[Music]
thank you
Iran
good morning everybody today is Thursday
July 27th 2023 at 9 00 a.m I'll call
this meeting to the board of directors
of the animal services of Valley to
order if we will join me in the Pledge
of Allegiance please
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
foreign
ER de Leon is absent
nope she she's sneaking in she is here
remember Ward
present board member Flores is absent
Wilbur Macias
present
board member Quran present board member
Shayla Hernandez president
chair Sanchez president you have a
quorum excellent and it's excellent to
see Miss de Leon welcome back
hi welcome back
judge you want to come closer to us
that'd be so lovely
all right so are there any changes to
the agenda Mr Thacker no okay so if I
can get a motion a second to approve the
agenda please move to approve corn
second all right we have a motion to
approve the agenda by the agenda by
councilor corn and the second by mayor
Pro tem Gandara
are there any comments
not seeing any so if we need a roll call
please former Macias yes
appointment with Corinne yes board
member Shayla Hernandez yes yes true
SunTrust yes passes thank you all right
we're on to agenda number four which is
the reading of the closed meeting
statements for June 22nd and June 29th
2023. so the board of directors of the
uh the ascmv did meet on June 22nd after
our regular board meeting at 10 25 we
entered a closed session with myself
mayor Pro tem Gandara councilor Corin
councilor Flores Yvonne Flores
commissioner Sheldon Hernandez County
Manager Macias and HR Director sorry
Miss
leandamus and we ended that session at
11 30. the only things that were
discussed in that session were the items
that we noted in the uh or the motion to
go into closed session to discuss the
evaluation creation of the executive
director we had a subsequent meeting on
June 29 2023 starting at 3 P.M those
present were counselor corn counselor
Flores
Mr Macias commissioner Sheldon Hernandez
Miss demouche
mayor protem Gandara joined us at 3 15
p.m and then Mr Thacker came in at 407
p.m and myself sorry I was there for the
entirety and the session the closed
session ended at 4 45 PM again with this
session the only thing discussed were
the items noted in the agenda for close
session which were related to the uh the
evaluation of the executive director
so with that then we'll move on to
agenda item 5A which is the approval of
the minutes from the regular ascmv board
meeting held on June 22nd 2023 if we can
get a cell moved a motion by
commissioner Sheldon on this
is their second
we have a second by mayor Pro tem
Gandara on the approval of the minutes
from June 22nd 2023. are there any
changes comments
all right not hearing or seeing any if
we can get a roll call on the approval
of the minutes from June 22nd 2023.
former Macias
yes board member Corrine
yes former Shayla Hernandez yes former
Gandara yes sure Sanchez yes passes
thank you all right then we're on to
reports and presentations we start off
with the Coalition for pets and people
presentation by Miss Gilbert
good morning good good morning
see if I'm a little rusty it's been a
while
okay I'm Jean Gilbert secretary for the
Coalition for pets and people and
presenting our
semi-annual report
gonna make it the big screen
do I just
hit a bad era
yes so as mentioned this is our
semi-annual report covering meetings
events and activities for January
through July 2023.
foreign
okay
um Coalition chair Rick Hahn and myself
along with other community our Animal
Advocates in the community attended a
fundraiser Gala
um
in February at La Posta that was hosted
by the Dona Ana County Humane Society
that's not pictured here but of some of
the fundraisers and socials that they do
hold are include yappy hour and like you
see pictured here showing dogs with
their owners at salud and then coffee
talks socials which they hold at the
bean and the Dona Ana County Humane
Society executive director Sarah Kurtz
is pictured here in the sage green shirt
um you I'm sure you recall that they
provide many services and those include
the their animal Relief Fund which helps
pets with medical needs that belong to
low-income families
and their pets for seniors program
Advocates
adoption of shelter pets to seniors here
in our area and then they're rough to
ready program helps with pet retention
while providing free training and
behavior assistance for pets that are
adopted from our shelter so they have a
lot of valuable services
Coalition chair Rick Hahn and myself met
in February was Selena cardosa who's the
director of Cruces Cool Cats to talk
with her about their services and their
needs Selena and her son Joseph who also
serves on their board of directors of
Chris's call Katz's you recall gave a
presentation on their programs and
services at this meeting back in April
pictured here are two litters of kittens
that are in the process of being
socialized and they were born to feral
moms
trap neuter return foster services and
adoption promotion are some of their
primary programs
in April Rick and I met with Cheryl
Duran who's director of no pits Left
Behind to discuss the programs that are
provided by her rescue organization and
in addition to no pits Left Behind
important work providing rescue and
foster care for dogs in need the
organization has been instrumental and
I'll say this as a former board member
of the Humane Society of Southern New
Mexico that Sherry and her organization
was instrumental in assisting hsnn with
a closing out of the organization's
kennels and pictured here is Sherry
holding a puppy and then the other
photos show dogs that are have been
adopted by the organization and others
that have been rescued and I don't know
how well you can see their logo but it's
pretty cool and it says you can't buy
love but you can Rescue It
I pictured here is Lisa Jennings who's a
long time director of Animal Protection
New Mexico based in Albuquerque Rick and
I uh Rick on a coalition chair and
myself along with others in the
community attended their meeting and
social on April the 20th and that was
hosted by the Animal Advocates Committee
of the Unitarian Church here in Las
Cruces
one of the topics covered in the meeting
was Senate Bill 57 which is also known
as the affordable spay neuter bill which
was passed and signed into law by our
governor in 2020 after many years of
effort
and the legislation established a
Statewide spay neuter funding mechanism
through a pet manufacturer fee or tax
and in January 2021 the New Mexico
legislator began implementing a Senate
Bill 57 but around that same time there
were groups that were showing opposition
to the tax and that included the pet
food Institute and the Rio Grande Kennel
Club were a couple of them that sought
to overturn the implementation of the
bill and while this was pending the New
Mexico Veterinary board responsible for
the distribution of the spay neuter
funds was in the meantime able to
collect 218
000 from the spay neuter specialty
license plate proceeds and from other
sources to uh distribute that money
within state
several policy makers however including
state representative Joanne Ferrari were
called on to help with unlocking SB 57
funds and that hard work culminated just
a couple of months ago with the new New
Mexico Department of Agriculture
secretary announcing the release of
approximately 900 thousand dollars in
spay neuter funding and so now we're
very eager to see how some of that money
is be is helping animals here in our
County and I'm sure we could check with
SNAP and perhaps Clint has some comment
on that topic too
in June
excuse me Rick and I met with Joanne
Ferrari and among concerns and some of
the things that we talked to Joanne
about is the lack of veterinarians or
how we feel that we have really lost
some ground in high volume low-cost spay
neuter here
and the inability it seems to be to have
filled the position that we're
advertising here for a full-time
veterinarian at our shelter
and as she remembers uh so these are
things that we you know hope will uh
we'll see some traction on I know it's a
very challenging and there are many
facets to the um
to the problem as you remember Joanne
served as chairperson of the Coalition
several years ago and she's certainly
been a champion of animal welfare for
decades and that includes her work past
years with a boxer boxer rescue
cancer Critters which was formerly a
project of the Humane Society of
Southern New Mexico has now become a
program of the Coalition in January due
to the phasing out of HSN programs and
services pictured here is a feline who
needed emergency dental work and was
helped recently through cancer Critters
funds as noted on this Slide the cans
for Critters fund is helped
approximately
350 dogs and cats since the fund was
established over 12 years ago and the
fund is raised 18
090.43 from the Reclamation of aluminum
cans and it involves Animal Advocates
and representatives affiliated with
really most of the rescues and Animal
Welfare groups here and who have donated
cans so it's clearly a community wide
project
Humane and Environmental Education is
another program accepted or acquired by
the Coalition due to the phasing out of
HSN programs and services and pictured
here you see Highland Elementary School
kindergarten students involved in an
extension activity
uh following a story and lesson on
safety around snakes and respect for
Desert wildlife with emphasis on the
Three L's look learn and leave alone
one of the academic aspects of this
lesson included using measuring tapes to
determine the length of some of the toy
snakes
and of course largely the Humane
education emphasis is on cats and dogs
Rick Khan has been serving as the chair
of the Coalition for several years now
and some of the projects that he's that
he's been involved with representing the
Coalition include microchip and
vaccination clinics in updating
brochures such as this one
Community cat action guide
which is in English and in Spanish
um working with Jackie Meineke and other
cat advocates for inclusion of
information on trap neuter return
Humane cat deterrence and the listing of
organizations and agencies that are
resources for cats and on the next
brochure that Rick is working on is a
volunteer guide for Animal organizations
here in Los Las Cruces
in addition to Coalition for pets and
people work I've been a community cat
Advocate and have had a cat colony of my
own in the central part of the city for
nearly five years
due to personal circumstances I brought
the six Colony Cats home to join my two
house cats and I had a catio built and
an enclosure built for their
accommodation
and thanks to the support of local cat
Advocates and organizations here
especially broken promises Southwest
they were able to help me catch an
elusive cat it took nearly a year but
use with the use of with Joe mealy's
expertise and the use of a drop trap we
were able to catch this last cat
um during the five years that I had the
colony there were about 10 cats that
were tnr'd and that included two kittens
and they were individual kittens that I
don't know they just came they showed up
from out of the blue I don't know where
or how but so there were those there
were those two kittens that were adopted
and then the six I mentioned that I
brought home and then there were a
couple of others that were tnr'd but
they either disappeared or they migrated
elsewhere and during the time that we
were trying to catch the one there were
a few that we ended up tnring and of
course returning back there because I
wasn't able to
assimilate or take them home
so I just want to add with regards to
TNR and Community cat colony caretaking
I want to say that it works and it works
versus catch and kill
because catch and kill you remove them
and more are going to come in to take
their place because cats are territorial
so I encourage our community to continue
to stay on this path of
what I want to say supporting
TNR and Colony cat caretaking
well that concludes the presentation so
the phone numbers listed here are Rick
Rick's phone number is listed first in
minus second so we are resources and
representatives and we want we encourage
people to contact us
there are any they need help or have
issues so okay and I thank you so much
for your time and attention I don't know
if any of you have any questions thank
you Miss Gilbert are there any questions
thank you thanks Gene so much for your
presentation I appreciate it I wanted to
ask if wasn't sure if you knew and you
had made mention maybe Clint would be
talking about this but on SB 57 the 900
000 do you know the process by which
they're going to release the funding I
do not okay I'm imagining RFP but I
don't know via grants I
who
really
Clint Thacker executive director I can
answer some of that question there was a
call that was done
it was about two weeks ago that I
attended where they are doing it as a
grant process so you put in submissions
you request for it and then the state
veterinarian board is going to be
reviewing those
and giving or awarding as they seem fit
so if you think about it though 900 000
sounds like a lot but when you break it
down with the need that we have down
here it it's only a small drop in the
bucket with that especially when you
look at what we need to do is team up
with local veterinarians and they don't
really discount quite a bit their
services because they still need to pay
for theirs as well and make some money
so the money doesn't stretch as far as
we'd like it to but yes it is a grant
process and we will be going for those
grants I believe it is closed it's open
now and it closes I want to say
September 1st
and so do you know what the rubric is at
this point I mean how are they
determining the it the best written
grant is it the highest need for spayed
and neutering Community
um do you know what I know they're
looking at first they're looking at
match grants because that will let the
money go further but after that I am not
certain of what their criteria is of how
they're doing it okay and I wonder if
Joanne or someone from the vet board
might wanna
I know it's a little dicey because it's
open currently and you don't want to
you don't want to create sort of a
situation where we would eliminate
ourselves from the process but I'm
really interested in in that and how
they would evaluate the process moving
forward and if there's an opportunity to
you mentioned matching Grant like a
match
if the legislators would think about
matching that up you know with the
funding that's available through the the
general fund I don't think it's a bad
question at all to ask during the grant
period of how these grants are going to
be selected because then we can tailor
to that and if anybody else is not
asking that question I think that's
their own fault because you want as much
Advantage as possible so I can reach out
I have some contacts there okay and I'll
let the board know that would be good
because I think maybe this is something
that's policy makers we can send a
letter at the session you know for the
next session or advocating with our
legislators the importance of that and
just how we're I'm struggling here in in
doniana County specifically you know Las
Cruces area as well that would be my
recommendation
and I just I'll piggyback a little bit
on that because I think if if we could
understand how
we might be able to augment the funds I
know like in in the county we support
snap but if there's a way that that we
could get the state uh to help us and
provide the funding and increase the
number of people we reach
um and so I think it'd be
an amazing opportunity so Clint that'd
be great if we could at least understand
that and then maybe we can work with
maybe the city the county and figure out
whether that's something within you know
run through an application for the ASC
through the ascmv or maybe a joint
application between the city and the
county but I'd love to figure out how we
might be able to strategize and and work
on that because as mayor Pro tem you you
point out it's a huge need in the county
and then just pushing for a letter as a
priority that from the board and maybe
um Miss de Leon from
mayor and city council a priority right
in terms of when we do get our lists
going in terms of priorities for the
next legislative cycle this would be one
for for me most definitely absolutely
and thank you so much our grant staff
also attended that webinar that was two
weeks ago I asked them to just get
information as well and I was going to
request a summary with respect to any
information that was passed along for
the criteria I know that we we
understand the process and as Clint
alluded to the the dates but I'll see if
they gleaned anything from with respect
to the any prioritization or criteria
thanks thank you Mr Leon thank you chair
thank you both and thank you Miss
Gilbert it was good to see you again and
to have you present to us
all right are there any other there are
no other questions or comments then
we'll move on to our city and county ACL
reports
supervisory minutes good morning good
morning sir how are you wonderful good
good morning uh Mr
I'm not sure and members of the board my
name is Gino Jimenez I am the animal
control supervisor for city of Las
Cruces and I will give present to you
our June 2023 numbers so we responded to
469 calls for Strays 202 of those were
Goa meaning the officer did not have
contact with that animal
we were able to apprehend 267 animals
218 were impounded at the Animal Service
Center of those 98 were dogs and 120
were cats we were successful in field
rtoing 49 animals meaning those animals
never crossed the threshold of the ascmv
and were given directly back to their
owners we were unsuccessful in field
rtoing 27 animals those are animals that
were identifiable however for some
reason the owner could not claim them
and we'll go through that list the
reasons why here in a little bit so that
gave us a total of 76 identifiable
animals
here is our three-year straight
comparison chart as you can see like I
said we did 469 for last month bringing
us to a grand total of
3006 for the year I'm looking at the
transfer this graph looks like we will
exceed by the end of the year we will
exceed the previous two years as far as
numbers
foreign
here is our three-year field RTO rate
again like I said we filled our to 49
giving us a total of 253 for the year
and again I think we're on track uh if
we keep up with this trend at the end of
the year we will be in line with the
other two years
here is a graph for the community cap
program we responded to 75 cats and
traps of those 16 already met the
requirements for Community cats and so
they were released right there in the
area giving us a grand total of 402 cats
and trap calls and with a total of 86
being released in the field
reasons for owner releasing animals
six were dogs that the owner could no
longer afford five were puppies that the
owner could not find homes for
five for dogs for behavioral issue five
dogs unable to care for two dogs for
aggression
two dogs for sick or injured and one dot
one cat for aggression
and finally here is our reasons for
officers being unable to field RTO 26 of
those there was no contact by phone or
at residence as you can see one had an
El Paso address one had a hatch address
and the third one was a homeless
individual and finally the one the chip
was not registered to any particular
owner
so I know that this was a question that
was brought up in the last meeting and
um
uh it was it in reference to
my Peak Performance report that I give
out monthly so I from what I understood
the members of the council weren't able
to get this report so I'm going to put
it in my presentation from now on if
that's okay with the board so I have
four measures Animal Control has four
measures number one
measure number one is we 65 percent of
reported animal stories are secured
so this last month in June the acos were
able to secure 65 percent of reported
stray calls for the year
excuse me this was a huge accomplishment
for us
the reason being is because ever since
the Peak Performance was implemented
this was the very first year we met that
measure
so I was very happy with my staff that
for last month and we accomplished one
of those measures
number two 25 of stray animals secured
that are returned to their owner in the
field we were able to return 12.6
percent of Strays back to the owners for
year to date
number three 10 percent reduction of
straight animal responses
there was a 38.1 percent increase in
stray animal bites from June 20 June 1st
to June 30th 2023 as compared to the
year of 2022. the reason for that and I
and I attribute number two and number
three I mean excuse me number three and
number four to a huge increase is
because what I call we're coming out of
that covet hangover where finally people
are starting to be more active now that
covet is over the restrictions are over
people are out doing things that they
did in 2018 and before
so there's a lot more activity now we're
seeing a tremendous increase in bytes
whereas in 1920 and 21 our bite numbers
were way way down way down because less
activity of people but now I say that
we're going back to those pre-covered
numbers
and then measure number four ten percent
reduction in owner victim bites there
was a 19.5 increase in owner victim
bites for the the time period of June
1st through June 30th 2023 as compared
to 2022.
so those are the four measures that I
report
in my Peak present Peak Performance
report every month
finally uh acos responded to 1 250 calls
for the month of June bringing us to a
grand total of
7140 for the year
highlights for the year for the month
I'm sorry uh so far we haven't had any
presentations I accept expect that to
change here now that school is back in
order and we reach out to the elementary
schools and start doing our school
presentations the officers were able to
do 87 hours of continuing education
and with that I will stand for any
questions
thank you Gina are there any questions
not seeing any I did just more of a
comment and I think it's the
frustration that I'm sure you all feel
with
um the field rtos and the inability to
reach people because of the phone
numbers and you know there was 26 I
think it was 26
um that were there and that would have
easily you know when it was interesting
to look at it from in terms of the
metrics because like where you said you
were at a 12 point uh six percent I
believe and the goal was 25 percent you
know if you could have had even you know
several at least half of that that would
have bumped the number up to like 15 16
percent
and and closer to that but it's it's
it's it's it's a small things that make
it hard and challenging for you and your
team to be able to to reach this and I
know it's it's so I'm I appreciate this
slide because I think it's just
interesting to
to be able to connect the numbers and
then how your how I guess you're
evaluating yourselves but
um at the same time it I'm sure it can
be maddening to try and and Reach people
and then something so small with
you know not being able to reach them
and understand and feel figure out what
you can do with like in this case
microchip but I appreciate everything
you guys do
um and like I said I appreciate having
the slide in here because it's it's just
kind of
providing additional context is really
interesting and understanding the
problems that you all see so thank you
Gina I I appreciate that sir and to be
honest with you on measure number two I
always add in a note on my formal report
where I include the ones that were the
possible field rtos so yes for this
particular month had
we've been able to build our TOS those
numbers that were missed we would have
been up to 18.6
not we still wouldn't have reached our
measure but we wouldn't get closer yes
sir
very good thank you uh Gina mayor Pro
tem Gandara
thank you chair thank you supervisor
Jimenez for
the presentation Bravo for someone who
helped Institute the Peak Performance we
found it really just invaluable right to
kind of ensure that our internal
processes were in place right goals
objectives those kinds of things as we
scaled out to the outside contractors
right to ensure that they had
measurements that we could that we could
be accountable to and being able to
match that 65 percent last this last
month is incredible so Bravo thank you
please extend my gratitude to your staff
I think that's really important because
it's not easy
I was hoping that you would have not
just percentages but numbers numbers of
dogs or
whatever that the animals consist of
there do you know what I mean like was
it 10 dogs and
um you know that that were
um
you know just the numbers would be
helpful to me do you did you do that and
I'm not paying attention sort of a
matter okay yes yes yes mayor Pro tem
these numbers
from here
yes okay
so these numbers as you can see right
here are the totals for the year
this is the the monthly numbers uh wait
this is the wrong one
so if you look at our field rtos here's
the 49.
and then if it collates directly with
this number here because it's an it's a
running total I just couldn't remember
from six seven or eight so if you can
kind of side by side maybe okay for
better for better ease to to visually
that would be really important because I
think these are really important numbers
especially as we're considering
strategic planning moving forward how
dependent you are on all the non-profits
out there the center to do the work
that's important around spayed and
neutering and microchipping it's so it's
so so important that that right that we
have that coordination and collaboration
that we're offering
programming I think to to help those
numbers it's important but most
importantly to reduce the number of of
animals that are coming into the center
and and so it I know that the county has
made lots of effort and regards to and
not the county numbers are in here
they're not
um because it's the surrounding areas
but it would be interesting to see a
side-by-side comparison comparison
between city and county and the efforts
that you're doing around spayed and
neutering especially because you've done
special programming and provided funding
allocation to that particular area so
um
you know I get lots of pushback and
emails specifically about when are you
going to offer this more money for
spayed and neutering and although we've
increased the budget in the center and
we rely on the center right to do that
spayed and neutering and
I think the caveat is ensuring that we
have the vet to do that work and that's
sort of the rub right and so I
appreciate Gene bringing that up but it
would for me it would be helpful if
oh
I don't know what I'm asking maybe some
research or something County Wide that
would crunch the numbers together so we
have a better idea of what we're working
on and how we plan for the next
three to five years and I don't know
that we've ever done that
yeah no and I think I'd be curious to
see because I know we we have the
numbers that we get from the county
during the the presentation I think as
you mentioned we're getting you know
from from each other organizations but
it'd be kind of curious to understand
because in this case the ascmv is the
the recipient of all the efforts up
front by our ACO department so it'd be
kind of I agree with you you'd be
curious to see you know kind of the
differences and understand what
different initiatives might affect and
how what has been successful and maybe
not and then trying to figure out
together what
what we can do so that hopefully we have
fewer intakes into the aacmv and I'm
thinking maybe it's a relationship with
NMSU or dacc a project for students
Concert Grand since you're a professor
um where right we do some research and
evaluation around that I think that
would be an excellent idea that that we
would put forth maybe
um
some effort to coordinate alongside
those two higher ed and so that we have
a better idea if we if because what are
we doing it's hard to step to have those
separate
with all the work that's happening with
our external Partners as well I I so I
don't know Becky if that's something
concerts something that some of your
students or NMSU might be interested in
doing
I feel like the animals the students
that are working on animal sort of
management especially might be
interested in that at NMSU both pet and
not pet which there are a lot of those
students so that might be an opportunity
okay thank you
thank you very much I mean I'd love to
have more discussion on it and see what
we can figure out and understand they
said if we go into the strategic
planning for the aacmv also looking
you know like I said within our acos or
the dental control division so thank you
Mr chairman we just start internally
first and then
start plugging in the our partners
because that's a huge lift and I
understand that but maybe maybe that's
something to think of in the in the
interim
thank you Mr chairman and again I don't
know that this goes directly to the
point that uh
mayor Pro tem Gandara is discussing but
within one of the subcommittees that
we're working we have been having
discussions and maybe Gino can share a
little bit more
where we identify a high pickup area of
animals a High collection area
and a corresponding County portion to it
and that we carry out a pilot project
using the County's mobile unit and the
concentrated effort to see what it would
take in terms of a spay and neuter
program as well
to reduce the number of animals that are
being collected to use it as a pilot to
see what strategies can work and whether
we can reduce the number of animals and
within the city and within the county so
I know that Mary Lou and Gino and and
certainly Miss de Leon and I have been
having that discussion to see if we can
Target that and propose that as a pilot
project and test it out for
eight months to a year in terms of
really the kind of the strategies that
would reduce the animal collection in
both the county and the city because
obviously because of the movement of the
animals we would have to have a
corresponding effort within the city not
just the county doing a pilot project or
not just the city doing a pilot project
but in unison together
just just that you're aware there isn't
all of the detail but we certainly have
been having that kind of discussion and
I think we're still working on
identifying what portion of the city and
what portion of the county would be the
more appropriate partnership
all right thank you Mr Macias for
sharing that
chairman mayor Pro tem I think with your
request I I can get with Mary Lou and
see if we can't come up with the
combined presentation maybe to put at
the end of our monthly report maybe
quarterly uh
yearly something like that
thank you do you know I think it'd be
curious if we can figure it out I think
it's just kind of uh as we're trying to
figure out how we how we move forward
and best strategize for the acmv as we
grow I think it's it's I think it's
probably Clinton we'll we'll note here
in a little bit on his on his numbers
it'll be uh you know we continue to see
such high intakes and and population in
the ascmv that
um
you know it's it's what what can we do
you know what
if we can do it whether it's a pilot
project as Mr Macias is indicating that
we're working on or
um you know whatever else it would be
great to figure it out because the in
the end the overcrowding that that we
see or the the large population that we
see in the ascmv is concerning because
it doesn't uh go towards the goal of of
being a uh you know a live release or a
you know a library shelter and we've had
to increase the number of euthanizations
because of that and but
um I said I don't want to
jump too far ahead but I appreciate it
and we can figure that out as we go yes
sir
are there any other questions for Gino
all right thank you sir you're welcome
all right now we'll move on to the
county
good morning Mr chair good morning uh
members of the board I'm officers now
I'm the Lead Animal control officer for
Don Island County Animal Control I will
be presenting the presentation this
morning for the June stats for uh County
Animal Control
reported Strays for the month for 275
reported stray animals we had 243 Strays
that were picked up out of that with 112
cats and 131 dogs we had three sick or
injured animals one cat two dogs we had
18 owners surrender animals zero cats 18
dogs and that will be they're the
another slide on further down it
explains the honor releases
reported stray animal calls for the
four-year comparison
uh you can see we were pretty well where
we have been
275 stray animal calls for June
um
pretty well running pretty same there on
that
the four-year failed art field return to
owner comparison chart
for the month of June we had
17 animals returned
which was a little lower it was higher
than last year but a little lower than
for uh 2021
uh
with more officers now in the field we
should be seeing that number come up
we'll we'll get more officers in the
field with more time to spend time
trying to find the owners
additional animals picked up for owner
surrendered cat zero we uh owners
surrendered dogs 18 we had three second
injured animals we had two welfare homes
we had 11 shelter quarantines with one
home quarantine
we had one Court hold quarantine case
cases
live evidence currently held in our
courthold facility is one we had two
rabies submissions
11 diverted intakes
we had 699 General educational handed
out and these were are 10 Essentials and
our hand educational handouts and this
is so high because for the month of June
and the month of June we went back to
doing what we call our Aces project
Animal Control environmental survey and
we started with Tortugas and this is why
that was so high and we had 200 or 727
total calls for the month of June
uh this is a breakdown of districts
district one which is hatch Garfield
Roadie Rincon and basitas we picked up
six cats three dogs for a total of nine
District Two Radium Springs Fair Acres
and Donna Anna with 32 cats 12 dogs for
a total of 44.
District 3 Oregon White Sands East Mesa
and the Butterfield area
we had 39 cats 27 dogs for a total of
66.
District 4 masila Park South Valley
vital San Miguel La Mesa Mesquite and
Los Alturas we had a total of 18 cats 16
dogs for a total of 34.
District 5 which is Anthony and Marino
we had seven cats
26 dogs for a total of 33. district 6
includes jambarino a Union Santa Teresa
and Sunland Park
we had one cat four dogs for a total of
five
District Seven Chaparral on Desert Air
we had the total of Nine Cats 43 dogs
for a total of 52 animals picked up in
District 7.
Stray Cats picked up by Geographic
districts for year to date for 2023
D1
which is the northern District's hatch
in that area we had six
District Two donana
and that area was 32 District 3 the East
Mesa was 39.
District 4 which is the South Valley
area masila Park Mesquite and that area
had 18.
District 5 Anthony area
Marino we had seven district six all
unions Sunderland Park Santa Teresa we
had one
and District Seven which is chaperone
Desert Air there there was nine for the
month of June
stray dogs picked up my Geographic
districts for the month of June in
district one we had three District Two
there was 12.
District three there was 27 District 416
District 526
districts
6-4 and District 743
through the month of June
I have the reasons for release of
ownership for the 18 animals we had
unable to keep on property we're seven
we had vicious livestock attack before
we had two second injured and we had
five they were unable to take care of
uh any questions on my presentation
thank you officer are there any
questions
look regular
I don't have any questions I just have a
comment and we'll add the actual detail
of Statistics but we did have the aces
project in there so we had the initial
project and then we had the follow-up
project which was in June so I know we
did have
when we went into the Tortugas area that
was the initial area we went to we saw
residents of the number of of residents
we went to 53 of them were in compliance
and then of course we issued the
educational Outreach and went back and
gave them Resources with dumpsters and
and whatnot and and Veterinary things to
come in compliance a week and a half
later then we went back this past month
and did our follow-ups we saw 77
compliance after that so that was a
significant amount of compliance going
back into that Community but we'll give
the detail of the
of all the statistics here pretty soon
but I just wanted to let the board know
the amount of compliance we saw in that
neighborhood
thank you Mr sword I appreciate the the
update and Mr Macias Mr chairman just as
a follow-up to the report that was being
made we've the county is finally up to
its full complement of Animal Control
Officers of 11 we had two more
individuals except positions and they
have starting dates that are very soon
so we will be operating at full strength
great that's wonderful news thank you
for that
all right Officer thank you so much okay
thank you for the updates
all right we'll move on to shelter to
statistics and activities Mr Thacker
thank you Mr chair Glenn Thacker
executive director of The Animal Service
Center Messiah Valley
here to present to you the June
2023 numbers
the current animal population at the
center is 503 417 dogs and 83 cats
you'll see there
our intake numbers have
um the word exploded came came to mind
when I have seen these seats over a
hundred and about 40 animals higher than
it was before
523 dogs
428 cats
um
on this
these are the way those animals came
into the center
so 16 percent came in from owner
surrenders you see there's the other
highlight Strays by public was the next
one at 24 and then as usual the because
the ACO that's their job to bring us
those animals is 55.8 percent
we only had five dogs returned and what
I hear is the majority of those were
returned the next day so the chance for
the animal to adjust really wasn't given
but
uh only five came back and that's a
relatively low number for us
our diverter intakes were down just a
little bit but we're so grateful for the
169 that did not come for those watching
for the first time a diverted intake is
handled usually or generally by our
front staff when somebody comes in with
the Stray animal they found or a
surrendered animal that the people don't
want we ask them if they'd be willing to
check with other local rescues if they'd
be able to find another home for the
animal if it's their own animal we give
them a resource packet they can contact
different phone numbers listing it at
different places online see if the
animal can get out so we had 169 animals
of those diverted
these are how they left the center
so 14 on adoptions
8.9 percent reclaims big number here is
a 25.4 percent on the rescue that was
phenomenal amount and percentage that
they work so hard to get these animals
out and we're so grateful for our local
rescues and that's on the next slide
you'll see what rescues took those the
big one here though is that 52 percent
for euthanasia it absolutely floored us
when we look at the explosion population
that we had the we're no longer going by
as the board Knows
by how many we can have in the center
it's a it's more of how many we can
adequately care for at the center so we
don't want animals in side cages we
don't want animals stacked on top of
each other in the aisle ways and so
those are things warehousing animals is
basically what we were doing in years
past trying to keep up with the high
intake that was occurring
these animals weren't suffering they're
still getting the the basic food water
and shelter but we felt as a management
team that the quality of care could be
much better for that it's also required
by shelter Standards Board or the
shelter statistics that every animal
have a certain amount of contact
and care so in order to get to that
number that they require we did have to
do quite a bit of euthanasia
so our live release rate is 52 percent
here is our June transfers you see again
action program for Animals is always a
big one we sure appreciate them the big
one this year for ourself went going
outside of New Mexico or local is Halo
animal rescue did a lot of animals for
us these are Big transports that we do
uh once maybe twice a year however I'm
sorry once or twice a month however I
know that they are slowing down because
they're not moving animals as fast as
they used to and it's they said because
of the heat people don't want to come
out they're based in Phoenix so they'll
slow down a little bit so we're just
waiting for things to cool down a little
bit and we can start back up into those
those higher number of rescues
so these are euthanasias as you can see
for cats that first big yellow Spike
that is for medical respiratory signs so
an animal comes in we just don't right
now have the space to treat these signs
of respiratory so non non-tx is
non-treatment so if it comes in has
clinical signs of it
and we don't have the space you know we
hold them for the time that they need to
be for to be reclaimed to become our
property and then we need to euthanize
them the biggest one for the dogs is
space medical these are animals that
have a general medical issue that if we
had space we would hold on to them
longer and do some treatments and
testing and see what can be done but
because we don't we have to euthanize
them
looks like the next is ringworm for cats
which is a constant issue constant just
coming in they're not getting it from us
but coming in with ringworm
and then the next one for dogs is the
parvo non-treatment where Parvo is it's
more or less it's easy to treat as far
as you just give IV fluids and
second-hand medication but in order to
do that you have to have a whole
separate area for this extremely
um
contagious disease contagious virus that
can get in I mean you're talking just if
you walk through an area that dog has
parvo and you walk through the rest of
the area that whole area is exposed
that's how contagious Parvo is so that's
the next highest highest one
our amazing surgery team I don't know
how they do it every year but every year
they are every month but every month
they surprise me 290 surgeries you can
see there
June was again a hard month with all
these uh continuing adoptions and
everything coming through they are
amazing what they do every single month
year to date over 1800 surgeries
if you have been to the center and you
see our little surgery Suite that's and
you know why I'm so surprised they do
amazing things there
our volunteers our current volunteer
coordinator is amazing we sure
appreciate all that she does for us I
know the volunteers respect her
and they love the communication that she
puts out all the time so we have a dog
walking team they did 85 hours just
fantastic come in they come in at least
once a month and their goal is to and
it's in a weekend and their goal is to
walk every dog that's available to be
walked and they do it it's it's very
um
inspiring to watch them do a cat care
team these are people that come in and
clink hats
we never thought in a million years
there'd be people that would be
interested in cleaning cats but we
opened it up and people came and were so
grateful for them
total volunteers 320 and the 677 total
hours
our visitors just stayed about the same
1500.
for the center
total web page views down just a little
bit but it's just the up and down so I
would say about average where we're at
there the again web page views for the
first time you're watching isn't
original hits it's every page it's
viewed so if I view a dog and I go back
and then I view another dog that's three
views
for that
our Facebook continues since October 22
where we had our big spike and then
November 22 went up even more continues
to grow and develop I'm very grateful
and we have our incredible
I want to say a social media team
because it's me our rescue coordinators
are a lot so many people have access to
Facebook as administrators that if they
see something they can put it on there
both fun and original and also
information
and impounds things like that constantly
getting that information out so it's
always refreshing new information going
out
some of our upcoming events National
Night Out this is going to be a fun one
not just because I'm going to be there
but because we're going to be having
teaming up with the city
we have this is a night out where
there's law enforcement and fire engines
and sirens and just tons of fun it's
going to be we're actually having myself
and our medical director is going to be
there as well as some of our office
supervisors and we're just we're just
gonna have fun we're going to be dogs
are going to be walking around on leash
we're going to ask if it's if it's
microchip we'll scan it and we'll we're
going to give them a microchip so just
fun stuff like that that we're going to
be there we're going to have things to
hand out and and get the word out that
where we're at uh we are also going to
be at the Petra Kia they're actually
doing an event during the month of
August is core the shelters it's a
national event uh throughout the whole
United States and so they're going to be
having a off-site there at their
facility to help us celebrate the core
of the shelter and then we have our
Pizza Hut it's going to be fun and Petco
is always a good draw for these animals
and these are just the larger upcoming
events we have others throughout the
weekend that we do throughout
here's Greg and Cody Good News Greg was
adopted so we're happy to announce that
but if you're looking for a white and
black cat please come down and see and
then Cody with his goofy face adorable
as ever he wants to be one of yours so
that is a presentation I have for you
today
I do also want to know really quick that
on June 1st we did
or I did a disease presentation to city
and county officers and also our staff
were able to attend so we did two
sessions of that and I think it was well
received we have some good questions
asked throughout it and it kind of just
gave them gave all of our my staff and
the officers reasons why we do the
things we do so and we did a little fun
thing afterwards of one thing that you
learned and there were some really good
things that we're going from but that I
hope that they took out with a reasons
and know why we ask you to do certain
things so that was fun too
thank you Clint are there any questions
comments I I
Mr Macias I'll give you some credit
although I don't know specifically this
but with Greg getting adopted you had
quite the sales pitch during the
commission meeting on Tuesday
fantastic thank you very much sir
all right thank you Clint
I'll move on now to committee reports
starting with the finance committee Mr
Leon
thank you so much chair yes the finance
committee met to go over the most recent
financials just Southpole is going to
present those to us
while he's bringing up the presentation
just want to also give you an update on
some of the other work that we're doing
on the Animal Service Center uh joint
power agreement memorandum of
understanding and the lease between the
Animal Service Center and the city for
the facilities that are used by the
Animal Service Center so
we have been meeting city and county and
Animal Service Center to provide input
on wording changes for the jpa and mou
at the city for the Fiscal Agent service
providers Finance it HR risk Fleet also
reviewed the services to be provided by
the Animal Service Center to make sure
that the mo you would accurately reflect
that
so we are completed we've completed that
review and so we're going to get back
together to just go over the revisions
once that's in place the information
that's in the mou for the service
provision will be included in our annual
cost allocation study that we do to
basically quantify the services that are
provided to the Animal Service Center
and then that that will ultimately make
its way into
the Animal Service Center budget and the
request for the board to review and
approve so that takes care of the jpa
and mou that we're in process the jpa
currently stipulates that the city and
the Animal Service Center have a lease
in place and where that hasn't been the
case but we are working on that one of
the big items in that lease has to do
with the fair market value for the
facilities that are in use and making
sure that we can identify services that
the Animal Service Center provides to
the community the value of which would
offset that for market value so our
analysts at the city came up with a
couple of options and we met with Clint
recently and Bernice to determine what
would be the best methodology and and we
are going to move forward with
identifying the neuter and space
services that Animal Service Center
provides below market value for the
community to offset that fair market
value so I don't see any I don't foresee
any issues with
using that as a methodology there's
going to have to be a little bit
different reporting from the Animal
Service Center but they're already
collecting some of the data that would
be needed to just monitor that on a
quarterly basis so I think there's some
good progress being made to that end so
we're now working on getting that
wording into a lease Our Land Management
Services are helping with that as well
so all of those things will be coming
forward for review for the board
great thank you so much for those
updates and I think it's been important
as we've been working through the GPA
and all that so thank you Mrs
thank you thank you Mr Leon for the
update very helpful
um very much appreciate it do you have a
time frame for each of those
um
areas jpa MOA lease so I I believe that
the jpa and mou are substantially
complete we need to have one more review
which I've asked
um my administrative staff to schedule
between the city and county who have
been reviewing this and then I don't
foresee any difficulty in bringing that
forward once we've reviewed in the next
uh perhaps at the next board meeting if
possible the lease as well I think
we are using uh templates
such that we've used for Community of
Hope and so Land Management is very well
versed the holdup was just identifying
the methodology for the offset of the
fair market value but I think now that
that's in place we'll be able to move
forward quickly and I would expect the
next month or two would be able to bring
something forward for consideration
our legal would have to review both of
those documents as well and
um Mr Macias I don't know if the on the
county side of your legal has it
reviewed the mou or jpa
they have at different stages but I'm
not sure if it's the latest draft I
think we were waiting to finalize the
draft before submitting it again
so that so that would be the next step
after we review so I will definitely
keep you posted on the time frame for
that to be completed
thanks thanks Barbara um also does that
also include that whole issue with the
spayed and neuter being below market
value
I guess I'm trying to understand it I
know it's below market value meaning
what we charge is not fair market and
you're asking them to come up with a
mechanism of reporting or where are we
going and when when would we start to
see this change in the way they're
reporting spayed and neutering so that
reporting that I'm referring to is
related to the lease only so typically
when we as with the Community of Hope
campus when we have structured a lease
with the tenant providing certain
Services they provide us with a
quarterly report to review to ensure
that they are meeting those commitments
so Once the lease agreement is executed
then we I anticipate we'll start to see
quarterly reports related to the number
of spay and neuters that are taking
place
different types of operations were
comparing that to an industry a
benchmark in a regional number right now
but we're going to solidify that but
that would be something that we would
monitor administratively with respect to
the execution of the lease right now
Animal Service Center is is collecting
the data that would be required to to
provide us with that information it's
just not extracted right now in a report
format but that's one of the things that
Clinton Bernice would be working on for
us okay perfect thank you thank you Mr
chair
all right
Mr settle
at least I think are you done okay cool
good morning Mr chair members of the
board my name is Josh saffell and on
behalf of the finance department of the
city of Las Cruces I'd like to present
the preliminary unaudited financial
statements as of June 30th 2023.
so starting off with looking here we
have our statement of net position
highlights we're showing in the general
fund cash of 579 864 dollars and
receivables of 138 168 dollars giving us
total assets of seven hundred eighteen
thousand thirty two dollars
we offset that with liabilities of a
hundred and twenty seven thousand forty
four dollars uh Revenue collected in
advance of two hundred and thirty one
thousand fifty nine dollars and this
leaves us with an unassigned fund
balance for the period of three hundred
fifty nine thousand nine hundred and
twenty nine dollars
moving on to our change in net position
here we see total revenues for the
period are four million forty four
thousand nine hundred and eighty four
dollars and we have total expenditures
of four million one hundred and twelve
thousand eight hundred and ninety two
dollars and transfers out of twenty one
thousand dollars uh that left us with a
difference of eighty eight thousand
dollars uh negative change
um
so that of course impacted the fund
balance
looking at our budget to actual change
in net position we see total revenue of
four million forty four thousand is
ninety one point seven percent of the
budget
our total expenditure of four million
one hundred and twelve thousand is
ninety point four percent of that budget
of course this being the end of the year
our budget parameter was set at about a
hundred percent
um expenditure was well under that of
course the revenue was under that as
well so
um
just wanted to highlight a few things
the the biggest would be if you look you
see salary and benefits we're both well
over a hundred percent
in the past I know that um Mr Thacker
and others had talked about uh the
salary uh we had increases due to
um the accepting higher salary for
individuals and that there was an issue
with the budget this year that the that
we had to use a previous year's budget
and so we're finally seeing how that's
impacting now with the the actuals being
over budget but as far as I know this is
corrected and we will not see this issue
in next year's budget but that is the
impact that that has had we can see
there
looking at revenues and expenditures
throughout the period we see that uh
more often than not the expenditures
were over the revenue
but all in all it did come out that we
do have a positive fund balance of 399
000 but that was impacted throughout the
year negatively of 88 000 was what the
what it ended up being at the end of the
year
if we look at our expenditures
year-to-date total expenditures were
four million one hundred and twelve
thousand eight hundred and ninety two
dollars of that 51 percent was the
salary 17 percent were benefits uh then
the next largest was uh services at 18
supplies at seven percent Capital was
three point seven percent and the rest
were one percent or less of that budget
or excuse me of that expenditure amount
and that will conclude my presentation I
stand for any questions
thank you Mr sample are there any
questions on the financial report
all right not seeing any so thank you
sir and I'd just like to say too uh this
is this is my uh last time presenting in
front of the board I'm going forward I
would like to introduce
um Veronica uyoa I hope I got that right
she is now the accountant in charge and
so starting next quarter she will be
presenting in front of the board thank
you thank you for welcoming Miss who you
are and uh Josh it was uh always always
a pleasure to have you working on
working on the financials and so thank
you so much
all right
then we'll move on to the updates from
the executive committee which uh when we
had a phone call with Mr Thacker and
mayor pretend Gandara myself
the quick just a quick summary that I
had we discussed some of the updates on
the facility some of the challenges with
the cat cages and a couple of the other
items and so you know I know that we're
continuing to work through that
we did also discuss some concerns and
trying to figure out how we can work on
getting a grant writer and so
we have some updates thank you
compactor executive director we do have
an update I was able to reach out to our
former grant writer Elaine
um
oh sticker assignments take care of
Simon thank you and she is more than
happy to do some contract work for us
so that is very beneficial she is
amazing grant writer got us a lot of
approval grants throughout the time when
she was with us but she's already
started
so we have our Petco love grant that is
due on the 31st of of uh July she is
sending it to me she said tonight for
approval so we're going to keep her busy
but we can
that's great and I know one of the the
concern and the challenge was is that
while we were waiting to post the
position for a grant writer and I think
there was going to be some trying to
work on some changes to the position and
I know Clint is working with the HR
department to get that posting up but in
the meantime as a stop Gap we had
discussed possibly doing a contract
to just help us get these initial grants
through and it worked out very well with
with Elaine because she's very familiar
with the ascmv and and can very I think
she did an amazing job while during her
tenure here so I'm really glad to hear
that she could do this and he said this
is just I think more of a stop cap
measure but glad that worked out so
thank you Clint
um and then the the other thing that
that we discussed and it came up was
around some concerns about the uh a
recent uh
event that was sponsored by the ascmv
and it was regarding the Chihuahua races
that were held here at here in downtown
or the plaza during the uh cerveza and
Tequila I believe uh
Fiesta and there were concerns that were
brought up I know mayor Pro tem heard
some concerns from constituents I did as
well and I think Clint had discussed you
know kind of the way the the event was
set up and it was done I believe in a
way you know I think we when we
discussed it Clint you had said if
anybody was really wanted to see it you
could go online to the Facebook page and
see what what it really entailed and it
was done in the evening and done in a
way that uh you know the animals were
not under any duress or under
um you know some significant or extreme
conditions and so I think that just kind
of as a statement I know you know I
trust Clinton and the staff and so you
know if there's events like this and and
you know obviously we we encourage our
the public to reach out and ask
questions if they do have concerns but I
know that this is something that they're
always careful of of making sure that if
they are going to be putting the ascmv
name on it it's done in a way that
animals are taken care of and are safe
and cared for so I just wanted to state
that but those are my three notes that I
had from our meeting for the executive
committee are there any questions or
comments
all right then move on to facilities
did you have any updates for the
facilities you've got it taken care of
although there might be some updates
um specifically around the cages all of
the cages but a few have that are um
not fitting in the area so there's going
to need to be a different the re-exam
and redesign and a different
option for those that don't fit in the
designated spots Clint I know this week
we spoke of the gate that's missing
that needs to either be
fixed or
put up because we're having folks
basically dumping animals back there
or on the side I don't remember quite
and I know your staff is very concerned
about that so you've had some
discussions with the county and and
whatnot and I'd like for you to update
us on that specifically
yes I I can do that uh Clin fact
executive director so and it was
actually a July event so that's why we
didn't talk about it in June for the
June's things and it happened after our
meeting but we had a county ACO back
into our gate that covers our intake
area so temporarily while the new center
is being built the officers drive around
to the be the east side of the center
and that's where they do their impound
and they have to get out and manually
open to Gates in order to do it and then
they they close them well this officer
was getting out of the way of the other
officers that were coming in and they
backed into the the gate so it rendered
the gate useless the pole the big large
heavy pole that handles that gate was
bent over but everything was taken care
of in in that way all the reporting was
done quickly pictures were taken and so
then we were able to we've bent the pole
back and we're able to put some of our
temporary panel fence panels in and get
them chained up so they can kind of act
as a hinge and get things done in the
meantime we've acquired three quotes so
far we've only gotten one and that's the
problem with this process it just takes
so long to get these quotes done we
explained to them you know the emergency
situation
so we're waiting on those three quotes
and then we submit it to the county risk
management and they proceed from there
we're just lucky that we kept some of
the older Gates or the older panels that
we had from another construction time
and were able to secure that while the
time when we did not have those in we
did have two events one of them was a
person who came into the back helped
themselves to one of our temporary
kennels the one of the wire crates and
put their dog in it and left it by the
back door
and then another event was is that the
individual came and was confronted by
one of our staff that was there and they
were said one was saying I'm not
dropping I'm not ditching the dog I'm
just dropping it off because I
dog we found I think it was and our
employee was saying well it sure looks
like you're ditching the dog back and
forth
to the conclusion homes that they I
believe they came back later and brought
the dock in so
we're just glad that no animals got out
and got loose on their freeway
for that event but we are temporarily
secured right now okay good to hear good
to hear anything updating on the cages
so we were so excited several weeks ago
when our cat cages arrived uh they
started to install them and the outside
of the cage that is supposed to be a
glass wall is a solid wall
and we're like that won't work not only
that but they're also about 13 inches
shorter than what we ordered
so we looked at the original submitting
documents and they do have it as a glass
wall
so in I mean the one good thing I can
say about the company we've gone through
is they have admitted their mistake they
are willing to
send us new cages that are the proper
height that has been submitted and also
send us that glass wall in the meantime
they said to go ahead and alter what we
need to alter to to get us open so James
corporation who's there installing them
is cutting the the front of the of the
kennel off that solid wall and putting
Plexiglas up so it it does not look
um
the only word I can think of is hokey it
doesn't look odd
it kind of looks like it was designed
that way so we're good in looks they're
caulking it it does look professional
as you can get
so we are going to move forward with
those for the time being but it's going
to take about 12 weeks to get new
kennels sent to us so but once they're
in we'll be able to transfer the new
ones in with the beautiful glass wall
the dog kennels we have all but six have
been installed and they have a plan
moving forward of how to do those six
however in order to keep the warranty
and everything for those kennels they
have to do the installing James or us we
can't go and install they were supposed
to be there this week to install but
here it is Thursday and nobody's arrived
so James is looking into that to
complete the six installations another
thing I found out that was new to me it
was unknown is the top of the kennels on
the exterior of the kennels has been
value engineered out
me nor our kennel Supervisor was aware
of this and I I told I told the
architect I go of all places this is
where we need tops of the kennels at
least on the inside of the kennel
they're contained by doors you know and
they get out I go but if they get out
here they have a possibility of hitting
the freeway
so we're looking into how much that is
going to be to get tops it has to be
nothing special it's just a fence panel
that we can put on and secure it down
so we're getting quotes for that
the cement is still an ongoing issue we
are giving James the opportunity to
quote to give a bid on it the amount has
gone down exponentially
for it is what we were told that's the
word they used is exponentially they're
submitting they had a deadline of
tomorrow to submit that quote so we look
forward to that amount they said their
problem right now is is finding a
contractor that has cement workers that
can start as soon as possible because
everybody's so busy it's most of them
are booked out through August and
September
so we do not want to wait that long so
that's one weight that we have or one
small hiccup so
that's my update for the new center it's
a big beautiful building but boy she is
frustrating sometimes
so but we also got a certificate of
occupation or
occupancy thank you that's a hard word
for me occupancy which means we can be
in there and doing things so computers
are going to be set up today or tomorrow
so that's exciting to see those things
in there our dishwasher should be
arriving anytime we are setting up our
stainless steel tables we can also start
using the washers and dryers so that'll
be big so we're just waiting on training
for those big machines so we can get
that started
but you know things are are moving
forward yes we can
Clint can I appreciate the update and
the new update I wanted to ask that
there's been you know several delays I
know
um Mr Leon I'd ask Mr pili about those
delays and what that means in our
contract in terms of not meeting right
the the deadline part of me set forth
and if the contractor is being charged
daily
um you know I know in other contracts
that has been something right that we
insist that be a part of of that is that
currently happening because we're way
past the deadlines for many of these
things and I'm not sure if we're holding
our contractors accountable daily for
the delays and whatnot
I I do not have the information so
you've been in communication with the
city manager and I will also check with
um ACM Delgado since Public Works is one
of her
departments to see if we can get you
that information thank you thank you Mr
Leon I I can update you a little bit on
that so I talked to the program manager
Tom Gallagher he stated that yes there
is in the contract fines that they can
do
however when the contractor cites supply
issues where they say you know things
out of their control a lot of times it's
hard to quantify whether that is a fine
and how much it would be
so that's their problem with the
um
with when we submit a submittal saying
cages need to be this high and this high
and so forth and they send us the wrong
one and they admit that's out of their
hands that's the fine that he said would
not be charged to the contractor
so it's yes it's in there but if it's
being charged is a hard one I can follow
up and ask them specifically if there
are any that's done I can tell you that
some of the meetings that we have get
quite heated because people are now kind
of pointing fingers not to the point of
yelling or anything but it's kind of
that awkward silence sometimes
so it is everybody is is frustrated at
the moment with how long it's taking I
can tell you that
okay I appreciate that and just trying
to find some solutions about the cement
work and if there are other
contractors or such that we could pull
from maybe regionally some I I don't
know what that might look like but it
we've been working on this for some time
and or
were we not working with the county on
this piece as well I thought the county
had recommended they could do a lot of
that work am I yeah we met with the
county and the parts that they could do
they said they're used to doing large
swaths
um or no was it they do sidewalk side
work not large things and that was the
issue
so okay it was it was an excellent idea
gosh we need some help in that direction
for sure so anything Barbara you could
do to help expedite this that would be
very helpful I hate to put it on your
plate but I appreciate anything you do
thank you Clint
thank you and Clint do you want some
sidewalks inside the
it's like this the service and sadly we
only have sidewalks in there right now
what we need is is large pieces of
cement and we also went back to the
original plan of having individual
drains and used to get acquaintance
because there was concerns about the
chemicals and things over time yeah so
we just thought it was better to to
Route it into the sewer system so uh
yeah we're back to that which drove the
cost up but like they said exponentially
lower so that's good got it thank you
Clint appreciate it
Mr cscs just to supplement the response
I don't think it had to do with the
county just doing sidewalks I think it
had to do with the equipment that was
necessary the county didn't have that I
participated in the discussion I didn't
get a sense that the contractor wanted
to sit there doing the work
we certainly were prepared to do it but
we would have had to have rented or or
used other equipment to be able to carry
out the task I can still go back and
revisit whether it's an issue and
whether
we can do something to assist but I I
didn't get a real good warm
sense from the contractor that they
wanted to do it so we needed the
equipment to do it and Barbara does the
city have the equipment too she would
she would I I don't know that she would
be able to respond because women are
machines yes to kind of spread the
the cement and to kind of move dirt
around I think it's one of those smaller
compactors because of the space if I
remember correctly but I certainly will
go back and check yeah
that's right absolutely I know that we
were looking at
um external contractors as well I I
don't know if that's a matter of of just
internal resource availability or just
because
um with other schedules and projects
thank you
all right thank you all for the updates
are there any other questions comments
all right not uh hearing or seeing any
so we'll move on to the public input
portion of a resection of our meeting
are there any members of the public
that would like to provide input
I'm not seeing any so we'll move on to
chair and board comments are there any
uh comments from the board
mayor protect yes thank you to staff and
Clint for in all of the city and county
staff for today's meeting I wanted to
recommend that we have a standing agenda
item with the newly
um
organized meeting of the city and county
not only speaking about jpa MOA leases
but the spayed and neutered the idea of
re-examining our our ordinances and like
to hear regular updates it feels a
little ambig ambiguous
ambiguous and I want to make sure that
um I I'm very appreciative of the group
meeting sort of takes a load off for not
having to participate
um but I feel like there are some policy
implications and or policy things that
could move into the policy realm that a
representative from this board should be
sitting on or or I would compromise and
want to have a pre you know the updates
regularly at this board meeting so I'm
recommending that I'm also hoping
um that we would
um
see some movement around
looking at
evaluation and research around the areas
we spoke of today a combination of city
and county that's new to us and so who's
going to take that on and research it
and come back I guess I'm looking at
Clint
um I I feel it's so necessary to have
this
information or at least start on this
and so I'm asking that you start doing
some research about and maybe working
with Council cran and others the dacc
and
um
maybe it's the Dual program at
um
NMSU that public health and
social work maybe some group would like
to take this on as a work a semester
project to a year-long project
looking at the data right on on both
sides and incorporating the non-profits
in this as it relates
to those performance measures that Geno
presented earlier I think that's
something we really need to move into so
we have a better understanding of how we
move forward strategically
and then I continue to be really
concerned with our euthanasia rates and
what's happening around it responds
really irresponsible pet ownership and
it feels like it's a double-edged sword
it's like we got to have more education
and where does that education lie and I
love and I continue to be so impressed
with the county and their Aces project
I know that
you've had some
vacancies that prevented you from doing
more of them and I know the city does
some of that but we also have vacancies
and I'm not sure where we're at but I
really would like to see more education
in the public more marketing related to
responsible pet ownership I also feel
that mandatory spayed and neutering is
it for me I think something that needs
to happen in order to reflect to get the
numbers to numbers that we'd like to see
so
I feel there's a lot there that we
and education is always that I feel the
Crux of it and we need more of that so
how do we work from the acos both at
city and county and Animal Services
Center who's doing that I know
um Gene provided a lot of information
with the group that does do some of that
but I feel it's piecemeal I feel it's
very siled and I'd like to see more
coordination and collaboration
amongst the educational component
with all of those entities and with that
I'll just turn it back oh the other
thing is a grant writer
um
I I would really like to see some
recognition and awards given maybe to
our ngos at the beginning of these this
meeting I think that's really important
I want to highlight maybe a
um
a program that's doing some excellent
work yes we have them come and do
presentations
but I think it important that it comes
from our Animal Services Center because
there's some credible work that's
happening I'd love to start doing that
maybe staff recognition
monthly so that goes to the organization
of our meeting and then one of the
things that we spoke of chair Sanchez
with Clint was the grant writer position
um
and the contract that we're putting in
place with Eileen
did I get her Elaine Elaine I knew it
was an e Elaine and I'm so grateful to
her that she's taken on this but
there was some
Barbara and I looked to use some
dialogue with HR about increasing sort
of the job description with that and the
sort of the reply was we need to do an
analysis around that and I'm feeling
like
I don't know that that is completely
necessary because it's under that all
duties as a sign and it it just prolongs
what we're wanting to do with that grant
writer position to include Glenn Clinton
has always had the Vision about creating
his own 501c3 like a funding arm to the
center and I asked him to re-ask him to
reach out to the Community Foundation
maybe start looking at creating an
endowment those things I know Clint
you've had the conversation with them
about the grants that are available but
it's more than that for me it's just not
the grants that are available at the
foundation it's establishing a
fundraising mechanism that the Community
Foundation can help with and that's
maybe in an endowment or or some other
mechanism so I would like that grant
writer to have those sorts of
conversations because in a lot of ways
she he or she will be helping you
fundraise
um that developing a fundraising arm so
I want to say that before I forget I
wrote a ton of notes and so I'll turn it
back over to chair Sanchez
thank you mayor Pro tem for your
comments and I think they're all well
taken and it's a lot to figure out like
you said so maybe how we can Implement
some of those things and updates within
here with the board so we're all aware
of some of those and I appreciate Miss
de Leon even providing some of the
updates on uh earlier during the jpa and
some of the other discussions as well so
thank you for that
are there any other comments on the
board
Mr Leon
oops so sorry thank you chair yes I just
wanted to respond
um to Mayor Pro tem Gandara with respect
to the question on the uh job
descriptions for the grant writers I
don't know what the discussion has been
with respect to changes uh in duties I
know that the
um human resources department has a
couple of different options for that if
if we're if they're looking at making
substantial changes to the
responsibilities or qualifications
there's a position analysis
questionnaire that gets filled out
that's quite extensive however if the
changes are more minimal in nature there
is a short form
questionnaire that allows them to
structure the language for the changes
so so I do know there are a couple of
options for providing that input back as
to whether or not wording needs to be
changed in the job description and
certainly the the short form can office
um excuse me can often be accomplished
in a good time frame with respect to
changes in the job description so just
for your information
thank you Mr Leon
are there any other comments on the
board
all right I'm not saying not seeing any
other so then we will if I get a motion
and a second to adjourn
so moved
seconded Cory I have a motion by
commissioner Shadow Hernandez a second
by counselor corn if I get a roll call
please
yes a former Quran
yes from Rochelle Hernandez yes
yes sure Sanchez yes thank you all right
we'll call this meeting adjourned at 10
41 a.m thank you all uh for joining
we'll have our next meeting August 24th
back here at uh City Hall thank you