e
[Music]
e
[Music]
and you're
on good afternoon everyone uh welcome to
the city council work session today is
Monday March 11th 2024 it's
approximately 1 p.m. I mayor Enriquez um
I'd like to start with a moment of
silence uh for our military and for our
police and fire and also want to extend
our condolences to the mayor of the
village of hatch who passed away uh Jim
also known as Slim Whitlock so we could
also remember him in our moment of
silence thank you
you want to please join me in the Pledge
of
Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for
all
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I just got
that okay we'll start first with the
jobs of the week uh Sarah
rainy good afternoon thank
you
all right my name is Sarah Rainey I'm
from the workforce Connections Office
for the southwest region here in Los
cruus and then all across the whole
Southwest Seven Counties um for our jobs
of the week for Las cruus we have a
service attendant for the city of Los
crues it's 1557 an hour that posting
closes on the 18th we also have a
traffic signal technician um the
position pays 2.95 an hour and it is a
Contin was posting for wh Sands Missle
range we have a QC safety specialist one
that one starts at $25 an hour and is
open until
filled for uh La Fiesta Bakery we have a
doughnut fryer they um the position
didn't have a pay so that one's
depending on um experience that posting
closes on the 21st as well for Sheron
Williams they have a customer service
specialist starting at $15 an hour and
then for for MSA Valley hospice we have
a cook and part-time weekend position
open and then we wanted to remind you
all of our events that we have coming up
we do need um expertise to come and help
us out at the macket till you rocket
that's where the high schoolers get to
learn how to interview they get to test
their skills out and have actual
interviews with employers some employers
are hiring some of them are not but they
still get that good one-on-one practice
and they get the feedback on how to do a
proper interview for their jobs um we
also of course do our monthly um job
Readiness at the community of hope this
month it's on the 13th so um that is
just for that in that community and then
we have upcoming we have the Los cruus
spring career fair that'll be on March
27th at the convention center from 2: to
5:30 we will have um veteran priority as
well from what one and the first hour is
veteran priority so only veterans can
come in they can come in to meet the
employers first and then after that the
P it's open to the public anybody
looking for a job or just a change so
and then to introduce you to introduce
him I have Jason Bernal here to speak on
the Hiring
Heroes hello council members my name is
Jason Bernal I am the local veteran
employment representative for Workforce
connections uh we will be placing a
Hiring Heroes event which is a veteran
specific job fair uh it will take place
on April 1st at the American Legion Post
10 times are going to be from 10 10:00
to 2:00 and what we're hoping to do is
uh provide um jobs to uh job-seeking
Veterans for law enforcement Health
Services um Emergency Services as well
as Federal Contracting uh there will be
some uh other Supportive Services there
for the veterans to use if they so
choose and um they can uh reach me
either at my office uh their Workforce
Connection um or we also have a a flyer
with an email that they can register on
there directly uh if anybody is
interested in a flyer I will be holding
them and we'll pass them out after the
uh the
meeting thank you for having us does
anybody have any
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questions right thank you all we
appreciate it thank
you next is pets of the week with Amy
def
Felix
hello everyone I'm Amy def Felix with
the Animal Services Center of the msia
valley and go ahead and get this up and
we'll start presenting the pets of the
week we start off with our cat of the
week this week his name is Tommy his
number is
73009 and he says I'm a handsome and
friendly boy that was picked up as a
stray with my brother my brother has
since found his forever home so it's my
turn now I'm ready to turn my life from
being a street cat into being a spoiled
indoor only house cat loving my forever
family as much as I can and then we also
have our dog of the week her name is
Frosty her number is
64146 and she says I'm a funloving and
energetic girl looking for an active and
loving family I'm still pretty young so
I have energy that i' like to burn off
by playing with toys and going out for
walks at the end of the day I'd love to
wind down with some pets and Cuddles
from a loving family I hope it can be
yours and then we have one adoption
event this Saturday March at 16th not
the 11th that's today um we'll be there
from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and we will
be at organ Mountain Organics so that
address is 1300 El Road in case you need
it we'll have adoptable dogs there um
ready to go home ready to meet you and
ready for you guys to fall in love and
then we have our our links um we have
our main website ascmv
toorgle podcasts where our podcast gets
uploaded monthly and that's all I have
thank thank
you okay thank you
Amy next on the agenda uh 3.1 the fifth
semiannual police audit report presented
by
the oir
group good afternoon Mr Mayor counselors
I'm Viola P City auditor and today we
have the O group with us to present the
fifth semiannual police audit report to
council so I'd like to introduce our
presenters today Miss Teresa magula and
Mr Steven
Connelly thank you Viola and good
afternoon Mr Mayor and and council
members I'm Steve Conley and this is my
my colleague Teresa as Viola just said
uh we are back here for the fifth time
to present to council uh our
semiannual report on the Los cruus
police department and uh we certainly
look forward to discussing that with you
as you know we are coming from Southern
California uh which is our base of
operations but we certainly do keep
track of of the news in Las cruus
especially as it relates to the police
department and we wanted to begin today
by formally expressing our condolences
to the the Los cruus community and and
the department in particular about the
the loss of Officer Jonah ernandez that
was uh deeply saddening news for us uh
and and we are extremely um mindful of
of the sacrifice that officer ernandez
made and and the dangers that go along
with with law enforcement on a daily
basis part of our job as oversight
professionals is is to kind of be a step
removed and to to occasionally be
critical of law enforcement and to have
some suggestions and ideas about doing
things differently or better and there's
certainly some of that in the report
today and we will be talking about that
but uh we we wanted to emphasize that we
always do our work since since we first
started doing this several years ago we
do our work uh from a position of
respect for the the work law enforcement
does and a recognition of the dangers of
the job and our hope is always that um
there is something constructive and
collaborative about our recommendations
and and as we say in the report we're
we're very um appreciative of the
relationship that that we have developed
with the police department they are
extremely Cooperative with us and
responsive to our questions and concerns
and and receptive to our ideas that
doesn't mean they always agree with them
to be sure but uh they always hear us
out and and we feel like the dialogue is
a very positive thing so thank you uh
just a little bit of background I know
we have some some new faces on the deis
um this afternoon since the last time
that we were here uh we have been
working in the field of of oversight of
law enforcement for more than 20 years
now uh that's pretty much our full-time
practice area and we work with a number
of different jurisdictions providing a
range of of independent Police Services
our arrangement in Los cruus is that we
are kind of plugged into the completed
investigations across certain categories
of allegations of Officer misconduct and
Teresa will get into some of the
specifics of that uh but again this is
our our fifth semiannual report we have
a a presentation for you um regarding an
overview of some of our findings from
from this particular six-month stretch
and then as always we'd be very happy to
entertain any any questions that you
folks might have so thank you
Teresa all right so as Steve mentioned
um we are here for the fifth time um
every time that we present to you we are
looking at a span of about six months
worth of cases that we've
evaluated um in this particular period
we're looking at June 1 to December M 31
of 2023 so it is the cases that were
investigated closed and reviewed by our
group in that time
frame as always our objective is to
determine if those investigations were
complete objective and thorough so those
are the basis for our um analysis and
our reviews and we also take a look at
whether the actions um from the
Department side were appropriate and
fair based on the evidence that was
provided in that that investigation and
then of course we always have some
demographics to provide um for your
review and
evaluation in this particular time frame
we had two types of Investigations that
we review and those are the kinds that
we review um in every period one of
those are the one category is the
internal investigations so these are
cases that were initiated by the
department um typically by Department
leadership a supervisor recognized an
issue um sometimes lieutenants and above
sometimes it's at the sergeant level
that realized that an issue occurred and
it should be a formal
investigation in this period we saw
seven of those cases one of those was a
critical incident um which means an
incident that involved the use of deadly
force it was an officer involved
shooting that occurred here in your city
in 201 20 um and you might be asking
yourselves why are we now looking at it
in March of 2024 we'll get into some of
the details of that later in our
presentation but suffice to say for now
that these typically take a protracted
timeline it is a lengthy amount of time
given the amount of investigation and
different levels of review that have to
occur and so this came to us um in in
that period last
year others involved the use of physical
force that the department itself in
reviewing the incident found may have
warranted additional review we saw one
vehicle
Pursuit and we also saw a variety of
procedural issues like report writing
was not done in a timely
way there were several that were related
to the Department's code of conduct and
the code of conduct is a kind of
umbrella for a whole host of different
kinds of potential misconduct it ranged
from things like discourtesy use of
profanity all the way to um Mis uh
perhaps
truthfulness um failing to adhere to an
administrative investigation's
requirements around confidentiality and
so on so it's a whole host of things
that are covered in that particular
general order called the code of
conduct the second kind of complaint um
invest instigation that we review are
these external investigations external
investigations are those cases that are
brought to the police department by
someone who had an encounter with a Los
crusa Police Department employee and was
dissatisfied for one reason or another
they bring those complaints through the
formal citizen complaint process we had
12 of those cases I and as you can
imagine the most uh frequent type of
allegation in these are again those code
of conduct so so an officer was
discourteous to me um I perceived that
the officer didn't take my report
seriously and didn't complete it in a
timely
way in this period we also saw about
four cases related to the improper
release of information or Department
information used for personal use um and
of course this is something that is of
concern and was of concern to the
department um these cases involved
individuals who were employees of the
police department who used their um own
um status as a peace officer to gain
access to information that otherwise
would not have been available to a
member of the public the department
really quickly put in some safeguards
around sharing information and access to
information which we felt was very
appropriate um and so we will look
forward to not seeing these types of
allegations in the future given the new
guard rails that are up with respect to
how to access systems and having to have
a specific case number to access
information and so on and in this period
we also saw two uses of force um that
the complainants deemed um were
excessive in their
opinion um I will take this time to
remind you all that unless it is a
critical incident like an officer
involved shooting or a complaint by a
member of the public that involves a use
of force we will not be to typically
looking at uses of force across the
board so these are only the uses of
force that are brought to us through the
types of cases that are within our scope
of
work back to
you now the one more for you one more
for me we like to keep everyone guessing
who's
gonna in this period we saw a total of
98 allegations and if you've been
tracking how many allegations have been
framed because I know this is of
Paramount importance to all of you the
number in this period has shot up
dramatically um Steve will talk a little
bit about why that is um but in short
you should know that of those 98
allegations 44 of them were sustained
which means that the department
determined that misconduct did occur and
provided the appropriate disciplinary
action as a result of that misconduct
having
occurred 37 of them were exonerated and
10 were unfounded both of those
categories indicate that the
investigation showed that the misconduct
as alleged did not in fact occur or did
not occur in the manner in which the
complainant um articulated that it
occurred and seven fall into this not
sustained category that means that the
investigation could not
determine sufficient with sufficient
evidence whether something happened or
did not happen and so that falls into
this bucket called not sustained um in
almost all of the cases we agreed and
aligned with the disciplinary excuse me
with the finding um in some we had some
disagreement around that and we raised
that of course to the Chief and to the
department um and so some of those um
will be uh those particular cases are
closed and there's no further action on
them but looking forward um we can
certainly look forward to having more
appropriate findings um that are based
on the
evidence so as Teresa said that
statistically speaking there is an in
definite increase in the number of cases
that we looked at during this period and
the total number of allegations uh and
obviously 98 in in 19 total cases so we
had uh most of the cases that we looked
at involved multiple allegations
multiple policy sections that were being
scrutinized for for potential violations
when you see an increase in a category
like misconduct investigations there's
obviously an initial impulse to to think
this is concerning and and uh it's been
our experience that that that isn't
necessarily true do we track the the
complaints year over year and period by
period absolutely and if there's a
noteworthy uh shift in that or or spike
in that then then we're obviously
interested in what might be accounting
for it but often times the there there
are explanations that are a little more
nuanced than the simple idea that wow
officers must really be be acting out in
more problematic ways and that's
generating more of these complaints some
of it in this case turns out to be a
timing issue when are the cases getting
completed so it's not as if all the the
complaints were clustered together in
one period of time although that does
happen and the chief was just telling us
you know towards the end of the year
last year they experienced a big rise in
complaints you know relatively low-level
misconduct but a a cluster that didn't
necessarily seem to be connected to any
particular um basis uh and it's just
statistically just something that
happens once in a while but I think part
of the reason why we had more completed
cases is that the department has
prioritized a more timely completion of
these investigations when they're open
this is something that we have talked
about repeatedly and emphasized and we
really see it as a as a Hallmark of a of
an effective discipline process that the
the cases are addressed and completed in
a timely fashion and I know that that is
a priority of Chief stories as well so
there was a backlog of cases that was
responsible for some of that number
secondly with regard to the number of
allegations the department seems to be
taking a more detailed nuanced approach
to um breaking out individual policy VI
potential policy violations as they
arise in a given case rather than just
you using a blanket charge for example
that kind of covers some of the
different aspects of something that a a
resident was complaining about the
department will will break out a
specific policy section when it has one
and and apply an analysis to that in
particular so it's not at all unusual
for a case to have six or seven
different allegations based on on one
complaint and another Factor on this you
can see the term that the department
uses as an AR issues and again we see
this as a positive sign in terms of of
the the effectiveness of the internal
review process when a a resident makes a
complaint uh and it gets investigated by
the department they're going to address
everything that's been brought up by the
member of the public which of course is
is very appropriate and it's something
that we have have really emphasized in
our earlier reports but if they identify
something else in the course of doing
the investigation they look at this case
and they figure out that the officer's
report was not as effective as it should
have been for example or there was a
body warn camera issue that the the
complaintant may have had no idea
existed but the department is like what
as we're reviewing this what's why why
did this happen what's going on here and
they will add that as a as an additional
focal point and address the Behavior Uh
as part of that investigation and again
we see that inclusive approach to be a a
positive thing and and an a good way of
using the process to to really help to
um improve officer
performance in terms of the demographics
there were 27 different employees named
in these cases and we break down the
ranks a little bit there are actually a
couple um Teresa and I were talking
about this this morning as we were going
over the presentation in one of the
cases and it was actually the officer
involved shooting case that Teresa
talked about there were there were three
sergeants and a lieutenant involved in
that incident in in the department
response so we keep track of the rank
levels of the people that are involved
we're always interested in in when
supervisors are the subject of
allegations because that can be a a weak
point uh in in Department investigations
not in Los crusis specifically but just
kind of generally in law enforcement
there's this concern that once people
reach the management level their
behavior doesn't get scrutinized as
rigorously as the rank and file officers
and that can be a source of of you know
it can be undermining to confidence you
know for for the officers within the
agency but also obviously it goes
against the purpose of the whole
exercise so uh we do keep track of when
there are supervisors involved and make
sure those cases get special attention
and that the the officer the the uh
subjects of those cases are are being
investigated appropriately and
thoroughly and the decisions are are
supportable so those are basically the
the the numbers and again three
non-sworn employees
uh included in in this grouping of cases
we've actually had several more in in
other instances and so that's a trend
that seems to be reduced uh in the in
the more recent reporting that we've
done and then in terms of the the
outcomes as Teresa
said uh there were sustained allegations
in a number of the cases that we looked
at which is a sign of again A lot of
times when it's an internally generated
investigation in particular the
Department already has concerns about
the conduct and and that's what's
brought it onto the radar screen in the
first place so it's not unusual for
those to have a higher percentage of of
being sustained but there were a number
of of sustained allegations in the in
the Resident complaint cases as well the
discipline process ranged all the way
from a verbal reprimand which is kind of
the lowest level of intervention all the
way up to to termination um for officers
in in some of a couple of the cases that
we looked at and this next bullet point
is one I really do want to emphasize uh
it's one thing to say hey you you
violated policy and and here's a a
verbal reprimand or it was a low-level
issue and here's a written reprimand but
not it didn't rise to the level of a
suspension and it was not a hugely
significant issue one of the things that
we've we've really worked with the
Department on is the whole idea that the
the discipline process unless you're
separating the employee from the agency
Al together it really should be about
changing Behavior correcting behavior
and one way to accomplish that besides
the consequence is to make sure that
people are getting the training that
they need uh and that some of the issues
weren't just you know mistakes because
people didn't understand what they were
supposed to be doing and so the
department has gotten much better about
adding some sort of a counseling or
training or debriefing session with the
involved officers to make sure that
along with the the formal consequence
there's some opportunity to to grow and
improve uh and then there was one
employee terminated prior to the
completion of another case we mentioned
that uh and I think that the other case
gets talked about as well but we
mentioned that because to the
Department's
credit it it followed through with the
investigation and did all of the fact
finding and made sure that it had a a a
firm sense of of what had happened and
and that follow through and and
addressing issues of Officer performance
even when the specific involved officer
isn't isn't necessarily anybody that
you're having to deal with anymore again
that's kind of a best practice that's
good to see the department engaging
in back to
you he so we as I mentioned have a
variety of different demographics that
we um share with you all related to what
we're
seeing we have not to date I'm tracking
from the start of our time here noticed
anything that would indicate that a
certain type of policing is happening in
any type of location we track the zip
code of the complaints um and so we've
seen of course there were uh large
volume that were initiated in the zip
code in which the police department is
located um at times that's because those
were the internally generated complaints
um but there's nothing in the zip code
data that would indicate one area is
more problematic than others in your
city and similar Illy we did not note
and have not noted any Trends in the
race of the complainant or the race of
the complainant respective to the race
of the officer um who uh complet who who
engaged in a potential misconduct um we
had his the race the demographics of the
complainants kind of ranged um three
white seven Hispanic one black and two
of an unidentified race so again nothing
that's pointing us um to be concerned
about bias based policing um or location
bias based
policing and I think one of the things
to note here is that our sample size is
relatively small so when I say there's
no Trends it's not a statistically
significant analysis to begin with um
which is difficult um from the start but
certainly we'll keep an eye on that as
we move forward and have a larger case
volume all right part of our scope of
work
also involves looking at closed
litigation cases so these would be cases
that were brought um claims brought
against the city of Las Cruses that
involved one or more Los cruus Police
Department employees we saw four of
those cases close in this
period that involved a total of eight
named
employees two of these involved persons
that were experiencing a mental health
crisis
one of those was settled and one was
dismissed one involved the execution of
an arrest warrant and in that case there
was a summary judgment in favor of the
Los cruus police department and then one
involved a collision an unfortunate
collision between a pedestrian and a
vehicle um that was caused by a
non-sworn employee crossing guard that
case was also
settled so now we get to what we love to
do which is present our findings for
this particular
period as we started I mentioned that we
had one of the critical incidents the
officer involved shooting from 2020 and
this is our first opportunity to look at
the way the department investigates a
critical incident so it's the first of
these cases that we've been able to
review and I thought that both for um
the education of the members of the
public who might be watching as well as
a refresher for folks here it might be
helpful to know the types of reviews
that happen along with a critical
incident um so when a critical incident
occurs here in your city it triggers um
the officer involved task force
um and this group is a is established in
2005 I believe with a memorandum of
understanding between a variety of local
agencies it is the state police the
University Police and the sheriff as
well as the Las Cruses Police Department
that team of investigators is reviewing
the invest the incident from a criminal
perspective so they are doing the
criminal investigation as to whether the
actions that occurred during the course
of a critical incident were legal or
illegal there is also of course the
involvement of the district
attorney and at the same time the Los
Cruses Police Department is pro is
initiating an internal what is called an
administrative investigation of that
critical incident so they are looking
for any violations of policy any
misconduct that occurred so different
from the criminal aspect is the
administrative aspect and that is
something that the department does
internally so the task force and
Internal Affairs go to the scene of a
critical incident and they begin the
investigation at that
point once the on scene investigation is
complete the criminal side the task
force engages in their criminal
investigation and the administrative
side typically is on pause that is so
that those two don't cross and
contaminate each
other the case then is submitted to the
DA for his review
um what we see what I mentioned at the
top is that sometimes that review
process takes quite some
time in our experience over many
jurisdictions we see that it can take
months sometimes years in this case it
was a three-year process which we felt
was extraordinarily long um and so we've
spoken to the chief um about working
with your agency partners and the
district attorney to really try to bring
that timeline in
so one of the questions of course is
okay in the three years that this is all
waiting and being investigated what's
going on right now we have an incident
that occurred and three years have gone
by um to the Department's credit they
initiate almost immediately following a
critical incident a debrief and a review
of that incident internally they are
looking for tactical concerns equipment
concerns or Department wide concerns
that can be remedied immediately so that
you don't wait that whole length of time
before fixing something that might need
fixing in the short
term at the completion of the DA's
review and when the da provides um his
or her opinion on that case or finding
on that case then that administrative
investigation reopens resumes and the
officers uh will be held accountable
from a Department administrative
perspect
perspective so you see there's a lot
that happens in the course of these
critical incidents and we were fortunate
that in this particular incident we were
able to review kind of the total package
um we found both the task force and the
Department's investigations to be
thorough um we advised and the
department has accepted that the
administrative investigation really be a
holistic view of the critical incident
um in this particular case the
administrative investigation was only
looking at the use of force itself so
the actual action of shooting um and we
felt there was space to look at a more a
broader view of that incident um was was
the supervisor response appropriate were
deescalation tactics attempted um what
was the Medical Aid rendered Etc so
there's pieces of that that we felt
could have been flushed out and reviewed
um at the end of the day the findings
would have been the same um but we like
to see that kind of critical analysis
happen in house and as I've mentioned
the department is doing that kind of
critical analysis now um so again we're
looking at that timel lag um that's a
little
frustrating and now they are doing that
moving
forward so a couple more uh
slides to summarize some of our findings
from this report one of the things that
we have expressed interest in in the
past and that that the council has
expressed interest in is the
Department's response to use of force
incidents maybe that don't rise to the
level of a of a critical incident
officer involved shooting that kind of
thing and we get a small window into
those when cases end up being referred
into Internal Affairs and it gives us
some insight into how the Department's
normal supervisory review process works
one of the things that we noticed and
and certainly wanted to affirm is the
the development and kind of increased
use of of what the department calls a
use of force Cadre this is an idea that
Chief story has been very um
instrumental in in supporting and
putting together and it basically is a
panel of of department members who are
experts in tactics and training and use
of force techniques and they will get
together to discuss a case a specific
Force incident that has been referred to
them and they do a very very methodical
analysis of it and when necessary if
they have concerns about the the um
legitimacy of the use of force in terms
of compliance with training and policy
that they will then refer that to
Internal Affairs so we've seen a couple
of the cases that have been the fruits
of that process and we were extremely
impressed with the the objectivity and
the thoroughness and the rigor with
which those cases are being looked at
and they weren't necessarily significant
Force cases it's just the initial
supervisor looked at it had some
concerns referred it over to this group
and and they were able to break down
very specifically what some of the
concerns and issues were so we consider
that to be a very positive development
the second bullet on this slide relates
to interviews of of subject officers
that is a kind of a recurring theme of
ours it's to us in many ways it's it's
one of the critical elements of the
whole process because it's really the
officer's opportunity or the employees
opportunity to explain himself or
herself and really you know potentially
it's one of the the key learning moments
of the whole experience because I know
that that can be a stressful thing for
officers to go through we really try to
emphasize the objectivity and
thoroughness of that process and we will
that's so that's always something that
we're going to zero in on in this case
um one of the things that we have talked
to the chief about and and recommend it
overtly is going ahead and actually
doing the interviews in cases where the
evidence is not definitive as the slide
says uh there is a certain not every
case needs to have the the subject
officers be interviewed there's some
it's the evidence is very definitive
because of the body warn camera and
there's really no need to to proceed any
further but when it looks like there has
been misconduct or when we're not
exactly sure one way or the other we're
always going to uh advocate in favor of
bringing the officer and getting answers
to any questions that you're even if
you're 95% sure take that extra time to
to interview the officer there's a
tension there between you know the
resource and the efficiency versus the
the thoroughness and completeness but
we're always going to encourage the
department to lean in the direction of
of interviewing people uh as as a key
component of these cases and then a
couple of things that we know noticed in
this in this last
group ideally it's going to be a higher
ranking employee we had a case where an
investigator was interviewing a
supervisor and that Dynamic was sort of
inherently awkward we thought the
investigator did a professional job but
there just in a paramilitary
organization it probably makes more
sense when a supervisor is involved to
have a a peer or or Superior officer
doing the interview so uh the object ity
and thoroughness is something that we're
going to take a look at again to the
Department's credit it's going to record
those those interviews they're going to
be we watch the video and the audio and
we get a a real sense and when you think
about public skepticism about the
effectiveness of the internal review
process this idea that that you they're
just covering up for officers or
glossing over misconduct and not taking
these things seriously these interviews
are really one of the places where the
objectivity and effectiveness of the of
the process is is going to be most
apparent so we put a lot of emphasis
into it we have several recommendations
uh in in this report and in the past and
the department has been responsive but
it continues to be an area that we're
going to be paying attention
to and then uh again under under
procedural recommendations or
observations one of the things that we
have advocated and that the department
has has taken some big steps forward in
in pursuing is alternative complaint
resolution model and that basically just
means for a low-level allegation of
misconduct rather than having the
department do its traditional
investigation and then send the
complainant a you know a three-line
letter at the end of it telling them
what the outcome was and having that be
the end of it there are a lot of
jurisdictions that that if the if the
circumstances align and the complaint
really is an issue where getting the the
off officer and the member of the public
who made the complaint together with a
neutral third party and just kind of
talking clarifying misunderstandings
explaining perspectives we we have found
that to be a very constructive exercise
in a lot of places and several of the
complaints that we've looked at the
complaintants are very sincere but
they're just they only have part of the
story or they're seeing it through their
lens and and not getting it from the
officer's perspective and sometimes
again the department is doing a
perfectly appropriate inves ation
they're reaching a perfectly appropriate
conclusion that there was no misconduct
but we're sympathetic that that's not
very satisfying to the complaining who
doesn't really understand the mechanics
or the rationale behind the decision and
this model would be an alternative to
that that that again we have seen work
the department has has put together a
dra very detailed draft policy about how
it might work and we've had the
opportunity to weigh in on that we
actually were talking with with some
Department folks this morning about the
concept and and it's coming along and
and we will be interested to see uh if
if progress gets made on it because we
think it's it's a good outlet for some
of the the issues that we
see and then this is the last time we're
going to trade I promise Teresa back to
you so several of the cases in this
period involved an individual who was
experiencing a mental health crisis um
varying degrees of that as we are um
well aware and
the biggest takeaway for us is that
there
are so many different models and
practices around how law enforcement
engages with these individuals who are
experiencing crisis um we have seen that
this department is responsive by
providing the lightest touch possible um
they recently implemented a general
order that reflects the best practices
that we've seen Nationwide around
engaging with individuals who are
experiencing a crisis all the way
including to the point of making a
determination if law enforcement is even
the appropriate response and me
certainly your city has done quite a lot
with respect to providing supportive
resources um to either divert law
enforcement calls or to provide services
after a law enforcement call or even
during um with your mih program with the
light program project um and so
we looked at these incidents through
those lenses of whether those types of
light touches were reflected in the way
that officers responded and we saw that
they were very much
so the important piece of this of course
is when an incident turns
and that law enforcement response moves
from someone experiencing a mental
health crisis to someone who has now
engaged in criminal activity we are
looking to see that turn be very
carefully evaluated if any force is used
what types of force were those
appropriate were all of the steps
leading up to it um used appropriately
and so really the takeaway for us
is these incidents happen
sometimes law enforcement must be
involved and what was that what did that
involvement look like was it appropriate
so for us really um encouraging the
department to review these very
critically um constantly to make sure
that they
are gathering any lessons learned from
them we also saw as Steve mentioned
earlier that directed training is
occurring much more frequently um the
department has retained a police legal
expert um that individual is contracted
to provide more frequent trainings um
one of the really interesting and
creative ways that they're doing
training is a bathroom briefing flyer
it's a really simple flyer that's posted
up in bathrooms and locker rooms
with kinds of Concepts that you might
want to have just readily available like
when can I use my Taser and listed out
you know the appropriate circum
cumstances for that so we thought that
that was a really creative um way to
continue to provide training on an
ongoing basis and in many different
ways finally as I mentioned we were
concerned to see that there were several
cases around release of information and
information used
inappropriately um so as I mentioned the
department has really tightened up those
guard rails on how to access
information we also saw a handful of
cases that involved um
challenging interpersonal relationships
with individuals within the department
out of the department former employees
and to his credit Chief story identified
that pretty readily right away um and he
drafted and provided for our review um
of fraternization policy which really
lists out the types of relationships um
that are appropriate among LCPD
personnel and and the actions that one
must take if one is choosing to engage
in those
relationships and we hope that's going
to clear up some of the interpersonal
issues that are that we've seen in these
complaints and finally as you are all
very well aware um in your January
council meeting you graciously approved
four up to four Community meetings um so
that we can begin to have a more robust
engagement with your community
and we are really looking forward to
hosting those um the meeting times and
the dates will be coming in the next few
months um we will be coordinating with
the city's infrastructure to be able to
have those be facilitated broadcast and
announced um so that we can really start
to hear from community and we appreciate
that addition to our
work so then the last thing I would say
and certainly we welcome many questions
that that uh the council has uh this
presentation is is as you know a
distillation of a a public report that I
think is 150 pages long in in its
entirety so first of all gold star to
anybody who made it through the the
whole thing but secondly we wanted to
make the public aware of that remind
them that this is available and I think
one of the key features of the model
here in Los crusis with regard to
oversight is the whole idea of
transparency
and giving a window into processes that
generally have been confidential and
kind of secluded from from a lot of
public scrutiny or exposure and the the
model that Los cruus chose the the whole
reporting feature is really a key aspect
of that so we do the individual case
reports along the way as as the cases
come in and we process them over the
course of the six-month period and then
we compile all of those individual case
drafts uh and and then provide some
overview which kind of tracks what we
were presenting today but again we
encourage anybody uh from the public to
to please do um review that report which
is available uh to the extent that you
have interest and want to learn more
about these processes so thank
you all right thank you any questions
from uh Council
frus
thank you for a very good report uh good
report card for our
LCPD um so on page 14 or excuse me page
um would you please explain what uh
directed training means uh you said it
was occurring more frequently and there
was also maybe that was on page 14 and
then there was release of information
and
fraternization that one what does that
mean they can't be friends they can't
socialize with each other or can't talk
to each other what what does that
mean yeah so to your first question the
directed training would be if an officer
uh if the through the course of
Investigation it was determined that
misconduct occurred and sometimes even
if misconduct didn't occur but the they
identify that the officer might need a
little refresher on a certain topic um
those officers are directed by command
to attend a certain type of training um
it can be as simple as perhaps you need
to go to a class on report writing so
that you can be a better report writer
and the officer will take that class it
will be logged in their training record
and hopefully that issue is remediated
through that directed
training um
fraternization is really as as Steve
mentioned it's a the structure of this
organization is such that there are
ranks and so if a supervisor is having a
a relationship and I'm meaning of a
romantic nature typically with someone
who is a subordinate or vice versa um
that can create some challenges for the
reporting structure um for assignments
um could indicate you know or
give the indication of preferential
treatment and so on and so a policy
around that really essentially is
telling those members who wish to engage
in those types of relationships of
course of they're
choosing the types of reporting that
they have to do so to let for example
command know we're in a relationship I
should not be reporting to this person
person they should not be within my
direct chain of command for
example so that person or those persons
involved would be reassigned or whatever
it would be up to the department how to
manage that most
appropriately I watch blue Buds and I
you get the sense of it and uh what's
her name Edith jenko and whatever
they're always together but um at any
rate
um you also
mentioned promising new developments so
are those U um you saw that there were
promising new developments in so far as
um the uh findings in procedural matters
or just generally yeah that was
referring to the alternative complaint
resolution model that Steve spoke of so
to us that's really something that is a
new development for the department and
that we think will really pay off both
for the community as well as for the
Department okay thank you very much
thank you Mr
Mayor anyone else yes councel
Grant thanks so much great to see you
again I think your first report um was
one of my first Council meetings so we
all kind of came on at the same time and
it's been interesting to watch this uh
to watch this develop and one thing that
I always do like to point out if it
doesn't show up in the slideshow um is
that you share in the larger report um
numbers of external complaints versus
calls for service and it's always such
an Illuminating number so for this
six-month period
85,86 th000 calls for service with 12
external complaints um so I always think
that you know sometimes it's going to be
overwhelming when you're reading
everything after everything after
everything and it's so illustrative to
see this is a vanishingly small number
of calls for service that end up um with
these kind of complaints and yeah
overall I just think I think this report
more than any is starting to reflect the
shifts in culture that I think we've all
been really happy to see and um just
want to shout out our leadership thank
you so much for all that you're doing as
we uh as we try to grow and evolve so
thank
you yes anyone yeah I have another
question um so there is a lot of
intermittent training I know there's a
law firm that comes down and um in fact
they're in Los Angeles um and U how
often is that and how does that work
with with what OE does oir
does I see the chief is making his way
to the podium so I'm going to defer to
him we were actually talking about this
this morning yeah because I think that
that kind of training that they do um
reflects a lot of the improvements here
might be
wrong mayor councelor flotes Jeremy
story police chief when it comes to
training that's a very broad topic so
I'll narrow it I mean it's happening
weekly really with briefing training
it's happening da
um when it comes to Legal training which
I think is what you're you're asking
about um The Firm you're talking about
we brought in from Southern California
for specific classes but our New Mexico
attorney that we retained is doing stuff
all the time so he's teaching things
like report writing search and seizure
update his regular search and seizure
class use of force um he's taking part
in scenarios he's doing briefing
trainings he's doing the bathroom
bulletins and so we are already seen the
fruits of that and in a year or two it's
really going to show how much of a
benefit that's had cuz it does take time
it's a lot of information but um I don't
know that we can increase the frequency
much more uh without completely breaking
the system he's he's pushing we're
pushing him pretty hard and the staff
and the supervisors pretty hard to get
all this training
done and how long have you had that
outside firm um do their training and I
think the um fire department is also
involved with that right uh not for the
legal side of things um but I've been
bringing them in for classes for 3 years
but we've only had him for less than a
year probably about 6 seven months as a
actual contract where he's doing the
frequencies a lot more great thank you
Chief coun thank you thank you Mr
Mayor go ahead May Bren thank you um
Chief before you said down I just really
quick for you my other one said just to
comment then I have another question for
you um Kia Colleen what is it k k can
you give us an update on the
certification process yes and I don't
know do we have a percentage by chance
no um we are making our way through the
proofs right now um and just for context
we've been accredited by the municipal
league for the past 10 11 years so it's
not like this is the first time seeking
accreditation klea is just kind of the
next level and it is more cumbersome but
um my guess would be approximately 50%
through proofs um we have dedicated more
people to that section and just change
the accreditation manager um and so that
delayed things a little bit but I think
it's going to speed things up in the
long run okay so I'm hopeful was just
curious thank you on the this is also
curiosity for either of you on the
report the LCPD management response is
that usually from Chief or is that is
okay um thank you and then I I guess I
just wanted
to oh wait no one question before I have
a comment on the um Community meetings
will you be reporting to us in a similar
manner
okay yeah the intent is to hopefully
combine the community sessions with a
report like this um so that we would
report to you we would meet with
Community we would be able to report out
back to you about what community might
be concerned with um so it really is
we're looking to have it be a pretty
fluid process where this all comes
together yeah perfect thank you
absolutely and then I just wanted to say
in relation to the Mental Health crisis
calls that I think for you know the
mission originally for me for bringing
you all on was around accountability and
transparency but I think more and more I
also feel like it's a lot of policy
learnings for us as well I think even as
I hear Chief Smith with the fire
department talking about how much their
field is changing how more and more
they're responding to behavioral health
calls we've been having a big
conversation about Fentanyl and what
that does to people's bodies and minds
and the reality that both fire and
police are sort of the front lines of
that and I think for me it's important
to hear these things too because I think
it gives us um an important Insight on
what are it's not just their jobs to
handle this right like this is really a
community effort and so we have to
understand also what the resources is
that they need I think project light has
been transformative frankly and um I
think we have a lot of work to do around
opiod crisis and responding to mental
crisis in that way but I do just want to
just reiterate um my gratitude towards
you all and to the police department for
collaborative effort that I think um has
brought about a lot of important policy
changes and I think a lot more to come
as well especially when it relates to
this session so thank
you anyone else on
Council no well um just want to say
thank you I have to Echo what councelor
Graham said I've seen some of these
reports come this is the fifth one I see
the progress I see the work in progress
going in and uh the partnership the
collaborating looks well uh very good
and so thank you I just want to ask uh
Chief story or staff if they wanted to
add anything else on this presentation
on on their perspective on the internal
how it's
going
thank you mayor um I'll give kind of my
my big picture with oir and and we have
many conversations that we don't always
agree on everything we go back and forth
and the way I see that I've G given this
metaphor before is you know when a tree
when you plant a tree and you're trying
to make it stronger you know you stake
it so that the wind doesn't uproot it
but you don't want to push too hard
because then the tree either would be
uprooted or wouldn't grow but if they're
if you stake it so tight that they
cannot move has no pressure the the tree
doesn't get strong either hopefully this
makes sense so what I'm saying is that
pressure and some um forcing you to
think about things differently
ultimately does make you stronger as
long as it's within balance and O has
done that for us um I think if you zoom
out for this entire period you you'll
see a lot of positive change that
resulted because of our relationship
with o that might not have happened
otherwise so I still appreciative of
this relationship and I actually enjoy
the conversations we have even when we
don't agree thank
you thank you Chief was there anyone
from the public anybody and the members
of the public that uh had any
comments okay not seeing anyone thank
you thank you thank
you okay next on the agenda U fiscal
year 2024 2025 budget review uh Finance
director Leanne deuch
for
some tall people were up
here well good afternoon mayor council
for the record my name is lean DEH I'm
your Finance director um Jacqueline
rubacava is your Grant and budget um
manager she is out sick today so I'm
filling in for her this is a
team event so um I will be doing my part
and then I will be turning it over to um
Jose Travino who is our interim uh
deputy director and Barbara benom which
as you know is our chief administrative
officer so as the mayor was saying this
is a recap we typically like to have two
work session
uh right after the uh budget Retreat and
then of course we'll have another one in
April and I'll give you the schedule in
a few minutes what we're going to be
covering the journey continues and what
we're going to be working on is giving
you a little bit of a brief recap of the
budget Retreat actually um focusing on
day one um the mayor and Council was
given an opportunity to tell us about
what your goals are what your vision is
what your priorities are for the next
fiscal year Mr peely LED that and so we
we did we listen to you of course we do
but we took lots of notes and so we want
to sort of gather all those notes
together and what we want to do with
this is we want to show you how actually
the vision that you're seeing or that
you have is actually build uh building
into our own for our fy2 but so we're
very excited about that then we're going
to talk about the telshore fund uh the
Cannabis excise tax and then the opioid
settlement as well so these are all
different funds that we did not talk
about at the budget Retreat and these
are opportune times for you to give us
some feedback on um how you'd like to
see us use these funds and just give you
an overview of what is available in
these funds as
well so I wanted to start with giving
you especially since we have a couple of
new faces up on um the dis talking a
little bit about Elevate L Cruis um I
will honestly tell you how we budget is
we take Elevate Elevate L Cruis which is
our 20year um comprehensive plan it um
gives us a long-term vision for
sustainable growth and transformation
for over the next 20 years so we use
this as a tool to help us with building
our budget every single year and within
Elevate there are three themes and I
wanted to just briefly go over those
themes because then you'll see how we wo
them into your recap that you gave us
from day one of the budget Retreat so um
the first one is community environment
so when you see the if you look in
Elevate L
crues mine is well used um got tabs
everywhere and use it a lot when I'm
doing the budgeting and so this is what
Elevate looks like the book and so in
there are the three three themes and
when you see the theme CE that is for
Community environment um and these are
some of the actions or task or visions
that you see under that CE Community
environment the next theme is community
prosperity and these are some of the
task or goals that are under Community
prosperity and then your next one is CL
which is community livability and this
this is a more bigger one it has Public
Safety Arts and Cultural Public Health
neighborhoods parts and Recreation so
there are your three them themes for
Elevate L crues also wanted to go into
our city strategic plan because in the
Matrix that I'm going to be showing you
I'm going to be showing you the
priorities that you gave is and I want
to show you how they fit into Elevate
how they fit into our strategic plan and
how they're actually fitting into the
Departments as well and by the way
report card early we did really great so
under our city strategic plan themes we
have six Community
Prosperity education and Community
Services environmental
sustainability uh Capital Improvements
and infrastructure communication
involvement followup and of course
Public
Safety and then I wanted to I just took
one side because also in our strategic
plan we talk about the employees and
also the council's um values the city
values and I thought these were really
great values because we have a poster
that comes from gfoa on ethics and what
our values are and a lot of these if not
all of these values are in with our
budget and also with our accounting
reporting from gfoa um of course as you
see being fiscal responsible profession
ISM respect and
transparency so here's how we did it so
here's the Matrix the budget Retreat
these are your Council priorities and as
you can see Jacqueline put a little note
on the bottom says this is not an
exhaustive list there were other things
that were discussed that day as you well
know and so these are the things that we
pulled out of your discussion and of
course I'm not going to go through every
single one but the there's four columns
in there and as you can see the First
Column is Elevate l crues so this is how
your priority fits into Elevate okay I
did not point out who said who uh these
are a mixture of the mayor and all of
the council together um and and a lot of
these you said all of you said you know
like Public Safety having a safer City
all of you said that during that day as
well so we just didn't tag it on who
actually said it at the meeting uh but
you can see the CL the CP um you know
community livability community
Prosperity you can see how all of these
on this page are in our city strategic
plan and you can also see when we say
both by the way that means that not only
is it budgeted and operation for the
department but it's also budgeted in the
CIP as well so that's what both that's
what we mean by that if it only says yes
and CIP then it's only in the CIP it's
not in
operations uh but if it only has a yet
then it's only for operations sorry I
meant to put that little caveat in there
so as you can see I'm taking like
downtown revitalization it falls under
Community Prosperity the four being the
goal that's in our Elevate book and then
it is in the city strategic plan and yes
it is budgeted in the CIP pretty much
probably under the tid because that's
what downtown revitalization is uh safer
safer Community you can see it hits a
lot of the the community livability the
city strategic plan and then also the
department
request uh next priorities I think we
have about four slides of priorities um
we got a lot of information from you
that day um Market jobs events
transportation and transportation is
very much into Elevate as you can see is
community
livability uh the library master plan uh
the Animal Service Center of msia valley
as you can see is not an Elevate not in
the city strategic plan and it is not a
departmental request the Animal Service
Center is a joint power agreement it is
a jpa it is not a department so it is in
our budget as a um expense that we give
to help out our portion to the Animal
Service Center but it's not in any
particular
department and it is not listed in our
city strategic plan or in Elevate so I
just wanted to point that out that's why
it's blank all the way
across uh sustainability this was mostly
reducing plastic
pollution um as you can see Community
environment it is in the city strategic
plan and then the East Mesa which is in
the
CIP um the police oversight is in the
Elevate uh going down to realtime crime
Center is in Elevate under Community
livability it is in the city strategic
plan and it is both in the CIP and in
their operating as well um I will say a
little uh on the boxing gym I just found
out just a few minutes ago that it is
budgeted in a department uh we're going
to double check on that yeah we're gonna
double check
okay um under our last slide under the
uh MRA it is in our Elevate Las cruus it
is in the strategic business plan and
yes it is uh budgeted in one of the
Departments um the reason pay increases
that was mentioned at the uh budget
Retreat however it is um you will see
what where are what we are estimating or
what we are proposing I should say uh at
the April budget meeting for the pay
increases at this time we are we do have
something in there for pay increases
however it has not gone through uh Vint
with the city manager and with the acms
and with our CAO as well and then of
course affordable housing as
well with that I'm going to turn it over
to um Miss Travino and she's going to
discuss telshore
fund good afternoon Mr Mayor and council
members my name is Josie trino I'm the
finance inum deputy director and I will
do a brief overview of the tore fund and
cannabis excise
tax so we'll start with the tore fund
the tore fund as stated in the title is
a restricted
fund now what this means is that the
fund can only be spent for specific
purposes as stated in the resolution in
this case it was 051
128 sorry I didn't read the the whole
definition but uh if you can read what
it says here it's to support the
continued physical mental developmental
emotional and social well-being safety
and housing needs of city of Las Cruses
residents and to improve the lives of
sick Indigent or lowincome people of the
city of Las
Cruses here we see the market value for
the tore fund and this is in
millions so what Market value it simply
means that the amount of money that we
would get if we were to sell so the
latest information we have is of
December
2023 and for the last four quarters it
has uh remained pretty
consistent and I'll give you some time
to look at this and then I'll move
on okay and here here we have what was
budgeted for fiscal year
24 and from that what is requested for
fiscal year 25 so we'll start with the
first one pedana Apartments the budget
is 3 million uh given that this will not
be spent in fiscal year 24 it is carried
over from fiscal year 24 to fisal year
25 so you'll see these two right here
are the same amount you see an asri it
just means it's a carryover from fiscal
year
24 for three sisters Apartments 2.4
million was budgeted and it's project
that nothing will be used so we're going
to roll over the full amount to fiscal
year
25 for fiscal year 24 there was uh
870,000 budgeted for a Transit Grand
match of that an estimated 49 has been
used so the balance that's going to
carry over it's 87
,000 then we move to msia Valley
Community of Hope for Mano imano and the
budget for fiscal year
24 was 543,000 and the fiscal year 25
request is
63,000 next is Health Public Services
the budget for fiscal year 24 and the
fisal year 25 request uh remain the same
at
600,000 uh we had had a resolution
24-31 and that was for land purchase at
99 at on Amador Avenue and that was
438,000 that was a one-time non
reoccurring expense therefore the fiscal
year 25 request is
zero the next is Kasa the peregrinos
approved through a resolution and this
was due to the increase uh food there
was an inflation so request was made for
fiscal year 24 for
$100,000 again this is a non
reoccurring expense therefore the FY 25
is a zero
request uh we next have messia value
Community of Hope uh it's the homeless
opportunity program and the fiscal year
24 and the fiscal year 25 remain the
same of
75,000 so the total budgeted for fiscal
year 24 was 8 million and FY 25 the
request is 6.6 million the difference
between one and another is some of these
are requested during the year in
resolutions so where fy2 there's a
request it doesn't mean that there may
not be one later on as these other ones
were uh resolutions that were brought on
through the
year we next go to cannabis excise tax
this is unrestricted funds what this
means is there hasn't been any uh
special purposes appropriated to be used
for these funds pretty much you can use
them
for um anything you wish that is of
course um approved by government
Accounting
Standards so this applies to retail
sales of non-medical cannabis products
the St uh sales of cannabis started on
April 1st
2022 and the tax is currently at 12
%c there are some possible uses that are
going to be presented and those are mras
or realtime crime Center I'm not sure if
we're going to present them but these
are some possible uses where we have
that that have been brought up so the
total revenue as of April 1st 2022
received is about 1.5 million we're
projecting ending the fiscal year at a
another 300 ,000 which would bring the
revenues up to 1.8 million from April
2022 to the end of June
20123 with this I will now hand it over
to
Barbara thank you Josie Barbara benom
for the record so the other source of
Revenue we're going to uh just highlight
today is the opioid settlement funds
that we have started to receive those
were settlements with Distributors
manufacturers and retailers the city's
portion is anticipated to be just under
$10 million and I've also indicated what
the county and Sunland Park will receive
so you get an idea for our entire region
the the funds that we will be receiving
they do cover a 17-year period period
and I'll show you in just a sec the
amount that we have received to date and
then what we expect to receive over over
the course of that 17-year period the
use of the funds is governed by a
settlement agreement what we uh refer to
as uh schedule exhibit e excuse me uh
that outlines um the use of funds to
address the harms of opioid use disorder
I'll go over some of those examples as
well and then the funds um are held
separately they are required to be held
separately so that we can accurately
track what we're receiving reconcile
that against the anticipated uh amounts
that we uh should be receiving and then
we can report um transparently on what's
being spent from these particular funds
for what
purposes so this chart shows for each
classification of defendant whether
they're distributors or particular
entity
um what the settlement amount is in
total that's the blue column and then
what we have received to date you'll see
that for some of the defendants we have
received the entire amount of settlement
payment for example from J&J for others
we have yet to receive we received only
a portion for example Walgreens is
slated to pay over $4.2 million we've
received $1 165,00 000 again according
to the schedule of distributions that
we're going to receive over time um so
we have received 3.4 million to date um
and again the anticipated amount over
the entire period is just under $10
million again we're going we we do track
this very closely and this is reported
on our website as well so that folks can
see what we are
receiving
I mentioned the exhib allowable uses for
the funds they really fall under three
broad categories treatment and
prevention and and other uses the
treatment includes things like
medication assisted treatment um um
improvements and investments in the
criminal justice system for prevention
um programs to address overprescribing
misuse and overdoses and in the other
category um items like training training
and
research when we went through the
allowable uses and I'm not going to read
all of these but we wanted to look at
what some examples might be in
particular some that um might be uh
related to things that our departments
or programs might be able to utilize the
funds for so you just see some examples
of these including uh media and public
education campaigns youth F Focus
programs for preven
Etc so the timeline for when we will be
um further discussing expenditures for
these funds is shown on this slide as
you know we established the opioid
advisory Council last summer that is the
group that is working with NMSU Crimson
research to develop A needs assessment
for our community to understand what the
recommended uses would be to address the
needs of our community um that committee
includes people from the state as well
so that we can coordinate and Not
Duplicate efforts between the state the
county and the city in the use of the
funds so we are underway right now with
Crimson research that includes um uh
interactions and uh Community input for
the needs assessment once that study is
completed and and NMSU who um provides
the data the committee or the council
sorry The opio Advisory Council will be
reviewing um and making recommendations
based on that Community needs assessment
and then those recommendations will be
provided separately to the city council
and the County Commission that's
separately because the city is receiving
its own distribution of settlement funds
as is the county so the governing bodies
of both the city and the county
ultimately make the decisions on how the
funds shall be spent um that might
address the recommendations that are
made from the um Council or of course um
your decisions could be informed by
other information our departments might
also propose uh use of funds as well but
you will have hopefully all the
information you need to make some um
good decisions about the use of these
funds and then of course once your
decisions are made we'll come back with
a budget adjust
in order to expend those funds we'll be
developing implementation plans and
tracking and Reporting mechanisms so
right now that while we are receiving
funds um into our budget we don't have
any expenditures budgeted because of the
the timing for the recommendations
that'll come back to you so you will see
those um as as budget adjustments as we
enter the
fy2 fiscal
year
all right and I'll turn it back over to
Leanne for next
steps mayor council for the record lean
tush your Finance director just to give
you what the next steps are um we have
our next work session and public hearing
we're going to do them one one in the
same sometimes we have a separate public
hearing uh we'll have it like in the
morning or lunchtime uh but this year
um we're going to do the work session
and the public hearing at the same time
so it's just one uh presentation and we
used to do that a few years ago and then
we separated and we didn't actually have
a whole lot of people that would show up
to the public hearing so we just decided
to put them together we will have your
budget books to you approximately two
weeks before that um that April 22nd
meeting I'm trying to shoot around April
the 8th
to have those books you should be uh
they should be on your desk we'll hand
deliver those to you uh so that way you
can take notes go through them and so
we'll have that we will also have the
electronic version as well we have to
have that per the charter up on our
website at the library and also with our
city clerk so we'll have all of that uh
available even on the website as well
we're working with Pio to put that up
there and then we will be bringing um a
resolution
um one for to adopt the budget and also
another resolution to adopt the CIP as
well um with that um discussion time if
you have any questions um we're going to
be taking down lots of note we W notes
we want to hear from you um if there's
something specific that you want to talk
about with the funds that we uh
discussed today we're here to answer
your questions and if we don't know I
promise you I can find out and shoot you
that information
so thank you lean any
questions oh Council Flor thank you Mr
Mayor and thank you MRH And Mr Rino I
have a question for Mr aino
sure thank you um for your presentation
I have a question that goes to the
services of the telshore fund and um the
entities that receive uh the benefit of
that fund and uh I have a constituent
who asked me how it was that the the
different uh 501 c3s the recipients uh
were determined and whether um those
that do fall under the categories
listed uh they all go a lot to health
and whatnot but um how
exactly do how is it publicized and how
often is it publicized and is there a
call uh for lack of a better word out to
uh
501c3's uh to apply and then how are
they
selected Mr Mayor uh councelor Flores
Josie trino I will call uh Natalie Green
uh as these are funds that uh go through
her area
she walked
out
okay so mayor council of fles lean tush
for the record um it's my understanding
that she puts out an RFP request for
proposals those proposals come in I
think she has an advisory committee that
goes through these proposals and then um
she takes those funds and then she
distributes them to you know she has a
the $600,000 and she tries to I think
fill as much of that money as she can
and did she come in okay she's not here
but um my question goes to um who makes
the final determination and how is that
reached I you said there's an advisory
committee so that advisory committee is
only it's not a directive it's an advise
so who ultimately makes the decision and
does only one person make that decision
or is
no um mayor council Flores um this
advisory committee I think M you know
advises on what they should she actually
brings to council a resolution and in
that resolution it lists who all the
proposals and how much they W so at that
time you have the opportunity to um you
know to to say yes or no even at that
time at the resolution yeah yeah I'm
aware of that but
um who who uh who all the the designes
of the recipients are um taken from uh a
pool or anyone who qualifies is given um
the money or the you know the receive
fund money how how is it that
um so if there's x amount of dollars and
then there's um
10 applications they're reviewed and
once they're reviewed um who
determines uh who is going to receive
the money and um how how are the amounts
uh factored in all that sort of stuff
it's it's a mystery to me and I haven't
been able to get a clear answer so thank
you Mr Mayor councilor flotes so there
is a health related Public Services
Program Guide with the application so
we'll make sure you get a copy of that
and it has a step-by-step process on the
allocation methodology
um it is a competitive process conducted
every other year and so we are in the
middle of that process right now uh
there off the top of my head I want to
say there was about 15 to 18 applicants
uh those applications are reviewed by
the Health and Human Services advisory
committee and they present to that
committee and answer any questions and
then that committee votes and makes a
recommendation to Council on who should
be funding and that recommendation
meeting is either this week I think it's
this week maybe tomorrow um I saw the
agenda go out um and there's a a staff
liais on that monitors that committee
and um in so far as the applications by
the uh B1 c3s that are applying for
those funds uh who reviews them and uh
how are how is it determined how who
makes the ultimate decision I know you
you say we make ultimate decision but
what we get is what has been narrowed
down at your level so we don't get
correct we don't get the bulk of the
applicants we don't review uh and weigh
which um entities will be receiving tail
Shore funds uh Mr Mayor councilor flotes
the Health and Human Services advisory
committee is made up of seven members
appointed by each uh counselor on the
Das including the mayor and so it's your
representatives who are appointed to
that board that review those
applications and they see all the
applications and make those uh
recommendations to council for final
adoption okay so um but we the council
never see those applications we just get
the uh whoever however but you make the
ultimate decision don't you miss green
um M Mr mayor council flotes the Health
and Human Services makes the
recommendation because they view review
the applications um this year's process
I myself have not seen the applications
I uh I have another staff member who
supervises that process but I I do know
it's the similar organizations that have
previously applied so when uh the
decision is made to allocate monies or
to fund um the certain 501
c3s um who determines the amount that is
uh distributed to them uh Mr Mayor
councilor flotes the council has an
investment strategy that they adopt
every two to four years uh this Council
adopted one I believe about two years
ago that set a a budgeted amount of
600,000 for the next four fiscal years
and so we're now in year three of that
4-year allocation so it's set by this
body and this body also adopts the
allocation process and so yes but the
allocation process that we get is what
has been finalized by you or the
advisory committee is that correct
there's two one is the final
recommendations of who should be funded
every budget year but the overall
program policy determinations is also
set by this body so you uh this Council
adopts an application and a policy guide
that um that outlines how the program is
to me managed and run okay so do we get
that now or because you say something's
coming to us soon so when do we get I
can send you a copy of that uh
resolution that adopted that process no
I see my my question is and and perhaps
I'm not framing it correctly my my
question is who makes the ultimate
decision as to where the funds will be
going that 600,000 and you have
different um $600,000 and you have
different entities applying Mr Mayor
councilor flutes you'll make that
decision on your May 2nd meeting okay
how does your committee for lack of a
better word your committee uh reach its
uh you know their
recommendations and that's what I would
like to see quite frankly and the reason
is because there are 501 c3s that feel
that they have not been uh justly served
so that is my concern and it made me
think about the process and not really
knowing so what you present to us is
um basically your decision because we
don't get to see the final
determinations by the um the uh advisory
committee and they're only advisory so
you have you would be the person perhaps
making the decision as to who's going to
get the money and then we get to rubber
stamp that and that's pretty much how
it's been coming uh Mr mayor council
flotes so on the competitive years staff
puts out a notice of funding opportunity
to the public and it's advertised both
on our website and through the newspaper
it it's a call for applications and then
uh agencies submit What's called the
letter of intent to apply and they uh
submit a competitive application with C
with questions and uh information that's
that's been adopted by Council so
Council set those questions of what's
the objective of your program how much
money are you asking for um XYZ there's
uh some mandatory requirements like
having a financial audit um again those
are all policy decisions that were set
by the committee and Council who adopted
the application process and then that
process is managed by staff and so the
agencies go through the submission
process they're reviewed for their
audits their uh fiscal soundness their
program requirements meeting the
definition that's also adopted by
Council and then all of that is is given
to the commit how often does the
advisory committee meet um they meet
about four times per year it's a pretty
regulated process um and so they're in
the middle of that process right now and
how many um just generally speaking how
many 501 c3s apply for those funds it
can vary from year to year typically for
the
$600,000 pot we see uh about 20 agencies
apply and the alternate years is our
cdbg Public Services funding and we only
see about six to seven apply for that
process because it's a much more
rigorous uh Financial um commitment to
run a Community Development block grant
and then
um what determines the um what
determines the uh allocation of those
funds what facts what factors are used
in determining whether that particular
501c3 meets the criteria or what is the
criteria uh Mr councelor flotes uh there
are there's a weighted scoring system
that the committee has as part of the
questions I'm off the top of my head I
can't tell you the specifics but they
they wait anywhere from five to 20
points in each each category um they
calculate all of their scores and they
meet um and I believe it's this week
they will meet at a public meeting those
scores will be presented uh to both the
nonprofits and members of the public and
so you'll will see all the scores and
you can see the committee um talk out
their recommendations and they'll vote
on a final recommendation to come to
council for adoption okay thank you very
much Miss
G thank you Mr Mayor yes thank you uh
Council
M yeah I had a quick question about um
so we're getting dispersements and so is
the county and I thought to myself each
body will have its own priorities but is
there ever a way that we would overlap
on projects and kind of have a sense of
that and if we do do we want to rework
the wheel or is there things that we
could benefit that both of us could
benefit at the same time
so yes um mayor and councelor MCL
Barbara benom again for the record um
you know there are so many potential uh
programs or mechanisms for utilizing
These funds that I could definitely see
that there would be a potentially a
category of expenditures that say both
the city and the county would want to
undertake but in a coordinated manner
whether it's education prevention Etc I
know that the state has already been
very specific on what they are spending
their funds on and a lot of it is uh
related to treatment um so again we
would just be mindful of not wanting to
duplicate some of the uses of the funds
but we certainly would want to leverage
it if we think that both entities could
benefit um from what whatever
recommended uses the the uh the council
brings forward and then the commission
and and the city council
adopt who would be the one kind of
coordinating with the county at that
sense so right now I am the leaon to the
opioid um settlement advisory Council we
have a staff member who is at the county
level funded by vital strategies which
is our um nonprofit partner and
addressing
the harms of opioid use disorder and
that person is coordinating for example
all of our uh Council meetings the
documentation resources required um the
um NMSU Crimson research data collection
process Etc so we do have some support
um at the county level for this and it
was a county that reached out to us to
to ask for a joint committee so that we
could move forward in a coordinate
manner so we are just trying at this
point to make sure that we bring forth
options for you all that are beneficial
for our entire Community um I think that
once the recommended uses um are agreed
upon by both governing bodies as I
mentioned we need to have an
implementation plan so then that could
potentially involve other City resources
depending on the use of funds so I'm
afraid the answer to your question is
going is it depends at this point on
what the the uses will be but we're
certainly trying to keep all you know
manner of um possible uh uses um
available to the to the community and
keeping in mind that we want to be as
transparent and accountable as possible
that's why I mentioned that we will also
be uh regularly reporting this out as as
part of our transparency efforts on our
website thank
you
thank you mayor um thank you all for the
presentation I have a couple of
questions but just before I get to there
I did want to just gently push back on
the um idea that one staff person
decides who the telshore fund grants go
to the committee is our committee the
Health and Human Services committee
currently has a couple of vacancies and
it's my understanding that the committee
often struggles
with Quorum issues and so I would highly
encourage each of you to check in with
your person and make sure that this is
something they are interested in doing
because if there's any concern that
maybe one person is making those
decisions really it comes down to this
committee and if this committee is not
engaged then it does leave a lot of that
work to a couple of members of the
committee I know that I picked my person
very intentionally for this committee
and that they're a very engaged member
so I would just encourage you all to
check in with each of your uh appointed
folks and revisit their interest in in
being part of that committee and being
part of this process that I think um
honestly at one point I think it should
have a review I think it puts uh a lot
of burden on nonprofits and we should
consider looking at it um but I did just
want to note that I was not comfortable
with with some of that
conversation um just on the telshore
actually while Natalie's down
um down
here there was a program on there that I
think yes this one the very bottom the
homeless opportunities I think it's
Outreach Natalie but can you talk more
about
this Mr Mayor mayor pmo that is the
homeless outreach program it's our
mobile Street outreach program so it's a
um two staff members that go out and
encounter folks where they're living
across the community make sure that they
have things they need that they're
accessing Services um that they're
meeting with housing Navigators and then
often times they assist uh them in
gently moving to other areas when
they're in places where they don't need
to be and so they collaborate um very
intentionally with our monu Mano hotspot
truck um and so that's been a fairly
successful uh program the street
Outreach I actually utilize this program
often there are cards that um Nicole
often gives out I have many if you want
some um but I often use this program
when I um like the other day I called
them because I saw an elderly woman who
looked on house and I was very concerned
about her safety so I called them and
they went and checked in on on her um I
I thought that's what it was and I've
been saving this article that I found I
swear months ago I've been saving it on
my tabs it's um the center for American
progress had a great article a while ago
about community-based violence inter
vention programs proven strategies to
reduce crime and I would love to see
obviously I would want to bring them
into a conversation right we can't just
tell Community of Hope what to do I'd
love to bring them into a conversation
about actually expanding this program I
think it does a lot of good work and I
think it has potential to do a lot more
I had talked to you briefly about what
it would look like to do a model like
Mano Mano where it was an outreach
program that was peer-to-peer
um for folks who've been there like
there is no better strategy or
intervention um in in violence and
addiction and anything that is proven
that that peer-to-peer support is really
um powerful and if we did a sort of Manu
Mano model where these weren't just
volunteer peer-to-peer they were paid
folks who were part of Street Outreach
who were conducting um surveys who were
conducting onetoone with folks I mean
this article I will send it to Christine
so she can send it around to everybody
but Community Based violence
intervention programs work to reduce
homicide shootings through trusted
Partnerships with Community stakeholders
individuals most affected by um this
kind of violence these programs connect
individuals most at risk of committing
or experiencing violence or crime with
community members who have walked a
similar path whom they trust and respect
um there's many kinds of uh models out
there um I would just love to have a
conversation about how we we could grow
this model that already is working and
exist and really especially as we talk
about Municipal coure and having them do
Outreach Court um what it would look
like to have a really really
vibrant um peer-to peer violence
intervention Street model um obviously
there' be a lot of training and a lot of
safety issues but since we're in a
conversation and I don't know if it'll
happen by May probably not um but I
would at least like to continue this
conversation Natalie and so while you
were here I wanted to name that and name
that publicly thank you thank you the
rest of my questions are not for
you
um
I thank you for mentioning both cannabis
and telshore and just to clarify I had
heard that by the end of fisal year it
might be on cannabis it might be 2
million is that correct or did I hear
wrong
mayor mayor
ptim oh I'm going to back why sorry
there
yeah the
um mayor Enriquez councelor Beno josino
the projected at the end of the fiscal
year this fiscal year June we're
projecting about uh 1.8 so we're okay
looking at another 300,000 from here to
then okay thank you that's still a solid
great number thank you Mrs um just to
mention it it we're looking at uh FY 24
and 25 about the same number okay uh for
the fiscal year okay thank you I I would
really like to see a
dedicated um work session for the
possible uses I've been really really
intrigued by the idea and have talked to
folks about
um utilizing
cannabis for the masas for jump starting
the mras right so that what funding
wouldn't have to stay there permanently
given that the masas will start
eventually um building their own Revenue
but I I would really love to see a
dedicated work session for this and I
know in conversations with Chief and the
mayor that the real-time crime Center um
could also be an
allowable um expense out of here and I
know that we are about 500,000 short on
that currently right and so I just my
ask is that we have a dedicated work
session for this um and then I think
just given how the budget Retreat ended
there's no really question on there just
dedicated work session um and then just
given how the budget ended with the
parks presentation that I think struck
Accord within all of us and I as you as
you were reading the telshore
fund the current by ordin
Mission or definition definition um that
I very much feel like um supporting
Parks through the telshore fund fits
this already on a physical mental and
social well-being aspect and as I said
at the budget Retreat specifically for
who primarily uses our parks and I think
that is a lot of our low to moderate
income families so I would also really
love a dedicated work session for for
that conversation mayor counselor
Beno so the Cannabis is unrestricted
which means that anything is allowable
so you wouldn't have to look for
allowable if you wanted to restrict it
then you can do that by resolution and
it it would get done by um Council the
other thing uh tore fund
this um description right right here was
approved in
so this can always be looked at and
rewarded or added um if that is what
council would like to do or keep it the
same because what we do now is It's
usually the 600k 600,000 that Natalie
brings
in if we have other uses for it we'll
bring a resolution so they could allow
for those uses for the tore fund um but
yes this one is restrict Ed to this but
we can add um but those are done by by
resolution yes thank you so much and
also mayor and councelor benom by
resolution also we're supposed to bring
to Council on an annual basis um the
report the financials for telshore and
at that time we always do ask if there's
any changes in the definition that you
would like to have at that time as well
also to as far as the cannabis for um
that you mentioned that you would like
to see a separate work session I'm
pretty sure that um and I'm looking at
either Elizabeth and Chris they're
planning a work session for the MRA in
oh may may what May 13th for the MRA
speci or
cannabis strictly for cannabis right yes
right but that could be one of the
possible uses that they may bring up at
that time as well okay I think I
I think it would be important to do and
I guess this for mayor
uh okay some context given that recently
Chief story sent us hotspot Maps
honestly a lot of those hotspots are in
the in the designated masas and I think
often you know their community members
have been coming and asking us for
solutions to safety often we get really
narrow on what those look like I but I
do think that the Metropolitan
Redevelopment areas and revitalizing
historically blighted neighbor
neighborhoods is community safety and I
think it's actually deeply
intersectional and intertwined um the
conversation around the real-time crime
Center and what that could do and so I
think it'd be great to have that
conversation together as uh as a I don't
know Community safety or well-being
conversation mayor but I I
just um the more and more I think about
this the more and more I think um it'd
be a great enriched discussion
it's not it's not necessarily for you
all it's for this guy over here um and
then that's it and I guess I just uh I
know Barbara sends us updates on the
opioid settlement and I look forward to
the potential session in the summertime
that will they'll be coming to give us
recommendations Barbara actually on this
do you think it'll be a joint session or
do we expect it to be
separately we haven't had a joint
session since the covid zoom days as
mayor and protim Beno Barbara Bena for
the record um actually you know we will
take direction as to how you would like
to conduct that certainly if if uh you
think that it would be uh beneficial to
have a joint session with County
Commission um then certainly the um the
mayor could make that Outreach we could
as well to assist with that um again
you're your decisions will be made for
the amount of funds that we have they
will be deciding for their own f funds
but if we want to ask questions about
the the needs assessment that was done
and about the potential recommendations
in one Forum um we could certainly go in
that direction and facilitate that for
you
all that mean that could be really
interesting I think just giving
councelor mlar questions as well I
think I think it's important that we
Forge the path forward together and an
alignment I think divvying up the funds
um will go lot we'll go further we'll go
less far wow that took a minute to get
out and so I think um it's really
imperative that we do have a combined
strategy which I know is happening
Barbara but um perhaps they'd be open to
the idea of a
joint session thank
[Music]
you anyone else
anything okay no thank you I just wanted
to add yes I'm open to joint uh session
for great question uh councelor McClure
if there's any overlapping we want to
make sure that we maximize the resources
all the funds that we're receiving into
the whole County and city that we're not
doing our thing they they're doing
theirs and we're spending the same
amount of money for and and getting
different results we want we want to
maximize those resources and uh yeah I
was taking notes and so I was calling it
kind of a a work session in the future a
community livability that it fits one of
the themes and and we can address the
telshore fund the Cannabis the opioid
and and look at some of the the things
that were addressed at the budget
Retreat such as the parks the MRA the
the realtime crime Center and municipal
court and also in conjunction that was
uh that was some of the comments that
came uh during uh public comments was
you know the request was to have a work
session on what are the next steps what
is the city going to do and uh putting
the funds to some of the problems that
we have in the community and instilling
safety but enhancing our community as
well I think this would be a great time
that we can kind of schedule that and
open it up so the the public can know
that we are listening to their comments
and we are addressing it with a work
session that ties into the budget and to
their
concerns so I'll get with the city
manager on that
thank you mayor all
right other questions okay thank you
thank you thank you
Barbara oh is anyone from the public is
there anyone we want to use our new
timer is
there is there anyone from the public
that has any comments or
questions okay thank
you
okay motion to adjourn move to adjourn
second
cor this is on the motion to adjourn the
work session councelor mlar yes
councelor matis yes councelor Graham yes
councelor Karan yes councelor flutes yes
councelor benl yes mayor
yes
e