a you can get an
intact animal person and B nobody's
going door too it's only if there's a
problem with the animal and see you can
have a letter from a veterinarian too so
you know don't let mandatory scare you
uh and also the people that came up here
uh traveled up here from or down here
I'm sorry from Santa Fe uh you seem to
all nod and support this $30 million for
Sheltering for animal welfare and I hope
you do I think that's a great deal but
I'd also like to point out that in the
end we really want less Sheltering
that's what we want is less money for
Sheltering and if we get behind span
neuter uh you know that's going to be
our outcome and you saw the dogs the dog
Jesse that dog uh and Jesse said he
likes to chase his tail and unless you
do spay neuter and really do it
aggressively you're just chasing your
tail that's the way we're going to do it
thank
you thank you
I just want to clear up many perhaps
miscommunication I believe in spay
neuter I'm not saying that I don't
believe in spay neuter programs okay
great okay come on
down uh mayor proam city council thank
you for this time my name is Jim Wilcox
um let me tell you a story um about Tony
Tony's loves to run in the park and he
he likes to run up and scare children
and and engage in casual sex and so he's
running around because Tony is a
six-year-old uh uh dog and he's part
Setter part lab and so he's been doing
this for a number of years and now Tony
has about six little puppies that he's
fathered he's not paying any puppy
support and there's out there running
around and now it's been so long some of
those puppies have grown up and they're
doing the same thing there's now
22 descendants of Tony and Tony gets out
you know his his owners they try they
they block up so you can see the bricks
are put up and he still figures out a
way to get out so when you take care of
the problem at this stage you remove the
problem for the future and one of the
things that I think is important to
understand is how many chances do we
give somebody to take care of the
problem before we say we've given you
enough chances and if it's two if if two
times is you know not enough maybe it's
three times or X number of times in a c
certain amount of a period of time but
something needs to be done we sh
shouldn't be
held uh hands hands you know we should
our hand should not be held tied because
there's some potential problems when
you're passing legislation don't make it
so hard that it's so strict restrictive
you don't do anything because as as a an
adage is that uh it's better to do
something than to plan many things that
you never do thank
you any other folks want to speak on
this come on up
Clint Clint AER executive director
Animal Service Center uh for the
mandatory spay neuter we are the ascmv
is in favor of the ordinance however we
are very concerned about the
compliance uh of this ordinance so the
ordinance change how are people going to
be compliance when we ourselves ascmv is
we are backlogged for surgeries
ourselves we cannot we have a
veterinarian sausage nationally it's not
Regional it's a national issue uh we
have a veterinarian or we cannot fail
this veterinarian position that we have
the so My worry is that is of compliance
uh the next one that I'm worried about
is something that was said earlier about
the ASC or
it will be upon enforcement will be upon
impound that means the animals are at
the ascmv we have no jurisdiction to
enforce any ordinance we're not an
enforcing agency so that will have to
fall back on animal control and some way
or another uh to be clear on that I
don't I don't want anything extra for
our staff to be have to do for that part
uh and then the next one is there is
also an issue with Community cats that
are in this ordinance where it still has
a river a River Ordinance that says it
can't be a feral or Community cat cannot
be released within a half mile of the
city of the river and that's an issue
for us we there takes a lot of resources
to relocate a cat it's not taking it to
another place and just releasing it it
is a resource
burden uh experience or issue that is
very difficult to complete so again we
are in favor but we're worried about the
of who the who what when why and how
basically so thank you thanks
Clint um certainly don't want to put any
pressure on on our animal protection
voters uh visitors but if there's any
feedback you'd want to provide that'd be
great
um oh great
okay and then I'll come back to you in
the
front thank you mayor proam and
counselors
I take your point U mayor proam that the
national organizations do have uh full
please state your name I'm so sorry
we'll start again yes uh Stacy Sutton
Kirby Animal Protection voters thank you
so much for um
asking uh for us to weigh in first of
all I want to say that um the national
organizations do take a different
perspective than state level
organizations and um local government
city city council members and um that's
because at the national level they're
not um operating shelters and operating
Animal
Control I would agree with the folks who
have stepped up to the mic to say that
taking the balanced approach of a having
um a grace period an educational uh
window um phasing in an ordinance as
well as providing um resources to people
so that they can come into Appliance is
what we've seen what I've seen in um my
experience as an advocate that's where
you get the best results the point is
not to give people tickets to um make it
um unaffordable for someone to have a
companion animal and certainly not to um
cause a situation where an animal would
be relinquished to the shelter because a
person couldn't come into compliance so
the communities where we've seen it work
the best are where folks come together
um it's sounds like there's already
$80,000 in snap a um a Spain neuter
action um program um and planning out
that timeline with those resources and
getting that educational campaign out
there that's where we have seen it work
the
best thank you for your
feedback come on
[Applause]
up hi I'm sherline I'm the director of
Animal spaces rescue here in town and I
just want to say that the lack of this
is causing such a pressure on those of
us who spend our lives trying to help
these animals we're not paid it's our
money um we have probably four rescues
who have worked together on getting dogs
up to T SE to Dr Alid who's wonderful
vet by the way to get spay neutered
we've done between the four of us I know
we've done well over 500 a year your
span neuter program here in town has
done a thousand in the last year that
they reported so we're equally working
on that to the best of our ability I my
experience has not been that people
don't want to spay a neuter their pet my
experience has been they can't afford it
so I I understand that
but when given an option that's
affordable and doable and they can have
help with it we get very little push
back I have had maybe three people who
just we had one let us pay all the
females but didn't want its males paid
that I think was a cultural thing on his
side but in general we go talk to some
of the we've done several hoarding cases
with the County Animal Control where
we've gone in we've fixed them we've
chipped them we've gotten them their
shots we've taken the puppies and got
them out of state my rescue one of our
big initiatives is to get most of these
animals out of here completely I go all
the way to Delaware and
Connecticut and Wyoming I've been all
over the place to take animals because
they don't have puppies there because
they have spay and neuter I don't like
the word mandatory because it's not
100% and they can tell you that I like
comprehensive instead thank
[Applause]
you okay oh yes one more
person Diane Starbuck for the record I
am with Animal Advocates for change I'd
like to address Clint ther's concern
about there not being enough
veterinarians here or that he feels that
the whole thing is going to be put on
the the animal shelter um that's not
true we have uh spoke to six local vets
who are willing to do weekend clinics
here uh there is a mash organization
willing to come down to Las crusis and
do 200 animals a
weekend and there has been
um interest within the state of other
vets coming down to Los Cruses to help
us out also
so I think this could all be worked out
the resources are here if you look for
them the resources are here and yet it's
logistic and financial but I feel those
issues could be worked out thank you
thank
[Applause]
you okay anybody else I urge you to come
down now or forever hold your
peace thank you my name is Sarah
Smith I support spay and neuter as well
U but I as well am concerned about the
word mandatory and about criminalization
around this particular issue if
enforcement is only happening through
Animal Control I think you're going to
have a very low number of people who are
jumping up to say I want to go get my
pet spayed or neutered if you use
education if people knew how many
animals were dying in the shelter
regularly I think that would help people
understand the problem better and if
there was a way for you to do free spay
neuter or even offer an incentive I
don't know if you could do $50 on your
utility bill you would have people
lining up to say we want to get our
animals spay and neutered instead of
trying to use the force of Law and going
through this other path which really to
me doesn't seem like you're going to get
very many people who are wanting to do
that um if you're just trying to rely on
Animal Control so i' am hoping that you
guys guys can maybe look at some of
those other approaches this is one of
the few times probably that counselor
bomo and I are on the same page but I
have some serious concerns over using
criminalization Petty misdemeanors
potential for fines potential for jail
time along with this I don't think that
that quite makes sense in the context of
this so I'm hoping that you can find
something that's maybe a little bit more
nuanced than going that direction thank
you
please don't forget to state your name
my name is Brenda Browning and my first
time at a council meeting my first time
speaking in public in this town um I
have another point that I would like
everyone to consider we're talking about
tethering consider a senior alone in a
house she has her favorite pet she's not
rich enough to own own the house it's a
landlord's house she doesn't have a
fence the dog needs to go outside needs
to go potty may or may not be willing to
use a potty pad because trust me they
don't like
it the obvious simple
solution is a small tether near the back
door she can clip it on she doesn't have
to take that step down into the yard
that may be a risk to her health and
safety she can tether her dog dog allow
it out for 15 20 minutes and bring it
back in if you mandate no tethering she
has to give up her dog she has to live
alone I want you to consider
it thank you ma'am Brad do you want to
touch on the
tethering
piece for for clarification for her sure
uh mayor protim counsel um with regard
to the tethering the the way that the
proposal is written now would allow for
very limited tethering uh tethering
wouldn't be eliminated uh altogether I
believe uh under the proposed
language tethering would be allowed for
up to one hour a day thank you Brad
thank you
okay please state your name Mary
Rodriguez Community
member um
thank you for allowing me to speak
everyone um I want to talk about both
the tethering issue and the Spain Neer
mandatory word uh first on the tethering
I had a deaf dog um and I'm a huge
animal Advocate have been my whole life
and um I had this deaf dog but I lived
in a rural community where I didn't have
uh there was no fences and so um when I
let him out and I walked him he got
plenty of exercise but when I let let
him out I put him on a trolley and
unfortunately he would run to the end of
it and he messed up his neck and I've
always felt horrible about that because
it's my fault that he did that and so
that's my lesson on te tethering so um
and then as far as the spay neuter goes
you've all probably heard I did come
from a city in California where Spa
where madatory span neuter had been in
effect since the '90s
and what that looks like after a long
period of time and nobody thinks about
people who don't spay a neuter as
criminals ever that's just that's just
not what we do it's just that it's when
something is is
considered the right thing to do they
just do it it's like when you put a new
stop sign in people aren't going to run
it they're just going to eventually do
it and so uh the education piece is is
totally relevant and if but I just feel
like I need to say it's it's it works I
we watched we watched uh the shelters go
from like 400 like here we have 400 dogs
there in the county has the same amount
of people and their full shelter is like
40 dogs because there's not having
puppies and kittens left and right and
there aren't stray animals running
around um and I mean I had notes on from
next door of all the ridiculous things
that I see there because there's just
too many animals in this community
that's all thank thank you
Mary okay last last person ma'am are you
also speaking in
okay oh my goodness okay she'll be the
last last last
one okay my name is Susan Richardson and
I'm really new to this cause and I just
want to say I this is my first council
meeting usually I'm at County meetings
because that's where I live out in the
county and all the work that has been
put in by everyone on this subject is is
just phenomenal to me because for the
longest time I've been here since
1984 and for the longest time I look at
the numbers that are coming out of the
animal
shelter and from even from August to
September to October and they just keep
growing and growing and growing and and
listening to the people that work on the
with this on a daily
basis okay there's not enough manpower
there's not enough resources there's not
enough money there's not enough there's
not education um so I really want you to
support these efforts and these bills
because we got to start somewhere and
yes we have state laws and we have this
and we have that but I feel like now
we're honing in and revising them and
updating them and making sure that there
aren't any loopholes but one thing I
didn't hear today was was the fact that
in some of these cases that have been
videotaped um there's a big discrepancy
when people are viewing them from what
The Rescuers see versus what animal
animal control sees so in the future I
would like to to have and you know delve
into into the procedures for animal
control and what what constitutes uh
animal abuse because there was an 18mon
old dog a year and a half and she looked
like she was N9 or 10 and she had to be
wheeled out of animal control um not
Animal Control out of the the shelter in
in a in a wagon and she looks like she
was 10 years old and she was only 18
months thank you ma'am your time's up
thanks
[Applause]
hello Council thank you for listening to
me I was not expecting to get up here
and say anything but it please state
your name oh I'm sorry April Nasi April
k911 Academy and what nobody is bringing
aware is we've had three human deaths
and an arm amputation in the last three
years our dog bite numbers have
increased by 200% the Animal Service
Center is adopting out aggressive dogs
known biters I've had clients that have
gotten them and they're not I don't
believe they're educating them well
enough but not saying that's bad on them
our dogs nowadays are highly sensitive
you and I grew up where you could throw
a pot lid on the ground and the dogs go
hey what is that nowadays you drop a pot
Li and they're like oh my God it almost
hate me our dogs are highly sensitive
and then our people killed themselves
how many people killed themselves during
covid we've been fearmonger and who
feels our their energy the dogs feel the
people's energy they react I specialize
in aggressive behaviors I specialize now
in energy work to help not only the dog
but the person and it's education I have
so many people that come to me that they
don't know that those little behaviors
that the dog's doing is a Telltale sign
that if they don't stop it and give the
dog perimeters it's going to get worse
okay and so I just wanted to let
everybody know this I haven't been here
in two years I did give them the um the
veterinary Association they do have a
pamphlet well it's a thick book and
they've had all the lawyers they've had
all the veterinarians teach communities
how to lower dog bite numbers and I gave
it to this Council two years ago don't
know what happened to it um one of the
council members gandera I believe said
she wanted to hear about my program
because I do a free Workshop once a
month to teach people how to interact
with their aggressive dog and how to
interact with that dog with other dogs
and people because dogs are afraid of
dogs people and if you're really unlucky
both okay because they're highly
sensitive and um she set up a meeting
with lieutenant mataya and she listened
to me for an hour says I wear Three Hats
we don't have the time place or anything
but I'm willing to teach I've been doing
this for over 18 years so I can help
some way thank you very much thank
you I do just want can I just say one
thing and then I'll pass it to you I
just do want to clarify that I think
it's important that we are very clear
about this kind of ordinance because I
heard a couple folks say it's not about
ticketing you're not making people
criminals however the section of under
penalty says any person who violates a
provision of this ordinance shall be
deemed guilty of a crime thus giving
someone a criminal record so I do I
don't want us to be naive about what
this ordinance is and what uh and what
these kind of penalties can bring to
someone when they are very much about
disproportionately uh putting poor folks
through the criminal uh justice system
okay yes councelor
Graham thanks um
just wanted to take a moment to share I
appreciate mayor PRM you kind of sharing
where you are in the moment and I wanted
to do the
same how I see this um this is my third
year on Council almost done um and I
feel like this is the issue that has
simultaneously the most passion and the
most inertia um and I think that
we and I am as guilty of this as anyone
and it's such a cliche too where you
sacrifice progress for perfect no
ordinances are perfect no plans are
perfect um and at the end of the day it
all comes down to people um one thing
before I forget Lieutenant weeda one
thing I will be interested to hear is
exactly what mayor protm was speaking to
and that is your discretion
in your role as a law enforcement
officer um I understand the concern that
you have is completely true and
completely real um and I do want to hear
what discretion Law Enforcement Officers
would have should we pass this ordinance
in terms of you know does it have to be
automatically know that's it it's a fine
it's jail it's whatever so just kind of
hold do you want to say something now or
I mean I putting you on the spot
now okay awesome thank
you where I see this as an opportunity
and I'm looking at that 12 to 18 months
because there's a little screen here on
the side of the podium too that I'm
looking at we have should this ordinance
pass we have 12 to 18 months for
Education we have 12 to 18 months to get
funding in order we have 12 to 18 months
to finally find an umbrella for all of
of you sitting in here today and all of
the hundreds of other people who are not
here today but who have the passion and
are probably not here today because
they're just doing the work um I see
this as an
opportunity for the city to finally step
up and create create the space where we
can all work together toward a common
goal um and it's just one of those
things I I've just finally reached the
point where we're not going to do
anything unless we do something and
that's kind of where I am right now
Lieutenant weeda that was it I would
love to hear from you if you have
anything or awesome thank
you lieutenant WEA mayor proam councelor
Graham I agree with you uh I do believe
that in action is not the way to go and
that we do need to take action on an
ordinance
I think we've heard an overwhelming
concern today in reference to whether we
classify that spay and neuter as
mandatory I think that's probably what
needs to be addressed the most um I
think with that um what studies you go
to you will discover that it isn't going
to be an education component there does
have to be obviously the veterinary
services within the area as well and so
again my thought is that it's not simple
as passing an ordinance it also takes
action on a much larger scale to include
potentially even some budget
funding with that again what are the
next
steps what are you asking me no I'm just
kidding just kidding there again this is
one of those things where we've proposed
this ordinance um it's in draft status
obviously as in draft status it can
change but like any other I think larger
concern within our community it's going
to take more than just the
ordinance thank you so much thank
you anyone
else go
ahead just real quickly because I know
we've been here for a while but I just
want to thank you guys very much for
coming out and showing your support for
this I just want to say that over my
time almost a year that it's been people
who have made change to a large extent
it's us up here but it's people who are
working together that affect change and
I just want to thank you guys for coming
that's all
thanks Brad any last words just go ahead
Council Flores I have to say I want to
thank all of you here um some faces in
fact uh Jerry Willis I didn't recognize
you you cut your hair you dyed it it's
like you've lost your personality no but
um people in the in the audience have
been here um the whole time and then
Kathy Stark who's a
real you know go-getter but um I really
want to thank all of you and G uh for
your tenacity your perseverance and I
think I hope that uh will I hope we
really do reach a resolution on this
issue and uh but most of all I just want
to thank all of you for for doing this
for the community and for our animals
that we love so much thank you thank
you um yeah thank you for mentioning
that I mean I think we don't have to
agree on every single line in here for
me to feel deeply deeply grateful for
the advocacy that you all do so thank
you very much Brad anything else
else mayor proam uh Council uh I think
this was a helpful exercise I I
understand um I was going to say I
understand most of the I understand all
of the concerns that have been voiced
from this dis today uh I do and we will
continue uh working progress is not
always linear sometimes it's a little C
you know C it's a circuit that's the
word
um and uh we will we will keep working
and uh thank you all for your time and
attention uh I'd like to thank LCPD and
animal control and our community
Advocates and Community Partners as well
thank you thanks Brad and that'll be it
for today can I get a motion to adjourn
uh so moved second Graham thank
you this is on the motion to adjourn the
work session councelor McClure yes
councelor
matis yes councelor Graham yes councelor
cran is absent councelor FLOTUS yes
mayor protm yes and the mayor is
absent
e e