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[Music]
you're
live okay well thank you welcome back to
our regular work session uh it's
approximately 2:55 p.m. we'll go ahead
and start with our agenda item 1.1 which
is Los crusis light program first year
results uh Chief Jason
Smith mayor members of City Council fire
chief Jason Smith today I'm going to be
introducing Battalion Chief Matt Hiles
who'll be going over most of the
presentation uh this is our onee update
on the light team I'd also like to
introduce our newest licensed clinical
social worker Allison
Stoner uh so we're really happy to have
both of them here and without further uh
delay uh battalion chief HS
good afternoon mayor members of council
Matthew hes battalion chief Los Cris
fire department program manager for the
light program and
Mi So today we're going to go over the
one year little bit over a year of the
light
program uh which we launched on March
6th uh 2023
officially
so some of our strategic business plans
are listed right here and we're still
working on um so by 20 January 2024 we
did implement the light team uh we're
appropriate and we're still working on
making 90% of the the calls as I've said
before sometimes whenever we have one of
the light team members that are unable
to uh make it to work whether they have
leave or sick leave or anything like
that um we may or may not be able to
backfill it but lately we've been
backfilling the positions with members
from the mih team um we can been getting
cross training in with them so our
paramedics and our other social workers
can actually backfill uh Monday through
Friday Saturdays isn't going to be able
to do that
way uh 25% of persons receiving care do
not have a subsequent Mental Health
crisis uh within 30 days we're still
working on tracking that through our
patient care reports and followup and um
our case manager and his
notes so the uh performance data that we
said we would be
collecting
um from last year uh is what we're going
to be reporting on today after one year
in
so number of calls for service we've
pretty much had a we uh stopped
collecting the data around April 15th so
the numbers are going to be a little bit
bigger currently uh number of costs for
service
1,251 that's how many times light was
dispatched and responded number of
patient contacts 455
interventions 416 now the reason there's
a gap there is because a lot of times
the light team will respond show up
however uh the individuals allowed to
refuse services and so if they if they
want to refuse services and on their own
cognitive ability they absolutely can so
they resign a refusal form because it's
uh we can't force the help on
them um the average time on task has
gone up to a little bit over two hours
um so when we say time on task it's from
the time that the light team was
dispatched to response to on scene to
completing the report so as you can see
even though it may be uh a four call day
that's an 8 Hour portion of the day it
could be a six call day there's your
your 12 hours right there because of all
involved with the uh from dispatch 2 in
the report writing and 656 calls pending
those were calls that were pending while
light teams were already on a call um
typically that could just be because it
was through a 911 call maybe it was
request from an LCPD officer um or a
scholar just anything but the light team
was already on a call and unable to make
it and like as I said before uh the
light teams aren't going to rush their
services they're not going to they're
not going to hurry it through they're
dedicated to that individual that
they're with right there right
then here's the age ranges of what
they've been responding to this is not
something I originally said I would be
reporting on but it felt like it would
be necessary to kind of just paint that
picture a little bit better on on on
what the light teams are experiencing
out
there so out of the for the 46
interventions these are the type of uh
issues that some of these individuals
are are going through environmental or
social issues medical a psychological or
any combination of those um it could be
all three of them so definitely it's a
challenge whenever these the teams are
showing up and trying to really get down
to what that individual or that crisis
is going to in a matter of minutes an
hour it's something you know very
acute the dispositions out of the 455
contacts um transported by a mental
health provider 39% um light teams are
allowed to transport not only just to
the ER but mental health facilities um
and we use we do have a a lot of use
with our menal facilities in the area um
one thing I would like to point out is
transported by Leo we're at 5% that
dropped from 20% that is really one of
the big things that's definitely been
hands down I feel a favor of PD is
that it's allowing this new intervention
this Crisis Intervention to allow the
real help that that person needs and the
training that comes with it to be there
and allow PD to get back to responding
and actually you know patrolling and and
doing what they're they're meant to do
uh treated and resolved on scene 25%
that's also a very good one for to show
up to somebody's crisis and be able to
help them right then and there get them
what they need or just have them feel
better and deescalate maybe go from a 10
to a two is very huge and that's the
amazing work that the that the teams do
refusal Service as I said they do have
the right to refuse and that's at 8% and
then other calls CPR and assist is
2% our agency interactions obviously we
interact with our own Crews lcfd AMR
LCPD is not on there but I think that's
what I meant to put instead of lcfd uh
and lcps um I also want to uh note that
we respond to all lcps schools
regardless of the location of the school
with the exception of wh Sands Missile
Range um so if it's say Fair Acres
Elementary East Picacho Elementary yes
those buildings are in the county but
they're still lcps students they's still
children that need help they may even
just because their schools located there
they may live in city limits um so they
do respond to that um I don't want to
say quite often but they have full range
of
lcps this time I'm going to hand it off
to Chief Jason
Smith thank you Matt so I'm going to
continue on the the discussion and the
update going a little bit further into
the
uh before I I do though I do want to uh
mention that our our providers are
patient focused right they they treat
with compassion they're very
professional individuals our social
worker and firefighter teams they make a
difference on every call they go to uh I
believe that our culture around mental
health and mental health crisis
continues to be one that prioritizes
caring so our program this last year I
believe has been successful it's hit
some of the benchmarks that we want to
see the number of times patients are
transported by law enfor enforcement has
decreased we are a resource for PD as
well as for our
citizens So to that end our our staff
has prepared some uh further review of
some of the uh patient contacts and
interventions that we provided as well
as discussing that pended call number
those are calls that we missed because
there wasn't a second team so how do we
best address that moving
forward so we have several ratios to go
over uh the first one is the number of
times we actually make contact uh
compared to when we're dispatched as BC
K's mentioned a lot of times when the
crews get there the light team gets
there they're not always able to make
patient contact for several reasons uh
the main one being medical Necessities
take uh priority over over mental health
when we're called to support PD or one
of our fire Crews other times they are
canceled while canel while they are in
route it's one of the numbers and ratios
that we want to change and improve over
the next year uh we want to decrease the
number of times that the team is
released before making contact with the
patient
the next one is any intervention to
contact so when they do make contact
with a patient 91% of the time our teams
are providing some type of intervention
so when they do make contact with a
patient we are seeing that they are
needed and they are their help and
assistance is welcomed so the
co-response intervention this is when a
patient is treated both by the
firefighter paramedic and one of our
social workers that happens almost 20%
of the time showing that there is
definitely a need for this co-response
response model so that we can capture
all of our calls and all of our
responses social worker interventions
alone account for
67% so pending calls looking at those
656 calls that we weren't unable to
attend and using those ratios from the
slide before we could tell that there is
a potential for about
218 contacts now I don't have a
confidence interval to give you to say
like this is how much sure I am of 98%
uh
but we know that there's a chance there
to make more contacts with patients and
provide more interventions some of the
things that are uh not allowing us to
make that contact as BC Hiles mentioned
is our staffing or the units already uh
dispatched so of those 656 calls we
added another 200 roughly 200 calls that
happened outside of working hours for
the light program these are ones that
occurred after 8:00 p.m. and before 7
those were another 200 for the entire
year here it is by the day of the week
where you can see really Monday through
Saturday uh with the first part of the
week the first four days of the week
being the
busiest next we looked at the hour of
day what time of day were these most
ofly often occurring and you can see
right there uh the big jump where you
see the line go go up that's about 9:00
a.m. and it continues on until about 8
and then uh right at 8:00 you can see it
drops down very low
so we're looking at somewhere between 7
and 6:00 p.m. where we have the most
calls that go
unanswered so looking at some other uh
interesting way of of looking at the
light program is we separated out salary
and benefits and we compared that to
what our operations Crews our emergency
response Crews do our emergency response
crews that's typically three to four
people and they are a multiple Hazard
response team right so we respond to
everything from sinkholes extrication
cardiac arrest people with with a
myocardial
infarction 596 per call our light team
which is specific built salary benefits
cost us $420 a
call so our next steps for the program
looking forward we want to go back to
trying to add our community health
coordinator position this is a L csw
licensed clinical social worker they
will provide clinical oversight for our
team and provide that guidance and
oversight as we continue to grow it'll
support both the mih and the light
programs they will also be able to fill
in on the call volume so those pending
calls with the light team was already
out this health coordinator position
along with one of our mih firefighter
paramedics can respond out to the very
next Mental Health crisis giving us the
depth we need and gaining us the
experience that will benefit us in the
future this position is supported by our
team members we've talked about it into
detail of how do we grow this team how
do we set a good foundation it's needed
for our social workers for their
oversight and guidance it'll build us
from the ground up it's included in our
proposed funding for next fiscal year
and we did try to fill this position
just over two years ago we went through
multiple rounds of hiring and I think
because the light program was so new and
hadn't been explored it deterred people
from applying for it or accepting the
position we made those offers I think
now with over a year of experience and
success I think somebody's going to be
um there's going to be a lot of
applicants internal and external ready
to try to lead this team to the next in
the next
phase our future request after the
coordinator position is to add another
Health provider this is an lmsw position
or similar uh for the light team we
could expect that mid year of next
fiscal year or for fiscal year 26 that
all depends on our ability to hire as
well as funding we'd also be adding
another paramedic firefighter position
that would complete this team so we'd
have our co-response
model some other things that are going
on uh just to mention the the brick and
mortar is we've got a 50% construction
documents done for the Mi and Light
Building it includes office space
clinical intervention area and apparatus
Bay and also crew quarters in case we
ever have a program that goes 24 hours a
day they'll actually have a place for
bunk rooms right now it's being funded
uh 3 million from a HUD Grant thanks to
Senator Hinrich and then 2.5 million in
state funding from our governor also
Rubio small and
souls that'll uh conclude our our update
and myself and staff are ready for
questions thank you Chief
Smith any questions
councelor K thank you Chief Smith and
y'all for being here and making this
happen off the ground um so it sounds
like at the moment the immediate
short-term funding requests are
to increase capacity during the times
that light already exists right um and
that would be reducing the number of
pending calls which you alluded to um do
you have a similar sense of what it
would mean to expand the hours of
service and what would be the need and
what's the long term plan for for doing
that potentially if if it's needed it
sounds like it's pretty needed in the
immediate short term to expand the
capacity during the day but but what
would those look like and when um and I
just am very excited for for you all to
keep on rocking I guess so so I'm just
curious if you can outline some of the
even longer sort of future
plans uh thank you mayor uh councelor
Karan I'll try to to capture what we're
going to be looking at for determining
if I may like you're talking about after
hours overnight going to a 24-hour a day
type model if that's correct uh on this
type of graph what we'd want to see is
that call demand that demand for service
increase overnight uh so once we get
past those operating hours for there
still to be calls within our call types
that are happening that we need that
social worker and co-response model to
that'll be the the trigger for it also
then we have to find employees who are
outside of the fire service who are
willing to do shift work uh graveyards
things like that to to fill in those
positions I hope that was giving you the
data point that we're going to look at
yes it's helpful I just wonder is it
possible that this is like a cyclical
data point where you aren't available so
therefore people aren't dispatched and
or the the call is not categorized in
the way that would be most useful and is
there room to have better data in that
area so Council K we did work with our
Dispatch Center on getting those call
types
as well as times where PDS on the call
and it's a direct request for
light look at BCS if I've got that all
correct and so this chart here shows
both the pending calls as well as the
calls outside of the service hours and
you can see that they are dropping down
on an anal annualized basis uh well
below one an
hour thank you
mayor pro thank you thank you Chief
Smith um BC Hiles and um licensed
clinical social worker Alison Stoner um
Congratulations by the way um thank you
for this I also feel like I cheated a
little bit because I got to hang out
with the light team last week on
Wednesday and so I got to pick their
brain on so many of these things um just
feel tremendously grateful for allowing
me to come hang out with you and to tag
along um and just for talking with me um
obviously while we waited we waited for
a call to be dispatched on um I just sat
and talked with them and then I guess
both unfortunately and fortunately there
was a call um and I got to see them in
action and um it was Allison and Mike
and I
just just thinking about it makes me
want to cry a little bit because I was
just really impressed and um it was
actually a call where the officer was
dispatched um and the officer called
project light to the to the scene and
they ended up transporting this person
to um Santa Teresa this person wanted to
go to the peak and they transported them
there and I just like that is the level
of care that project light is providing
to our community and I'm just really
impressed and I I will repeat this over
and over because I think repetition is
key but project light to me has always
been about pairing the right first
responder to the right emergency um and
you just like I think you know we're a
year out more than a year out and I
think we've just shown the success of
that and and the intention ality behind
that and how how effective it is at
caring for people who are in distress
and pairing the right person to that
distress
um gosh I have so many questions um I
know that dispatch is hiring a lot of
new folks I'm really excited that who
they're not being hired where this is
the norm right because I imagine it was
a little bit difficult at first for
dispatch to um call in light or whatever
and so I'm really excited can you just
talk about that Chief the growth of the
partnership with dispatch um and it is
exciting right that these folks will now
come into a place where just light has
always existed and I think that that
will be a really good thing mayor and
mayor protm I I can try I don't know if
I can speak very well to the efforts at
at dispatch but one of the things that
we did when we when we constructed this
team and how we would respond um it was
important for us to to work
within the the frame of mind that our
dispatchers already have and they were
already categorizing these call types
as suicidal ideations suicide attempts
uh behavioral issues so we built that on
the on the back end where automatically
it would make that recommendation for
the dispatcher so as soon as light one
or light two is in service and that call
type comes in that team is already being
recommended by the cad so it took a
little bit of that uh person effort out
of it to remember oh there's this other
resource I can I can tag on to this
response so we built it that way I do
know as we transition transed into the
988 system that our dispatchers are
doing a lot more work of trying to
screen these calls and figure out
through their algorithm if that uh call
that person who needs help can be sent
through the 988
system sometimes that that occurs and I
I don't have their numbers with me to to
refer to of how many times it's been in
the last year but we are trying to
really build this as a tiered system as
we do with our EMS response where if 988
and somebody on the phone in a scheduled
followup will work that that's great but
if the person is an immediate help and
immediate mental crisis we really want
our light team and our professionals to
go there and our Dispatch Center has
been supportive of that and BC HS
have I got the thumbs up he's like I'm
not going back there so what thanks VC
Hils yes that's really great and I think
what actually one of the conversations
we had was about 988 and um Paul Ford
was there and he was like you know 911
also took a really long time for people
to get the hang of right I don't know
about that think 911 has always been a
thing while I've been alive but um but
988 it's going to take some time right I
think it's going to take some time for a
community
to um really grasp on to what 988 could
be because people are so used to calling
911 in any moment of distress right so I
think we have a lot of work to do there
as well um Allison I have some questions
for you that I hope you can expand on
because I think it's really important
for my colleagues to hear from as well
because I also talked to them about the
potential poal for growth especially
outside of what we have right now and
you brought up some really great points
and I think this is why we always you
know I I committed to them that I if I
advocate for an expansion of growth that
it will only be because they've they're
advocating for it as well right like
Allison and the other um Mindy and
Corina they're the ones on the the
social workers on the ground and they're
the ones that are saying our calls are
taking two hours right like can I there
is so much emotional labor that goes
into one of these calls that um perhaps
keeping firefighter hours is not
conducive to that kind of work right and
so I think you just made some really
good points around that but also around
Healthcare Providers keep working hours
and how um the barrier so just some of
those things can you expand on those
please thank you mayor and Council um
Allison Stoner lost crues fire
department social worker with the light
program uh I apologize for my
informality I wasn't planning on
speaking but I also never turned down
the opportunity to to talk about light
um and answer some of these questions so
I think to to to speak to your question
I would first just like to set a little
bit of context so we did reference that
three of our call types are um overdoses
behavioral
issues um which can be anything from
anxiety to psychosis and everything in
between what is included in a behavioral
issue and the way that a behavioral
issue gets dispatched it can be so many
things um we're also responding to
suicidal ideation suicide attempts cprs
and death um so the intention of project
light as we look at it through numbers
on a
screen it's hard to fully encapsulate
the worth and the benefit and the
healing that is really being offered on
these calls um and it is it's intense
right we have the opportunity to walk
into often times the most difficult
moment of somebody's life and really
what our job is is to be attuned to that
it's to not look away it's to say that
we're here and we're not afraid of the
fear the pain the suffering um and to be
present from the moment that we arrive
until the moment that we either get
somebody to that next level of care um
and or we say we de escalated this
crisis and we can step away um so I
think you know what Chief Smith spoke to
was um that we're looking to hire a
coordinator because what we experience
with our light teams right now we
currently have one team operating at a
time which means that we have one social
worker operating at a time and what you
see within the fire service is that you
have Crews of three four sometimes up to
six people that are get getting
dispatched to a medical issue we we have
one social worker responding um and
we're often you know the social worker
on these calls when we are the primary
team responding it's often the the
weight of that call is usually the
responsibility of the social worker and
it should be um but when we do start to
look at are we ever going to get to
something like a 24-hour model or maybe
a 4896 like you know like our fire crews
are currently operating I think that
we're going to need to see more support
for that to be worthwhile because and
what I spoke to when we were having our
conversation um is that personally I
mean one personally I just never
expected to be a social worker working
in the 911 system that has and will
continue to be the the surprise and the
honor of My Life um but I have a really
hard time imagining being on a shift for
40 hours and then getting called to a
suicidal ideation where I am solely
responsible for that patient's
well-being um and so I think that those
are those are in addition to the need of
the community which of course is an
absolute priority we want to make sure
that our teams are supported to be able
to provide that level of care and where
I am coming from at this moment we don't
have the full support to be able to say
our expectation is for a light team to
run for 48 hours if I am going to
be solely responsible for about 70% of
that work um I hope that that answers
your question excellent Ellison yes
thank you and then also you can you just
talk also about the barrier of the
healthcare providers right then that
also after hours it also just limits
your sure yeah so um one of one of my
favorite numbers to reflect to you all
when we talk about the work of light is
that about 63% of the time we we being a
light team is transporting to something
that is not the emergency department
that could be Ms Valley Hospital the
peak Hospital for an inpatient
assessment um that could be that we call
up somebody therapist and say hey you're
you know your your person your patient
is having a crisis do you have the
capacity to see them for a crisis
appointment at this time that could be
we transport to that it could be that we
transport to any sort of safe location
which is the Community of Hope the
crisis triage Center when it was was
available um and hopefully will continue
to be available in the future um so we
are looking for the those alternative
options once we get out of kind of the
regular working business hours we can
still provide transportation to the
emergency departments we can still
provide transportation to inpatient
hospitals for assessment um but we do
lose those kind of those Alternative
Care transports and so then we sort of
just you know again once we're looking
at 911 calls for these specific types of
calls we do lose some of our options
when Serv most Services just close at at
5:00 thank you for that Allison I really
appreciate it and know I'm also wearing
Birkin stock so don't even worry about
that um I that's all my questions for
you and actually a I have a couple other
questions but any of you could answer
them um one of them
is well actually um I'll say this too
about the co-response model I'm someone
who has been um really an advocate for
eventually getting to a place where we
separate the two but in my conversations
with all of you um I think again it's
it's really easy to philosophize about
something when you're removed from issue
um but just hearing from Allison and
Mike
around how important the co-response
model has been um you just never know
what that call is going to be like
whether it was maybe a little bit
dramatized in the notes and that person
just needed to vent and be heard or
whether truly it was something a little
bit worse that absolutely needed um PD
involvement right and so I just I just
again really really want to thank you
for providing that perspective to me
um again I don't ever it is easy to be
up here and be like I think this is how
things should be um and then just but
listening to you about the barriers and
these these issues that you're raising
is just so so critical so thank you very
much the last thing I um as I left um
Unfortunately they had to take someone
to santes and so the officer gave me a
right back to the station and I was
talking to Paul Ford a little bit
afterwards and as I was I've been
reflecting on it I I feel like I gained
so much from our conversation ation and
I know you're really really busy I know
that you all keep incredibly busy
schedules while you're on the clock and
I guess I would might I have a little
bit of an ask around um Chief is already
scared I can see it in his face um no
but it's really about Consulting around
some policies I left really feeling like
you all
have so much on the ground experience
about folks who are on housed about
overdoses that I just would really love
it if you were in room when we're
talking about shopping cart ordinances
when we're talking about ordinances
dealing with our unhoused community I
hope that you're part of this advisory
Council and then you're having these
conversations with the opio settlement
right like I really um felt really
important to me to name that today chief
that I think this team has so much
knowledge wisdom and information to
share that I hope they're being tapped
into and maybe that's for Eon as well
that I hope they're being tapped into
when for when we're Consulting um for
consult ing on certain kind of policies
that we're
considering so this there a question but
if you want to reflect on that you're
more than mayor mayor protm uh thank you
for that um I agree and there there are
some opportunities where our team and
our resources within the fire dep
Department are are looked over we're
we're passed up uh we are more than just
displaying A firet TRU we have a lot of
great people a lot of great experience a
lot of knowledge and capability and
capacity to contribute
um I will say that for the advisory
committee uh I do not believe that sorry
if I'm speaking out of ter but I don't
think there's anybody from the public
safety realm on the advisory committee
for the opioid settlement uh we were one
of the focus groups but there's nobody
representing uh
our um experience on that advisory panel
yeah but if there are other areas where
our team BC Hiles or any of our social
workers can assist and lend a different
lens uh to the conversation or the issue
uh we are ready to serve thank you Chief
I really appreciate that I really
believe that as well I think um yeah I
was just I left just so grateful and
impressed by the folks I got to speak
with that day oh and last thing I will
say is that I was just at the NMSU
School of Social Work hooding ceremony
and there was 80 msws graduating and 47
bsws and the program grew by 20% for
next year so we have our yeah we got to
go recruit some folks I think thank you
thank you mayor proam any Council
M I just had a question about do you see
um and I don't know if this art exists
you kind of explained how um the calls
are taken but do you ever expect them to
call 911 and say I'd like to see project
light people actually calling for that
this is kind of a preface to another
mayor and councelor McClair uh I'd be
surprised if it hasn't happened already
looking at the the team shaking their
heads yes let BC hire uh answer that
one mayor me members of council yes it
does happen um I couldn't give you an
exact number or anything but it it is a
specific request from somebody going in
crisis um and maybe it's not from that
individual but maybe it could be someone
that individual is with a reporting
party that I we need the light team
that's who we need that's who we want
and so
the answer to your question is yes for
us I think we get a lot of calls of
doing something and a lot of the times
that's outside the realm of what we can
do but it's what you guys do and I wish
we would talk a little bit more because
I feel like you are the bright spots
that we don't really talk about in the
ways that we could a lot of times when
I'm going out and I say hey there's
project light and people look at me with
blank faces we should not be doing that
because they looking for resources kind
of like that Mom who emailed all of us
to say I'm my kiddos in crisis what can
I do so I would like to be able to
that's my ask is that and I've spoken to
the city manager already that we tell
the your guys' stories and as much as we
can get some of the outcomes told I'd
love to do that too because this is one
of the brightest things that we're doing
right now I think personally so thank
you for the work you're doing thank you
for that and I would just like to add
something right quick um the job they do
is difficult it's Unique again it's
one-of aind Nationwide this isn't common
Nationwide um you can't just like you
have to have the right people and then
you have to pair the right teams and we
have the right people we've paired the
right teams they're the boots on the
ground they're the ones that make it
happen they're the ones that go and do
the work they're the ones that bear that
burden when the call is over and it's
hard it's difficult mental behav mental
health is is a serious issue it's a
crisis and they're seeing it day in and
day out every time they show up and when
they show up they show up full force
I couldn't be more proud of these teams
and that also speaks for mih because
they also step in and F whenever a light
team member couldn't make it that day
and to congratulate Allison again on her
LCSW certification I want to also
mention that our other two social
workers have also achieved the status of
LCSW so it's quite an achievement
personally in their profession but to
have that under our roof and our
programs for our city is huge it's very
huge so my hats off to them for all the
hard work they do and again I couldn't
be more luckier so thank
you thank you
Mr anyone
else okay um congratulations Allison and
uh responding alone that's something I
used to say too when I was in
prevention but uh but things have
changed and it's not really prevention
it's Community risk reduction so what
you all are doing now it's it's
tremendous thank you PC Al Chief Smith
uh when you mentioned the stakeholders
um you know like uh I know you mentioned
Los cresus Public Schools I saw the the
number I think it was on number five
where you know so many under 19 years of
age so again you work with the schools
because they're probably already in the
system with either a counselor or a
social worker already just kind of
figuring out what's going on like what
what triggered did or or anything it
could be an after hour call but still
they're in the system with the schools
right so you have that working
relationship with the with the
schools mayor yes we do have a working
relationship with the schools as far as
what they're in the system for uh you
know being that it's an acute crisis at
the moment I mean I don't have a direct
answer for that I don't know if Allison
can highlight that a little bit for me
um since she's actually the one that
responds to them and and gets to speak
to uh the members of the staff at
school good afternoon again Allison
Stoner lost Cruis fire department light
program um to speak a little bit to our
age breakdown and specifically what we
see in schools um we and I will also
preface with that over the past probably
three four six months we've seen more
assets being put into the schools I know
FYI has staff in a few schools now um
but when light first started we were
being being very heavily utilized by
school resource officers um and so the
calls that we're responding
to I mean again still with within the
school system it can still be such a
wide range it could be a student that
said I'm feeling suicidal maybe they
made threats to harm themselves or
others um and I think that this is my
opportunity to speak to the partnership
that we have with Los Cruz's police
department and the school resource
officers saying we might have one way
that we could handle this situation but
instead they're saying we also know what
light provides we understand the way
that the light program works and we
understand that we might not be the most
equipped to address this situation and
that's a lot of what we get pulled into
schools for um is by a school resource
officer saying I you know from assessing
this situation I think that this kiddo
needs a higher level of care I think
that there might be things going on in
the home that they haven't wanted to
share with me as the school resource
officer um that's a that's a lot of what
we're seeing within the school system um
I will also say that just for for the 0
to 18 years range we also we just see a
lot of high Acuity calls coming from
coming from homes um and a lot of
response for youth who
are
um who are having suicidal ideation
homicidal
ideation um and just some really big
behaviors and and a lot of times you
know you think about the stress that
that puts on the family system whatever
that family system look like looks like
um it you know it really is often times
somebody just calling 911 saying I don't
know what else to do and I I know that
there might not be a Simple Solution um
but we do see a lot of calls for youth
specifically from both the schools and
from just within the community of of not
knowing the next steps how to Resource
those kids with the help that they need
okay thanks great Nelson and then uh the
other thing I was going to mention was
uh Chief Smith
um you know you mentioned being like
overlooked or passed by and not getting
the information one of those is is the
the triage Center that's something that
was available is not available but in
moving forward we'd really like to have
uh your the fire department's opinion on
how we would really help the light
program more as opposed to how it was
used before but how can we improve on
that and make sure we get that you know
to the county and to to their their
coordinators or directors to see what
contract goes into it and how it can
benefit what you all have been
doing thank you mayor and on that on
that front I know BCS as well as the
rest of our light team and mih are
talking with providers and our partners
who uh will be looking at reopening the
CTC in the next few months so that they
are definitely working together and
sharing those lessons learned from the
previous administration of the
building sounds good thank you Chief
just one other thing I know I saw the
numbers and you're looking at 1100 calls
that that go out I know at one time it
was like 900 calls at PD was doing on
mental and behavioral so I know who's
absorbing those now so it's been great
for the reduction of the calls that LCPD
has to go on but one of the big
components I always felt was when it
becomes a crisis a lot of times what PD
is responding to is a SWAT call and so
is there any correlation or anything
have you seen any data or breakdown
numbers if there's a reduction in swat
calls um mayor uh no we haven't looked
at that number
so okay just see if that's something
with the data with some of the the
mental and behavioral that that leads to
those type of calls and DC Renda can
probably get his staff and see if
there's any any correlation with how the
light program because I I think it's a
true success I think what you're all
doing is great and I think there's just
more of an impact that we're probably
not seeing and and what it's done so
thank you for
that okay with that uh is there any
members of the public that would like to
comment or have a
question seeing none thank you thanks
great job
next on the agenda is item 1.2 a
discussion of Revenue options to create
a sustainable Capital Improvement fund
uh by Chris
favor good afternoon mayor council Chris
favor deputy director economic
development for the record
hope everyone's having a good
afternoon um I was hoping that today's
conversation could sort of pick up where
we left off with the community
livability discussion about Community
needs and and ways to find additional um
fundings to address those
needs and so what we're really looking
to do is you know continue some of the
momentum that we you know established
during that work session and through the
proposed fy2 budget and that'll allow us
to come up with a proactive approach to
Capital planning and operations and
ultimately look to increase quality of
life opportunities for all residents in
the areas of Public Safety Street
improvements Park improvements and
public facility
improvements so what we'll do now is we
we'll walk through these different
options discuss uh how how they could
work towards potential Capital funding
uh
and and kind of go through them one at a
time so leading off with capital outlay
so capital outlay is a great source for
incremental funding but it's no
guaranteed Revenue option uh it's it's
not really intended for start to finish
funding uh and often times the
legislators will do funding based on
some of their
priorities and so those are some of the
limitations of capital outlay but it's
also important to remember that it can't
be used for maintenance and operations
as
well we always have go Bond funding and
So currently the available debt capacity
for the city is a little over $83
million uh there is a constitutional
debt limitation of 4% of assessed
evaluation which is about 120 million
and so this uh you know accessing this
$83 million would increase property
taxes by approximately
4.7% and it's important to note that the
next bonding cycle is in
2026 moving on to a discussion about
property taxes there is an option to
generate about6 million via ordinance
from Council council's unused taxing
Authority is about 2.8% currently the
downside of property taxes is that
they're not shared by everyone
specifically count County residents
overnight visitors people passing
through do not pay property
taxes to the city I should say they do
pay County property
taxes um and so this particular option
would add about A1 $100 per year on a
home about valued at about $300,000 with
an assessed value of
$100,000 and so assessed value is
approximately onethird of the total
value of of a home's value
another option is uh GRT so current GRT
rate is about
8.06 and of that it's important to note
that the city Only receives about 1.
n375 of that property excuse me GRT is
collected on City residents County
residents overnight visitors and people
passing through who are using amenities
and services offered by the city
so there is an option to increase the
GRT by about 0.56
25% a portion of that does come via
ordinance and a portion of that would
need to come by a ballot measure and you
can see by a ordinance there's
approximately $9 million that could be
generated and through a ballot measure
approximately $11 million per year could
be
generated so and some important things
to note about
GRT there's no GRT collected on
groceries or
medicine and what we're looking at here
is approximately 56 cents per $100 spent
on certain goods and services so that
translates to about $69 per year
additional uh for the median household
income in loss
cruus and it's important to note that
return on investments for residents in
the city of Los Cruses would be
substantial we're looking at potentially
generating about 20 million dollar
additionally per year and that would
really help Council and staff create a
proactive capital investment and
maintenance strategy but more
importantly it provides a way to find
funding alignment with Council and staff
priorities through Elevate and the CIP
and a way to come up with solutions to
meet the demands of our growing
Community long term
so after the um Community livability
work
session we engaged a community public
poll to see the level of support for
potential GRT increase amongst
registered voters in Los crusis and so
we'll run through some some information
here and kind of discuss some of the
outcomes at the
end so between May 1st and 5th uh we
conducted a scientifically sampled
survey of registered voters in Los
Cruses conducted about 400 interviews
with the plus or minus error of about
4.9% 71 of these were conducted with
phone 29% were text to
web and the intent was to gauge support
for additional GRT to fund Capital Cap
General Municipal purposes including
Capital Improvements and mainten of
Public Safety Parks recreational
facilities Fields streets and other
public quality of life
facilities so at the top of the survey
they ask an open-ended question what are
your top priorities what do you see the
top priorities of the city and so this
is a word cloud that was put together
based on the things that were identified
by the registered voters and so you can
see things like homelessness crime
infrastructure Public Safety those were
some of the things that that came to the
top during that initial
open-ended uh
question additionally as part of setting
that Baseline before we moved into the
messaging portion of the survey they
asked in general what areas would you
support uh GRT increase for and there
was broad support in areas of Public
Safety parks and wreck fields and
facilities and quality of life
facilities like libraries and museums
things like that
again still during the Baseline portion
of the survey asking specifically which
areas would you support additional
funding for Public Safety again comes
out on top streets traffic calming
followed by Park improvements and
quality of life
facilities so the second phase of the
survey was to get specifically into our
messaging behind
um why a proposed increase would benefit
local residents and so when asked the
question if the proposed GRT increase
could provide a sustainable funding
stream for Public Safety Parks streets
and quality of life facilities and
importantly noting that the increase
will be shared by City County residents
visitors and others passing through who
take advantage of City amenities and
services are you more or less likely to
support more or less much more somewhat
more likely was 67% in
support when told that the proposed GRT
increase would Implement a modest
increase of 56 cents per $100 spent on
certain goods and services 69% said they
were more or much more likely to support
that
increase and when asked uh about the GRT
fostering economic growth and improving
quality of life for residents 72% said
they were much more or somewhat more
likely to support the GRT
increase we again asked the question
specific to these various uh topics
specifically if it went to Public Safety
Street and traffic calming Park
improvements and quality of life
facilities would you support and you can
see there was broad support for Public
Safety streets parks and quality of life
improvements
so wrapping up the survey uh they ask
another open-ended question based on
everything that you heard here what are
some of your biggest Impressions what
are some of the things that came to top
of mind and you can see things changed a
little bit but again Public Safety
streets those types of things Parks
definitely filtered to the top
again so what we did see um the initial
Baseline portion of the survey asked
without any context would you support a
GRT increase for municipal Services uh
specific to those areas and there was
51% support at during the Baseline and
at the end of the survey support had
increased 12% to about 63% based on our
messaging questions and what we were we
were surveying registered voters for
support
of so I put together some final
takeaways from the data collected about
88% % see Public Safety as a top
priority and the reason that they would
be most willing to support a GRT
increase unprompted number two
priorities were homelessness and
housing uh number three was roads and
traffic and there was broad support for
uh public parks and public facility
improvements so if Council chooses to
move forward uh we would you know engage
in a community outreach campaign between
now and the November election a
resolution to approve the ballot measure
would come before Council in July and we
would need to get that ballot question
to the county by
August I stand for
questions all right thank you Chris uh
any question councilor
Grant hi thank you so much um so what
I'm taking away is that when you ask
people if they want their taxes raised
they're like no but when you tell them
what this actually
entails support goes up pretty
substantially mayor councelor Graham
yeah as we got into our messaging
specifically what our intentions were
support for those various areas did
increase but it's important to note that
at the the onset of the survey the
Baseline question would you support a
general GRT increase for these areas was
at 51% okay um can we hop back one slide
please so would this does this timeline
imply that in July we would be bringing
to council the ordinance where we would
raise GRT to the limits that we can by
resolution or
ordinance mayor what is that resolution
if not yeah mayor councelor I I think
what you would need to do at that point
would be to bring a resolution forward
for the full increase I believe you I
mean I guess there's a few options but
the idea being that you could go out for
the ballot support and then you could
follow that up with the ordinance if it
did pass on the ballot since it is sort
of a two-part uh option there between
the ballot measure and the resolution
excuse me and the ordinance but that
resolution specifically would be asking
Council if they wanted to move forward
with the ballot measure for the increase
I see thank you thank you mayor thank
you mayor Pro Temp thanks mayor Chris
can you go one back one
more this um struck me and I just want
to just make something really clear for
all of us as we move forward with this
conversation that in this survey this
sort of focus group of folks people are
saying that the biggest issue right now
is
homelessness and people are also mostly
in support of raising taxes that would
go towards police and fire I just want
us to be really clear clear that police
and fire will not fix our homelessness
problem alone and so as we talk about
how we raise taxes and what we invest
them in um that we're that we're
investing them in um places that are
actually going to solve our most
challenging problems and and so I'm just
saying that police and fire are not the
only things that get to fix
homelessness so it's really interesting
the perception that's out in the
community so I just wanted to point that
out um Chris so just so that I'm clear
um through
ordinance it would for GRT it would
raise um 29
million you know what I'm saying yes
okay and then by ballot measure
11 is there I'm curious if you or I know
the finance team is here if there's been
any sort of equation or math where we
say um how about we do a little bit of
both how about we do a little mashup of
um increase where we're talking about
both GRT and property taxes also do you
know where around the state we land on
property taxes on that value mayor mayor
proem I don't specifically know where we
rank with property taxes but to your
first point there is an option for
ordinance on both property tax increase
and GRT increase the only yeah the only
concern I have with going to the public
for 11 million is that that would be our
cap that would Max us out we would not
be able to raise
GRT ever again correct is that my
understanding mayor mayor proia that
would that would put us at the max of
our current taxing Authority as a
municipality correct right so you know I
guess I would just I would love to know
better the implications of that whether
positive or negative and I just think
that's an important consideration as we
move forward um and if we're talking
about so sort of meeting a certain
threshold that's why I propose perhaps
um doing a little bit of a tag team here
between GRT and property Texas Mayor
mayor protm so via ordinance council
could increase property taxes using
their uh the unused portion of their
taxing Authority which would generate
roughly $6 to7 million annually the
example here is that on a home valued at
uh 100 300,000 has an assess value of
$100,000 you're rough looking at roughly
a $100 year increase on the property
taxes so I think that works out to like
$8 a month on that increase and then
additionally via ordinance for GRT
that's another $9 million that council
could Implement thank you I I would love
us to look at that option I mean I think
um listen I know that this for the
public I know that this is a scary
conversation and the reality is is that
that we're behind on offering quality
services to our community when it comes
to Parks when it comes to libraries when
it comes to these like very quality of
life services that we just don't have
enough money for and go bonds just don't
um aren't meeting that need necessarily
every four years and so I I I think it's
an important conversation I know it's
hard um but I would love to see the um
for me I think it's important that we
think about the multiple options that we
have in front of of us and not totally
exhaust the one option immediately so
that's sort of where I'm
[Music]
standing councilor Flores thank you
mayor and thank you so much Mr favor um
favor
M um so
um property
taxes are are you talking about
homeowners or are you talking
about property owned by businesses or
how does that work mayor councelor
FLOTUS this is specific to homeowners
there is a a property tax assess for for
commercial but this was specifically for
homeowners residential okay because I
think that if it's only for homeowners
there's going to be some um push back
because um the GRT is uh on what uh
goods and services that people uh buy so
anyway anyway so it'd be good to make
that
distinction
or and um okay and then
um if the city council was to pass an
ordinance for 9
million
um you know what I'm inclined to say is
let's see if we can do a ballot measure
and then everybody votes on it and then
um
and then if it's not voted on then uh it
by by the uh voters then we can go to an
ordinance and um but I I think that uh
people will want to vote on that and not
leave it entirely to city council that's
my two cents thank you so much for your
presentation it was very good very
clear thank you Council V anyone else
questions comments
okay well thank you for the presentation
Chris um I have no problem with
exploring other options I think this is
something definitely we need to move in
this direction um as mayor protim said
we do have where we're falling behind on
things I can speak uh personally to
Public Safety whether it's Fleet uh
whether it's uniforms whether it's
stations um there's no plan on on how
we're going to get those filled we had
to put the G the Fire Station 3 on a
geobond station 9 on a Geo Bond but
before that there was never and how do
we sustain our Fleet even for police and
how do we move forward I think this is
the the best steps we can do to have a
restricted fund that's for Public Safety
and quality of life and Road
improvements those things that come up
that we're not taking away from the
general fund in that way you know we're
not as tight and trying to see which
priority we're going to do we already
have it prioritized so I would be uh
looking for a consensus from the the
rest of the uh Council here on do we
move forward uh
not yes Council
MTI no no mayor I agree with you I I
think there's a lot of things that need
to be repaired fixed and made better in
the city of law Cru is that and I'm glad
that the the people will decide there
going to be a referendum right a bond
issue that they'll be voting on if we do
the gross receipts tax mayor councelor
matis yes that would be the option that
that would go out to the public and that
and that would be the 11
million yes and I think you could pose
the question to support both the 11
million and then Council would enact the
other portion of it via ordinance so
correct okay can I ask you a question is
there any other increases that we're
proposing uh electric bills or any
utility bills uh increases coming
forward I prefer not to have it on
property tax you know we're real
concerned with the unhoused and
affordable
housing and u i I think we just leave
the property tax where it is and I
prefer the the gross receipts tax
increase sure Mr Mayor councelor mati at
this time I'm not aware of any specific
other uh increases related to utilities
or otherwise um I don't know if there's
anyone from utilities here to comment on
that but could certainly get back to
Council on that
okay again you know people are a lot of
people are struggling with the inflation
and cost of things going up but I think
if they're going to be allowed to vote
on it then I would support that thank
you Chris sure oh I think Sonia
Delgado uh yes thank you mayor um
members of the council Council morti
Sonia Delgado assistant city manager uh
utilities currently is starting their
rate structure um so they'll be going
through that process and they should
have that done probably with within the
next fiscal year by the fiscal year
25 thank you I ju Just as the vice chair
of the utilities I do want to say that
utilities is struggling with the same
thing really outdated infrastructure and
figuring out ways to keep up with a
growing city um that has a lot of needs
on water Wastewater and so those are
those are yes in Coals those are really
big issues and then of course the the
electric utility does not belong to the
city so
thank you mayor I realize it's an
Enterprise Fund in in that uh Utility
Fund if if I can remember going through
the the budget there's uh quite a debt
for the uh I believe the retirement Peta
both in uh in the Enterprise funds do we
have a large amount that's due this
year for the the per
reimbursement m
we're talking about retirement
obligations uh councelor
matis um I I would defer to our finance
director or our chief administrative
officer uh on that
mayor council for the record land de
Finance director to answer your question
councelor ma
no um that's a good answer yes okay but
when when will that come when will that
be well it's it's in as in all things I
mean we have a list of people that are
eligible to retire that doesn't mean
that they will retire um I mean it one
time I mean this is a a new ruling for
Gatsby and I understand it right but it
is not that kind of obligation it does
sometimes uh when we're trying to take
on debt and things that is a considerate
but it is a non-cash item so it is not
necessarily something that is going to
be affecting our budget it's it's on the
balance sheet not on the general fund
well the general fund has that as well
but again it's a non-cash item so it's
on our balance sheet sir okay thank you
we just carry it we do sir we do it's
like on your back okay yes and and just
hope that not everybody in the city
retires but they they won't sir okay
thank
you okay thank you no other comment okay
well thank you Chris based on the visual
that I got on the consensus is to go
ahead and move forward okay thank you
mayor
oh with that a motion to adjourn move to
adjourn
seconded this is on the motion to
adjourn the work session councelor
McClure yes councelor
matis yes councelor Graham yes councelor
cran yes councelor flus yes councelor
Beno yes mayor
yes
for for