foreign
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city council today is Monday July 24th
it's approximately 1 14 p.m and so we
have we start off with our pets of the
week and so I believe we have Amy De
Felix who's on Zoom are you there Amy
yes hello can you hear me great
hello everyone my name is Amy De Felix I
am one of the adoption and rescue
coordinators for the Animal Services
Center of the Messiah Valley and every
week to present the pets of the week so
let's get started I'll share my screen
and then take off my video so that it's
easy
easier to read
already and we are going to start with
our catalog as always his name is Greg
his number is 64626 and he says I have
an ear tip because I was originally
tnard so that's trapped neutered
unreturned but I was brought in later by
a nice person who recognized I was just
too friendly to live my life outdoors I
absolutely love pets so much that I will
constantly brush up on your hands and
legs and I just want a home that will
love me as much as I would love them
and then we also have our dog of the
week
um his name is Cody and he says I am a
handsome boy with a whole lot of love to
give I am treat motivated and I already
know how to sit I'm eager to please my
humans and just want my forever family
that will help teach me some new
commands and how to be an overall
perfect family companion my ideal day
has been going on a nice walk and then
settling down for the evening for pets
and treats
and then regarding adoption events we
will have one adoption event off-site at
caliche's at their new Linux location
that's off of North Main we will be
there this Saturday July 29th from 11
A.M to 2 p.m so definitely stop on by we
are still having our red white and cute
adoption event or adoption special so
that's all month long for July of every
single adoption is only 50 and it's
definitely helped increase our adoptions
which is great
um and it's a little bit easier a little
bit more accessible for someone to take
home their their next furry family
member
and I just wanted to sort of go over
some more data I haven't talked about
data in a while and this is kind of
relating to our summer intake so far
um
I in comparison to last year on the same
dates so the dates I took were June 1st
to today July 24th
um this year we've received
1712 total intakes versus last year's
total intakes in 2022 which was 13.
sorry 1 369 and to break down this
year's intakes 61 or 1035 and dogs 39
657 have been cats and then less than
one percent only 18 have been other
species so that's like Wildlife rodents
reptiles or Birds
um
for the intakes so far for this year
78 of them or 1 340 have been intake as
stray animals so the awaiting reclaim
hoping someone will come in and claim
them 18 or 309 have been either older
surrenders or return adoptions
um animals that were hadn't had a home
we know for sure and have been given to
us whether as um I like a return on
adoption or someone that didn't adopt
from us but ended up giving their
surrendering their animal over to our
custody and then we also have 4 57 which
our service ends those are like bike
quarantines and Welfare holds and a
court order holds as well I suppose
in comparison to last year at the same
kind of data range 57 of the intake
species or 780 were dogs 42 percent were
cats and then one percent as well were
the other species like the rodents
reptiles birds Wildlife
um last year it's been a little bit
higher 84 percent that were intake were
Strays
um 12 were either owned and surrendered
or returned and then the same around
four percent were serviced in like bite
quarantines or welfare holds and such
so comparing the two there's been a
slight increase in owner surrenders uh
this year versus Australian takes as
compared to last year
um that could just be like a
just a trend of the year uh depending on
um a lot of ownership under reasons or
they're no longer able to afford the
care because I know like vet costs have
been
it's been a struggle just in general to
afford and same with just care and
maintenance and everything else in
general being kind of a little more
expensive the pet ownership kind of gets
put on the back burner unfortunately
um but this is kind of the trends that
we're seeing I also have some charts
just to compare I know the text itself
will probably be hard to see but this is
the intake type let me see if I can get
my laser pointer the intake type on the
left so you can see this big chunk is
the Stray intake and the blue the Orange
is the owner surrenders and then we have
the returns
um
so like the green sorry the orange and
the gray I launched together it has a
the owner surrenders or returns and then
the service in there's also like less
than one percent a fraction which is
like morning care or transfer in
and then this also breaks down the
species so you can see that more 61 more
than half are dogs the next biggest
chunk is cats and then this tiny little
sliver is wildlife rodents
um other species
and that's comparing to last year's
um
Tarts this is also Strays stray intakes
are the biggest chunk by far and I think
it always will be with owner surrenders
and returns coming in second services
and then Boarding care or wildlife
um and then they break down as well
still more than half our dogs still a
really good bit the next big chunk is
cats and then the pocket pads and the
rodents and birds
yeah thank you and everyone has any
questions
don't feel free to answer them
all right thanks thanks Amy
okay next is going to have our jobs of
the week is Giselle balamatis oh she's
gonna be on Zoom as well
okay good
or Sarah I guess you're filling in for
cell
Giselle is unable to meet with this I'm
sorry
um good afternoon everyone thank you my
name is Sarah Rainey and I do have the
jobs of the week let me turn off my
video and share my screen real quick
okay now you see that
we just have the title so far
okay there you go that's good
so for our jobs of the week we have
Fleet
Fleet hour and closes on the 12th of
August we also have a community advocate
for the city of Las Cruces that one the
pay range was 45
000 to 64 000 a year it closes on the
7th
um for White staff Missile Range we have
the Senior Systems engineer
um the pay was depending on the
experience they did not list their pay
so you'd have to go in and check it out
that one closes on the 4th of August
we have a senior administrative
coordinator for sales that is a remote
position for the American Red Cross that
one's 23.89 to
28.67 an hour it closes 8 16 of 2023.
we have a kennel technician that one's a
part-time position at the Four Paws and
awake and a wake up
um that was 11 an hour and closes on the
16th of August
we also have an emergency medical
technician at the American Medical
Response that one they did not list the
actual pay but they did say that there's
a two thousand dollar sign-on bonus so
that's a good one you guys that one
closes on August 12th
as always feel free to reach out to us
you can reach us at the workforce
Connections Office on 22 226 South
Alameda Boulevard you can give us a call
at
524-6250 go online at employ nm.com or
reach out to us on the app we're always
ready to help you guys find a new
position
thank you everyone
okay thank you Sarah
okay so now we're going to go ahead and
get with our agenda which we have four
items first one being the New Mexico
land commission presentation although I
see commissioner oh commissioner
Stephanie Garcia Richard they have here
Francesca di Palma but uh
unless that's your Alias but I don't
think so uh Mr uh mayor is it possible
for me
for me the side table or myself
okay because yeah all right
just get myself organized if that's all
right
and I know you know the drill
commissioner but we'll just need you to
just state your name before you start
presenting I absolutely will do that
thank you so uh good afternoon Mr Mayor
Madam Pro tem members of the council I'm
Stephanie Garcia Richard I'm the state
land commissioner do you need my address
as well
okay so essentially uh folks as you can
see from your agenda this is not a
voting item
we merely wanted to come before you and
give you a sense of what is happening on
state land what is proposed for state
land in your community
so that you can have a chance to ask
questions bring up concerns make
suggestions have maps in front of you
and and data on on the decisions that
are coming before the land office for
the state land in your area
um let me just
I'm supposed to open this right
okay before I begin is it okay if I uh
introduce my staff
so uh the the folks that you will you
and your staff may be working more
closely with um are with me today and
they are also here for some more
detailed answers to questions that I may
not have the answer to uh so we'll start
with Greg Bloom Greg is the assistant
Commissioner of minerals and also the
point person on the land exchange so we
have a large land exchange that impacts
donana County impacts Las Cruces that we
will be talking about today uh between
ourselves and the and the BLM and Greg
is heading that up for our office you
may recognize him he was the state
director for Senator Udall for a time
and uh came to us after the senator
retired
Steve Varick
he is our assistant commissioner for
special projects and essentially
anything Economic Development related
housing related any of the developments
that we'll be talking about today
proposed for the land office uh come
under Steve and the nice thing about
Steve is that he is local he actually
lives here so he's available and I'm
just going to offer him up for any kind
of phone calls meetings anything that
you all need from the land office Steve
is your point person
um and then we have Jack Sullivan is a
senior attorney with the state land
office he is here uh also to answer
those questions around the BLM exchange
we have James White who is a special
projects analyst out of Santa Fe but
used to live in Las Cruces and I believe
work for the city and maybe some of you
all
and then finally we have Jake Kidd Jacob
kid also lives here in Las Cruces used
to work for the city is now our district
resource manager I am so sorry about
that
um but you know maybe he could do double
good because he knows he all so well
and so also available to answer
questions and things
and am I allowed to announce that
he's a brand new dad
oh sorry about that Jake
so with that let me get started
commissioner I don't know if the council
knows that Steve used to be the director
of mavita years ago I should have said
that prior to that thank you for that
reminder
yeah and James was in the community
development so good to see you I
wondered where you guys where you went I
didn't know that you were well you're
just you sure you're not here on a
recruiting trip commissioner
I mean all that says is that you have
quality people and I like to hire
quality people I mean the very first
question I got asked when I started
having meetings about the city was how
is the staff how is the Las Cruces City
staff and the answer is the staff has
been amazing so a lot of what you see
have already been conversations a lot of
what you'll see in this presentation
have already been conversations with
your folks at a staff level and we're
bringing them to you now so that you can
also be a prize of this information so
just before I begin state land office is
incredibly obscure so I just want to go
over very briefly who we are what we do
so it's a Statewide office
elected office to oversee essentially 13
million Acres of your state land and
that land was deeded over to US during
statehood to provide for New Mexico's
Public Schools universities and
hospitals we call those our
beneficiaries so essentially the the
primary way that we differ from other
public land managers is we have a
mandate to raise revenue for our
beneficiaries
here are some of them and you may
recognize New Mexico State University is
here they are primary beneficiary of
ours as well as
the Las Cruces Public Schools Gaston
Gaston Independent Schools from the
state land office through the public
education department receive a large
part of their operational funding
hard to see but if I can draw your
attention to this right here the yellow
color
New Mexico State University all of the
land that you see on this map that has
this yellow color has actually been
assigned directly to the university and
all revenue from this land benefits the
the university directly
so you can see it spread everywhere I
mean we even have uh NMSU land up in the
Northeast part of the state
so any activity done on that land that
is designated
for NMSU
benefits NMSU directly
and I don't I'm not sure if this is
overstepping protocol Mr Mayor but if
folks have questions I'm happy to stop
the presentation and answer them
Madam chair our Madam commissioner if
you don't mind if you go through the
whole thing because um sometimes they'll
they'll have so many questions that will
be here till five o'clock so no I'm just
kidding it's just easier that way yeah
if you don't mind yeah I appreciate that
though
so essentially
um Las Cruces has experienced
unfortunately firsthand the uh
low end of bad land deals that have
happened in your community between the
state land office
and
developers here in Las Cruces and when I
was running for this position five years
ago a lot of what I heard from residents
in this area were you know how are you
going to end the back room deals between
land office and Developers
and so we went to the legislature the
minute I was elected and asked them to
mandate so for myself but other land
Commissioners Beyond me mandate public
meetings public notification in the
impacted communities of large land
decisions any kind of land sale land
exchange some of the larger developments
housing developments of course but also
larger uh
electrical lines transmission lines
larger wind farms solar Farms those
kinds of things we don't want Las Cruces
to wake up and have some of these large
projects just in their neighborhood in
their backyard and they they weren't
aware that this was happening
um so to that end this is actually a
public meetings mandate set in statute
just an overview of State lands in this
area
so as you can see a large uh parcel of
state land to the east of us
out on the East Mesa and that is about 6
000 Acres it's about 10 sections of
state land
and then also on the west semester and
we'll talk in more detail about some of
those plans for those areas
okay if I can draw your attention uh to
the title of this map this is a proposed
lease
so what that means is this company has
an application in front of the state
land office for a particular leasing
instrument and I'll explain what that
leasing instrument is but essentially
before we make any decision on whether
or not we want to approve this lease we
want it and you know I've had many
conversations with the developers I've
had a few conversations with Mr Mayor
about this and I said I want to come to
the council and hear from them first
what they would like to see for their
community so this is uh essentially
meeting that commitment
if you look at this yellow section here
this is about half a section
so half of 640 is 320 this is 320 Acres
that has already been leased to the
Sierra Norte developers that was under a
previous commissioner that was not a
lease that I signed they have come now
to us for this additional red portion
here it's about 400 Acres it's too small
for my old lady eyes to see
so together it's about almost an 800
acre parcel
and essentially the way these leases
work they're called Planning and
Development lease
we work with the leaseholder if this
lease gets approved we work with the
leaseholder on the terms of this
development and then when they get ready
to actually develop the area
we take the land in parcels and put them
out to a public bidding sale a public
sale
so someone could potentially come in and
under and out and outbid the person
who's who's putting the land up but
essentially it is a lease with the land
office with a takeout sale before
development starts
okay Planning and Development lease is
the name of it
is everyone familiar with the area we're
talking about
south of Oregon mountains High School
just east of the Sonoma Park Sonoma
Ranch development
so essentially you all have been talking
a lot I know about the Mesa Grande Drive
and the proposed extension that would go
all the way from the 70 all the way down
here to Loman
if I may commissioner just a reminder to
council this is the
proposal where the developer was willing
to put up the 10 match and if we get the
90 percent and that would really go a
long way to opening up those okay just
wanted to share that with you all and
just um and I know you all can see it
but just the all of the blue on this map
are is all state land so that 6 000
Acres on the east side I was telling you
about that's all this land
here's a little bit more detail about
the proposed again proposed development
from these folks
we they came to us with a potential
master plan they did a week long uh
version of sherets here in town with
with public participation and because
the land office needs to draw Revenue
make money we decided you know we needed
more commercial developments so they are
coming back to us with a mixed use
proposal
we know uh the need for both not only
affordable housing accessibility to
affordable housing in your community but
attainable housing so essentially
housing for folks like School teachers
firefighters police officers we
sometimes call the missing middle
so they added that back in as well plus
some
Green Space and park space which from
all of my conversations I know is a very
essential component to uh development
here in in Las Cruces
additionally and it's not on this slide
because I learned it later this proposal
is set to be all electric
and I think that if you all have some
water usage concerns there are some
things we could potentially put into
this development as well that would
encourage conservation of water lower
usage that kind of thing okay
this is the way the units would go the
developers have at this point and you
know if you'd like to see other numbers
please you know shout that out at the
appropriate time
15 affordable and that is the definition
we're going off of for affordable 25
attainable
and then the remainder so that's 40. the
remainder would be market rate
all right so I'm going to move now from
the um
proposed development on the east side
and move to the west side if that's okay
all right so on the west side
would you like me to continue I think
we're okay we want to just move
Madame Pro tem I hope that you are
not electrified
electrocuted
um so on the on the west side as you
know uh is your Innovation Park
and in that area we have
not only a few Parcels of state land
that are currently
um in the the land status of being
managed by the state land office we are
looking to pick up additional acreage in
that area because of the commercial
potential
um essentially like I said before land
office does no good by uh
having land that we are not able to
develop
and so we are wanting to in our land
exchange with the BLM and I'll get to
that in just a moment we are wanting to
to
acquire some of the federal Parcels that
are in the West Mesa
Innovation Park
okay
in addition
your fine City staff has put forward an
application for about 527 Acres
under what's called an economic
development lease with the state land
office from the city to the state land
office and that is essentially allowing
you all to lease that property 527 acres
for 40 years in a no-bid lease those are
our leases that are available to County
Municipal and uh School District
governments that allow you to create you
know incentivize recruiting businesses
to that area manufacturing whatever
needs that you might have in terms of
Economic Development and Commercial
growth
so that's in process right now I can
take questions on that as well
I believe that parcel this parcel here
is the one that's being
this is the parcel with a little carve
out that is not state land but the rest
of it is state land that's the parcel
that's being considered that's being
applied
for by the city of Las Cruces for an
economic development lease
all right and then the final thing I'd
like to chat with you all about is the
proposed again proposed land Exchange
so essentially
um when the federal government created
the omdp Oregon mountains desert Peaks
National Monument
there remained within the monument
boundaries about 80 000 Acres of state
land
again
land office having inholdings of state
land in a monument does us no good
because we can't develop it not that I
would want to but a future commissioner
could
that land sort of remains unprotected
because it's behind that boundary or
because it's it remains state land it
doesn't it's not protected
and so uh the as you can see here the um
U.S Congress actually directed the state
land office specifically to undergo an
exchange of all of the state Parcels
within the monument
convey those to the federal government
to BLM and then we pick up
federal land
in return in exchange a couple things to
remember about this exchange it is value
for Value not acre for acre
so once we appraise the value of the
land we'd like to convey we pick up land
of similar value from BLM and we've got
some maps here to show you
so this is just very broadly all of the
counties that could potentially be
impacted by The Exchange
again it's around
80 000 Acres 78 000 Acres of state land
but more specifically in doniana
all of the blue
and you see the monument boundary is
this kind of lightish green
all of the blue here is what we are met
meaning to convey
we are going to be picking up
some Prime commercial acreage near Santa
Teresa
some Prime commercial acreage in the
West Mesa
Innovation Park
and then the rest of this dark green is
uh Ag and renewable energy land
so it will not be an acre for acre
Exchange
we we think we'll be picking up in the
in the vicinity of about 20 000 Acres
okay
so this is um
essentially just some details around the
The Exchange we've been asked a number
of times about the the timeline how long
is it going to take a to start this
process B to finish it we have been at
this now five years
we are waiting from the federal
government we are waiting for a signing
of an endorsing of the agreement to
initiate the exchange we call it the ATI
that kind of kicks off the process even
though we've been talking with BLM
coming up with this acreage coming up
with proposals The Exchange hasn't
officially started until that ATI is
signed once it is signed then we will
begin having public meetings the NEPA
process kicks off from BLM we do a lot
of notifications to our grazing lessons
BLM grazing lessees tribal notification
we will probably hold a series of public
meetings especially in this community
because this is the county that is being
the most impacted
but
we have put in place some protections uh
especially around ensuring that the
county does not lose payment in lieu of
taxes so pilt money that's you know more
for for County budgeting but we want to
ensure that this exchange does not
negatively impact the County's ability
to rely on federal pilt money for for
their budget
just some more details I already spoke
about these items
I can take questions on on the exchange
as well
the ATI agreement to exchange will also
kick off the appraisal process so all of
this acreage has to be appraised by a
professional appraiser
so we're hoping
positively proactively that we can
complete this exchange within the next
three years
and quite frankly we we need to because
I I my term ends in three and a half
years
all right so this is what we're going to
do at this point if it's okay with you
sir I'm going to take questions but also
if my staff can help me answer those
questions I would appreciate it
absolutely of course
so any questions on any of the
presentations at the commissioner and
you did a fantastic job very succinct
and to the point and very easy to
understand
in my opinion of course
councilman Como councilor Quran
thanks mayor thank you so much
commissioner and welcome to Las Cruces
we're so glad to have you and your staff
here
um I just have a couple questions and
they might not even be for you they
actually might be for our staff in
regards to
the original the main proposal I guess
they're all main proposals thanks to
economic development for
that application that sounds really
exciting
on this and they I saw Adrian Adrian my
questions are mostly going to be for you
just I do have concerns around
um just water utilities really
stretching utilities out there not gas
which is great but obviously the rest of
them and I think it's just
really my questions are just around
balance growth of the city obviously
this seems really exciting I'm excited
that the developers are willing to come
into conversations about affordable and
attainable housing that's huge
especially in that area and I mean I
think once Oregon Mountain was placed
out there that sort of sealed the Fate
for expanding growth out there right but
I do this seems significant increase to
to housing our parents so I just I'm
curious Adrian if you can provide
context around
um
just water and other the utility the
resources it will take to expand out
there for utilities
thank you mayor councilor Ben Como
Adrian Whitmer utilities director
when the actual development starts as we
will be taking a look because we will
know how many
facilities are going to be put out there
what's going to be needed and then we
can plan around that obviously we have
enough water rights and it's just a
matter of then the developers putting in
the infrastructure in order to provide
the particular service now when we take
a look at this we will also be taking a
look at that so that we can do future
planning in case we need to do
additional storage capacity for both
pressure and fire purposes
so it'll be a big thing once this goes
through for us to for us to plan around
but at this point I'm sure that
utilities and then of course the
developers if we need a tank put in that
would be a matter of negotiating with
them to make sure that the
infrastructure is put in there in order
to provide for them oh interesting and
at what point would you know if they're
a new tech tank needs to be put in I
think we would take a look at it and
then we also have our impact fees that
we use to put those in so a lot of times
depending on how the development goes
we'll determine on whether we go out
there and put it in first we would
definitely need to
time it correctly
but once we have a better idea of what's
going on out there we'll be able to take
a look at it and right now we're working
on our our master plan and so this is a
little bit different and I've already
sent a message over to our technical
support group to take a look at it in
case any of these actually come through
so that we can we can plan for that now
great and I know that in utilities we're
also talking about water management and
planning in advance very much in advance
for the future right we're in
conversations about that but I think I
mean even as things as ensuring that
developments are xeriscaped and small as
small as those things right that people
don't have a ton of grass but so I look
forward for this to really spark that
and move that conversation forward I
think that's really important thanks
Adrian you're welcome thank you and then
I mean I think
I just I mean I think this is great I do
just have General
concerns about the balance of growth in
our community obviously I represent a
district that has very little growth and
has areas that have been neglected for a
long time and there is no growth and
with the implementation of two
Metropolitan Redevelopment areas we're
trying to you know spark some of that
no offense mayor I did mean spark in the
sense of being getting electrocuted but
I guess
oh
I really do hope you're okay that was
really scary
um
we're really trying to spark that
movement in these areas but I think for
me it just continues to be this just
general concern about you know sprawl
and balance growth and what that looks
like and ensuring that we have
Investments for the infill and those
kinds of things so I just want to make
sure that to lift that up and then my
last question really is around the
40-year
lease that you mentioned on the
industrial park at the end of the 40
years what happens to
cities normally go out and request a new
lease if it's going well or you end it
or how easy is that
so uh Mr Mayor and councilor Ben Como I
appreciate those questions and I'll I'll
answer this question that you had on the
on the economic development lease but
then I also have some information as
well on just on water usage and sort of
some some measures we can require within
the development itself to ensure that we
keep some of that uh down and are
conserving the resource so in terms of
the economic development lease we have a
number of these around the state with
other governmental agencies and to my
knowledge I don't know that any of them
have even come up for for renewal at
this time but because infrastructure
will have been placed on on these places
you'll have you know if if all goes well
hopefully thriving Industries businesses
uh
Transportation
um you know the the potential to either
release or renew would I would I would
say would be uh um a strong one it's not
necessarily a guarantee
but you know that the the 40 years kind
of gives you that that length of time I
think that makes folks who you want to
recruit to the area a little bit more
comfortable because it actually used to
be 25 the legislature then raised it for
us to the 40 40 years so if they're if
it's at least piece of property and
developer private developers build on it
who then owns that property so the state
land office still owns the property
anything built on the property is known
in our our parlance as improvements and
essentially if we ever have to buy
someone out of their development we have
to give credit for those improvements
okay okay that's very interesting great
actually just
um back on the first proposal there's
um and the commissioner and I have
spoken and it's just really great
learning from you honestly you explain
these things incredibly well but I you
know there's this huge piece of land
that is state land right that is within
city limits
right here yeah can you talk about
just like future
Master planning if you will and what the
city can do with the state land office I
am so happy that you brought that up
because that is a little bit of a
softball into something that the mayor
and I have been having conversations
around and that is a joint planning
agreement so it is essentially a
document that uh we would both parties
would negotiate through the terms
both parties would sign and then it
instructs both the land office and city
of Las Cruces to work in tandem on and
we could even call out those 10 those 6
000 Acres on the on the east side of the
the city as specifically where we want
this GPA to go but um it what that does
and and I believe that the city had a
jpa under a former commissioner and we'd
like to re-up that agreement with you
all and really work in tandem because
like like I said this is state land but
you all live here you are the elected
people responsible for the decisions
around
this community and I just think it's
appropriate that the land office work in
tandem with this body on those
developments so um I would love to just
bring that as a suggestion yeah so mayor
you have anything to add that would be
great but ifo I would love us to have
this conversation with the state land
office on because this is a huge piece
of property and
um I mean it should be mastered planned
for again balanced growth for protection
of land and all of that so I would love
to continue having that conversation
whatever way that looks like and again
thank you so much I really appreciate it
thanks counselor so the previous
commissioner was commissioner Ray Powell
that we had this agreement with and and
we would work in unison and and
basically when they were looking to do
things we would have as the commissioner
said uh we would have this in place so
that everyone was fully informed and the
staffs would work together on that but I
want to Circle back to something that
that you I always appreciate how much
you want to see your your District
benefit so I want to take you back to a
long long time ago when
Sunland Park
was going to Annex Santa Teresa okay
this is like in the early 90s they only
annexed the business part they didn't
take the homes because the business is
what generates the income just like just
like we received probably 60 of our
income from the businesses here and so
one of the proposals that you see that
was uh
you know and I like to think back and I
can't take credit for this but one
government agency always told me a long
time ago they said
the best indicator of future performance
is past performance and so when you look
back on on how the developer has done
Metro Verde how the the development is
gone the income that it receives the
many amenities that they have in fact
the parks and things of this nature
they've done such a good job I'm
supportive of it and I'd like to see
that and so what I'm trying to get at is
the various business various things that
the income will bring into the city that
just gets I think spread out in various
districts and then also the land that we
have across from the hospital
if you recall I would and I you know
most likely I don't know for sure you
probably heard I'm not running again and
so um but so by the time it gets on
board
I was hoping that the council does not
sell that land it's so valuable across
from the um that they that we that the
city leases it so that that income can
go on in perpetuity and businesses will
they want that location and they could
lease that land and and so I don't want
to get off tangent but that that in a
nutshell is is reason why
um you know we housing I mean we've been
I've been asked in the past hey would
you ever take a look at annexing Picacho
Hills and I'm like well there's really
not that much business there because
think about it if we were to Annex them
we'd have to go and have a new fire
department we'd have to have substations
for police
the money it's it's not there and that's
why sometimes why we have we have an
opportunity to work with businesses to
develop income that they charge GRT
that's where it works that's why I'm
supportive of of the proposal and uh
kind of been a roundabout way just
wanted to give you a little bit of
smattering of everything
if only do you have anything you want to
add
no okay
okay so um well counselor
thank you I thank you again for your
presentation very helpful
um thank you mayor for that Insight I
just wanted to go have I have a couple
of questions slash follow-ups related to
that idea of the joint planning sort of
thing but also related to this specific
proposal I I would
um agree with the mayor and I I
represent the district where this
developer has done the most substantial
developments and I talked to the
residents there all the time about how
incredibly trusting they are of the the
communities that they're in and how
extraordinarily well-developed and
planned they are I think giving folks
access to a space that is close to a
school I think walking distance to a
high school in Las Cruces is not
actually a thing that very many people
experience but I think it would be a
great space and in our Elevate plans I
believe that this and toward your
question our Master planning document
Elevate does have identify this we'll
have to rename it uh the East the sort
of node of Commerce and activity so this
into that to that planning but thinking
about the expansion going on I think it
would be great to see how practically we
can use our documents and whatever the
future plans are I would love to see to
make sure that those all align and that
we can sort of bring that together but I
would agree I think
um the space will be a huge addition
I do have more specific so just
generally I would love to explore that
to be part of those conversations about
exploring the future kind of planning
process for that area
um
there's a little bit of blue in my
district too so I'll just claim it um no
but uh that's true
the second part is related to the third
thing that you presented about the
question that I have is related to the
land swap
um
I have to admit these are my conventions
one I'm not sure that I entirely always
trust the federal government to be the
best stewards of the land sometimes yes
sometimes no I have to acknowledge I
have some reticence I'm not sure
um frankly I don't know if I trust
anyone too so I have to put that as my
character in my sort of bias but I do
Wonder uh in this in this swap I
understand the idea of value
will there be functional changes to to
the space that exists so for instance
you alluded to grazing I'm curious
how the that future planning will go if
it will if it would potentially lead to
increased grazing I would I would
consider that sort of a red flag in this
in this environment that we're in right
now
um and similarly I think
just toward
what sorts of limits would then be
leashed or Unleashed on these on these
areas that we might swap and how would
that affect sort of the functional uses
of of the space or the future the the
future environmental stability of the
space
so I'm not going to make any comment on
the
thing or non-trusting of land managers
I've I've been a land manager now for
five years I am an elected land manager
I think in some ways that's you know
hopefully uh at least I I have someone
to answer to like you know I I have to
my all of my decisions are public and so
that drives me to be more
available accessible have these
conversations starting from from before
we ink something
um but but that notwithstanding your
second question around
um
you know any any change to functional
use so the land that you will see the
least change
to will be the state land conveyed to
the feds within the monument boundary so
all of the blue
um and the reason is because once they
become sort of within the monument
boundary and become federally uh under
Federal jurisdiction they will become
Monument lands
that 80 000 Acres now becomes Monument
lands
there are grazing leases on those lands
and uh it's my understanding that those
grazing leases will just go from being
State grazing leases to BLM grazing
leases so really no functional change
there is a slight change in the two
instruments the way the feds do things
and the way we do the terms are
different the price is a little bit
different so you may get questions like
that from constituents but the the land
that will see the least amount of
functional change is the blue
on the other hand the red that you see
right now has no development on it so
you see some red down by Santa Teresa
and you see some red up in your West
Mesa Innovation Park
that doesn't have development currently
we would like to develop it
that's kind of a short answer
can really quickly there are two dots in
the city of Las Cruces do you know what
those are let's ask
two red dots come on up please thank you
but thank you that really does that
answers my question I was just curious
and I trust you I should say in that
context it's just I have trust issues
Mr Mayor and uh councilor Corin uh Steve
Varick actually chose these Parcels for
the exchange so he can speak to the two
dots in the city
thank you
mayor counselor uh Steve Eric again with
the state land office uh and there was a
group of people in commercial that
selected these these parcels and so the
two small dots are
fairly small Parcels one was just north
of 70 and one was just south of 70. uh
the we felt had commercial potential and
those are added in there as well they
weren't very large from an acreage
perspective particularly compared to the
West Mesa and the Santa Teresa Parcels
but there were two a couple a couple
small Parcels in there as well
um no I think they're just vacant right
now and and they're kind of infill
parcels actually where they're
surrounded by development as well
thank you I think one of them is
actually in my district that's partly
why I was curious thank you
so it looks like the dots aren't to
scale there's just they have to be a
certain size so that it shows up so
probably you have to have uh eagle eyes
spec a speck of sand or something Mr
Mayor can I just address that water
question quickly sure so I actually has
many of the same concerns that you did
Mr Mayor and counselor Ben Como and I I
went back to the develop developer to
ask about some of those questions so
um from their sort of stats a Year's
usage of a average household is about a
quarter of an acre foot of water for a
year
but 30 of that is actually used for
irrigation and outdoor watering
so we could really put a dent in water
usage in this new development if we
talked about xeroscaping if we talked
about you know lower flow appliances
things like that and I would be open to
having those discussions with you all as
well
I think counselor Beta had a question
and then mayor Pro tem yeah thank you
mayor and thank you commissioner for
your presentation also taking time to
set up these packets for us and do a
little bit of that pre-education I found
it really beneficial and wanted to say
thank you a lot of the questions that I
have actually thank you counselor grant
for answering them but it was
looking at the future and how we have
with planning our communities out I know
that's been a real concern in the past
of how we grew in Las Cruces and why I
think everybody has really worked hard
to put in systems in place like Elevate
Las Cruces to make sure that we have
that smart growth so for me it was
really nice to hear about looking at
what we can do to have more of a
strategic plan together even with the
city and since we do have
um commissioner Reynolds here too I do
even want to say even the county to make
sure that we really are looking at that
growth as a community as a whole and not
unintentionally even if the county is
trying to set up issues where we're
going to see some growth that's really
not quite as manageable as it could be
so I think that would be wonderful for
all of us to work together
it also combines when we look at that
those parcel swaps in Santa Teresa and
we're looking at that Economic
Development which we know is so
important for us as a region so I I look
forward to seeing what we can do in the
future with all of that
um so more really of a comment more than
the question but thank you and I really
am glad that we are having these
connections and making sure that we have
continued communication
um starting now and through um as the
mayor pointed out after his transition
as well thank you thank you uh councilor
I beta and Mr Mayor and counselor you
all actually started this work by
creating principles in Elevate in your
comp plan in your complete streets
mandate those kinds of things sort of
indicate to developers the kinds of
things you want to see with new
developments in Las Cruces and so it's
really a nice road map and I'll just
reiterate that all the development
proposals as far as I've seen fall right
in line with the principles that you all
have passed and done a lot of work on so
you all you know you led the way for
that
and we have mayor Pro tem and councilman
Como
thank you mayor thank you commissioner
for being here and for taking time to
explain a lot of this prior to this
meeting I very much appreciate it will
you turn to the slide that talks about
the percentages of of housing
I want to say maybe nine yeah slide nine
yes can you have were these already
percentages that had been
sort of of developed prior to you
because Mr Moscato and Company have have
done development is that sort of a
formulary that already existed prior to
you having the dialogue with him
so it's I I Mr Mayor and and uh Madame
Pro tem I I don't know the answer to
that I it may have been to a certain
degree I do know from the master plan we
saw we actually asked we pushed back and
asked them to go back and try to get
that affordable number higher and so the
affordable attainable combination is 40
I think we asked for 30 and they came
back with 40.
um but like I said the 15
um you know I don't know how how that
pencils out but I would be you know I
would love to hear your thoughts on on
how we came out with the percentages but
but I will say that the developer was
responsive to our requests for
commercial Green Space and more
affordable housing appreciate that I I
really do I think it's one of the most
important priorities that this Council
has had is
um the kind of affordable 300 for that
15 equates to 300 homes and do you know
what that might look like is that single
family is a
multi-family townhouse what do you have
an idea of what that was Mr Mayor and
Madame Pro tem I believe it's a mix
a couple of people are nodding but I'm
not sure Mr Moscato I don't know looking
at him specifically both both yeah okay
okay
someone help me with this thank you I I
really appreciate that and those are
really all my questions I I as I've said
before I'm along with councilor bengome
I do have concerns about water water
usage
um
units or dwellings it's a lot and not I
mean for years and years and years to
come and I want to make sure that that
we have that nailed down well and I
trust Adrian and the utilities
department to really
handle that appropriately and talk to
ifo earlier this morning and he assured
me that there was enough water and and
so I I do want to say that a lot I do
have a concern I've received several
emails related to to the water and what
that would do to our community but I
feel I feel good moving forward so thank
you thank you mayor
thank you councilor Ben Cuomo thank you
Mr Mayor I actually this might be for
our staff again in terms of the waste
West Mesa and
um water demand efo and Ed stuff I'm
wondering if we've had that analysis
done as well and maybe a note for Adrian
just as we talk about Water Management
resource to make sure we
specifically focus on the waste Mesa
Industrial Park
thank you mayor councilman Como
regarding water like Adrian mentioned I
mean it also applies to the industrial
park we do have water rights we have the
water
looks like wet water right but the it's
the infrastructure that we're
we need a we need to assess and it
depends on the use depends out what type
of company we bring in and that'll
change I mean
there's a huge disparity in or
discrepancy and what depending on what
what use we get but
we do have water rights available but we
do need to look at the infrastructure
again we have a
we have a capital plan that
and for for infrastructure even out
there at this time but I do think we'll
see as we get the the type of uses that
come in
Council Quran
and sorry I just wanted to follow up on
this water conversation and like I feel
like we need to acknowledge an
existential threat to our very existence
and that is finite sources of water and
so I think there are two things that
play here one is finite sources of water
and how much is literally in the ground
that we own in theory or not but I would
I would argue one I don't think it's I
think it's problematic to roll up the
carpet when we all live here and say
there isn't enough water for anyone more
I think that's a problematic sort of way
of heading and in the conversations that
we have about water so I think just to
name that new new homes don't
necessarily mean
um they they might mean new people but
it means that you know we're committed
to the sustainability of those folks but
even more in the bigger existential
Quest question
um the idea that there will be no gas
related industry that we're committed to
working with El Paso Electric to reduce
the use of natural gas in our electric
farming the idea that there's a new
development that's all electric
does carry a lot of water literally and
figuratively to changing the dynamic of
the existential threat I think of not
enough water in our regions it's not and
and I think that there our city staff
are really committed to making sure that
there is catchment and that there are
enough places where we sort of make sure
that we don't
overtake from our from our existing
aquifers but I just want to acknowledge
that the existential threat
I hope we can not equate it and I say we
like the people who send us emails in
particular can not equate it with sort
of rolling up a carpet because I think
that that we can do both of those things
at the same time preserve our water and
build sustainably and make sure that our
community has access to to housing and
and spaces that value them so I just
want to say I've also gotten those
emails too so I hear you mayor Pro tem
and conservancome but I think
um I and that's partly why my trust
issue is I appreciate you bringing those
in into the conversation as well so
thank you
okay so I have a question for Adrian I
was going to ask you before you left but
and uh has to do with water so we'll
just wait to even get up
well you're making your way up here so
our Water Reclamation plant which is off
of Loman at full capacity can save one
million gallons of fresh drinking water
a day so my main question would be are
we at that full capacity yet do we sell
the reclaimed water to I know we we work
agreements with the local golf courses
but do we
have that also with red hawk and or is
there plans
for yet another facility in that part of
the of the city so that we could help
and what I'm envisioning I've always
discussed this and I and um we've never
had it because no I don't think no snow
City no house has this but so you have
your regular spigot for fresh water and
then you have a purple pipe spigot for
water your yards wash your car things of
this nature and that would really go a
long way as far as water saving the
water so you you have the any idea of
what capacity we're at right now yeah
thank you for the question Adrian
woodmer utilities director right now the
East Mesa wander Reclamation facility is
running approximately 800 000 gallons a
day so we could do the one MGD so we are
working towards that of course it gets
more difficult in the winter because the
golf courses the schools
all the other ones not as much water is
used so it's it's not good for plants to
ramp up and then ramp down it takes a
long time you can upset their stomach
and then you get violations
so that's just basically on that one so
we are working on coming up with some
plans so that we can actually bring it
up to a million gallons a day and then
land apply it so we're working on that
now
and then in the future we are looking at
a potential other one MGD plan to start
off with that would be on the north side
of U.S 70 kind of near Red Hawk Red Hawk
does not use our reclaimed water right
now
so but those are that is going to be and
actually is in the current master plan
and it is going to show up again in our
next master plan that we're finishing up
right now
the only difficult thing when it comes
to purple pipe going to personal
residences is that each person that has
a spigot to use it must have a discharge
permit with the New Mexico environment
department and that's why it's like one
golf course they have their own
discharge permit the school has their
own discharge permit now our parks that
use our facilities
they're under our discharge permit so
they don't have to have their own so as
part of the regulations associated with
purple pipe is there's a certain amount
of testing you need to do that gets
turned into the environment department
so that just becomes a little
problematic so
um and actually one MGD I mean it goes a
little ways other things that we're
looking at is that potentially there is
the expansion capabilities for our
existing plant and we would hope to have
that even at the other plant that we
have planned on the north side of town
so that those can be expanded and then
we can do kind of I don't know I
Envision doing something that's more on
a passive Aquifer recharge
type project so we've got a lot of those
that we're thinking about we're talking
about those are things we're going to
need to discuss with the environment
Department to see what kind of
regulations that we would need to
need to work through
great thanks
and I hope you don't mind commissioner
sometimes you know like I said I'll be
leaving it at the end of the year so I
always like to try to when I hear
something just to kind of let my
colleagues for their own information so
we have two aquifers we have the Messiah
Bolson which is rechargeable and then we
have the hornada which is not
rechargeable so anytime we can get water
that can be recharged that that's
beneficial for us
and um it's been said that uh Coronado
Bolson that's not rechargeable if worst
case scenario was to happen and we
needed to work off that we have it based
on our current size 20 years worth of
water underneath that that Bolson so
it's a lot of water
that's why we don't like anyone messing
with that Bolson especially or as a
water company that was near there and
that's why we had to use legal action to
get them to stop
we'll just say well we'll leave it at
that Okay so
and any is that your end of your
presentation yes Mr Mayor I'm so
appreciative of having this time and
it's just the beginning of a
conversation I hope you all heard that
from me I would like to just offer you
know further discussion especially
around joint planning agreements between
the two parties oh
oh counselor yes
sorry in advance and especially because
this is like the worst kind of question
because it's probably dumb and also
functionally unanswerable so I'm ready
for everyone to avoid eye contact with
me
um
I realize this is uh I'm asking for a
ballpark here but when we open up a
develop or when a municipality opens up
a development like this what percentage
of people who live there are folks who
already live somewhere else in the area
and what percentage are
transplants so drilling down as we're
talking about all these critical
resource questions I'm also thinking
toward Public Safety
um looking down at the Chiefs
how many of the people who would live
here are already tapped into Las Cruces
resources
and how many new population members
might we add
Mr Mayor and councilor Graham there are
no stupid questions I mean literally
there are not I'm a third grade teacher
by train no no I know but that's what
that's what you say to someone who asked
a stupid question to make them feel
better well the the second part of my
answer is that I can't answer that I
don't know if folks who have done other
developments know the percentage of new
oh half and half he says
okay that's that's interesting to know
thank you Mr Moscato
um
and and also recognizing that in some
cases a shift from you know when I'm
thinking about for instance the kind of
house I live in and the resource
consumption to a much more efficient
house that can actually be a net gain
um but yeah just thinking out loud thank
you thank you mayor I think that was a
great question to ask
I say that all the time to people who
have to say that but um no really it was
I think it is and you see a shift I mean
you're seeing it right now with the even
the newer apartments that are being
built on Road Runner
it's like you know they're probably
moving everyone moves up a little bit
and that also just adds to the to the
inventory of other of other homes that
in the past may not have been as
reachable or accessible but now they
have because they they're maybe their
prices were stagnated because
others have moved on to a little bit
higher so
it's interesting the real estate
so regarding the first proposal the
um near Oregon Oregon High School Oregon
Mountain High School is that something
that that would you would you need the
city to act on in the future for
anything or is that between you and then
the developer so um that's a great
question actually Mr Mayor I should have
made it clear
um so because the state land office is
the landowner just like any other
landowner we could approve this
development however
everything else
relies on a partnership with you all
infrastructure for sure that Mesa Grande
extension we talked about
so we would just approve the development
and because I know that those two things
go hand in hand I don't want to just
like you know either approve or just you
know or or rejected an application an
application when I know there are other
parties that need to play into this
particular proposal so this it would
just if if we went through with this it
would just be the land office
approving this development that is it
okay so um
another little tidbit here so one of the
first things that I remember when I
first
with the city and and started seeing how
developments worked
was it was always amazing to me when a
developer would would put in all the
infrastructure the roads whether it's
two Road two lane or or four lane
the sewer system the sidewalks the
lights everything
I mean they pay depending on the size
Millions
and then they give it to the city so
that's huge you know I I
um I'm always amazed by that but that's
that's how they've done it now in other
cities and other especially like in
California they actually have to
um you know pay for it a whole different
way and and so it's just a different
thing and I I like the way it's done
here in in New Mexico so I thought it
was good so okay so you don't really
need anything from us if you're going to
move forward this was you so that was a
little bit inaccurate I'm just
remembering Mr Mayor that the Mesa
Grande expansion actually goes through
state land for its entirety
so that would be another conversation we
would probably have to start having for
us to uh you know we would start talking
about right-of-way easements from state
land office for the extension
sure
but you would be the one who would Grant
those right uh Mr Mayor for the next
three and a half years yes yeah
okay
so okay well hopefully you grant them
I I believe that if this uh
development is to go through I think it
kind of relies on that Mesa Grande
extension so I can't see one working
without the other I'll just say that
okay
okay so if there's nothing further thank
you very much and thank you for uh
coming here and
and good seeing you and have a safe trip
back to Santa Fe or Albuquerque wherever
thank you all so much for your time
today
okay so the next
agenda item is Secor at Roadrunner Food
Bank
yes carriel
Apodaca Road Runner Food Bank thank you
for
um letting us move it to
I think you were scheduled for a couple
weeks ago yeah it was no problem for us
at all
you don't live in Albuquerque either no
I'm here my call my colleagues are in
Albuquerque
uh good afternoon mayor and Council
layers and thank you for the opportunity
to speak with you all today
um my name is Carol Apodaca and I am the
rural communities regional manager at
Roadrunner Food Bank
today we will be providing you a very
brief introduction to Roadrunner Food
Bank and our seed Court program this
presentation will primarily be run by my
colleagues in albacore Albuquerque Kate
page who's our senior seed core programs
manager and my Anisha Andrews RC course
seed core programs manager
um I'm just kind of going to run the
presentation for them so I will turn it
over to Kate and myanisha
thank you all for having us can you hear
can you hear me
yes okay I just need you to state your
name please and then yeah we'll be good
to go
my name is Kate page I'm the senior seed
Corps program manager at Roadrunner Food
Bank and thank you again for taking the
time to to hear about our program so
Roadrunner Food Bank
um as some of you may know but I'll just
give a brief overview we serve the
entire state of New Mexico we are the
feeding America affiliate for the state
so that means we work with the national
network of food banks to serve each
County of New Mexico and we do that
through partner agencies like Casa de
peregrinos and some other large pantries
in the Las Cruces area
so the seed core program is an
Americorps program and I am in
Americorps Alum and happy to happy to
have a chance to share with you about
Americorps in Las Cruces and
um
maybe just yeah just awareness building
so that you all know that this program
is happening and can help us with the
recruitment front in any way possible so
Carol if you want to hit the next slide
all right so what is Americorps um it is
a national service program kind of like
the domestic Peace Corps close to a
quarter million people are involved in
service every single year across the
country
um and it's
um it's meant to really Empower
communities to
um
make results and make impact on their
communities so members of the community
giving back time
um and and making a difference
the next slide
I'm realizing with that Banner some of
my words are cut off on the on your
screen so I'll do my best
um so there's many branches of
Americorps and some of you may be
familiar with pieces of Americorps
before but it is federally funded
um at the
Americorps the agency is the federal
body that that gives us our funding and
then there's these kind of different
streams of service throughout the
country so Americorps State and National
consists of local Regional and National
organizations using national service to
address critical needs like education
Public Safety health environmental
issues so some of the programs that are
long long standing in the Las Cruces
area are FYI
um
that's one of the biggest ones
yeah that's the biggest one in my head
right now at least and then we've been
there since 2018.
um the next kind of well and I should
say about State and National
um programs those are founded through a
state commission that comes from the
governor designates a state commissioner
Board of Commissioners rather and they
have some some paid staff who run the
programming and ours is under the
Department of Workforce Solutions
then there's Americorps Vista which is
the oldest branch of Americorps kind of
parallels the creation of the Peace
Corps and it was intended it stands for
volunteers and Service to America and
it's intended to really build capacity
for organizations that members are
placed with
the last branch is n Triple C and this
is a 10-month residential program for 18
to 24 year olds and they live out of a
van they sleep on Church floors do all
kinds of Hands-On service of you know
building infrastructure like Gardens or
doing
invasive species removal that kind of
work so our program with
at Roadrunner Food Bank is a state and
National program if you want to head to
the next slide
so again through the serve New Mexico
commission Roadrunner Food Bank has this
funding from the federal level that
comes down
um the federal to the serving Mexico
commission down to local nonprofits so
we've been running our program for
five years now in the Las Cruces area
and Albuquerque and some members also in
Gallup and Santa Fe over the years but
I'll turn it over to my Anisha to tell
you about some of the benefits of
service
if you want to hit next slide there
curiel thank you
thank you hello everybody my name is
myanisha Andrews I'm the seed core
program manager so just kind of tell you
a little bit about the benefits of
service upon completion when our members
fulfill their hours and and all that
good stuff they do get and Eli Siegel
education award and throughout their
service term they do get a modest
stipend and for our members who serve
full-time so that is a 1700 hour
slot which
uh just essentially somebody serving for
about 11 months
um at 40 hours a week give or take they
do get health insurance
um possibly child care if they need it
uh there are a bunch of professional
developments
um and it's all it's just overall a
really rewarding experience
thank you
um so C Corp it is a state and national
uh Americorps program here at Roadrunner
Food Bank that was founded in 2018.
and why the namesake core so seed core
is named after the seating relationships
aspect of our work and the spirit of
Partnerships uh the city Corps program
is part of how the food bank is
transitioning from only providing to
food to also being a resource center for
the network
our vision C Corps seeks to provide
Americorps members with an inspiring and
Educational Service experience that
results in a lifelong passion for Hunger
release
through Community Focus service we
strive to support and build upon the
strengths of our existing Partnerships
throughout the New Mexico or throughout
New Mexico through this work we aim to
recruit members from the community who
will gain valuable job skills leading to
employment in the communities they are
from and serve
I'll turn it back
um they're I'm sorry so there are a
total three branches
um that like within seed core we have a
response team and a capacity building
team as well as a nutrition team
and I'll just talk a little bit more
about what those teams do in the
community
um and either side is fine Carol
um so our response team was born out of
the pandemic we had
um here in Albuquerque quite a few
partner agencies have to close their
doors because volunteers at the
beginning of the pandemic um we didn't
we didn't have vaccines of course and we
thought it was affecting older folks
more and a lot of our Network relies on
volunteers so a lot of partner agencies
had to choose to close their doors so
Roadrunner Food Bank started running our
own direct distributions so this is an
important
change in the way that the food bank
served with the state is that before the
pandemic we really only did direct
distributions like our staff and bodies
and members doing things
at the holiday season and you might have
seen us in Las Cruces doing those things
at the holiday season but since the
pandemic we've really we stepped into
that lane of doing direct distribution
and we've we've stayed in it to some
extent and you'll see us
some of our new distributions in the
southern part of the state are called
healthy foods Express so actually if you
want to go to the next slide there's a
picture of one
those those little Pantry carts are a
picture of a healthy foods Express model
distribution so our response team goes
and runs these distributions this one
obviously in a gymnasium where the food
was pre-packed on the carts they roll it
out people come through make a choice on
what kind of food they want to get which
is different from what we had to do
during the pandemic it was much more um
here's your box of food stay safe see
you next time no choice on what the food
was so that is our Response Team
Hands-On running distributions the next
team is the capacity team and they
support local nonprofits and
organizations already serving food so I
mentioned Casa de peregrinos earlier and
they've been a long time supporter of
having seed core members at their site
helping them work through Best Practices
around volunteer recruitment or
distribution Logistics how do we get
more fresh fruits and vegetables out to
folks or home delivery is something that
they've been piloting with the help of
some of our Americorps members just this
year
and then the nutrition Team Works on
developing nutrition materials for
partners throughout the state they
create recipes they
um work with Partners on how to
encourage folks to try those weird
produce items like spaghetti squash that
come through and all kinds of all kinds
of fun nutrition related content so that
is our team
we usually have about 20 to 25 members
at a time spread between Albuquerque Las
Cruces
um
and hopefully gallop and Santa Fe as
well obviously the Las Cruces part is
why we're why we're coming to you today
so we've we've really struggled with
recruitment in the last couple years the
last year in particular has been
difficult for the Las Cruces recruitment
for whatever we haven't fully figured
out the reasons but um wanted to just
let you all know that this program
exists and if you know about venues in
the community that might be a good fit
for us to connect with we would love to
hear that um yeah and we can end up it
up for questions
if there's any
all right
thank you Kate questions
I'm sorry did I interrupt are you
finished no I'm sorry I just meant to
point out on that last slide you've got
my anisha's contact information if you
should have any questions that come to
you later or if you think of any ways
that we can engage with the Las Cruces
community in meaningful recruitment ways
okay let me turn it over to my
colleagues see if they have any
questions thank you for that
presentation
any questions
about members of the public
okay so just a couple
um as far as
and I know this has to be probably
extremely challenging time with the
increase in prices of food and a lot of
people that are being displaced
are there I mean is there an opportunity
if there were people who wanted to help
donate or make make some contributions
do they just get a hold of you or is
there a link that you do and if they do
make contributions
I take it you're a 501c3 so it is tax
deductible
yes of course yep we are a 501c3
non-profit
thyme food and funds are always great
ways to support the food bank
um
all of that can be found on our website
but of course if you contact myanisha
with her information there on the screen
she'll be happy to connect you as well
um some of I mean supporting the local
nonprofits doing the work in the
community is also a great way so Casa de
peregrinos
um
that is the only one that's coming to my
mind right at this second
um yeah but we also just as an aside on
our website anybody who's in need of
food assistance which absolutely there
has been an increased need in these in
these last months can search by ZIP code
and find a food pantry partner near them
so that they can look up where to go get
groceries so you can always call the
food bank and you can always check us
out online for those two resources
and also do you work with I know in the
past Albertsons has has made some
contributions to food banks do you work
with Albertsons
absolutely yep Albertsons is a is a
large donor so store rescue pickup is
something that some of the partner
agencies there in Las Cruces will go
pick up a
produce or or food items that are are no
longer they're no longer no longer able
to sell but are perfectly still edible
so we we do work with them for food
donations as well as fun donations so
yes okay great all right well we
appreciate it very much we appreciate
all that you do obviously it's it's a
very tough and challenging time right
now but nonetheless to have your
organization here available for those
that are in need as extremely
appreciated so thanks again
absolutely and thank you again for the
time mayor I just wanted to say thank
you hi to Carol and I feel like I never
got to say thank you for all you did for
us before you left so thank you and it's
good to see you good to see you too all
right thank you mayor thank you
counselors um I do have some flyers here
that I'm happy to leave if you guys
would be interested in those most of you
also have my personal contact
information if you have any questions
thank you okay thank you if you want to
leave that with the city clerk you're
welcome
all right so that is uh so we're going
to go on to the third item Economic
Development partnership updates
Chris favor Economic Development
good afternoon mayor and Council back
again
um so we are going to do presentations
from the four Economic Development
Partners we're going to start with
mavita they're going to give a little
gear and overview then we'll move on to
film Las Cruces they can introduce their
new director then
dlcp and then the farmers market will
wrap it up so Devin Lopez will be up
here from Evita
I will turn it over to him
he may have stepped out for a minute you
want to go to the next one and then
we'll just get him sure we will move on
we can go to film Las Cruces first
hello Mr Mayor counselors my name is
Andrew Haram associate family liaison
here at film Las Cruces and so we are
going to present our yearly report for
2023. before I did that I'd like to
introduce our new director Emirate Jones
and she will introduce herself so I'll
give the floor to her
and so you can use that 400 000 we were
going to give to mavina that's going to
work out pretty good for you exactly
this is the new director
um good afternoon Mr Mayor and and
council members I think I was most
nervous about making sure that I
addressed you all correctly because I
know there is a proper way so I knew so
don't hold them against me of ice cream
can you just teach your name one more
time I'm sorry yes amarette Jones I'm
the new director of film Las Cruces yeah
saw that in the in the newspaper they
had that on there but I wasn't too sure
on the first name yes
opportunity of working with you all and
with the community can I get you to
speak into the microns so you can turn
there you go thank you is this better
yes and you can turn it yeah
and you can twist the mic if you want it
in front of you just don't break it how
is that there's a lot of pressure
um anyway I'm I'm thrilled and delighted
to be here and to be joining film Las
Cruces
um I um uh I'm a newbie in town and so I
will be part of the 50 of new folks
coming in so I'm thrilled to add to that
percentage
um I'm just I'm so excited about the
opportunity that that exists here in
terms of of bringing Film Production in
and new jobs and infrastructure and
support my background I'm 30 plus years
in media and entertainment all of which
time that I spent in Los Angeles
um
I've worked for independent Studios big
studios Productions on the independent
side for everything from The Blair Witch
Project to the James Bond Series so and
everything in between of which there's
you know quite a few so primarily my
background is marketing and distribution
however I took a pivot about three years
ago and moved into production and
creative services so I'm excited and
hope that we can work together and I can
bring great productions here to the
amazing backdrop and locations and the
Really robust creative community so
thank you for having me
all right thank you
I was going to ask you if you worked on
Malcolm in the Middle since you said
you've done everything from one end to
the other but not that one okay not that
one
all right senator steinborne
mayor council
management staff great to be with you
all I'm uh Jeff steinborn Senator Jeff
steinborn president of film loss curses
and I'm sorry I thought there was
another presentation before us so sorry
there was but that presenter wasn't here
at the time so there you go and so
that's why we shifted all that money to
we appreciate it it's always good to go
earlier I won't complain but listen uh
mayor council I just wanted to be here
to introduce our new staff who you've
met our new director amorette Jones
we're very excited to have on board we
also have another new team member member
Katie Rogers uh who's raising her hand
right there she's our operations
coordinator right here on the left
you're right
and I'll just tell you mayor council
the future looks bright for film in Las
Cruces two big things have happened
since I saw you last
number one just in July 1st
we had a doubling of the rural film
incentive What's called the rural uplift
film incentive which is a law that I
helped get into effect a few years ago
and then we doubled it this last session
to double the film incentive for filming
in Las Cruces and basically every place
in the state about 60 miles outside of
Albuquerque in Santa Fe that elevated us
to a top rate of up to a 40 percent
filming film rebate for filming here
which has had already major effects and
we're getting a lot of leads and the
word is getting out about that and
really it's those film incentives which
Drive Film Production outside of Los
Angeles and the reason that uh film has
really film production's really gone
worldwide Las Cruces now has one of the
most competitive film incentives in the
world and that's constantly a changing
market so it's good that we increased it
of course secondly earlier this year we
renamed one of the top towns to live and
work as a filmmaker in America
and that's amazing we're the first town
outside of basically Albuquerque and
Santa Fe to ever be named by Movie Maker
magazine as you know having that
designation in the state and amongst
some of the best film towns in America
so we're doing great we've got an
incredible pipeline of films interested
in filming in our community
um
it but it's very much a feast or famine
business and just because you have those
leads you then have to capitalize them
and bring them home but you know having
worked on this obviously from the
beginning I remember the days where it
really was a sleepy town and we didn't
have a lot of activity to where we have
lots of leads almost on a daily basis so
very exciting times and obviously we
have big things happening with the
strikes and that are bump in the road
globally but uh yeah I just wanted to
tell you the future looks bright and
again Welcome to our new team and I'll
be available if you have any questions
as well with that I'm going to turn it
over to our
most capable assistant film liaison
Andrew Hara who will put on a
presentation of our data before you go
Senator so I you know I like to joke
around a lot but in all seriousness I
can't tell you how much
I mean you're very humble I I have to
say that you've moved the you've moved
mountains you know I always joke with
you that um
you can't win an argument
against this guy so I just I said I just
said okay so what do you need now I mean
how can I help you because it's just you
can't you can't you can't win an
argument right but any organization
that's lucky to have him he really just
just goes all out he works as hard as he
can and and a lot I probably could say a
good majority the reason why we have the
film industry is burgeoning here in Las
Cruces because of you I mean you almost
single-handedly just uh take care of
things and just want to tell you things
thank you mayor and I want to thank you
Council because you mayor you've been
here the longest but mere Pro tem the
council you all have been an incredibly
Pro film Council
manager feely when you came in I mean uh
your support of the film industry has
been huge and the culture you set in
City Hall I don't have to tell you but
you know when films come in it's this
partnership with the city and our
organization that are so essential to
making films run well here and to
getting a good reputation so it's our
partnership it's our staff who work hard
every day to work with these film
Productions and recruit them here it's
of course Elizabeth Peters and her whole
team so it's uh it really is a team
effort and thank you mayor I appreciate
the support thank you Andrew
hello again mayor and counselors my name
is Andrew Hara I'm the associate family
liaison and I will be presenting our
yearly report
for film Las Cruces
so as we just introduced our team our
team has gone through some changes I'm
Andrew Latta associate film liaison we
have amarette Jones who is our director
and Katie Rogers who is our operations
coordinator we are uh oversaw by board
of directors with Jeff steinborn being
our President pepper Gallegos been our
vice president Jerry prozeka being our
Treasurer Matthew Burns Stephen Osborne
uh Mark vessels Dave Witt Mitch Fuller
Lynnwood Springs Christopher Stanley
Emily Gonzalez Marilyn brindis and
Denise La France unjaga been members of
the board
and then so our deliverables for film
Las Cruces is number one is to promote
the film are the Las Cruces film
industry number two is to work with the
film permits number three is uh help to
support the local film Workforce and
then of course listing of all public
support services for film Productions
and the site location assistance within
the county
um this is our graph we will be going
over a lot of these numbers as we go
through the presentation but I'll give
you a couple of of minutes to look at it
it's uh progress versus our annual goals
and uh just so you can kind of look at
it
going so the economic impact uh this is
the impact specific to the city of Las
Cruces agreement that we've made and uh
so for worker days our Baseline is 825
days and of course our goal or what we
reached was
529 days the Baseline for production
days which is uh the the days that the
films are actually here on in the city
doing Productions is the Baseline is 140
and production days last year was 126.
local spend is uh the Baseline is one
million and the locals spend last year
was 12 million uh 655 650
000. those are a lot of numbers I'm
sorry
um okay so inquiries is when Productions
are reaching out to us for location
packages it's when a production is uh
it's usually the first thing that they
ask for if they'll call and say you know
I have a movie set here do you have
these locations and we try to get them a
location package in a day or two just so
that they can see what we have a lot of
these Productions are coming from out of
uh town or out of state and we had 59
last year for crew information of course
that's the second question do you guys
have crew down here and so we got that
question 45 times vendor information
same thing with the vendors of course
and that's one of the reasons we have
our new uh location and vendor and crew
database it's a way to make it easier
for Productions to find that information
without calling us of course that we
love for them to call us so we can help
them in a more personal level but it's
also available so if they want to look
through it they can find it easily and
then we also help Productions with
location Scouts that's where members of
the production team come into the City
and we kind of show them a lot of times
it's after the location package and it's
when they've um when they've found some
interest and so we kind of try to give
them a tour of those locations that
they've already singled out in lights
and we had 22 last year
Andrew do you still have that that set
of um what was it Senator you made us
buy something with the with the
presidential suite or something Air
Force One or the we have something
you know it doesn't ring them well we
spent some money on it
the jet is that what it was
okay okay
significant ly okay
and then um here's our social media
outreach we also have at we have
acquired a new website the film Las
Cruces website it's a same address but
we've uh We've updated it and and this
is the home page the picture changes it
doesn't here but this is just a
screenshot and uh we reached 171
000 people on our reach we did 117 posts
on social media and then for our web
page we had 78
000 unique page views
and then film permits for last year our
Baseline is 15 and we had 28.
and then uh local local phone Workforce
these are just people we work for
different institutions uh the film The
fttp is uh working with the ACC for uh
for film programs training learning how
to get people on set of course CMT is
the
um the film program at dacc CMI is the
film program at NMSU and lcps is the
public schools and then the
infrastructure and then for verified Las
Cruces crew in the database our Target
is 418 and we've got uh 457 last year
and then we have different workshops and
trainings as they come up what the
picture here is an example of a bye week
or bi-monthly screenwriting Workshop
that we have it's run by a local
screenwriter who has uh he's had a
couple of Productions and he he came in
from I think it was Kansas and he had
this kind of group Workshop here in or
over there and he wanted to set up
something here so we allow him to use
our offices and they just it's just
anyone who wants to be interested in
screenwriting they go over their
workshops and everything like that and
that's just one of the examples of the
workshops
and then for Film Production Support
Services these are businesses that help
support film our Target was 205 and our
uh the number we got last year was 151.
and then for site location assistance
within the city that is finding new
locations for a database you know we're
trying to hit every place in Las Cruces
so if they're whatever they're looking
for we can help them our FLC Target was
927 and our location database we got 952
last year
that's it for my presentation any
questions
well let's see we have a councilor
Graham councilor beta
thank you mayor uh no question just uh
congratulations first personal
congratulations for those who don't know
Andrew had a feature film Premiere at
the end of May and I think you had it at
Rio Grande yeah right yeah yeah so thank
you for being local and keeping it local
really appreciate that award-winning
filmmaker in front of us in addition to
being part of film Las Cruces and I
think that I think that your role as a
filmmaker brings such a great
perspective to the work you're doing for
the office when you and I met one of the
things that you really mentioned that
was setting us apart was that kind of
personal touch and I think you logged a
lot of miles locations scouting yourself
and I remember particularly you saying
that you felt that was one of the things
that was setting us apart was that
one-to-one contact and that you're like
yeah I can find you a haunted Farmhouse
so I just wanted to apply applaud the
work that you're doing and your team as
well and it's great to see you thank you
yes thank you and I do think from what
Productions have said that does seem to
be one of the things that holds us above
a lot of other places is the fact that
we we will go on location Scouts we'll
try to find these places for them even
if it's we were trying to find Palm
Springs for a location and we don't
really look like Palm Springs and so
just finding those I we our goal and the
thing that Senator steinborn tries to
keep us going is never say no always try
to find Solutions so it's definitely
part of our brand is is having that
Personal Touch and going the extra mile
I don't think the senator even knows how
to spell no so yeah
but uh well that's that's pretty cool
yeah I'm working on a political thrill
uh movie myself so oh really by you yes
give me the script and I can find it
there you go
anyone else have any questions counselor
Baytown yes thank you mayor and thank
you for the presentation I know one of
the conversations that we've had when we
look at like Workforce Development is
having those connections having that
trained
um crew members has been so important
how are we seeing the trends after a
couple years I know when I first came in
about three and a half years ago I asked
these questions pretty in-depthly and so
how are we seeing that Trend are we able
to because of the increases that we've
seen have we been able to get new union
members kind of on board are we seeing
more of a shift of individuals that want
to come to school here and then seeing
that transition if they're able to get
work to so that they can get that
membership yes Mr Mayor counselor
we have seen it and one of anecdote of
course but the last one of the
Productions that is looking to film very
soon we uh they had filmed here before I
think last year and and um we provided
them with the new list of crew members
and they were they were very happy and
they started talking about bringing more
projects in and it is kind of that
circular thing where the more
Productions in town the more we can keep
people here and the more we can keep
people here the more they can train
other people and so the good news is as
Productions continue to be in the area
it helps us to build crew we are also
working with the colleges and one of the
things that we do is we uh we give the
colleges to give us a list of people
that they can they can start on the
Productions as Pas which is production
assistants which is kind of like the
entry level and this way we can give it
to the production so they can find those
and hire people locally and they kind of
move them around I think one of the
members from last year we were so busy
that he started off as a PA for
locations and then immediately after he
was the locations uh he was part of the
locations team and then immediately
after he was the location manager which
is the head of the department and he's
stuck in City and he's been able to work
there and so the good thing is that we
have seen a noticeable shift and with
the schools in place the new Academy
that they've Broken Ground on we don't
see any reason why that would stop and
we're hoping that we're now even getting
calls from people from Albuquerque who
are finally saying oh what's going on in
Las Cruces can I work down there like
can I move back and so it's very
exciting for the crew members here and
also for the
um for the people in the colleges who
want to stay in town and we're also
staying with the unions we have a very
good conversation with the Union reps we
will help them either find people or we
work with them I think they'll also use
our offices when needed when they come
in I think in April we helped them
because they were having Union meetings
especially with all the things coming up
and they were trying to update their
members and so we helped them organize
it and just have it at our office this
gives them a place to not have to rent
an office and also it kind of like lets
us continue our relationships so we're
very hopeful for the continued growth of
the crew here in Las Cruces that's
fantastic and then
the addition with the new production
facility that will be down here we'll
just have more of those opportunities
yes yes and uh there is uh the new
Production Studios and they're they're
already kind of putting them to use
because they are all they can rent them
for the offices and the Productions that
we're in town are already using them and
so it's definitely going to be a big
Improvement it's great and when looking
at locations locations gouts are you all
collecting any sort of comments or even
critiques that might come in on what is
needed in this community and is that
getting shared out to perhaps our
Economic Development Department
um for the most part we were staying in
touch but a lot of times it's just
dependent on the
um on the production and you know one
one place might need the most perfect
house and the other one needs it run
down and like bro we've we did a
location scout last month and they were
telling the owners like don't clear your
weeds don't do anything to your house
because we want it to be weedy we want
it to be so but we do try and we've
worked with Senator steinborn and some
of the local real estate agents so that
we have very specific needs we can reach
out to them and kind of keep in contact
and we're just talking with different uh
businesses and sometimes they'll even
businesses have come into our office and
asked us well what is Las Cruces looking
for and so we kind of help them with
that so we keep those conversations open
and we keep that knowledge aware
hi amarette Jones as I I wanted to add
that what we've done is create a
questionnaire so that we're sending that
out to folks post-production that we do
get the feedback it's super important
that we have a feedback loop with our
customers and our clients so that we can
then know what's working what's not
working
emphasize those things that are working
and then help support those things that
may not be working so part of that is
we're going to include it you know
within our website in a special section
and such so that we can get continue to
gain that feedback and respond to it so
I just wanted to add that that bit
thank you
and my final question will be that of
the recruitment of businesses that offer
I guess specials I know that you all are
looking to hit that 200 Mark how
how has the feedback been from those
businesses that offer are they seeing
kind of the value of being part of those
sort of lists I'm just curious on that
yeah and sometimes I mean it'll depend
we've had I always tell businesses like
you want to be on the database because
you never know we had a when the
locksmith was in town they needed a
locksmith to kind of show Ryan
Philippine how to look like a locksmith
and then later on in the production they
needed another locksmith just for
locksmithing things and so we uh one of
the ways we do that is when we have
Productions we will find out what they
need and try to add them and then we'll
try to give them options as well and a
lot of the businesses they they love it
they kind of it helps them and then we
try to work with them with downtown when
we're filming there we try to work with
the local restaurants to see if they can
cater when they're in town and so
there's multiple different ways but so
far the response to the businesses has
been great
um and one of the the best things about
it is it it allows us to start that
conversation just in case they there is
any problems we've had a couple of
things but we're able to kind of talk to
the businesses and a lot of times it's
just Logistics and so it also helps us
to kind of start that conversation so
that they know who to call when if
anything goes uh I think there was a
production and they were filming up
until 6 a.m and uh they uh they were
starting to pick things up at the post
office I mean the post office opened
super early and so they called me and
they said it's still out here and so I
had them re-prioritized so they could
clear the post office so by the time
people got there everything was empty
and so yeah we haven't had any problems
and they seem very enthusiastic about
joining the databases that's wonderful
and for this question might be more
directed towards City staff but when we
look at sort of the deliverables that we
have for other organizations how do we
factor in something like the strikes
that are happening on because obviously
I know that some special permits can be
issued out to Productions to continue
work but I'm assuming that would be kind
of few and far between
Mr Mayor councilor bate that yeah you
know we have a service agreement with
film Las Cruces where they have
benchmarks those were in place before
the strike so yeah it probably will have
an impact and will probably have to
evaluate that at the end of the year but
there's also the possibility that when
the strikes end maybe there's sort of an
uptick and maybe some of those
benchmarks are met and even you know
surpassed so we'll just kind of have to
play it by ear okay thank you so much
and thank you mayor
any other comments
members of the public
so Andrew I'm gonna after hearing you
I'm gonna start categorizing my emails
from Weeds junk cars
unidentifiable stuff and trash and if
you need someone I can probably weekly
yeah and you know you're gonna get that
call a lot more than you want to
and they're probably going to ask if
they get compensated if their house
appears in
so yeah and before close goes and gets
them
all right so thank you there's nothing
further so this this ends your
presentation oh and uh well before I
leave instance I'm on the record I just
wanted to thank the people in the
economics the people that we work with
the police department the fire
department a lot of times with film
things come up at the last second or
things happen that you know we had a
production lose its location in messian
one like in a day and we help them
figure it out and I couldn't do it
without that support of the staff
Economic Development Chris Ramos uh Cruz
Ramos Tanya Soto Chris favor we couldn't
do anything without them so I just
wanted to give them a special shout out
and say thank you I appreciate that
thank you
all right so that takes care of that so
it looks like we're zetted Chris or is
there more to the Mr Mayor no we have
three more
um oh and it appears that Davin is back
from signing autographs in the lobby so
he can uh
come up here and do the one from Evita
you mean the one with no money in the
budget
just messing with you Devin
yeah
Mr mayor council Devin Lopez from the
sea of La Economic Development Alliance
let me first Apologize by getting the
agenda out of order I hope you can all
forgive me and I'll try to earn that
budget back so um so there's no truth to
the rumor that you are going to go work
for this land commissioner uh no no I
haven't heard that offer quite yet so
I've got no rumor there moving there we
go so well thank you again and again I
apologize I want to just kind of start
off by expressing to the council our our
sincere appreciation for the partnership
we have with both you and your staff a
little bit about mavina and the
organization for those of you who are
not familiar with our soul mission
in economic development is to grow the
wealth and health of doniana County and
its residents and that's through
specifically the creation of economic
based job opportunities for them one of
the things that I think makes us unique
as an organization is we are private and
public
we have a budget of 1.16 million dollars
we've a lot of it does come from private
sector that has been a challenge that
the city has put to us in terms of
sustainability and it's in our contract
to try to raise more private sector
dollars for that for that effort but I
like to talk about our board diversity
and the wealth of experience we have I
mean we have we're truly a vehicle where
people from around leadership around the
community comes together to try to
figure out solutions for economic
development for example we have the
greater chamber on our board the
Hispanic Chambers on our board we have
NMSU doniana Community College
Las Cruces school systems amongst others
who are all coming together and and you
yourselves or sit on our board along
with the counties so coming together
with private sector to figure out how do
we find solutions for job opportunities
and growth one of the things of
leveraging the funding is that we're
able to then extend the ability to
recruit the recruit companies and hire
the Personnel we need to really sustain
an effort that broadens economic
development for the region how we do
that is primarily through industry
attraction we try to recruit companies
to create economic based jobs for the
area but we've really put a lot of focus
this past year and a half on building
our retention and expansion
opportunities and that's really
assisting local companies with the
ability to with the ability and tools so
that they can grow more jobs and invest
more in the area and we've had a lot of
success in that which I'll talk in a
little bit the other two areas Economic
Development advisor and capacity
building
as I've always said if you've known you
if you've heard me well enough for long
enough for a while is I always feel that
in a partnership with you we're
client-facing we're hearing what the
client has to say about our product
compared to other products and regions
that they're looking at and so part of
my job is looking at how can we help in
the solution of creating a better
product whether it's a better Workforce
whether that's better tools but you know
you are a huge part of that you create
the regulatory environment for
businesses to flourish so it's our job
to take that message back to you and to
your staff here and I want to say I want
to just say thank you to Elizabeth
Teeters and her team because over the
last 18 to 24 months I think it's really
been a breath of fresh air where they've
listened to what we are hearing out
there and then by listening we're able
to work together on creating those tools
that are going to help Foster more
economic growth going forward
so let's get right to the numbers uh
this is based on our contract with the
city we have we're showing our dashboard
which is specifically based on the
contract we have with the city it's not
our overall dashboard uh but let me talk
about what it is in terms of the
Baseline where we were asked to hit uh
in terms of a number of site visits
that's actually companies visiting feet
on the ground we were asked to hit a
target of attracting 11 to visit we
actually had 17. the big area is the job
creation versus expectation 828 new jobs
announced versus 230. I'll talk about
that in a second a little bit more uh
the hole in here is for the Las Cruces
Innovation and Industrial Park we did
not hit that measurement that we wanted
to hit or expected and I'll talk about
that in a second as well but in terms of
payroll generated and capital investment
especially retention expansion we either
hit our numbers or far exceeded it to
the right are the companies we helped
work with
electronic caregiver has been the you
know the big the big win for us all as a
community and as a region 770 jobs
announced this past year over 18 almost
18 million dollars in new capex it's
interesting because there was a lot of
history in the room earlier you had
Steve Varick who's now with the state
land office
and one of the things that it reminded
me of when we first dealt with
electronic caregiver and Tony Dorman
that was 16 years ago I was with the New
Mexico partnership he was with mavita
when we helped recruit them as laser
shield and mayor you probably or you
remember that right and I both remember
that and so it's great to see how
they've grown their technology has
shifted their strategies have changed
but now they've become the company they
are growing into and it's just been a
huge win the other things I want to talk
about are the smaller companies we
worked with this past year Worthington
Farms Palladium Diagnostics fresh chili
company and Trust waste really helping
them grow and expand Palladium is a new
company we recruited out of San Diego
they do uh rapid they manufacture rapid
test testing products like for covet at
home covet products and we actually help
them find a location at Arrowhead
Research Park so I like these small
companies and how we're able to assist
them because they're the ones who are
the gazelles that grow and nurture just
like electronic caregiver did over the
past few years nurturing into those
larger companies that stay here and grow
here and hire locally so I'm just as
proud of about those as as the small
companies as the big ones let me uh talk
about the Las Cruces innovation in
industrial park for a second although we
do not meet numbers in terms of job
creation it's not for lack of
strategically preparing for the success
going forward and I'll talk about what
we're doing specifically in that in an
upcoming slide but if you look to the
bottom right hand project Bruce is a
company that you at about I think a
month or two ago completed a land sale
at the industrial park for distribution
Logistics Center out there so although
it's not it's not on our our results for
this past year because we don't count it
until there's certain things
measurements that are actually met were
expecting that to go forward and will be
you know a great capital investment and
job creator for this next fiscal year
backyard Farms another smaller company
that we've been working with to help
them grow at the industrial park and
project Hickory is a project that we're
very excited about that's really all I
can say about it at this time but we ex
we're hoping that it's going to turn
into more capital investment and job
creation announcements at the Las Cruces
Innovation Industrial Park this next
year so a lot of effort has been going
into the building blocks to to Really
nurture the park out there and finally
25.70 for the average wages across all
of these jobs our our County median wage
is about 17 and 20 cents so we're trying
to push the envelope where there's
higher paying jobs for the residents of
doingana county in Las Cruces
uh
just the left click here
there we go uh fresh off the press we
run economic impact analysis every year
on the numbers that I just announced
and one of the things I want to make
sure it's understood we go through a
third-party modeling company they do
their applied economics out of Phoenix
they create the modeling and they base
it off localized Mill rates so that
allows us to judge a direct and indirect
impacts of these jobs being created
they use implant data which is
nationally recognized data used by
economists and universities to Monitor
and and do predictable analysis on on
the economic impacts of Economic
Development efforts
so what we did here is we like to we
like to show you what the proposed or
expected five-year net new predicted tax
base would be as a result of these jobs
being created when we're talking about
new construction when we run the
modeling we usually give it a year
buffer so we're saying hey these jobs
aren't going to be created for at least
a year sometimes that's shorter
sometimes it's longer but it's it's the
best we can do in a moment's notice in
terms of predictability going forward
but if all goes well and as expected
we're looking at 697 000 in new tax base
being created over the next five years
as a result of this year's efforts I
show the state of New Mexico in there of
almost a million dollars and I think
that's important to show you because you
know we are always making sure that the
state wants that the state is
participating in Economic Development
here and when we can show the revenues
generated for the state perhaps that
means more of their leader commitments
that they're making to put into our
projects down here as well so I think
that's an important indicator to show
and then when you look at Las Cruces
public schools and doniana Community
College
they are part of the mill rate in terms
of his calculation and that's how these
numbers are attributed to a new tax base
being created for them overall the
expected five-year net new household
spending uh would be over 93 million
dollars with new net new payroll being
created for the residents of the region
as you know this past year we are passed
to around I think we're on our third
year now we created a private sector
what we call closing incentive we are
now in our third year we've supported
seven companies here in Las Cruces over
a thousand new economic based jobs were
part of that equation and we we deployed
over 465 thousand dollars in commitments
some of that was with like the state
leader and City leader for example but
also we participated where Lita was not
available for these companies like for
example in the FY 22 I point to
Worthington farms and Palladium
Diagnostics
these companies were just not really in
a position to uh to be eligible for
state or city leader but this is a tool
that we were formed to allow these
companies to help grow here and you know
they can get to a point much like with
electronic caregiver where they're large
enough to then receive those Lita awards
from the state uh but over this past
year we funded about 155 000 over these
three projects already in FY 2023 I had
mentioned backyard Farms helping them
grow out the Las Cruces innovation in
industrial park we made a commitment of
thirty five thousand dollars to their
growing investment in the area and then
to First Catch we have already committed
75 000 for for their growth in the new
fiscal year 2023.
and that's just kind of to give you an
expectations of things that are taking
place in this next new in this new year
that we're in now I mentioned we have a
budget of 1.1 million I want to just say
that a lot of this money is going
specifically in or most of it is going
specifically into marketing and Business
Development that's what we're trying to
we're trying to really put Las Cruces on
the map to be recognized for industry
attraction our budget in terms of the
marketing business development went from
650 000 to 800 000 but I think it's more
unique how we're spending the money as
well not just more money but how we're
spending it on the left hand side we're
looking at ad spend in terms of print
and agency fees along with digital
marketing if you look back in 2022 we
spent about sixty six thousand dollars
and a good sum of that almost a third of
it is is in the print and agency fees
because we just didn't have the in-house
talent to do what we needed to do to to
get the uh the visual ads out there
we've actually brought in new Talent
where we can do a lot of this in-house
and as you can see we're not only
spending more money but we're spending
more money that's actually go going to
the marketing not just to agency fees
itself our trade show spending is
increased to quite a bit we're hitting
the road very aggressively with the
increased staff we had 20 we went to 27
trade shows industry trade shows this
past year up 33 from the year before and
if you haven't met our director of
marketing Carlos para I I would be more
than happy to have him come and do a
presentation he just did one for our
board tomorrow he's doing one for the
greater Chambers board but really that's
probably a 15-minute conversation on
just our marketing efforts and how we're
really becoming a little bit more
Innovative well I shouldn't say becoming
a little bit more Innovative this past
week at at the basic economic
development course in Silver City where
uh economic developers from all of this
state attend actually we were allotted
by them for everything that we're doing
innovatively in terms of marketing and
getting us on the map and we were we
were referred to really kind of as the
the group to look at in terms of how
other agents agencies should be doing
their marketing
uh on the right hand side are just some
of the trade shows that we went to this
past year and I put this for a reason
because this defines our industry Target
markets we we look at industry Target
markets and then we choose the trade
shows that we're looking at and as we're
moving forward into this next year's uh
discussion we've already met with the
staff at the city to discuss what those
Target Industries are and you'll see a
lot of this is really focusing on how do
we attract the higher paying jobs so
Aviation and Aerospace Advanced
manufacturing electrical vehicle
components we're also putting a lot of
effort into foreign direct investment
and then we are we are part of the
supply chain challenge for the U.S
Interstate 10 and Interstate 25 and with
our rail Logistics coming through our
area I think we are a big part of that
solution so we're putting dollars into
that marketing as well value-added
agriculture that's our you know that's
our bread and butter that's our history
and we're seeing a lot of success in
those areas with some a couple
announcements that took place in Santa
Teresa but also we've been looking at a
lot more value-added egg taking look or
looking at the Las Cruces Innovation
Industrial Park
one of the things we did this year is we
really focused on marketing and creating
an ad campaign just for the industrial
park itself you'll see on the right hand
side that is an ad we put together that
was in-house we first started off by
putting this in site selection magazine
and what we're what we've since been
doing in terms of a campaign we've been
running the same kind of visualness
we're trying to really pitch sight
Readiness we have the sites that are
ready for you infrastructure ready and
we're available to go right now plus
along with some of the tools that the
economic development department have put
in place such as for example the site
certification out there as well as the
the fast track permitting we're really
in a position to really push that
message out to the world so we put this
in print advertising but we're also
putting in our digital advertising
methods and also social media as well
and we'll be continuing this campaign
throughout the new fiscal year
we had a foreign direct investment
attraction campaign that's going on I
really want to focus all it's a regional
campaign but it's very important uh for
the Las Cruces Innovation and industrial
park because the park sits on Interstate
10 with direct access to the ports of
Long Beach and ports of La we are a
considerable Corridor in terms of how
trade reaches the final markets and this
is where really I think in the future
the industrial park can Thrive with more
distribution and logistics companies and
being really part of that what I would
say the renewable and the automation of
that industry to really help product get
from uh get to its end consumers one of
the things that took place in this FDI
attraction campaign is we were able to
show this show the park to two foreign
companies one was a Taiwanese company
and one was a South Korean company as
well so we expect a little bit more of
that visibility in the new fiscal year
this is just an example of how we're
marketing that uh that that foreign
direct investment website we put
together called NM Tradeport it is
translated into both Spanish and into
Mandarin to attract the Taiwanese
influence that's moving more towards
production here in the United States
uh business retention and expansion uh
the director or director of RNE is uh
Jessica Lynn Robles I don't know if
you've had a chance to meet her she has
put hours and hours canvassing not only
the region but various different
businesses in Las Cruces to help
identify what their needs are and how we
can assist them to grow in terms of the
consultations we got in front of with
companies this year was 126 percent
increase 20 of them were new businesses
that we never had the opportunity to
meet within Las Cruces before so it was
really kind of breaking down the
barriers of trust with those companies
then letting us in having discussions on
how we can be helpful and how we can
help them grow with the tools we have
that resulted in five of the closed
projects that took place this past year
so very big effort for RNE and I give
her a lot of credit for her tenacity in
terms of you know breaking down those
barriers
the last thing I want to talk about is
we engaged two years ago on a man
Advanced manufacturing skill set
analysis this was to better quantify the
size of our talent pool that we have
that is ready for uh to support Advanced
manufacturers the industry 4.0 that is
booming all around us this leads to
higher wage jobs but it leads to the
need for more skill sets and to visibly
be able to show those skill sets to
companies when they're making their
decision
it was it was a little bit of a
challenge but we were able to identify
that in the region we have 27 000 people
that this is a regional it's not just
Las Cruces but we have a 27 000 people
who already have advanced manufacturing
skill sets who can take on the role
today and through uh also looking at our
institutions across the region we
identified programs that are producing
another 11 000 people annually per year
with the skill sets required by Advanced
manufacturing so now we can go out and
Market that availability to to the world
where they may not know it exists and we
become a new site for them a new area
for them to go identify that talent and
put their investment but we didn't want
to let that study just sit on a Shelf
uh we reached out to a Leeds Grant from
New Mexico Economic Development
Department of twenty five thousand
dollars and now this fiscal year we are
moving forward with the pilot program
where we are going to help support
companies uh employers to identify the
employees they would like upskilled in
automation industry 4.0 Advanced
manufacturing and we're utilizing These
funds to basically help pay for those
Pro industry certifications or extra
training that they're going to need 25
000 is not a lot of money but we have to
first show that there's going to be
demand and what we hope to do is turn
this into a sustainable program going
forward with other funding mechanisms
mechanisms in the future if it is
successful but the entire idea is we
want to be part of Skilling up the
workforce for the future jobs so that we
can be we can be more of an advantage
place to attract those types of
companies to the area
um with that I just once again thank you
for the partnership and thank you to the
staff for all the support and I'd be
happy to try to answer any questions you
have
counselor beta thank you mayor and thank
you Devin for the report and
um I greatly appreciate participating on
the mavita board we just had the
Strategic plan and so I'm not unfamiliar
with some of these items that we're
showing here and it's really good to see
with that in mind I did I don't think I
realized you all went to 27 trade shows
um but looking at that what kind of
rois are you able to measure off of
those trade shows or like lead
generation
so mayor counselor I would say probably
a lot of what I say early lead
generation does come from the trade
shows there's two things we get out of
that the first one is we're able to
understand what's happening in an
industry by talking to the companies
that are there we're trying to
understand Trends and make sure we can
shift and or be flexible enough to shift
to the needs that they're going to have
and that goes back to what I started
early in the conversation about we're
hearing the Good Bad and the Ugly and we
have to create the better products and
have that open conversation with staff
in order to do so so I would say a lot
of early leads come from that now do
they actually turn in and Foster to
um to job creation I would say usually
we don't know until like three or four
years down the line when we really know
that they actually have an expansion at
hand I will say this last year I don't
know the numbers I can get the leads the
actual numbers on the leads but I want
to say uh if I remember correctly we had
one or two site visits that actually
came specifically from those trade shows
itself and we look at trade shows in two
different ways when we're able to
exhibit at them we're able to and those
are those can be very costly especially
post-pandemic the pricing has just gone
up incredibly at all these trade shows
but when we're able to afford to exhibit
at certain ones we get an audience of
those who other companies that aren't
exhibiting they're walking through and
maybe we have an appealing message to
them but the other thing what we try to
do whether we exhibit or whether we just
attend the show as we walk the shows
very hard meaning we are going row by
row talking to every single company
trying to understand what their plans
are trying to obtain contact names to
those who actually make the decisions
because usually the people at the shows
they're not they're not the decision
makers on a 10 or 20 million dollar
expansion that may take place two or
three years down but we're trying to get
the insight and identify who in the
company makes those decisions so then we
can come back and then reach out and put
them as part of our nurturing campaign
of kind of consistent marketing and
reach and and letting them know we're
there so when they're ready to make that
decision we are you know we're top of
mind hopefully that's great
um and then maybe could you talk a
little bit more than about that lead
process
um you know items come from the state or
are they given to the city and how that
type of communication is all looking at
I know you know economic development is
really in
something that has to happen in
conjunction with a lot of different
um people and participants and looking
at mavita on where do you fit in place
with all of that with it how many are
you maybe a first contact with how many
are you used to assist
mayor and counselor thank you for that
we ran the numbers this past week
actually because we are closing out the
years so some of it is a little bit
fresh in my mind so first of all we I'm
the first to say
that I want everyone to be an ambassador
on marketing Las Cruces into Indiana
County so I am not shameful when I ask
our local industry hey if you hear of
anything let us know
um because I I believe that's how we
that's how we reach larger audiences uh
in terms of kind of the institutions we
work with that we rely on lead
generation there is the New Mexico
partnership that is the state marketing
arm that's one of them uh a second one
is the borderplex alliance
um third one I don't know who I'm trying
to think of all of them right now but
when we run all the numbers right now we
generate about 54 of our own leads and
that is the reason why we put the
dollars into the marketing that we're
doing is because we know that we know
that those other institutions aren't
necessarily beholden only to working for
us they they represent larger interests
so we need to make sure that we are in
front of the companies directly in front
of the site selectors directly and in
front of our Target industry
specifically so we generated about 54 of
our own leads
great and then on your impact report it
indicated that the ROI
for every like 14 invested
um
uh well for every one dollar invested by
the city kind of translated to about 14
out but could you share methodology that
you use when looking at how we are doing
any of the reporting or even the tax
base reporting
mayor and counselor so as I mentioned
this is economic impact analysis I
mentioned that it's a third party
third-party modeling using implant data
we do look at direct and indirect
benefits because of job creation Capital
Investments and basically what we do is
we have this tool and we have to update
every year for any changes in Mill rates
or inflation all these things that take
place and what we do is it's a little
bit plug and play but what we do is for
every single company that we work with
that gets to the announcement stage we
input
the expected job creation we input the
capital investment we input the wages
and this is all reported To Us by the
company itself now we sometimes we have
better reporting especially when the the
company is going through let's say a
leader request because they have to put
that into documentation and then that
that's put into Milestones with our own
NM borderplex closing incentive we ask
for the same information Nation so we're
able to sometimes capture that
information as well even if the lead is
not but we input all of this into this
modeling project by project and so then
what we do at the end of the year is we
take all of those project modeling and
it accumulates it all together and
basically it spits out a report that's
about 140 pages long and from that
report we look at then what it tells us
is the based off the mill rates based
off the direct and indirect impact and
the spending impacts from those new job
creation and new wages and everything
that takes place it then tells us what
the expected predicted five-year
revenues are in terms of a new tax base
when I predict five years I I feel we
under count quite a bit and we're being
very conservative and the reason why is
no company expects to operate for just
five years I'd say you talked to John
electronic caregiver right they're
making this investment in people and
dollars you know they're going to be
here hopefully 15 years we only count
five years out even though those
companies will be giving value back to
the community year after year after year
um I also want to say that we've been
doing this modeling for about uh well 13
years now
and I think we're still the only Edo
in the state that actually runs these
numbers and reports these types of
impact analysis but I've always felt
it's very important because we want to
give you the tools and we want to be
very sincere with the public dollars
that you're giving to us to invest in
Economic Development to show that return
so that that's our commitment
to you and this body here and to the
public as as well so I hope that
answered your question
yes thank you
um the the last item that I have is more
of a comment and it's about the type of
industries that we've looked to attract
and that of the value-added AG and I
think as we had a discussion today about
water conservation and what that means
for our community we have potential very
serious litigation that is going to be
coming out that works with water usage
within New Mexico and so I think it's
really important for us to kind of look
at how we've put that as you know a core
area for us to attract
companies and everything but looking how
that ties in with that of the water
usage and what we're going to do
together because I think if we're
planning for today and tomorrow we're
doing just fine if we're looking at
sustainable Industries I do think that
we're going to have to have perhaps
maybe a different conversation
and that is all um mayor Patel thank you
thank you councilor Abita anybody else
anybody from the audience okay see none
you have anything else to report Devin
not that I'm available to report right
now but I I just want to say I think we
had a strong year but I think the
building blocks for especially the Las
Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park
I'm excited I'm really excited I will
say one last thing about
gosh 10 11 years ago I used to tell
people when we toured them as Santa
Teresa I said you know take a mental
snapshot today because it's going to
look a lot different and the mayor Pro
tem I I think you heard me say this when
you attended our board retreat and thank
you for that I think we're at that point
now with the Las Cruces innovation in
industrial park I think tickets mental
snapshot now because it's going to look
a lot different the opportunity is right
now and upon us over the next five to
ten years we look forward to it so thank
you Devin for your work and please
extend my gratitude to your staff okay
thank you very much
okay two down two to go next up we have
members of downtown Las Cruces
partnership making their annual
presentation
thank you Chris welcome Jennifer and
Susan look forward to hearing from you
both
afternoon mayor Pro tem and you can you
can lower them like there you go she's a
lot taller
shout out to tall girls Jennifer Garcia
Kozlowski with downtown Las Cruces
partnership for the record
Susan Cabello for the record
I do this every time so I apologize no
worries take it together
um the first thing I want to hit on is
what our mission is for Downtown Las
Cruces partnership we are 501c3 and we
keep our doors open because of the
wonderful contract we have with the city
of Las Cruces as well as grants and
fundraising so it is important to know
that we are 501c3 but um our mission is
to create a signature business
destination that celebrates our Region's
Rich cultural heritage local arts and
culture and contributes to a thriving
sustainable and economically vibrant
downtown and I truly believe that Susan
and I have worked our little behinds off
this past year and we're seeing this our
vision really come full circle
we are an accredited New Mexico Main
Street program as well as a Main Street
America program we have to keep these
excuse me these accreditations in order
to run as a Main Street program through
the country so it is a very important
every year you guys usually get called
in and asked to do a survey and sit in
our meetings and help us it's with our
Partnerships with the city as well as
our partners in the other that
we're able to meet these standards
um this right here is the main street
America impact I wanted to let you know
this is nationally what's going on this
is the reinvestment of your dollars and
of from main streets across the country
I think it's really interesting and
really important to understand that this
really revolves around small business
and the mom and pop shops that we all
want to keep running and keeping in our
business so keeping in business so it's
very important that we always look at
everything Susan I do we do through the
eye of does this bring Economic
Development to downtown and through the
Arts and Crafts Cultural District and
how does it look how does it support our
mission as well as the people of our
district overall
um economic Vitality is one of the first
things we'll be talking about these are
some fun pictures of some fun things
that we've done this year first I wanted
to let you know downtown at a glance
this year we were able to open up 19 new
businesses that is the most in a single
year that we've done since I've been in
this position I'm very excited to
announce that within those 19u
businesses there's 76 new jobs I did not
count 828 Studios or
electronic caregiver into this I just
felt those numbers would skew things a
lot but we could add probably another
900 jobs in there if you wanted us to
but all of those those are in our
district as well as I think it's really
interesting and really cool to let you
know that all the edos that are here
talking to today all reside within
downtown Las Cruces so I think right
then and there it shows you that this is
where economic development is happening
is in downtown
we have seen 3.6 million in private
Improvement that is businesses that have
come in updated that has where they've
updated their building their parking
lots um you name it they've put in over
three million dollars within our
district we also have 3.7 million in
public Improvement that counts some of
the city money that goes to the parking
lots
our lighting project and some other
things that we like we put into there
we've
have tons we've had a great job with our
volunteers this year our board is a
volunteer board and they've put in over
a thousand fourteen hundred hours in
volunteer this year volunteer hours this
year that's a lot and it is it says a
lot to the character of our board
members in the time that they're willing
to put into helping us Revitalize
downtown and the Arts and Cultural
District I'm going to the right side we
do have some fun pending projects we
have a new restaurant coming and it says
Coffee Shop I probably should put Cafe
they're looking more of an outdoor Cafe
thing the beauty and Wellness Center
will actually be open in two weeks on
August 8th and I'll be sending that an
announcement later today if she says
it's okay we'll be having another
dispensary and a boutique hotel and 828
Studios is really working on how they're
going to revitalize
um from Griggs
South on Main Street where they have
bought the property so we've they've put
together a really great project and they
should be putting a cafe in there and we
probably will have a sundry shop on the
corner where the new Indian restaurant
is as well so we have a couple things
coming in that should open within the
new next few weeks
and I'm sorry if I'm talking too fast I
tend to do that
um right now we've been trying to work
on our deliverables and accomplishments
with the city over the past year
um one of the big things for us has been
always our events and you guys are so
great at attending our events and how
big they keep getting
um I would like to ask the fire chief to
close his ears because
we are getting more and more people at
our events we're luckily that we can
we're closing the roads down and
everything around that we can move these
people in but it's a double-edged sword
for us it's great that we are attracting
more and more people to downtown from
across the region to come to our events
but it's a little scary because it's
getting bigger and bigger it's not a bad
problem to have but we need to work on
how we can manage the crowds but I gotta
say that Zombie Walk was on Hiatus for
two years and it came back hard last
year and so much fun and I think the
best of the zombie walk that we've had
in in many years we have really worked
hard on integrating our website calendar
and this is where we're reaching out to
many of our businesses if not all the
businesses in downtown to really update
and help them promote their projects
their events their sales their openings
just to really turn around and Implement
a comprehensive social media strategy
that holistically brings in downtown and
the Arts and Cultural District as a
whole because we want to promote that
for everybody we've been providing
technical assistance
we probably do I should say probably we
average around 28 meetings a month with
our technical assistance and doing our
business retention and expansion
interviews and meetings so this year we
will be trying to hit that up a little
higher to give the data back and get it
back to the city into Economic
Development it's one of I think one of
our strongest points that we work with
the city on we were also able to look
new officers this year John Munoz with
electronic caregiver just came in as our
board chair and Jeffrey Stewart with
Messiah Valley Pharmacy is our vice
chair and the chair of our Arts and
Cultural District we will be onboarding
probably seven new board members also in
the next few months so we're excited
about that and this board I believe will
have the Integrity of what our district
is it'll look more like who the people
of our district look like which I think
is extremely important Susan and I were
able to present at the National
Convention and
in Boston a few months ago we did a
presentation on community concerns and
how perceptions impact barriers to
business
mayor Pro tem was able to see a part of
it we would love to show the rest of you
if you have time to sit down and go over
but it really was how are we using our
data in order to change the perceptions
of what is going on downtown and it'd be
data driven not just because you see
something on Facebook or in the social
media and so really trying to bring it
back to what is going on and not what is
perceived to be going on
um let's see we also I already said we
did the retention and expansion
interviews
let's
oh our social media has been huge this
year we've
we have really worked with our downtown
businesses and our businesses within the
ACD to push social media and to help
them get their social media numbers
higher help to promote downtown and the
ACD as a whole and not just specific to
events or other things but there's all
of this going downtown so this is why
you should come here not this we have
one thing going on this week really
trying to work on making sure that
people know who downtown Las Cruces
partnership is but not just on that
letting them know where the ACD is and
what downtown is all about
um one of the things we did we're very
proud of as well is we did a conduct a
business effectively blog content so
over the from the beginning of the year
every other month I've been doing a q a
on different things you can do how the
tid Works how you can open up a business
Susan's worked with or doing a writing
instruction or literary instruction so
we've worked really closely on trying to
get these different blog contents out
and get them out to the people not just
within our district but beyond that in
case they need coaching teaching and we
felt that this has been kind of our
initial lately is our technical
assistance with people through these
types of things we collaborated this
year with the small business Alliance
Association sorry with Congressman
Vasquez to conduct an ACD and a downtown
tour and we help facilitate those
discussions in the district businesses
they were able to see and talk to seven
businesses on Main Street proper that
you actually aren't open at that hour
but the business owners were Grace Grace
gracious enough to open early so they
could talk and got a lot of really good
feedback this actually also helped us
create a better relationship with SBA
and we'll be doing some more
collaboration with this them going into
this new fiscal year we have like I said
earlier we've been focused on promoting
downtown Las Cruces as a unified entity
and not one thing at a time I believe
this year that we really established a
productive and Cooperative partnership
with New Mexico Economic Development
we've been working with them on ideas
for Lita we've been working with them on
new businesses coming Town coming down
when we're out doing our brnes or we're
trying to catch leads a lot of it is
because of shoe leather and it's us
knocking on doors calling people talking
to them and it's cold calls so we really
see that we've been able this year we've
been able to open 19 businesses and a
lot of it was through cold calls or just
walking up it's talking to someone at
the right time in the right moment
saying hey you know I heard you wanted
to open a business what are you looking
for how can we help and that to us again
goes back to what's important to us is
keeping it local keeping small business
to make sure that when these big
businesses come in they have those
places to go to and they have those
wonderful things that are authentically
southern New Mexico and they feel that
they have a home away from home in our
downtown yeah
next is the ACD deliverables and
accomplishments
for the record slightly taller than
Jennifer
um so what's new this year and the ACD
we have a new coordinating Council
that's been elected we set up new
covenants which means how we operate as
an organization uh Jeffrey Stewart our
new chair is here in the audience he is
also the vice chair of our organization
so I feel like we have a lot more
integration between ACD and dlcp that
we're functioning as one entity one
entity and not two you know factions I
think that's really going to strengthen
our approach we got 900 000 from New
Mexico Main Street for the completion of
the lighting and Wi-Fi finding projects
because these have been going on for at
least five years it is older than I've
been in the organization so uh since the
money that we received was so long ago
and because inflation has risen so much
so we needed money to fill the gaps to
complete it and that's our New Mexico
Main Street came in and gave us a very
large Grant to finish those projects we
just recently received two thousand five
hundred dollars from the New Mexico
resiliency Alliance and that's going to
be to do our artist in Residence series
for next year and that is our spotlights
on our
artists and makers downtown we've
changed the name to ACD icons
um artists of residence seemed like a
good idea at the time maybe not so much
now so uh ACD icon allows us to kind of
take a broader swath of our creative
economy and feature them in these videos
we have initiated creative economy
seminars this came just from a need from
the artists in our district kind of
telling we did vintages Vives this year
and so we pay them with two checks which
is a pain but it gives me two chances to
talk to artists as they come in this
year we had 14. so when they would come
in I'd say what kind of technical
assistance or information do you think
you need and they said writing like I
don't know how to write an artist
statement I've been applying for Grants
but they keep coming back because I just
don't know how to do it
um and so like that is something we can
help you with so our first one was uh
writing for business and so we're
talking about audience and purpose about
writing a an artist statement writing a
bio writing things for your website
writing descriptions of your pieces all
of those things that seem like very
small things but add up to a very big
thing as far as how you're perceived in
your ability to Market your work
we designed our walking tour we've
really featured that heavily on social
media this year that is of the Mesquite
District
in English and Spanish
we've we had our fourth annual
ventatonas Vivas which is the painting
of the windows downtown for the holidays
and I was a member of the art space core
group
which we were looking to see the
feasibility of bringing live workspace
for artists into downtown in the city as
a whole
um we had our third annual Generations
Community writing project it was the
best one we've had yet uh mayor Pro Tim
did us the honor of doing our closing
remarks this year uh Generations is
where we pair two writers of different
generations to work together and then to
read together it's a really moving
project and it's something that changes
the lives of people who participate this
year instead of having eight writers we
had ten it was a good addition it was a
good idea to include War we had 29
people apply so we really hate telling
people no so we said you know it's it's
Logistics right it's just how the age of
people and those kind of things so
please apply again next year and please
attend our other writing programs right
we had our second annual lit Fest which
has been the best lit Fest
we had dance from Michelle's dance
studio and dark circles that was amazing
we had spoken word Elsie spoken word LED
that for us
film Las Cruces was kind enough to do a
writer's Workshop that day in
conjunction with us uh Little Toad Creek
had a singer songwriter and we kind of
oh we had get lit at rad for an hour
before the reading
so I'm not sure if anyone did that
because we were like really scrambling
by that point but we hope somebody did
um and then we introduced monthly
writers workshops uh this was actually
an idea brought To Us by our Sheriff Kim
Stewart she said you know I really love
writing and I really love a group to
work with and so we have done monthly
workshops and round tables we've had
over 25 people come through that program
we have at least eight people typically
per week our oldest member is 82 and our
youngest participant was eight with his
with parental supervision so
really bit of rewarding process it keeps
growing and it's helping our Riders kind
of gain confidence and we now have three
people who have started novels
um is this still oh my goodness so on
things that we have continued to do we
are doing a property and business
inventory for the tid and the ACD we
have a really great terrible problem of
we don't have a lot of ground level
retail space available
so when we were doing our recruiting
we're having to be really strategic we
don't want to invite people to come and
then have no place to put them so we're
making that list of the available retail
space and trying to pair it up with what
we need downtown a bakery
um if anyone heard that
um so
then we we got 100 100
212 Capital outlay funds have been
expended so far guys we've had almost
three million dollars in capital outlay
over the last four years
Plaza electrical has been upgraded so
food trucks can plug into all what are
they all the outlets are they called
like the short lights short lights
ballards that's what they are
um so that some of that money went to
the children's museum feasibility study
for the courthouse
um and then the Gateway lighting
feasibility study and design we have the
75 drawings completed for the gateways
guys we are we're getting close to
having those installed and we have the
locations for them we are working in the
next fiscal year here in the next few
months actually to have Community
meetings to speak with residents um
because we're going to need some
easements to put some more Lighting in
the Mesquite neighborhood
um we do a monthly business spotlight
video this program has been really
successful for dlcp
um it's something that our businesses
look forward to and we're getting better
and better so we're really excited about
that we did 12 this year and we continue
to work with the city
um to oversee the expenditure of the
capital outlay funds except the gateways
the lighting those kind of things
coming into the new fiscal year our
hopes and what we try we worked with
Chris on is we want to be cultivating
stronger relationships with the edos to
promote Economic Development obviously
for us it's specifically downtown but we
do know when we all work together that
is helpful for all of our edos
throughout the region to expand business
recruitment data collection we've been
again something else we've been really
working hard what we've noticed is we've
been data poor in the past and we
believe this is a really great way for
us to share our information and to have
more of a a give give relationship with
the other edos in the city we are
implementing a stronger creative economy
technical assistance program we're going
to be developing and executing city-wide
focus groups this will be us going
around the city to see what people
outside of downtown really want to look
at so we'll be probably reaching out to
you members of the
of the com the committee to see if where
you would like these meetings to be and
how we could talk to people and really
try to grasp what if they're not coming
downtown why and also if they are coming
downtown what's keeping them coming back
we want to really update our void
analysis to see what's needed in the
district again going to what Susan was
saying earlier how this knowing what
people want in the district or what
we're missing district is an easy way
for us to figure out where they fit in
what building downtown and what space
that we have in the area and please
understand when I use the term downtown
I am meeting the ACD portion of the
Mesquite historic district as well I
don't mean to be obtuse and think that
those are two separate things in my
world it's one cohesive District
and we'll also be working on the report
on evidence-based needs removed from
political and social narratives this has
been a big thing you guys get hit with
that social narrative and that political
narrative constantly and so we want to
be working on how can we look at it
being data driven and being able again
to come back to and give reports on this
is how many things are happening
downtown this is these are the real
numbers not perceived numbers
and we will be doing one of our things
to uh when all this get pulls together
our big thing is we want to do a
peer-to-peer move-in ready fair and this
is something that we think is going to
be very important in being able to get
real estate agents business
angel funders
people wanting to open a business trying
to get them all into one location and
have them talk to each other and have
the banks there and all that in one
location
to do this fair so they we can match
them up instead of you know you have to
go back and forth back and forth and we
think we've already talked to West about
this and SBA with their help
and this is just a quick thing of the
things that we actually did this year we
really worked hard with the city
Economic Development Department to
promote Economic Development week again
what is a tid that was one of the blog
spots that we've done how to be a member
again Economic Development week and then
our celebration of Cinco de Mayo and
different things goes to our calendar
and the different things that we've been
working on hard to promote downtown as a
whole
and with that we stand for any questions
thank you mayor thank you both for the
presentation I'm always excited to hear
and the end of the year report although
I I participate regularly in your
meetings so I'm I'm very aware I do want
to encourage Council to
um
um get with you to look at um to engage
around the PowerPoint that you've
presented at the National Conference I
think it it really depicts
um what probably a lot of downtowns or
cities municipalities are dealing with
especially when there's that political
and social narrative out there and I
love the vulnerability Susan that you've
expressed about you know what happened
to you and sort of what you expressed
and then realized gosh I'm putting a
negative spin to something that I really
need to think
differently about but I I think that and
I'm talking about the crime
and our homeless population that gets a
bad rap a lot of the times
and how we can you know put a positive
spin so I'm leading into the question
about a question I promise about
um as you as you sat here you listened
to the tid presentation about the money
allocated for the security guard and
cameras and I'm really interested to
hear what the downtown to include and
it's specific to the downtown
um but how a we can expand to the
Mesquite historic district
because we have a tremendous amount of
businesses in that in that area but how
we can work together to ensure that
the the security and the cameras are
working at optimal right
um and and how we can mitigate the
concern that our businesses are
expressing to us almost daily
um regarding
um sort of being physically
acousted right and and verbally accosted
by folks who are sometimes both dual
diagnosed mental health and and Subs
addiction so can is there a way maybe
that we can converse about I would
really like to say okay how what is our
return on our investment related to that
and how are our businesses feeling about
that and then we behind you and you've
been sitting with your your colleagues
of folks that that are the mobile crisis
unit right and how we can get that
information out to folks because I think
people because of past traumas and
traumas right it's it's no fun to be to
to be accosted
and and just that kind of trauma that
that
right that is with us when those things
are happening so how can we work
together to address that so I I'm I'm
asking for a dialogue about how useful
and beneficial those secure the security
guard is and the cameras and how we can
get you the information about the mobile
crisis unit because we all have been out
there where we've seen right folks and I
hear over and over again I'm afraid to
go to the downtown because you know we
see more homeless people out so how do
we address that in the most Humane and
compassionate way possible um just like
you said perfect word is a compassionate
solution and if we had a solution then
we wouldn't be having this conversation
obviously but one of the things that we
had worked with Chris on was figuring
ways that we could help make it feel
safer downtown and make it safer
downtown and again that was the security
guard the lighting project the um
the cameras and a few other things we
also had helped worked with our downtown
businesses to create a
for lack of a better term a phone tree
that we have a Discord account that
everyone goes into and if they see
something then they can say something we
are able to we were able to capture some
um vandals in action some taggers
we do have a little bit of an issue
where we do see more unhomed people on
The Plaza and I will say you know now
that we have the tent up it has been a
little more difficult because we've
given shade in that structure
um
in the morning it's a little bit
difficult to see you know so we go
through we do have this conversation
quite regularly with Chris and he goes
out we have our relationship with the
LCPD and if I see things I send out an
email really quickly just to let them
know what's going on in the district we
are seeing again police come through
more often into downtown again so I
think that in the long run will be
helpful there's a lot of other things
that I think is out of our specific
hands that we need to figure out how to
Dialogue on and work with other other
programs we do have regular meetings
with um
City of Hope sorry to see how we can
camp hope yeah Camp hope so we can work
with them
um but a lot of it again when we're
dealing with people that may have some
sort of mental issue as well as any sort
of drug abuse issue that tends to be a
little harder thing for us to
to really capitalize on and trying to
figure out how to help them personally
so I'd like I think we need to just put
out that you're right the information
regularly about the crisis unit right
and then maybe we need to plan training
around Mental Health First Aid to get
people more familiar and we did two
Public Safety meetings last year and
they were both well attended
um
mayor Pro tem Council Susan Cabello for
the record I think specifically when
we're talking about the cameras for me
the biggest benefit they'll have is they
will add objectivity to the reports you
talked about my kind of run-in right
with with crime downtown and to me that
was like the most traumatic thing that
ever happened and I'm sure it was like
so much bigger than it actually was
and I think everyone who has that
experience feels that way the other day
we had our intern she came running back
in her office at lunch and she said some
guy just asked me for two dollars and I
don't have two dollars and she was
completely freaked out opened up at the
front door like sir she doesn't have two
dollars and he left right
but to her that was a really scary
experience yeah
um I think a camera kind of takes that
personal narrative out of those
situations
if we can review it objectively I think
we're going to have a much better idea
of what's Happening
um kind of person to person like I said
without those like emotional narratives
which is what we have right now yeah
um so I think that's going to really
help I think too just the idea of having
Patrol downtown kind of de-escalates a
lot of situations when when you don't
just feel afraid then you might not
going to have that fear response
initially and I think that's a big part
of it too like I said our intern was
just terrified
um
but as far as we I mean it was just
another day downtown for us right so
um I think that you know
once we kind of take like I said the the
human factor out of those narratives and
we can watch it that will have a much
better idea of what's actually going on
um and how we maybe can best solve it
yeah thank you for that um I I just
appreciate all that you're doing I see
your social media I see Jennifer out on
the downtown I don't know you have a
very creative term that you're using
the Takeover day that's right Jennifer
takeover day of downtown and you
highlight the businesses and and so you
always know that you're out and about so
I appreciate that I'm looking forward to
um you know the events coming up in the
year and um thank you again for the work
that you do thank you bear
okay thanks any other comments or
questions
members of the public
okay well thank you for the presentation
just one last thing from us Jennifer
godzillowski for the record I do want to
thank each and every one of you and I
want to thank Economic Development staff
I again I go with this year has probably
been one of our most productive years
and things I've seen I've seen downtown
grow a friend of mine just moved back
she moved out of Las Cruces six years
ago and she moved back a couple months
ago and the first thing she said to me
was wow what the f happened to downtown
it looks amazing and I really think
that's you guys helping us that's the
city helping us and that's putting our
money back into what we care for in our
in our area so in our community so thank
you very much
thanks
okay last but certainly not least we've
got Karen Bradshaw with the Las Cruces
farmers and crafts market to give their
year-end report
and just hit this button
good afternoon mayor mayor Pro Tem
counselors
I'm Karen Bradshaw and I manage the
farmers and crafts market of Las Cruces
in the downtown area
let's see
at the moment we have 167 permanent
vendors 115 temporary vendors 62
musicians and entertainers of which 19
of them are under the age of 18 and over
150 non-profits community outreach and
educational groups come through the
Market weekly
and provide information about what they
do
as far as our advertising for this past
year we still continue to use the rack
cards in the hotels and cultural centers
throughout the state we have our social
media and website we have a market
Facebook page a website a Facebook page
for our vendors we have Instagram and of
course we do have our website
uh Bridal Mike Bravo Mike radio
regularly broadcasts down at the market
we also have ktalk 105.5 The Las Cruces
Community radio who weekly broadcasts
from a space down at the market
themselves
they'll be back in September hopefully
they do take the summer off it does get
a little hot
and then of course New Mexico magazine
adventure Guide we are utilizing them
and advertising in them as New Mexico
magazine is a definite
um
source for people from out of state to
look for things to do here in New Mexico
so we definitely want to make sure
people find us down here
as far as supporting you know one of the
things this Market is a big feature of
is supporting New Mexico families and
our farmers and small businesses so we
do have federal and state programs that
the market supports the snap program the
double up food Buck program which is
done through New Mexico Farmers Market
Association our WIC for women infant and
children program as well as a senior
nutrition programs
um let's see
this past year our Market was number one
in the state
for the Department of Health Women and
Infants children program and the senior
nutrition program to provide access to
fresh fruit and vegetables along with
plenty for our seniors
the nmfma that's the double up food Pro
program in the Mexico Marcus Farm is
just the association generated an
additional 4 355 dollars in 2022 with
their special coupon program
and in 2023 we had another special
coupon program where
um 14 over 14 000 read was redeemed for
fruits and vegetables to the community
as well as for the first time nmda
participated and over six thousand
dollars was redeemed for protein which
is providing access to meat
um
eggs and tree nuts
we are also
um
American Farmland trust the vote is
Nationwide last year the we were the
number one in the state of New Mexico
we came in 10th in the southwest region
and somewhere around 125 Nationwide and
that's out of 7 000 farmers markets
Across the Nation
this year as of newness today when I
check the listings
we were first in New Mexico
second in the southwest region
and number 19 Nationwide
so that's where we stand right now with
the voting
but we have until mid-september so we've
got to get our numbers up
and that's it questions
mayor Pro town just quickly sorry guys
Karen thank you for the work and all the
vendors
um I know it's it's a beaut it's just
beautiful to be down there and see
um what what you've been able to
accomplish and just the number of folks
that participate right not only the
vendors but the folks that frequent it
um I love sort of the the the variety
that you can get there it's exciting
um I know that we've had some pretty hot
days and I'd heard through the grapevine
that you maybe have canceled no a lot of
rumors are are are blowing that so I
thought well I wonder how we could help
maybe doing pop-ups or something where
we get you inside but good to know no
ma'am we are we are still there every
Saturday morning yes we do not cancel
our market for hot weather this is
Southern New Mexico
exactly yeah and our Farmers you know
the produce comes in it does not hold to
the next week or the next month so no
and plus we provide a service to the
community yes you know people expect to
depend on you that yeah they do they
depend on us for their fresh fruits and
vegetables their meat their eggs honey
everything so no we have to be there
perfect I appreciate the commitment
Karen thank you mayor
thank you okay well thanks for the
presentation I also want to tell you
thanks for always accommodating the city
I know there's been a few times where
last minute you've been able to work
around the schedules and and let us do
what we need to do and that's been very
helpful so thank you you're welcome
mayor council that concludes all the
presentation of the economic development
Partners thank you all right thanks
Chris so last we have Las Cruces fire
department project line update
Chief Smith
everybody bring their cameras out and
take a picture
a chance to see the chief in action here
well good afternoon mayor members of
city council fire chief Jason Smith for
the record I'm just going to be
introducing Battalion Chief Matt Hiles
he presented to you last time about
project light BC heils overseas the
mobile integrated Healthcare program as
well as the light project I believe also
in the audience we have Lisa Chavez from
FYI plus who also be presenting and I
believe we have Sylvia from Senator
heinrich's office
U.S senator heinrich's office in uh in
attendance as well recent news there is
the Senator's been working on a three
million allocation to building a station
for our mih and project light so pretty
exciting but with that I will turn it
over to Matt
good afternoon mayor neighbors members
of city council Matthew Hiles for the
record and I am going to give you the
project Light update this data was
gathered from our launch date of March
6th to July 6th so it's right at the
four month mark
so here is kind of based off the lcfd
Strategic business plan
we've been able to meet the the first
result when we have a team on duty
however the second result is uh we're
continuing to work to work on meeting
that second result uh basically when one
team member is out the team is out
whether it's personal leave sick leave
or anything like that since we only have
one team on duty at a time having one
person out
doesn't make you know light happen for
the day
um as far as a third bullet we have a 25
percent of persons receiving care from
light
um we have a
no recalls in our 30 days after
receiving care with follow-up from our
case manager individuals are provided
resources to help continue on in a
positive direction
so this slide is a reminder from the
presentation I gave in February of the
data that we're going to be working on
collecting for you
we've been fine-tuning weekly as time's
gone on to try to really paint that
picture through a data-driven you know
system and program but also being such a
dynamic
team or a program that we also have to
just incorporate and express how it
actually you know happens in the field
or on scenes because even those scenes
are similar nothing's ever the same
so here are some of our numbers for the
response data our number of calls for
service so far is 378.
um that means just being dispatched in
general whether they made it on scene or
not
um doesn't reflect in that number
however number of patient contacts and
interventions is 141.
um so that is when they actually had the
team intervene in one way shape or form
whether it be to intervene medically or
have our social worker step in and start
doing their assessment
so the average time on task has been
averaged out to be about an hour and 23
minutes now that's
from the time of dispatch
travel time on scene time on scene and
whether or not they you know may
transport themselves the light team does
the actual transport and then including
the time to write the report the report
can take up to anywhere from 30 to 45
minutes depending on the scene that they
uh
they had and how severe it was or wasn't
and then we've had a lot of calls pended
calls pendant could be anything from
even being pended like for
for example the light team is already on
a call
and Central will notify them uh light
one from Central you have another call
pending just to let them know that could
happen up to three times while the team
is still on one call but when it all
comes down to it that is still one
about less than one call a day being
pended so it's pretty good
so here's the percentages of the
interventions that are being performed
we have the environmental social 6.7
percent medical psychological and
multiple interventions so it could be
any combination of the top three
dispositions so we have a high transport
rate to Mental Health Providers which is
good it's meeting the intent of the team
to get him to the right facility or
right people to help them continue with
the help in their crisis at the time
a 20 percent in law enforcement uh
transport transportation that could be
because maybe that individual may have
broken the law or they might have had
something
already pending as far as the law goes
and that has to be dealt with
um treated and resolved on scene is is a
is a good one it's a real success being
able to just show up and have
them mitigate the situation no transport
was needed nothing no other
interventions outside of the social
worker the light team actually getting
involved and and doing their treatment
and providing them resources right then
and there to help further on them and
move on from their crisis
and then transported by EMS that's
simply because maybe there is a medical
issue that needs to be prioritized and
we need to get that treated right away
by the emergency department
and deceased so being that the light
teams do run on CPR calls and sometimes
those CPR calls do have a sad outcome
the light teams have been proven to be
very beneficial on scene in regard to uh
talking through the families or loved
ones that are on scene that happen to be
witnessing what's going on and we
actually also created a a brochure full
of resources to give to them because
whenever you're in that moment and
everything's just kind of coming down on
you you don't know where to start and
then the chaos that may come after when
everybody packs up and leaves so they
talk through that with them give them
the brochure of resources and always
offer to call if they ever have any
other questions
so agency interactions we'll go ahead
and start with the Las Cruces Fire
Department
so since the start of the light teams
and um
the light team's being integrated with
the uh the engines and and and the crews
that are actually running the calls that
they've always been running and seeing
the benefit that the light teams are
bringing has been hands down Wide Open
Arms accepted um it's been great they
see the benefit they realize how much
this they're they're requesting them
often in fact right before I came over
here had two requests for the light team
but the light team was already on
another call
because they realize the specialty that
the light team has as far as being able
to deal with these behavioral mental
health issues and some people really in
crisis
AMR is also I spoke to uh their director
of operations and he's hands down the
feedback he's getting from Cruz is that
when are we getting more
um they also see the benefit because
when you're dealing with emergency
medicine you're not trained really to
deal with Behavioral or mental health
issues so in this case the light teams
again are able to properly you know deal
with these issues and address them and
intervene as well as free up the AMR
units to go on those medical calls
because the light team is now able to
transport the individuals to the proper
facilities that aren't the Eds
and then the stakeholders again have FYI
CTC Peak and all the other stakeholders
that we have in the area and it's just
been a continuing strength and
relationship building with them constant
meetings and conversations and what are
what are we doing right where can we
improve what can we make thing where can
we make things better for a smoother
more fluid transition and that warm
handoff that that individual needs
because
they're watching everything they're
already on edge and we need to make
everything as smooth as possible for
them
and LCPD obviously one of our biggest
partners because every call that we have
is a scene security issue being the high
Acuity call Matrix that we run with the
light teams
LCPD has requested um
the light team's 103 times
I appreciate that number in fact I got
that number from Central and I
appreciate that number because it goes
to show how the police officers are also
seeing the benefit and the the specialty
that the light teams have and
are recognizing that this is a
behavioral issue and that they can
provide the scene security but let's go
ahead and let the social workers clear
them with their trauma-informed care
approach and and allow the the person to
be cleared medically in the field and
that way we can get them to the right
place and I gotta get take my hat off to
PD they've also been doing a really
really good job standing back making
sure the scene is safe but allowing the
teams to completely work and both light
teams have hands down nothing but praise
to say to LCPD every time they've been
on scene with them so it's been a really
really good work collaboration with them
and now I would like to introduce uh
Lisa Chavez she works for families and
youth Innovations she's The Clinical
Director there at FYI and a licensed
clinical social worker so she works very
closely with us
and she's also witnessed the teams in
action on calls so
there's Lisa
gosh I'm so short
well really short oh good afternoon
mayor mayor Pro tem and counselors I'm
sorry
sorry I just didn't realize how short I
was that was really powerful
uh good afternoon thank you Matt uh so I
just want to speak to a little bit of
what I am doing uh Lisa Chavez I'm The
Clinical Director senior Clinical
Director for families and youth
Innovations Plus
um we are a community mental health
serving Center in the in the in our
community we've been around for about 40
years over 40 years I have been
partnering with Las Cruces fire
department for almost a year now or a
little bit close to a year now I provide
their clinical supervision to their
social workers they have a like they
said they have two teams what they have
a mobile crisis let me slow down I'm a
little nervous
they have a mobile crisis team and a
mobile Integrated Health Team both of
these teams run social workers Master's
level social workers best practice for
Master's level social workers are to
have a clinical supervisor in their
realm to resell receive some type of
guidance
intervention help whatever it is they
need in the field when they're
responding to any of their their calls
so primarily my goal is to focus on the
support of the social workers in those
teams and also to support the paramedics
that are on that team that is a unique
twist
historically I don't think paramedics
have received clinical Supervision in
the field but they are now
um with our team so my whole focus and
my whole function is to really
um support the social workers from a
reflective capacity so that they can
maintain and stay enrolled in the work
mental health work
some of you on this Council have done
mental health field work is extremely
exhausting
it can take a toll on your own mental
health and on your body and we need to
be able to keep them enrolled and
sustained in the work so my work
primarily is to run them through
reflective practice about how their own
wounding and how their own issues show
up in the work because they do they run
to calls they get triggered and it could
happen at 7 30 at night when they're
running their last call or it could
happen at 7 30 in the morning when
they're running their first call and so
I typically am available to those social
workers to call me after that event or
sometimes during I've been called when
they're at a call to help walk them
through what a Next Step could be for a
situation
for example we've had they've called me
when CYFD has had to go out and it's a
kiddo who's not quite 14 do they have
the right do they not have the right so
I help walk them through those
situations that could occur to extreme
cases you know where they've been out on
a scene they've had to they've had to
support somebody through a CPR that
failed and then they have to talk to
their families through that and then
they now have to come home and sit with
that they maybe have been triggered in
the field so I spend a lot of time
helping them process their own feelings
so that they can stay motivated to do
that work because it's extremely hard I
have been I've had the opportunity and
the honor to be on scene with them when
they have come out
FYI is not exempt for calling for mobile
crisis we have had situations in our
office that have extended beyond our
capacity to support support people and
those of you guys who've been to FYI
we have a very interesting community
that come in our doors sometimes so I've
had the opportunity and the honor to uh
to see their light team in action I was
super impressed with PD uh PD does a
really good job just kind of hanging
back
um and we'll we'll wait for our
Direction and then our and are also
supportive to step in and say when we no
longer can handle that situation that
they take care of our safety for us so
um and because of those relationships
the you know I have the the opportunity
to watch one of the light teams twice
two of both of the light teams have come
on two different occasions to
to our building and in both occasions
those children did not need to go to the
hospital they didn't need to be
transported I appreciate the time that
the light team takes to
um they don't rush it so if it takes
them an hour they put those other calls
on pending and they're focused and
present in the moment of dealing with
the call that they're on instead of
worrying about the on to the next one so
I appreciate that
um but I just wanted to share my
experiences with working with the light
team and really my primary
my primary role with the clinicians on
there and it's really a matter of
keeping them enrolled and Tethered to
the work in a healthy way because we
want to read or reduce burnout
of our social workers because social
workers are not magic wands I know
people think that we are but we're not
humans like everybody else
so I don't know if anybody has any
questions but
there's a couple questions Lisa so I
have counselor beta councilor Graham
councilman Cuomo and I think mayor patem
and thank you both for the presentation
thank you for all the work I know I am
one of many on here that are so excited
to see this project
um with that and since we're talking
about workers I was going to ask about
how has it been going for this staff to
be on these calls how's it going for
their wellness and being and to make
sure that we are you know not creating
an environment that's unsustainable for
them
so I can speak to the staff's mental
health I do weekly supervision with both
teams we run two different group
interventions and right now we're
focused on
um I know this is going to sound crazy
but right now we're focused on on their
historical trauma their own historical
trauma and events that show up in the
field so I can tell you just by talking
to them that it's brought into
perspective for them
um how their stuff can sometimes show up
and get in the way and they're working
on their own ways to manage through that
some of them have opted for therapy on
their own some of them have opted to
stay in journaling reflective
supervision whatever that is but I think
from the perspective of what I do for
them that's how we sustain them in the
work is to make sure that they're doing
their personal work so that they
continue to do the work from a
City perspective I don't know how we
sustain them
oh mayor councilor beta fire chief Jason
Smith it brings definitely Delight the
approach that social workers take with
their their clinical oversight and I
think it's a lesson that we can learn on
the fire service as well with our peer
support so recently we we brought in the
International Association of
firefighters to do a a almost a
week-long peer support training and I
think that's something that
I as the fire chief want to look at is
how can we take some of these lessons
from the social worker realm and apply
them to keep our firefighters safe
because
we're close to a magic wand but the fire
service is not
immune to to these challenges as well
the challenge is you have to recognize
is that you're taking two different
models and you're intersecting them so
those of you who are familiar with
social work were really about a
self-determination model we want people
to make the best decisions that they can
for themselves and and rescue and fire
is just that they're all about rescue
and so some of the biggest
intersects that we have with vulnerable
conversations is how the paramedic will
show up in rescue and the social worker
will show up and like no they have the
right to make that decision for
themselves in the paramedics like no
they gotta go you know so
um I think all of those things are
um when we think about from a
theoretical perspective those things
intersect and they get in the way and
they can be both a barrier um and a
support in doing the work together and
the peer that the peer model that you're
talking about are fire peer-to-peer
correct yeah so um that's been
interesting because I've talked to some
um firefighters where in other cities
they do have those fire peer-to-peers so
they're able to help each other through
mental health challenges or things that
come up there's a lot of there's a big
body of research on First Responders but
there's there's less of a body of
research on these co-responses and so I
think what we're seeing now is the
preliminary results that it can be
effective and I think there was a lot of
fear about having a co-response with PD
and I don't have a you know a magic ball
to say what can go into the future but
but I think that when I see PD respond
now
um when I've been a part of those
responses I can see that they're
allowing the social workers to take the
lead and kind of identifying we're good
this is a mental health situation can
you stand by and other times when they
can say now we're good and and PD is
always there to just say yeah we'll hear
we're here when you guys need us just
call us back so it's been I think from
where I stand it's been helpful and
successful
thank you for that and that was leading
me to my second question of that of
safety within these items we had talked
a lot about that
um on if there was a need for PD
response
um how fast that was being able to get
to there so that the team was also safe
mayor councilor beta Matthew Hiles
um it's imperative to be honest with you
we we run the high Acuity calls that we
run with them and given the nature of
those calls scene security is first on
the list when it comes to anybody
showing up or in response
um
PD is really good about securing it
securing it properly and securing it
efficiently and um and quickly so with
our call volume or I'm sorry the the
types of calls we're going it's
definitely imperative
to give you a little bit of another
perspective it's also required whenever
we're sending out the engines and AMR
and everything like that those same call
types would also need scene security so
even though they're going with the crew
and other entities PD still needs to
secure the scene okay and that leads me
to to Really
um Marvel at some of the statistics that
you just had too that still with all
that the need for the safety and things
we still have only that 20 has to be
then transferred by police after for
whatever reason that may be but most of
these items are being transported or
treated on scene so we're still having a
lot of success within the team itself
even with the addition of the safety
that needs to be put on
absolutely uh and then we had talked to
her earlier about the merva
directing calls and things your way and
I just wanted to see how you felt things
were being appropriately shifted to all
uh Central's been doing great
um we we communicate weekly or the best
we can a weekly and but Hugo and his
team is just so easy to get a hold of
and
I can bring anything to their attention
and they're they're addressing it
immediately not that there was a whole
lot of things but the times that there
was it was it was fixed and we grew
together with this project very much so
so it's been smooth and
great that's wonderful and we had done
some modeling at the very beginning to
see what it would look like for types of
service how much we would need now that
we've kind of started this I'm wondering
Chief if you've been able to kind of
take a guess are we still on track for
um how many teams we might need uh
looking at times that we can serve or
are we seeing that we probably have a
greater need than anticipated
thank you mayor councilor beta fire
chief Jason Smith for the analysis I
think we need a few more months of
information if you put in there so we
can model it as BC Hiles mentioned
there's about one call a day that gets
pended on on average so we need to look
at things that will work for the team
whether that's changing or adjusting the
schedules or bringing on a third team or
having some sort of depth with a
PRN type positions or overtime from our
existing firefighter Medics to the team
but I think the next time that we come
in front of counselor when we get into
budget season we'll have the idea of
what we need to make the team solid and
to answer all those calls as well
address our response time we don't want
a long response time we want to make
sure that this team as well as our our
other fire and EMS teams get on scene as
quickly as possible our strategic goal
is that nine minute mark
uh so we need to look at all those
things and decide on
the number of teams that are needed okay
and are we tracking the calls that
um like Martha is getting when the teams
aren't available as well to kind of like
see what that looks like Council yes
that's something that we're going to
actually look at because there is a uh
the the question of do we need 24-hour
coverage and really what we need to do
is look at those call types over the
entire 24-hour period and make that kind
of judgment call of our return on
investment or look at a different type
of model to me okay thank you so much
and just really thank you to all the
staff all the teams it's such an
important work and I think this really
can change up a lot of outcomes for our
community so I know my fellow counselors
have a lot more questions so I'm going
to pass it over to them but thank you so
much
okay thanks counselor councilor Graham
thank you
um
Lisa I just wanted to speak directly to
you and say thank you
as just a quick personal anecdote
um my husband's a member of Las Cruces
fire and we were talking well
daydreaming about retirement
coming up in a million years and he had
mentioned to me that one of the
one of the things he had read about was
that firefighters and police officers
are often encouraged to retire
not where they not where they served and
I
just being being blind to this was like
really why and he's like because there's
nowhere you can go that you don't have
a bad memory and that just took my
breath away
and the fact that you are modeling and
normalizing this
seeking out support that it's okay to
seek out support means so much to me as
a counselor and as a spouse as somebody
who you know the most important person
in my life is out doing this so I just
wanted to thank you for that
um and then BC Hiles were you through
with your presentation was there more to
come
and we just all kind of jumped in or is
it okay to ask
drill down questions now my next slide
is question oh perfect okay
um great
uh do you do you yet know
um in terms of the thinking of the fire
districts not the council districts
um which of the fire districts are
seeing the majority of light
calls do you have that information so I
don't have that specific information
right on to which
but it's but it's obtainable oh and and
chief with his cross-body laptop
may have this ready to roll
thank you counselor it's more of a
messenger bag but
give me just just a minute here and I'm
gonna
drill down into our map
so it looks like the majority of our
calls in fire districts of what you'd
probably be familiar with counselor is
districts one two and four it's kind of
an L shape if you follow the uh
the railroad through town down to I-10
from North Main Highway 70 and then
across to District Four along Missouri
that is the greatest concentration of
the calls that we have
and that pretty much aligns with General
calls for service by fire districts so
would you say that light light calls
pretty much mirror the population I
believe fire district 2 has the highest
call volume
generally and it sounds like they're
also kind of in the hot spot for light
calls
a counselor that's that's mostly correct
District Six is also one of our busiest
districts oh that's interesting so the
response to that area is is lower By the
Light Team I would not say it's absent
there are still calls to that area but
two and six are are our busiest okay
great and I'm just uh I'm in a glass
half full kind of gal here thinking that
we're going to get this this funding and
this facility
um and ifo I would just turn to you and
say like hopefully we're already
thinking about citing for where we would
put our light station
um and obviously
you know I'm sure you would be in
contact about
about where you know in terms of
response time
or the best place would be counselor yes
we're looking at multiple locations the
the first one with the funding that
we're looking at from uh earmarked
Senator Heinrich is a replacement of the
old fire station three
perfect that would be mobile integrated
Healthcare there as well as one of the
light teams and then we're looking at
with the construction of station nine
and some of the changing of our
resources putting a response team
somewhere on the east side as well maybe
would be station eight uh or station
nine but right now I think with the
design of nine it's going to be fire and
EMS based primarily so we might have to
look at spare space at station eight the
East Mesa public safety building okay
great thank you so much and then my
other question kind of toggling between
slides I believe five and six and I'm
going to could we jump to five for a
second
maybe four
there we go I'm looking at the average
time on task per call
um you know and then sorry jumping back
to slide six and here's where I'm going
to speculate wildly on statistics and
counselor corin will Flinch as I do this
but I am loving this nearly 20 percent
treated and resolved on scene as you
were saying that's a great outcome but
I'm going to guess that those take
longer
generally speaking you know it depends
honestly it's again it's just not all
calls are the same every such situation
is totally different and
just a dynamic situation that we're in
so it's hard to say one way or the other
but I would say yes if we had to lean in
One Direction a little bit longer to
really um de-escalate the situation and
have them use their their training to to
get
to the source of what's bothering them
and then be able to give them resources
if they don't want to go anywhere okay
great I mean in all this I I I'm
guessing that it's going to be pretty
unanimous up here that this is great
deserves a standing ovation and we need
more people but just emphasizing if we
can give the teams the breathing room
they need to you know to have hopefully
see more of these treated and resolved
on scene because I I know how I feel I
my job is the definition of non-emergent
but even I like if I get a text message
when I'm answering an email I get real
and I'm so I'm imagining these pending
calls building up and you're like oh man
you know so just any way that we can buy
some breathing room for these teams so
we can continue to see these good
outcomes
um I love that thank you very much thank
you you yeah thanks counselor councilor
Ben Cuomo thank you mayor BC Hiles Chief
Lisa thank you so much you know
in February or whenever Chief said I'm
coming back in six months don't ask me
for information individually I'm coming
back so when I saw that I was like it's
only been four months I got a little
nervous I was like this
has to be bad news talk about glass half
empty right so this is I'm feeling
really overwhelmed by this presentation
in the most positive of ways I think you
bringing Lisa today was really critical
for this presentation so I just really
want to appreciate it please extend our
gratitude to the light teams because
um
I just in like my gut and my core I know
that Crisis Intervention models work
right
matching the right first responder to
the right
emergency is the way we save lives is
the way we you know prevent future
crises and so you know matching mental
health professionals to mental health
calls is the right work it's the right
model
um and I and at least I was appreciated
that you brought up right that there's
we've had this conversation about crisis
now and I really believe that that's
where we need to go and we need to be in
the future right
mental health costs should only be
responded by mental health professionals
and we're just not there yet right the
system isn't there yet and I think what
we're you're showing us here today is
that this model does work as well
um and
um to me it's just been obvious and so I
just really really appreciate the
sorry somebody sent me an email the
other day and told me to stop touching
my mouth so I will stop doing that
um
so I just really wanted to note that and
appreciate that I did have a couple of
questions
um regarding some of the transfers or
can you talk about transfers light
from the crisis triage Center versus the
ER room
so at the light team transfers from the
CTC yeah so typically the lights you
will transfer to the CTC only not not So
Much from the CTC yes I'm sorry so on a
call Project light
transferring people to the ER versus the
CTC
so if we if we transfer to the ER that's
because we are the medic on scene or has
discovered that there's a medical issue
that needs to be dealt with first that's
the priority whatever that may be and
then they'll go to the emergency room to
get that treated so that way it doesn't
that's not a bigger issue later on and
then once that gets treated then our
case manager will follow up and then
we'll get them transported to if they
have a choice either could be CTC or FYI
Peak anything if they have their their
own therapist if that's what's best for
them so then our case manager follows up
very quickly with everything going on
because once they get into the emergency
department they could be there for
probably a couple hours right right I
mean just in conversations with like the
chief and other folks it's like the ER
is the last place you kind of want to be
right any First Responders PD anybody
like that's the last place you want to
be and so if you don't have the numbers
right now I would be really curious to
see the break down exactly of how many
times you're taking people to the ER
versus the CTC first
and again you don't have to have those
right now
and to kind of go back to what you were
saying a while ago um
within the the short four months of this
data Gathering and in operation it's
definitely shown that we are bridging
that Gap
from scene to source and from scene to
the proper Source
going back as the way it's always been
was we were always taking and this is
the analogy I use when I'm explaining
the light program
we were always taking the broken leg to
the dermatologist the dermatologist
wasn't going to do anything yep it's
broke now it's like we're taking that
broken leg to the orthopedic surgeon and
actually getting it treated and treated
the proper way by the proper person and
the light teams are definitely proving
that we're bridging that Gap okay
yeah thank you for that that's really
powerful I'm curious about youth calls
are you taking data on the amount of
calls light has responded specifically
to youth
we did I ran the report about a month
ago and we were only about I said 24.
Lisa if I can ask you to come up and
state your name please and then Lisa so
we've had 24 youth calls and 18 of those
have come from lcps during the day from
lcps okay
well okay 24. thank you
and then
I'm curious about like downtime I feel
like that was one of the concerns we had
early on right and what do you see are
they having very little down time
it's hard to say yeah day by day because
it's so different
um I don't think they have a lot of
downtime again whenever you're you're
you have an hour and 25 minutes average
and you're getting even just five calls
a day which is pretty normal your time
is taken up and then not only that
that's the calls are actually responding
to and making it on scene four you know
imagine if they made all the other ones
timed right that were pending and went
to all those so when you can get up to
just say it doesn't sound like a high
number but six to eight calls a day and
an average of an hour and 25 minutes per
call
there's not a whole lot of downtime okay
thank you and then
um my other question was going to be
around just this conversation about
future needs right whether it's another
team whether it's 24 hours when do you
think you want us to be ready for that
conversation when are you going to be
ready for that conversation I don't want
to push it too soon again I think the
data collection or it's not even been
six months yet so I want to make sure we
give it room to breathe and to like
collect really good Data before we start
having those conversations but just
curious as to what you're thinking I'm
going to defer back to what she said
later on this this fall maybe we'll have
a better idea great I think that's right
and then I did want to note that Sylvia
yesterday or last week sent me an email
just from it was a press release just
around the
the support the bipartisan support out
of committee Appropriations Committee
for this huge giant Bill and so right
the next step is it's going to go to the
full Senate so everybody crossed your
fingers and toes and all of that my toes
now are unfrozen thank you
um
Sonia for turning down the AC
but I just I I just really wanted to
thank
Senator heinrich's office in Sylvia for
staying close connection to you all and
to us for for these kinds of things I
think this is It's really exciting to be
on this list and and to be getting
recognition for the incredible work that
you have already been doing with Pro
with the mobile Integrated Health Unit
and now and now project light so I just
really wanted to
um
just really send my gratitude to all of
you thank you very much thank you
actually no just one last thing popped
in my mind because I had a meeting with
Chief story last week and I just wanted
to note that the 103 times PD called
that was 103 times where an officer was
dispatched without light they showed up
to the scene and then said oh we need
project light I just I when he told me
last week I just thought that was really
powerful and incredible and wanted to
just really recognize that yes thank you
thank you
thank you councilor bingomo mayor had to
step out so
um
I'm sitting here like a proud mama
um with so much gratitude it's probably
there's a reason why they call me fondly
I guess out there in the public Mama MPT
because I'm just so proud of the work
that you're doing when I envisioned this
years ago
um and to be here at this point kind of
having these this conversation is you
just can't I'm just beside myself so
thank you so much for the work that you
all have put into this I have a couple
of questions around access and what
you're seeing are gaps and barriers of
the folks that you're treating and
taking to the various places or not can
you give me an idea of what that what
those gaps and barriers look like today
I'm thinking like housing
um you know more consistent mental
health things of that things of that
sort or whatever else
so offhand I can't really think of too
many gaps and barriers because the
stakeholders that we've been working
with in the immediate area or Community
has just been really great to work with
so actually getting someone to a
facility whether it's one of their
choosing or one that the social worker
thought this would be best for you if
there's room available there really
hasn't been too many gaps and barriers
that I can even think of right now again
everybody's just been very open armed
with our teams that like I said all the
other agencies including the
stakeholders that we work with they they
will they accommodate the best they can
we don't really do anything as far as
housing goes because it's a 911 based
thing it's not a long-term resolution
for these individuals but um
you know other than just you know the
the gap or barrier is again if we have
one person on the team gone for the day
there's no team for the day and those
are some calls we're missing out on yeah
yeah
um so I guess I'm looking around when
you explore
um sending someone to the ER and they
might need five West who's been you know
closed for a significant amount of time
now what all right and maybe that's
related more maybe I need to ask the
question around recidivism are you
seeing folks that you've seen
maybe that day that week that month and
do you have that number
so at the beginning we had two
very frequent one but we finally got
them
some help in place and we have not been
seeing any uh
revisits within a 30-day period wow
that's really exciting very cool
and then
um
how are you working with the triage
Center and
there they embarked in sort of their new
crisis mobile unit what what what does
that look like and I know there have
been some
probably some difficult conversations
about the various and I'm just going to
say it out loud because I'm hearing some
hearing some things and I feel it's
important that we put it out there
related to the mobile crisis unit and
basically the philosophies that we're
using are very different
mayor mayor Pro tem fire chief Jason
Smith
we well I just learned last week at the
crisis now meeting that the CTC is no
longer Staffing a mobile crisis response
team
so their crisis now
response team is
on hold it's no longer in existence
so was that specific to youth Chief
Smith or to a youth and adults
adults
adults only okay do you know the reason
why that is
on the meeting it was referenced I
believe closer to their amount of call
volume or their responses not being
sustainable
interesting
because you have a hundred plus that are
pending calls
can you give me more information Lisa
yeah the Travis mayor mayor Pro tem so
um we just were we just sat on our
weekly crisis now
um meeting that we we meet with the city
and we meet with the county
um really to go over a coordinated
mobile crisis response and we were
informed that they're no longer running
their mobile crisis teams
however they will transport people but
they they're not responding in person to
mobile crisis the county has not
responded to youth thus far which is why
they've been working with FYI so FYI
right now we're actively involved with
the state and creating a mobile Christ
youth response which is called mobile
response and stabilization it's an mrss
model it's actually a model that comes
out of New Jersey so myself and some
other team members are actively writing
curriculum for that training right now
um I don't know how the state or when
the state will roll that out but they're
going to look for hubs and providers and
communities to provide that youth
response which is why we're staying
really connected with the city
it's and why we want to stay connected
with the county because we believe with
our ccbhc we can create that connection
to provide that full Continuum mobile
crisis Services can you just you gave an
acronym out there and I I know what it
is but I'm not sure what the others know
what that is yeah so a good opportunity
for you to say more
so FYI received the first comprehensive
community behavioral health clinic Grant
from samsa in the state and so we're in
a we are a implementation site so
um part of we have nine Services nine
core services that we have to provide in
that ccbhc model and one of them is
crisis response so regardless of whether
the county does it the city does it we
have to do it it's part of our
requirements and so we're really
motivated to work with both the county
and the city to make sure that we're
providing a coordinated effort so a lot
of our efforts are really going to be
focused on on a youth response but now
we're we're it's an opportunity for us
to think about how we can coordinate and
collaborate more with the county on both
that adult and youth response together
the at least the mobile crisis one if
they if they don't have it because
somebody has to have it so we're going
to have to do our best to make it work
earlier somebody had mentioned also
um
the I think it was you
um Johanna mentioned how the the model
is the crisis now model and initially
that's what our ccbhc wants to they want
us to do that right now our grant
providers have been very generous and
they know that we're we're partnering
with the city and that it's a
co-response model and they're okay with
that as long as those services are being
connected but we do have to work towards
a crisis now model and when we first
started this journey I I introduced a
kind of a brief model where the county
and us could respond to both Youth and
adult calls in the county and we would
leave City to respond to those higher
triaged calls and we had wrote down like
kind of a triage pattern where because
they're responding to really high high
risk High Acuity triage calls is what
they're smart responding to but not all
mental health calls are high risk High
Acuity and so I think in those
situations they could have a mobile
crisis now model response where they're
not that high Acuity and don't require
the scene Security in their case they're
responding to some of the highest Acuity
calls that we have in the city so
um so it was it was it was hard news to
hear about the CTC in terms of the
mobile crisis because that was our
partnership with them and with our ccbhc
but we're we're committed to to making
sure that we partner with the county in
some way shape or form to make sure that
those services are in the county thank
you I appreciate that um that
explanation I you know from one social
worker to another Lisa and the work that
you do in reflective supervision I think
it really is the way that we need to go
particularly with those that are in
public safety
um being trained up and using utilizing
reflective supervision on a lot of my
staff it was really interesting how you
come to work how you come and present
and sort of how your own trauma reflects
on the kind of case movement or lack
thereof and so when I heard concert
Graham your your um
husbands ah that breaks my heart but it
also it also your fire fighters will
benefit from relative supervision so
really consider you know scaling that
out because then you can work on you
know those kinds of feelings where
people don't have to leave not only you
know the career that they love but leave
the city that they've you know basically
have either been raised in or or you
know built up a life here because I I
get it I get it I've been in very
traumatic situations where sometimes I'm
driving down certain areas and thinking
I remember when this happened and that
happened but and I think you get past
those things right it lessens it lessens
over time so I believe that reflective
supervision is the way to go to really
address those kind of traumatic
traumatic situations so I'm very
appreciative of the openness and
um the training um and then I'll just
ask
as my last question Chief are there
other trainings that you fill your staff
might need to kind of move you know the
the needle on some of the stuff that
your maybe a questions that we have and
as kind of magic wand stuff if you had
you know infinite amount of money if
there's something that you know council
could help in that Arena
mayor Pro tem are you referring to the
the care for our own Personnel or that
um any training anything that you're
seeing that gosh if I just had this
amount of money this would really be
helpful
um not only for the for the light
program but your mih or anything else in
that Arena
I think you're asking if we had PD kind
of money
making sure the chief is paying
attention
uh I I'm sure there's a lot of things
and it's it's hard to ask for for more
when I feel like this budget season that
we just started we've we've gotten uh
nearly everything that we've we've asked
for we're bringing a new app-based uh
Support Program cortico uh following
PD's steps and and that of trying to
make that to our Personnel be have that
available we have our peer training
program that we've restarted we've got a
new battalion chief in charge of
wellness and safety so there's a lot of
things I think that are going to
continue to develop so I think that this
December going into the budget planning
season you'll kind of see those things
that we want to do I definitely have
been sitting back and watching uh what
Lisa has been doing in her clinical
oversight with our teams and how our
firefighter Medics have joined in and I
think that is somewhere where if we were
going to train our Personnel would be
with this motivational interviewing it
would be with this type of approach on
clinical oversight so that our
supervisors our Battalion Chiefs are
lieutenants who are in charge of a
company
can can sit down and provide that to our
people because you are you are right
there are places in town we don't want
to go through right like I avoid certain
places in town
don't want to go by there
that is just a result of of service
whether it's as a social worker As A
Firefighter when it comes to responding
for the team I want things to be
right-sized I I want the team to be able
to take care of themselves but also take
care of providing service whether that's
mih or light that the citizens see you
return on that investment and if we can
right size those things to where the
teams are just busy enough and just slow
enough
that's where we want to be kind of in
that that sweet spot
where we're hitting home runs every time
appreciate it Chief thank you so much
those are all my questions mayor thank
you
okay well thank you very much for the
presentation as was mentioned here and
and my exact Sentiments of you guys are
doing a fantastic job and I'm glad that
it appears to be working what it was
intended to do and
just keep keep it going so thanks
okay there's nothing further entertain a
motion to adjourn
second by councilor Graham that we
adjourn
Christine
this is on the mission to adjourn the
work session counselor beta yes cancer
Graham yes councilor Ben komal yes
councilor Koran yes counselor Flores is
absent councilor gandada yes mayor yes
okay we're adjourned it's 506 pm thank
you have a good evening
foreign