thank you
are we on
okay so good afternoon everyone Welcome
to our city council work session today
is Monday May 22nd 2023 it's
approximately 1 p.m if you please join
me in the Pledge of Allegiance please
thank you
so we have a special treat before we do
the pets of the week and jobs of the
week so if you all want to make your way
forward so there's an organization
called ndi or national dance Institute
based primarily out of Albuquerque but
they do serve several cities throughout
the oh they're going to come down okay
several cities throughout the state
they're a non-profit organization
serving over 7 800 students in 32
communities this year ndi uses dance and
music to teach tenacity and discipline
through joyful and rigorous dance
classes within the public schools
they've returned to Las Cruces after
many years and we're looking forward to
them growing the program here in the
future so without any further Ado thank
you so much
and I'm constructed with ndi in New
Mexico I'd like to introduce our
Economist on the keyboard stages of Mr
speaker
box person and graduate of New Mexico
State University I am so honored and
excited to be back here presenting today
because we have the intention of
teaching our humans here in this
community and growing our program in the
Las Cruces where I'm from so without
further Ado I'd like to introduce the
most important part of the show hey
Steve
thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you can have seats
you're so behind me are the dancers
class at Hermosa heights yeah
um we had a very short time to work
before representing this and they did
such a great job I'm so excited for you
to see everything that they are going to
present if you would like to come to
their performance on Thursday you're all
and we're going to show you what it's
like
your dad class so first thing we're
going to show you is how we warm up
dancers anyway
always watch this
[Music]
yeah
[Music]
and then you can go bend your knees
stretch your knees clothes
[Music]
oh
[Music]
all the way around touch it all the way
away
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
perfect
[Music]
do my best
happy
[Music]
birthday
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you're famous you're intelligent anybody
said anything to talk you heard our
message it's called the core4 it's a
chat that we teach dancers for
do their best Twitter give up and to be
healthy this is a message that we want
them to carry over into all aspects of
their lives whether it's in NBI in the
classroom they plan a sports team if you
can meet around but they are playing for
their American first job with them the
teacher said discipline and hard work
and tenacity and it'll help them
accomplish any goal that they have the
next thing we're going to show you is
how we teach a dance at ndi eight is the
magic number and we teach it in sections
we call chapters since we're telling the
story with our body we start with
chapter one it's called the Zia shape
dancers are you ready
I go first and then you go say shake up
high okay
then shake it down go go
[Music]
fast
you know that's super high super low
strength and stretch
[Music]
one two three go one two three go five
six seven eight five six seven eight
seven okay
[Music]
counts one two three four five six let's
go
[Music]
okay audience so we're gonna show you is
how we Tessa to make sure they can do it
all by themselves and then it has a lot
of energy are you guys ready yeah yeah
here's the first test for that chapter I
want to see everybody Duprees just only
on count one if one person interested we
gotta take two and try again we'll Kathy
breeze on
one five six seven eight five
oh yeah
five six ready count one two three one
okay soccer ball mistakes which is fine
is it okay to mess up at NES
[Music]
try again five six seven count one two
three four
audience youth around the tablet you
want them to freeze on everyone today
six okay
yeah
go one two three four five six
[Music]
hey
yeah
five six seven go one two three four
five six
times
[Applause]
this time I want to do it oh
[Music]
let's go
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
all right
have a seat nicely done all right so um
we play a lot of games in FBI and one of
the things that we do is have energy
competitions to see how exciting it can
be so I'm going to cut these dancers in
half and make a tea here Elena
I just cut it right here
I think the red chillies what does that
make you guys
it's going to be accomplished in the red
versus
[Music]
I don't care okay now she can act as a
friendly competition
okay I'm turning this audience
um bigger kid you're gonna be a judge in
just a second just just so you know
trying to face the audience this way
okay show us chapter one and audience
you're gonna decide based on a plot who
has more energy
[Music]
go
[Music]
okay don't worry that's crazy okay
[Applause]
um
red had more energy or the green go
ahead
red
[Applause]
thank you
[Applause]
that's right pick two people to join
your team pick two people to join your
team
round number two
turn things this way red has the first
round so it's great to come back this
time ready here we go hey guys
[Music]
let's hear it for the Green Team
[Applause]
please first
[Music]
oh it doesn't matter but I guess let's
just start on my left great
okay so be your kid you're looking for
lots of energy
it's okay if they make a mistake we're
just looking for a lot of energy
[Applause]
[Music]
remember that baby
[Applause]
[Music]
the tie breaker
I'm gonna have to go with the red
[Applause]
Cross Your Arms
I'm so proud of them
turn your face this way we're at the end
of our presentation and we have a
special way of saying goodbye and thank
you we take it from a ballet tradition
called reference where we show a step to
each other if we're working so hard I'm
going to say thank you dancers you say
thank you Ally and they'll pick her up
are you ready I've ever thank you dancer
[Music]
thank you Mary Kathy thank you council
members
[Music]
goodbye goodbye
[Music]
we also like to teach the dancers how to
say thank you in goodbye in different
languages and we have a healthy goodbye
that we're going to show you today so
this is our Ferrari goodbye and we're
trying to get the message but they need
to take care of this vessel for really
your bodies if you're going to love
healthy life are you ready okay you can
count on the steering wheel
my what color
what color are you to be Doctor Who's in
oh yeah
burgers and I go first because
[Music]
my body's just that cool my eyes
[Music]
running fast fact
ORS
[Music]
veggies for my brain veggies
[Music]
okay
I love myself
[Music]
healthy artists
[Music]
[Applause]
it looks great hit it Steve
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
okay that was a really really nice to
have so thank you Hermosa Elementary
for your participation in ndi okay so
we're going to go ahead and get started
we've got our pets of the week
Amy De Felix from our Animal Services
before we do that just in case the mayor
Pro tem has any comments let's I need a
motion a second to allow mayor Pro tem
Cassandra Gandara to participate
telephonically
second what should be by councilor
Florida second by councilor Ben KOMO to
allow mayor Pro tem Cassandra Gandara to
participate in our in our work session
telephonically
this is on a motion to allow councilor
Gandara to participate telephonically
counselor beta yes counselor Graham yes
counselor Ben Como yes counselor Koran
counselor Flores
oh yes
counselor Gandara yes mayor yes thank
you okay so now we're going to go ahead
and start with our pets of the week and
Amy De Felix are you on Zoom
hello yes I'm here can you hear me yes
yes we can see hear you you might be
able to hear the puppies in my office as
well
um but usually the webcam mic is pretty
good at muting background sound but
hello I am Amy De Felix I am one of the
rescue coordinators for the animal
services and then every week I present
pets of the week so we'll start by this
week let me share my screen hopefully we
don't have any difficulties this time
alrighty
and let's just start off with Azure
thank you
his name is Frank his number is
61134 and he says I'm a quiet boy who
purrs like a motor I'm also a diligent
biscuit eater whenever I think I'm about
to get some pets you might also notice
that I'm more of a tree dwelling cat
meaning I like to be up high to hang out
and Survey the area my ideal family has
a cat Trio tomb for being a lounge in
and they'd also give me all the love and
pets I could ask for
and then we also have our dog of the
week his name is Thor and his number is
55595 and he says I was once in a home
with a family but I've been but I've
since been at the ascnb for almost seven
months I need to be taught how to become
an unleash but I'm eager to please and
treat motivated I'm good with other dogs
and I'm very sweet with people I have a
lot of pent up energy that my future
family will help me work out in a
healthy way but my unconditional love is
the best reward
and for our adoption events this
Saturday we will be at Pioneer Bank on
University then 705 East University
Avenue we will be there from 9 A.M to 12
p.m we'll have some dogs some wonderful
fabulous canines to
um for you guys to meet and they'll all
be already fixed so it'll be easy it'll
be easy just to adopt them and then take
them home right away
um and they're definitely waiting to
meet you all
um and now to keep on with the month
topic of the month that I've decided to
produce hidden season
um I'd like to share some recent
statistics I pulled these uh it'll be
from May 1st to 22nd so the entirety of
the month so far
um of how many capsicans have come in so
and since the beginning of the month of
a total of 316 cats in total came in
that um and out of that 316 117 which is
27 or our kittens that are too young to
be adopted and so in our data reporting
um we classify them neonates zero to
four weeks old and baby which is four to
eight weeks old
um and eight weeks is the age that we
are allowing that we are old enough to
be adopted well so anything under that
like that the baby would be considered
it's all too young and through with
these two demographics we heavily rely
on Fosters and resting commitments in
order to increase the life savings on
these kittens because if they can't be
adopted the only way they can get out of
the Asam other than I guess waiting
until they're they grow up and hopefully
they're still helping to be adopted is
for a rescuer Foster to take them in as
soon as possible I have some charts to
kind of help visualize it this is just
the total cat intake
um the whole entire pie is the 316 cats
let me see if I can get the laser
pointer 316 cats so a good majority 45
percent was adults between one and eight
years so that's
a good decent amount and a lot of these
um not a lot but a good portion of these
are also cats that are too fairly they
have to be TNR and stuff like that but
then there's also these two portions
which uh take up okay
it's 37 up this is the um actually the
babies which is the 38 30 percent of the
neonates no this is backwards sorry the
babies uh four to eight weeks old or we
had 79th come in and then the neonate
newborns the bottled cookies
come in just
I apologize
um
and these are the ones that we
definitely put a more uh deeper focus on
posting for Fosters or rescues to get
them out because they are the ones that
that's the only way they can get out
holistically
and I have another chart it's the
breakdown of the 117 kittens which is
117 ones that are too young to be
adopted and just to kind of showcase how
um we're gonna risk out and Fosters
really impacts this
um
all right and just in general the the
biggest I guess the biggest thumb which
is the 26 Oxford
um this is the current status of the
kittens by the way I should mention 31
or 26 are kittens that have are the
status is currently deceased that
doesn't necessarily mean that they were
euthanized but it does mean um when they
are this young it is very easy for them
to like we call it failure of the Thrive
and they pass away and it's very
unfortunate but it's pretty common when
they're away from their mother you can
aim a foster situation oh it's it's kind
of a an epidemic I guess to animal
rescue sees all the time even if we have
a foster system sometimes the little
ones will just pass away
um if they're away from their mother
or 18 of these 117 kittens are currently
in Foster available for rescue tags or I
guess until they're old enough to become
adoptable
um this 19 of these kittens are 16
um have been transferred out we label it
says we're not pending us acceptance but
that's transferred out to rescues
um 16 of these little guys already went
to a rescue so they are in the care of a
leveling like non-kill no kill
non-profit
um to help kind of raise them and have
them Thrive and has now adopted into
homes in those areas oh and then we have
17 or 15 of the kittens that are
currently available for rescue to Foster
so they are here um they are old enough
to stay here by themselves but they're
still too young for adoption so these
are the ones that are kind of in the
limbo state where they kind of are
essentially forced to hang out here
until they are either grow up enough to
be adopted or we have a phosphora risky
we're going to take them in before that
um so these chunks are definitely and
then we have Strays the ones that are
already adopted
um straight monsters and so on and so on
but the biggest chunk
highlights kind of how important
excuse and Fosters
[Music]
and so because the fridge you'd be
willing to help out to sign up to Foster
definitely not even just with us but
Fosters helping them Foster local
nonprofits like APA or pets now or
others it helps the whole Community
during kitten season but thank you
okay thank you Amy we appreciate that
information
okay next we're going to have Irene para
from The Economic Development Department
give us our jobs of the week
good afternoon mayor city council Irene
Parra with economic development
see you there
I'm not seeing 522.
well
there it is
empty
well that's not good
not sure where they went
Adrian are you available I'm not sure
where this presentation went
thank you
work sessions
okay
and it's empty
well I know one job that's open at the
end of the year will be the mayor of Las
Cruces
starts January 1st 2024.
[Laughter]
okay
oh well what happened
I mean we can we can double up okay next
next
council meeting okay no problem
okay well thank you very much for that
and so with with that
we have three items on the agenda first
one being the civilian police oversight
commission discussion we have three
speakers will be Dr Neeson Peter Goodman
and Dr Bobby green
so um Doctor Who's going to go first
yeah yeah you're welcome to either speak
there at the
at the table or if you want to come to
the
podium
all we need you to do is just state your
name and
Peter Goodman and before I start I gotta
say I enjoyed that performance
particularly because I have been
watching one very similarly very similar
to that from Seattle where my great
grandson whose birthday this is was
turning 10 and was performing
but so it kind of made me sad as well as
enjoying it but I want to thank you all
for scheduling this discussion today
obviously we think it's a critical one
and so do some of you
I'll briefly introduce the subject why
we need a Citizens police oversight
committee or board or review board
and how it would help Las Cruces Dr Earl
Nissen will then talk about how it's
working in some other places
particularly where there are Hybrid
models involving OIC as I think we might
end up doing here a few folks approve
this and then NAACP chair Dr Bobby green
will discuss in more detail the nature
of the problem here and what else is
being done or trying to be done about
that
and then finally one of the counselors
urged us to address legal issues how do
we how does our proposal comport with
the city Charter first of all
with the existence of other committees
in the city and in particular really
important with the CBA the collective
bargaining agreement of the Las Cruces
Police Association and similar rights
that are embedded in our statutes such
as the peace officers Bill of Rights
um spoiler alert it's fully compatible
with all those
I had intended to start by playing the
38 second video in which Amelia Baca is
shot to death I was asked not to do that
um so obviously we won't without getting
into the details of that most of you've
probably seen it that video is troubling
even law enforcement professionals that
I've shown it to or talked to about it
who think that the shooter did not
disobey any rules
are really troubled by it and think they
would have handled it otherwise
two points from the standpoint of what
we're talking about today one is a year
and a month out
we have no information from the chief of
police the third Judicial District
Attorney
the city manager the Attorney General of
the state of New Mexico
nothing from nobody and we don't know if
the officer is going to be charged or
has been cleared
um but the other point is that if the
Las Cruces Police Department's training
and internal rules insulate the shooter
from discipline the public should
understand that and understand why and a
cpoc or board would be looking in to
help helping make that clear but also
into helping to improve those rules and
training
as Dr Green will discuss Amelia Baca is
not alone folks could reasonably argue
over the details of any of these
shootings but I don't think anyone could
deny that there have been a
disproportionate number of what we'll
call
questionable shootings for a city or
size in in the last few years
so what would a Citizens police
oversight board do
many things first obviously it would
bring the public into the process
focusing more brains on any problem at
issue we often reach some wisdom but in
addition here a diverse board including
people often marginalized in the U.S and
even Las Cruces would bring fresh ideas
to the discussion and by opening up the
discussion we'd both improve law
enforcement and educate the community
the board would review policies
practices and procedures and recommend
improvements it might have identified a
problem like the Chokehold that officers
Mills are used on Mr Valenzuela and
which was later abrogated as an approved
tactic it might or might not have
identified that we don't know because it
didn't exist
there's also to give you another example
of what I would hope a board would do
there's a legitimate issue about how far
you chase somebody who's got a warrant
out on him or her for maybe drinking in
public urinating in public DWI whatever
it might be but not a violent crime uh
obviously if somebody if you stop a car
and somebody in there has a warrant for
a really violent offense or is a present
danger to the public you want to get
that person off the streets but if it's
somebody for some non-violent certainly
non-capital offense maybe you chase the
person but at some point let them go
don't get into a fight a big argument or
a chase that could endanger bystanders
the police officer and or the victim so
that kind of decision which the chief of
police gets to make the public also has
an interest in because we could be
bystanders we could be suspected wrongly
of something or our my great-grandson
who is of color could be running from
some warrant that doesn't mean anything
and get in a fight with the police and
be dead
so there are those kinds of issues that
it would address
cpco cpoc or board would also
enhance police communication with the
public first of all it would be open to
and encourage and likely gain some trust
in people who are afraid to bring
complaints about the police to the
police because wrongly I think they
probably think they they may think they
will get to leave the police station if
they bring a
complain about the police to the police
it also would help explain the police
there are a lot of situations where
somebody in law enforcement does
something that doesn't make sense to a
bystander but actually is what that
person has to do in that situation
cpoc would not only help communicate
that to the public but help be believed
by the public
um evidence from other cities indicates
the crime Rises when there are
well-publicized incidents such as we've
had of police violence or alleged police
violence if a board could limit those at
all that would not only help with our
public treasury but might help reduce
violence against the police make them
less of a Target
encourage more people who are witnesses
to cooperate further officers who are
aware that a board may be taking a look
at what they've done even in minor
incidents
and see complaints they may tend to
conform their conduct to the rules a
little more consistently
we're not wedded to the language of the
proposed ordinance there's room for
tinkering
these these councils as Dr Nissen will
be saying work in many many City cities
they've dealt with the same kinds of
problems we would have to hear whether
you call it a commission or a board we
need one only a couple of points seem
essential and after I mention them I'll
sit down and let Earl take over but
first is that the board or commission
get all documents not just with the
police chief chooses to send
secondly that it's a diverse board with
no one unduly biased against either the
police or any ethnic group
bottom line
and I'll be brief on this because I
think that Dr Green's going to address
it more fully what we're doing is a
spectacular failure whether you count by
dead people by corpses or by huge
settlements where the city didn't even
like its position enough to even think
about going to trial
and while ultimately the safety of our
police officers is essential and a top
priority
some potential changes might help on
that score and other suggestions would
improve citizens safety without unduly
endangering police
ultimately the knowledge that working
officers have of what they see on the
street is essential but opening the
discussion up in a way that forces the
police Administration to look at
Alternatives but leaves law enforcement
able to reject suggestions and advice
cannot hurt
Dr Nissen
Mr Mayor
I was going to ask how how many of you
are here to speak about
this issue
can you can you raise your hands and
keep them up for just a minute please so
I've got one just one on this side
two three four five six
okay thank you
okay before I want to I just need you to
state your name doctor I'm sorry
listen and I live in Las Cruces
um I want to make some assumptions
before we say and tell you what we would
like to see in the oversight board
now you should have a copy of this I
think she distributed to you
um there seems to me there's some
interest on the part of the council for
discussion on police reform because of
approving this work session
second assumption that there are over
200 citizens police oversight boards in
the United States giving support to the
idea of having a Citizens oversight
board in Las Cruces
also there are no two oversight boards
alike
fourth the oir is respected and a
competent organization to do inspections
of police complaints and works with
citizens oversight boards and making
certain recommendations are carried out
by the police departments
five that an ordinance establishing a
police silver psych board would assist
the Council by having an outside group
that would monitor police complaints
monthly and making public reports to the
council
6 that the present oyr contract does not
cover investigating critical incidents
such as police shootings resulting in
injury or death
we are shouldn't cover these incidents
as Mr knock on CEO of oyar and I heard
him say this at a public meeting that I
virtually attended and you're free in
Eureka California he said for example as
an Anaheim we are immediately notified
of an in-custody death
officer-involved shooting or another or
in another critical incident and then we
work with the officer and city manager
to provide some preliminary information
to the community-based review board
about what is happening in your city
regarding police involvement in a
critical instant
this would include having an oar
represented visiting the site of a
critical incident along with members of
the review board
oir would continue to keep the review
board apprised of the investigation
this type of investigation could have if
in the contract had been done in the
LCPD shootings I am assuming critical
incidents investigations will be added
to the new oir contract
seven having the citizens police
oversight board would open up lines of
communication between lcpde in the
community
that the city hiring An Inspector
General for the oversight committee only
increases more secrecy since the
oversight meetings are closed to the
public
I do an inspection of public records
requests of the minutes for this
committee
of note during the December 21st
2022 the oversight committee meeting a
discussion took place about having
public attend their meetings
Mr Tucker member of the oversight
committee said
if they have an agenda meaning the
public that they are trying to draw us
into then let's get it out in the open
get it filmed we can tell everybody no
they presented it had nothing to do with
us they got their five minutes of fame
and they were tossed out
that doesn't sound very favorable for
public participation
also the Inspector General falls under
the city legal department so is not an
independent inspector who would possibly
be handling Police Department complaints
the job description for this
for this position does not directly
assign inspection of police complaints
as an assigned Duty we are paying this
person 124
000 annually
no number nine the citizens review
boards and yes
U.S go by many different names
we have in the ordinance used oversight
board and have discussed that possibly
has managerial connotations
we're willing to discuss this after our
presentation so in my presentation I
will refer to the citizens review board
for Las Cruces
because the time constraints let me
Begin by telling what model of a Citizen
Police review board we are requesting
after reviewing the five cities
oversight plans that I've given you in
advance
number one we would use the hybrid model
as defined by me call which I've
included in the header sheet for the
five City summaries
first a city needs an independent
oversight board established by an
ordinance that monitors complaints and
is able to participate in the
investigations of the complaints
the city must employ a professional
investigative organization to conduct
the investigations of the police
complaints
this organization must be independent
from a city council the police
department and the citizens review board
oir is already contracted by Las Cruces
to conduct investigations
an adoption of the proposed ordinance
would give us the second part of the
hybrid model
all five cities reviewed have this
relationship between oir and established
citizens board
another purpose of the review board
would be to cooperate with LCPD in
sponsoring Community Education and
events that would help explain policing
in Las Cruces
number two the hiring of an independent
position to be called liaison or
independent monitor
who they will hired to collect all
complaints of LCPD Internal Affairs the
mayor's office City counselors and
oversight members are from others
responsibly receiving complaints because
we relearn oer at the present time does
not get all of the complaints from the
police department
this position would develop a process of
getting the complaints to the review
review board for investigation and
getting the complaints to oir
this position would with the assistance
of oer
obtained camera recordings and all
police reports that leak that can
legally be shown from an incident
oer would put together the final
investigation report and sent back to
the Monitor and review board
the review board would within legal
boundaries keep the community apprised
of what is happening with an
investigation
the final oir reports would monthly be
given to the review board to re-released
to the public after a complete
investigation is conducted of the
complaint
the monitor will coordinate meetings
with the police department and the
review board to review policy or
procedural changes from Oar
recommendations
the review board would be on the agenda
for one of the monthly meetings of the
city council to review the
investigations and allow public input
about the investigations
the reporting would be done within the
law of protecting officers privacy
number five a budget for our proposal
would include
salary of full or part-time
independent monitor
would be 50
000 or a hundred thousand if full-time
it would depend on a number of
complaints that have to be difficult
with whether it be full-time or
part-time
and then an important part is
transcribing a minute
excuse me
can you talk into the microphone yes sir
another fifty thousand I'm sorry
um I'll go through those again and if I
didn't hear a budget for our proposal
would include salary of full or
part-time liaise and independent monitor
would be fifty thousand or a hundred
thousand
we are paying or 75
000 and then transcribing of the minutes
meetings and complaint investigations 50
000.
this proposal is supported by the
systems used in the police review boards
in the five cities I have described to
have iterations that meet the Criterion
of the hybrid model of police oversight
we believe that this type of oversight
can help assure the community that
proper investigations are made of police
misconduct
by opening the lines of communication
between the community and the LCPD
citizens would gain positive feelings
for living more safely in Las Cruces
our proposal would give the city council
a better opportunity for having more
accountability and transparency of the
police department
in the five cities packet you have the
ordinances that created oversight boards
in Eureka California Santa Monica
California and Boulder Colorado
you can compare our proposed ordinance
but these three with the understanding
that these communities are having
successful police oversight
I want to add to the Boulder Colorado
summer in the packet
last Tuesday night Peter Goodman and I
did a one-hour Zoom with the co-chairs
of the police oversight panel of Boulder
they reviewed their procedures for doing
investigations
but the added because panel members
participate directly in the
investigations of the complaints they
are given a 200 stipend monthly and
co-chairs each kid 250 dollars a month
now I'd like to turn it over to Dr Green
thank you Dr Neeson Bobby green
president of the Dona Ana County NAACP
mayor miyanka Shima manager P league and
Ladies of the city council
thank you for the opportunity to to
listen to us today we appreciate it very
much and we do not take this lightly
the city of Las Cruces have you have
heard has already paid millions of
dollars to settle excessive use of force
lawsuits
I am aware of at least four additional
multi-million dollar lawsuits currently
on the docket
those victims
who are represented in those lawsuits
they had families we saw these beautiful
children up here dancing and looking so
happy and healthy it's a beautiful thing
to see the victims of this excessive
force by the police I've seen the videos
um all of those victims
had families they had children they had
grandchildren Amelia Baca was killed in
front of her
grandchildren and her children and so
civil rights have been ignored
basic human decency has been ignored
people have been killed families have
been forever broken this is happening on
your watch
but more importantly
this is happening on all of our watch
the entire city of Las Cruces it is
happening on our watch
we're paying for this problem we are all
paying for this problem all of us are
taxpayers we are all including you our
paying for this problem
surely we should be able to collaborate
to work together on a solution
Las Cruces now has the dubious
distinction of being in the same
category as other cities Ferguson Newark
Minneapolis Louisville
Albuquerque all of those cities
have been called upon
by the Department of Justice they've
been investigated by the Department of
Justice and sadly it's time for Las
Cruces to do the same therefore I have
been I've already contacted on behalf of
the donana county NAACP and the citizens
of Las Cruces I've already contacted the
Department of Justice
I've already requested an investigation
that is what we do when Injustice needs
to be addressed as such I've invoked the
authority given to me by the Dona Ana
County NAACP and the national double ACP
and I have requested an investigation by
the Department of Justice
so we have two options as I see it
one
we can tell the Department of Justice
that we have made progress and we are
collectively working toward a solution
ourselves together
or
we can wait for the Department of
Justice to recommend a solution
the bottom line we cannot allow
the excessive use of force by the Las
Cruces Police Department to continue on
our watch
I'll close with a statement from former
School Board member Maria Flores and her
husband
Ernest Dr Ernest Flores even though we
are not present we are deeply committed
to honoring Amelia Baca and all Las
Cruces citizens that have had their
right to life or their health taken from
them by reactive policing we believe in
working together to provide a better
relationship with the LCPD through the
use of effective policing while
protecting the human rights of all
citizens by supporting a Citizens police
oversight committee or a hybrid model as
Dr Neeson mentioned the city and its
citizens can promote organizational
change successful police reform would
reduce liability create trust improve
accountability police reform is not too
much to ask for
to protect and preserve human life it is
also honoring those who have been
needlessly lost I agree with uh
the former School Board member
and I will say Las Cruces on behalf of
the donniana county NAACP
I want to thank you in advance for your
willingness to work together to break
this cycle of excessive use of force by
our hour
our police department and as senior as
Senora Flores said
police reform is not too much to ask for
thank you
okay thank you Dr Green so with that I'm
going to turn it over to our Council
city council if they have it ask any
questions
oh I'm sorry there's more
okay
I'm going to talk about the and again
I'm still Peter Goodman for the record
I'm going to talk about how The Proposal
comports with the city Charter statutes
in New Mexico
um but the other existence of other
committees in the city and most
importantly the CBA collective
bargaining agreement floss with the Las
Cruces Police Association I'll try to be
brief both because legal stuff is boring
and because at least the charter part of
it I suspect you folks already know even
if not everybody does but the city
Charter in no way precludes creating a
board like we've talked about
as you know citizen City Charter section
2.04 provides quote all powers the city
shall be vested in the council except as
otherwise provided by law or the charter
and the council shall provide for the
exercise thereof
the charter further provides that the
administration of the city's Affairs
shall be divided into organizational
units established by the council and
quote under the direction of supervision
of the city manager
such organizational units include Fire
Department police department I think the
city clerk
Etc they do actual things as part of the
city conducting its business
in section 2.05 c provides the neither
the mayor the council or any individual
counselor can interfere with the city
manager's discharge of those duties and
if this board were given powers to hire
or discipline officers
deploy police in the streets change the
procedures of LCPD that arguably would
violate the charter but the board is an
advisory committee not an organizational
unit although it's to have access to all
pertinent documents it'll use those to
make recommendations not to fire or
suspend people or anything else
they're basically in a advisor committee
is defined as a body that provides
non-non-binding strategic advice it has
no decision-making Powers
it doesn't perform as an organizational
unit obviously
so it is not precluded it's worth noting
also perhaps that under New Mexico law
and the city Charter the council has the
power to protect its inhabitants keep
the peace and Order and to establish
boards and commissions section 4.05 of
the charter specifically grants the
council broad authority to quote provide
a method for receiving and acknowledging
and striving to resolve complaints and
grievances unquote the proposed board as
an advisory body is simply a vehicle to
receive and investigate such complaints
and to provide several varieties of
advice designed ultimately to help you
make Las Cruces a better and safer place
for all
so in short you can do this under the
charter if you choose to do it now mayor
miyagashima has suggested at one point
that he could turn one of the existing
committees into such a board
and maybe you could turn a deer into a
horse too or a packing card into a wine
bottle
so I'll just take a moment to address
that
the two existing committees are not
designed to be a police review board
that's not their expertise nor could
they be stretched to be one first
they're so secret that even City
councilors will tell you that they have
a hard job finding out what goes on at
those committees unless they happen to
sit on that particular committee
now the mayor tried to prevent the work
session that we're now thankfully having
on this and then suggested well we can
pass this on to one of the Committees
and a counselor immediately pointed out
that that was perhaps suggested because
see the mayor could use the committee to
kill the proposal
turning such a small selective body
secretive body into a citizen-oriented
board would be quite a task before
citizen-oriented board designed to shine
light on these matters and cooperate
with disaffected community members
uh also each of those committees
presumably does something useful for the
city I know there's some good people on
it uh like former counselor and Hospital
executive Jack Eckman
municipal judge Kieran Ryan and these
small committees that keep what they're
doing Secret must be doing something
that's helpful to the city and if you
turned that commitment either of those
committees into a big public deal with a
whole lot of people
it would then you'd have to replace it
for what it used to do because you'd
have a bunch of people chosen for their
relationship to law enforcement issues
it would be much more public
a secretive board is just a bad place to
start
for a board that's designed to help
community relations you know fix
elective transparency and a shortage of
fresh ideas by convening secretive
committee with very little diversity and
adding a couple more people
now the most important part of what I
need to address is the how this comports
with the Las Cruces Police Association
city of Las Cruces collective bargaining
agreement and it does comport with it
several of us have reviewed the CBA
carefully and there's not a real problem
here
um should note that this board is much
different from internal affairs and the
important part of the CBA the
Professional Standards section discusses
what the how investigations
by Internal Affairs will go and some of
the rules and that sort of thing this is
a vehicle for enhanced Communications
and trust between law enforcement
citizens with the responsibility to
investigate all aspects of police
department and make recommendations on
policy procedures improve training
Communications and discipline in
specific cases and again the board has
no authority to discipline anybody the
CBA nowhere provides that it is the
exclusive way for Las Cruces to address
police matters and how the police
department is working or might be
improved it nowhere suggests City can't
seek an officer's testimony on pertinent
matters most of the cba's Professional
Standards section guarantees rights that
the board would also observe I think it
would have to
not only on the under the contract but
in many cases under state law advised
the officer subject in advance limit
questioning to two hours or less permit
a union representative to be present
office afford the officer the right to
present testimony and documents that he
or she might want to that's what the
committee the board would do anyway and
the officer would be paid for time
testifying before the board as per that
provision of the CBA and the officers
Garrity rights against
self-incrimination would be fully
respected
further if you read the the CPA to the
extent that the association association
might complain of any of the board's
actions or suggestions section 45
provides for the resolution of such
problems it provides quote
the employer and the association May
upon mutual agreement and negotiation
place in effect a memorandum of
understanding which may change
provisions of this agreement or address
matters which may become issues of
mutual concern from time to time
if there were any problems that the
Police Association had with the function
of the board that would be just such a
matter of mutual interest
the board would require the LCPD to
provide document documents and would ask
officers to testify if they chose not to
that would be up to the chief of police
whether that was a disciplinable matter
the one point that the
well the board would have trouble
observing it because in when they
renewed the city and the police
renegotiated the agreement they screwed
up they had a provision that said
basically that the officer will be made
aware of the complainant's identity all
complainants identity
except if and they had in the previous
version and the law states that if you
if the police chief determines that it
would be dangerous or impede the
investigation to name the complainant
then that won't happen unfortunately
screwed up and they uh
they deleted all but the first three
words of the paragraph that said that
part but the board would figure to not
Identify some of the complainants
because they would have come to the
board on that understanding
the exception provided in the bargain
Union and in the law should authorize
that and as a practical matter I think
the police officer in most cases having
done the investigation written the
reports on the basic case
probably can make an educated guess as
to who the complaint it was
I would further note that the hundreds
of other cities using a cpoc also have
police unions and also have worked out
anything that needs to be worked out
it's not impossible
in closing
I just want to say reiterate that such
oversight boards are helping create
police accountability in a lot of places
no Charter law or Union contract
prevents you from taking this step it's
likely to help it's hard to see any way
that it could hurt and we're happy to
respond to questions from the council I
understand we understand that this is a
politically risky step
but if you don't try this very promising
idea
if you don't try it now because it's not
politically convenient how will you feel
when you watch the next video of a
citizen getting killed by our police
officers your police officers
if you do not try to make a real
difference what will you say to the
family of the deceased to the citizens
who are tired of seeing vast sums paid
out to litigants where the city's case
is so hopeless the city doesn't even
attempt to trial or what will you say to
the Department of Justice
Representatives who arrive responding to
the NAACP proposal asking well what has
the city done
thank you very much and we'll stand or
rather sit for questions
so that concludes your presentation
Peter okay uh yes I'll let my colleagues
ask questions
I would like to clarify one thing Peter
when I had talked about The Advisory
Board I mentioned that I currently have
a mayor's Advisory Board and I use the
example of a veterans Advisory Board and
you know they provide information to me
and so I don't know if if either you've
misunderstood that or I don't know what
you'd heard but I wasn't trying to turn
a particular board in they have separate
duties but nonetheless let me start with
mayor Pro tem see if she has any
questions and if not then I'll go down
to counselor Flores
do you have any questions mayor Pro Temp
um thank you mayor thank you to the
to the came forward
[Music]
I'm wondering if we have other
organizations present like the ASA you
the union to speak to that or maybe my
question is more around
um
maybe to Mr peely and the negotiations
that do occur with our Union
um ifo is there something that you can
help kind of
of clarify for us as it relates to
something like this and the Union
mayor councilman
you know I have not spoken to the unions
I hate to speak in the in uh
for them but
um just on the surface we internally and
stop we recognize that this could be a
concern
um
just the way we read it the way we
interpret it but I haven't
approached the subject with the Union
yet
so I don't know if I have any
information coming from them but again
just from my staff internally we look at
this as something that does cause
concern we can anticipate concern coming
from them
but I hate to speak in there
you know in their behalf or for any
representation from them
no I I didn't I want you to speak
half of the Union I just wanted to see
if someone on staff and I would assume
there's a union representative in the
audience and if there's not I'm not sure
Chief Dominguez has had that opportunity
to to have the conversation and then
secondly when is our Union
um foreign Union contract up for
negotiation
remember 10 people here
so we just concluded not too long ago
the negotiations for the Union contract
so it's not not up for a couple years
but um I don't believe there is there
are any many representatives from the
union in the audience
um
but again our thought was to hear hear
the presentation if this was something
that the council was considering we
wouldn't
that would be the first place we would
go let's talk to the union about what
they would
what concerns they would have if any
thank you
and then I understand that there's uh is
there a presentation by the ACLU or will
they be mayor I'm speaking
um at public comment
thank you mayor Pro Tim I was not aware
of any other presentations I did see a
gentleman raise his hand he most likely
I will be part of the when I allow the
public to have some some comment but I
can tell you based on the time the
amount of time that we're probably going
to give to the residents is going to be
a small amount of time each
because we have two other items on the
agenda
thank you mayor those are all the
questions that I have thus far
okay councilor Florida
lineup yes uh thank you mayor and thank
you Dr Green and Dr Neeson and Dr
Goodman and JD some of you don't like to
be called doctors but thank you all for
your very hard work presentation of your
very hard work in looking at the five
cities that you selected
um
the demographics were quite different
and the only one that uh maybe comes
close amazingly enough is Davis
California which is a University Town
and um
has Dr Martin Luther King law school
there too as well but um so and in that
town the NAACP the Mexican-American
group and another group
were really behind this
so I'm happy to see this however all of
the municipalities that you presented to
us
seem that as seemed to be the Inception
of the oversight boards have been pretty
recent
so there's really no data at least not
in the reports that you presented that
have any kind of outcomes
in terms of you know has crime gone down
has there been less brutality has there
been less you know this that and the
other uh notwithstanding I think that
what you've done is a phenomenal job
it's it's very well done I know that our
political analyst
Sergio Ruiz prepared and won some data
and he actually included Beaumont Texas
which is
I think
Northeast of Houston or north or yeah
but at any rate that and that one too
doesn't really have a demographic uh
breakdown but I think that would be
helpful in terms of
having if it's at all possible in terms
of having Apples to Apples type of thing
um
and then also the population and the
racial police officers is different than
what we have as well there was a there
was one city that had a population that
was close to us and that would be Bolder
Boulder Colorado
and I really don't know about the
demographics there either but
um
I I really like the fact that all of you
emphasize the fact that
this would not in any way have any
wouldn't keep the oversight committees
from functioning and that we would have
transparency which has been lacking and
and I agree with you Mr Goodman that we
have settled too many cases I've always
said fight them fight them
but for whatever reasons they have
settled so um
so in terms of
um
and also in terms of the akin to the
demographics is there any data as to
which neighborhoods are affected and
[Music]
um
yeah and how these changes would affect
outcomes
and then if a police officer some of
these included having a police officer
appear before the oversight board would
they have counsel legal counsel not one
of us there but legal counsel president
they would have they would have if they
wanted a union representative
I would imagine that if they wanted they
would I mean I'm not on the board that
would be for the board to decide if I
were on the board I'd say yeah
[Music]
like the union rep not interfering with
it but certainly observing and making
it but yeah that certainly would be
feasible let me just say that we had
sent earlier information about some
other cities I think Dr Nissen was
concentrated on these five because of
the city's connection with OIC oh i o i
r o i r sorry
um
but the oir
and the fact that oir was functioning
their in tandem with these councils but
we could certainly if if you're
interested we can provide
probably some more information of the
type you're looking for not immediately
but
yeah thank you and for the public who
doesn't know who oir is we also employ
them
um
to
um
to a certain degree not to the extent of
the board but
and Michael janako was previously with
the um
justice department and the department he
was in the civil rights office he was
the head of the so you know he was not
the head of the civil rights office he
was a second in line two develop Patrick
who went on to become president excuse
me
governor of Massachusetts
so um
see I do have another
yeah I said one other thing about what
you said while you're looking for that
I'm not necessarily blaming the Law
Department of the lawyers or the outside
lawyers for settling the cases
you know some of those cases
you know may have may have been hopeless
right yeah so I'm not second guessing
the lawyers yeah but you know you know
how lawyers are
um
so I I think that um if there's any way
of gathering information and not that it
would in any way impede my support of um
having this oversight board established
but um
it'd be great to see if there's any data
out there on how these changes and this
oversight board has affected and what
the outcomes have been
and that's again thank you very much Dr
Green Mr Goodman and Dr Neeson and thank
you Mr Mayor
thank you councilor councilor Ben Cuomo
and Council Graham and navita no cancel
Grant person
thank you uh thank you all
um councilor Flores really at the end
raised the question I have
um in my primary question being what is
the empirical data available that
demonstrate that these boards
are effective for the problems that
we're looking to solve and let me just
walk you through quickly I read
carefully the packet that was presented
to us
um of the five cities I went to their
individual websites to get a look at how
they were framing their boards I went to
the Naco website to see how Nicole was
framing their boards I went to oir to
look at independent oir reports for each
of the cities and looked for
meta-analyzes of oversight words
generally and how they perform
and what I could find was nothing there
was no real hard data that showed that
cities that Implement these kind of
boards
show a decrease I'm not saying that it's
not true I'm saying I was unable to find
it the closest that I was able to come
was an independent oir report for
Anaheim which it looks like they piloted
their oversight board for 2016 and 2017
and then made it official in 2018 and
there was no appreciable change in use
of force reports
pre or post the board and that was the
closest I could find to any kind of hard
data do you have do you have information
on that can you give me any indication
of how you know going from the metrics
that were mentioned the most during your
during your presentation which was loss
of life life and dollars spent and
realizing that there are other metrics
possible what can you offer
right now or can you give me direction
for more research
well the only thing I came up with in
some of the conversations I had with
different liaison people or the monitors
not they did not share any empirical
stuff I would like to have gotten that
myself
um however in
Boulder they I think they are the most
sophisticated system
um and I'm sure that uh we could uh as
Peter and I talked to the co-chairs of
that board
um we could dig further and get more
empirical data if they have it I'm I'm
not sure either I cannot 100 percent say
that everyone is
exhibiting some model of statistical
analysis
I would think that some of the city
councils in those five cities have
probably asked for
evaluations of the citizens review
boards and I don't know how much they
would allow you to dig into the city
council stuff but I think that could be
possible and I could do that
and get as much as I could I mean I'm
curious too if I may the uh
the the
findings are all over the lot because
there have been a lot of
a lot of these boards were opposition
from the police required compromises
that made upward that had no power that
had no ability to get the documents and
that kind of thing
I I think your question is great we'll
try to go to some of the places that
have had these boards longer
and see what we can get certainly the
Department of Justice
keeps trying to impose them in
situations that seem to require them but
we will work you know you've given us
some good homework
thank you bear okay thank you councilman
thanks mayor I will keep my question
short
um just a couple of questions do you
know if Seattle has a citizen oversight
board
I think so
I don't I don't have the
listing I gave you from Nicole with me
okay I couldn't find that they did
however I did want to note that
Seattle's consent decree was just
um
terminated it just ended and several of
the recommendations that department of
justice made in the notable progress
they noted that had been made included
reduced use of force improved response
to behavioral health crises improved
response to investigative stops new bias
free police policing policy and training
and new supervision model this directly
from the justice.gov obviously that has
additional details on it but I I did
note that
um
that I could not find that any
recommendations from the doj to end
their consent decree noted that a board
of this type was necessary and they
still made significant progress and then
I so I just wanted to note that because
I think there are again I think there's
many ways in which we can achieve the
goals that we all want which is real
Community safety and then my last
question for you is on membership
actually the Boulder Colorado I found an
article today that
that committee since earlier this year
has been politically fraught there has
been
um it's been sort of riddled with some
um
controversies regarding appointments and
so my question for you was what is what
have you found that has
um
like measuring any real or perceived
bias for members for membership
well let me say first the uh the two uh
the co-chairs of the board of the panel
they call the panel uh discuss that with
us one of their members made some
statements out in the community that
were not accepted by the city council so
they pulled her membership on the panel
and they were just as they the two
co-chairs
explaining that they were ironing that
out and they weren't going to have to
find another new member thank you and
the uh the
their ordinance you know provides for
how to do that how to replace a member I
just want to make a comment that
we were going to set up a zoom with
Albuquerque the chief of police chief
Medina it was going to be on it with us
and they have a liaison his name is
Kelly Manish and they were going to we
were going to have that Zoom this week
with them for all of you to join in on
but the feds at the last moment notified
them that they're coming in this week
to come in and see if the Albuquerque
Police Department has met up to all the
sanctions that were thrown up against
them
so anyhow we're going to have that Zoom
yet so thank you and I'll make sure it's
accessible to all of you thank you and
if I may somebody kindly kindly handed
me the answer to your question about
Seattle
um if I read this correctly they
definitely have police oversight they
have both the community police
commission and an office of professional
accountability
okay thank you I think at the core of it
I
um
I agree with this advocacy this Advocate
groups
um goals and desires and the concerns I
also just I every time I read about a
citizen oversight committee I come
across
um controversies that I think distract
from the world work ahead and that's my
biggest concern I hope that you hear me
when I say that and I I the reason I
also wanted to keep my common short
mayor was because I actually I do want
someone from the ACLU to come up and I
would hope you give them at least five
minutes
because I think they have pertinent and
critical information on this I think
they have research I think they have
a good framework for how these pieces
fit together
that'll be fine counselor will probably
just allow a very small amount of public
participation if that's okay so I mean
mayor I don't we've never timed work
sessions so I just want to note that
well I understand typically there's
three items they usually last about an
hour hour and 15 minutes each we usually
finish you know so but we're I don't
expect us to finish at least until three
okay I would hopefully you give them
five minutes I don't think that's a lot
to ask
that's fine
great
thank you
thank you mayor thank you counselors for
allowing me the opportunity to speak my
name is Daniel Williams my pronouns are
he him his I'm the policing policy
Advocate at the American civil liberties
Union of New Mexico and I really
appreciate a couple minutes and I
appreciate the timer because I have no
internal sense of time and so just to
sort of Preamble what I'm going to say I
think the first thing I want to say is
that we at the ACLU understand concern
about safety in our communities that
concerns are real we're all new Mexicans
we all see the same things that our
neighborhood that our neighbors are
seeing that is causing concern and all
of us want and deserve to be and feel
safe in our communities
and we recognize that the criminal legal
system isn't the only way to build
safety in our communities in fact often
it makes us less safe to rely too
heavily on the carceral system and not
to invest in more meaningful
infrastructure for safety in our
communities and so real safety isn't
just about how we respond to
criminalized behavior it's also about
economic Justice and food security and
housing and health care and including
Mental Health Care education and more so
with all of that that I know we're here
to talk about policing but just a
reminder that we see this as part of a
much larger infrastructure
so the ACLU New Mexico believes that
simply an oversight of the police can be
a very good thing we also recognize that
that's hard to pull off well and that's
simply an oversight mechanisms can
become part of the status quo and so we
have a few things that we look for when
we think about civilian police oversight
and I'm going to quickly go through
these and then I have a handout that can
you can look to for more information if
I go through it too fast one is
independent board membership this is
something that counselor Ben Cuomo just
referred to a broad scope to review
complaints
independent investigatory Authority
discipline that sticks findings of facts
that determine discipline
the ability to review and make
recommendations related to policies and
practices secure funding normally what
we recommend is that the funding for a
cpoc be pegged to the funding of the PD
due process protections for officers and
Public Access and reporting to and by
the commission this is mean that we see
many of these things in the proposed
ordinance that we think that's fantastic
and we hope that as you're moving
forward and thinking about what kind of
action you want to take on this proposal
these are the things that you keep in
mind
we also recognize that any kind of
action around oversight is again only
part of one one piece of the puzzle
around Palestine in Las Cruces and so I
also want to briefly touch on a couple
other opportunities that we think Las
Cruces has to take action to keep all of
us safe with regards to our policing so
one is related to use of force
we think that there is a real
opportunity for Las Cruces to take
action here
of course there are two Supreme Court
cases Graham V Connor and Tennessee V
Garner that are sort of guideposts for
minimum standards for use of force
policy but those don't constrain
jurisdictions from adopting higher
standards and so that's something that
we would Advocate that Las Cruces look
at doing is looking at adopting a higher
standard and that's than what's required
by federal law
so we would Advocate a necessary
standard requiring that Force only be
used when necessary we'd also Advocate
that policy expressly prohibit the use
of deadly force against the person who
only poses a risk to themselves or the
property
and the policy explicitly require the
use of reasonably available
de-escalation tactics and techniques
prior to using deadly force
we'd also Advocate that policy require
that officers stop or reduce the level
of force as the individual reduces their
resistance or is a threat of harm abates
we think that one thing that policy
makers such as yourselves and the
community could benefit from is
increased data and transparency so we'd
love to see that the police department
and the city collecting and Reporting
more comprehensive data including
demographic data related to stops
searches arrests and uses of force
and then finally we think that there's
always opportunities for us to look for
ways to reduce interactions between the
police and members of the public
particularly people who are in mental
health crises or people who are
experiencing homelessness so we're
really excited about project light and
about the progress that y'all have made
in that regard and we hope that the city
will continue to assess project light
and consider opportunities to expand
non-police responses so with nine
seconds left I'm quite proud of myself
for timing it that precisely I'm going
to give the clerk the handout if that's
okay and I appreciate y'all's time
thanks thank you very much
okay so you're done with your questions
for now I am I think counselor Beta had
questions and then I think I have a
couple more comments okay counselor beta
yes thank you mayor and thank you as
well for the presentation I appreciate
you looking at our city Charter to see
how everything kind of coincides I'm not
sure if you also saw we have standards
policies and procedures as well within
that my view and interpretation of our
Charter I think perhaps is a little bit
different and so when entertaining this
conversation it's definitely something
that I would want us to look at for
legal as you mentioned was section 2.4
General Powers it does state that unless
something is explicitly directed then it
is under our purview for Council however
this is an area when it comes to
Personnel matters where there are
explicit directions on how we integrate
engage and interact
you even quoted and mentioned it with
that section 2.05 section c under
solutions shall be adopted
Council and I'm sorry I'm going on to
page eight sorry section c is the
interference with Administration neither
the mayor council nor individual
counselors shout in any manner you've
served the administrative authority of
the city managers set forth in article
3. so when you go through to article 3
um in section 3.02 B that's on page 11.
you can look and see the city manager
show is subject to removal by us because
that is our one employee
but when it comes to powers and duties
under that that the powers and duties
that the city manager have is that of
any sort of removal or uh
administrative Affairs of personnel
so with that in mind I am curious to see
how a oversight board integrates what
that sort of item when they want to look
at and because what it's asking for in
this ordinance is to look at HR
Personnel files that's something that we
as counselors don't even have access to
and as you've mentioned before when
oversight boards don't have access to
those items which it seems that there's
probably a legal reason why they don't
have access to it that it makes them
less effective which therefore leads me
to think that there are other tools and
mechanisms in place that help with
accountability and transparency that go
beyond this type of board
thank you
Peter we can't hear you
can you hear me no
too much probably
um
first of all what you said I think
confirms that although
Lord could not discipline somebody or
discharge somebody
they can opine
you asked actually a couple of questions
let me throw some in that's relevant
that we that I had wondered about and we
learned from the Bolder people the
people on the commission and not
everybody on the commission works on
each case but they sign a
confidentiality agreement with regard to
any
Personnel plans
we also have confidentiality in closed
sessions and we are still not allowed
access to those so I am curious to see
how that coincides with our Charter well
I think
that might present a problem but most of
the documents we're talking about are
not personal files they would be they
might be placed in somebody's personnel
file but they're basically about the
cases
so I think
I think that's a fair question I don't I
think it's a question that falls into
the how do we do this not this is a deal
breaker category because it might be
that at the end of the day
um
Personnel specifically and I'm not
saying we'd be asking for these anyway
but specifically like a supervisor's
valuation of somebody working under her
would not be available to the to the
board on the other hand a lot of
documents that are considered
confidential that have to do with the
case that's ongoing would be
you know that's a sort of partial answer
and I if there's part of your question
that I didn't address please remind me
no that's right
Dr Greene
think wants to say something as well I
serve on the Law Enforcement Academy
board which certifies and desertifies
officers who've been accused of
misconduct and we see not that we do not
see their personnel files but we do see
the complaints that come forward as a
result of the investigation of the cases
so we're not looking at their personnel
records we're looking at records that
have to do with the cases and the
complaints from either from the citizens
or something that has to do with the
case itself we don't look at their
personnel files and are you seeing that
[Music]
the cases in active status or is it only
afterwards we're seeing cases that have
gone through Internal Affairs and have
now been sent to the Law Enforcement
Academy Award to decide whether these
officers will continue to be police
officers or not
and with that in mind one of the
sections sections here in in the
ordinance
that
jurisdiction of the board shall be
concurrent of that in investigations so
how is there protection and integrity of
a case
if it is
being done if it's being viewed
concurrently
I don't know that it's
um case that that's a reactive approach
what we're hoping to do is something
that is more proactive and if there are
complete consistent and continuous
complaints of for misconduct especially
excessive use of War specifically of
officers we can hopefully avoid the
inevitable of an officer a rogue officer
killing somebody before it happens is
what I would like to see we're not
looking to react but we're trying to be
more proactive
and would that mean that the board would
potentially make a decision on an
investigation before an investigation is
closed out on the City personnel side
[Music]
I guess that's a possibility I think the
broad scope of the of the board is as Dr
Green was saying but in certain
situations yes that might happen
um
it might be that they would only give
that to the internal affairs
investigator for his or her
consideration until such time as
the city had concluded it but it but the
city the board should not have to wait
until you know what are we looking at
with the Baca case 13 months and
accounting
while that investigation is still going
the board should not have to wait that
long
what has happened in your research with
does any other
model use this where it's concurrent and
that the oversight board determines if
somebody is guilty or not guilty before
it has been done through due process in
the legal system I believe so but I'll
try to get you you know specific cases
and then I would like to know the
liability risk that these
municipalities have had to have I have
strong concerns against this
um as well
concerns against what
liability with the concurrent of what is
the liability if we have
uh findings before the legal process has
been established
and then and then I would like us to
look excuse me thank you
um the other portion that I have is
within the policies and procedures we
would need to look at is under Section
3.5 is not interference with
Administration we have a significant
portion within this about interference
including in Personnel matters I would
um if this is to be entertained further
which I am not sure this is the right
mechanism for it
um
I think there were there will be some
issues that we would have to deal with
within policies procedures however that
is under the purview of our city manager
to establish most of those policies and
procedures so then we go back to having
to do Charter changes and issues and so
that's what I'm saying I think there's
an issue when it works with that could I
maybe interject here
um the there was a young man at a gas
station on August 3rd 2021 named Presley
easy who was shot execution style in the
back of the head by a Las Cruces Police
Department Officer and I believe that
the Assumption on that officer's pardon
I can't speak on this what it's
assumption was but they treated him as
if he was just another young black thug
and
um it's quite the contrary because this
young man was very well connected to the
National NAACP and that is part of the
reason that this investigation has taken
us to the Department of Justice because
of that particular case and who that
young man was he left a two-year-old son
behind and he was basically he was
killed execution style and so that is
part of the problem that we are trying
to deal with we're not trying to violate
any officers rights we are trying to
keep the officers from violating the
citizens rights and or taking their
lives
real quick
Dr Green thank you for that but usually
when I have public comment and I know
you're saying that I ask that no petting
litigation issues be brought up and if
you could please I mean you can say
generalities but I would I would
appreciate if you didn't because that's
still in Penny and litigation thank you
absolutely did not bring up pending
litigation while I am working with is
within art um structures within Arch
harder and art process that we have here
yes you're off microphone again
I think I'm on now I just wanted to say
that with regard and I'll read the
provision in the policy manual or
whatever an article three within our
Charter and I will read all of that but
from what you're saying it sounds as if
you're equating uh being able to
investigate something and make a
recommendation to the city manager uh or
to I'm sitting under him with
interference and
that would kind of negate the
possibility of any Council any
commissions doing anything if if advice
were interfering so I will remove those
though Our advice with other boards
isn't hiring and firing a City personnel
when we have the quality of life
Department I am not giving advice on who
to hire and fire I am not giving advice
on who to hire and fire on utilities I'm
not given advice on who to hire and fire
on any of those other boards this is an
entirely new function which therefore
would address in a different way which
is why am I bringing it up because I
think it has a crucial impact
thank you
the other structure that I had is that a
of the education function within this
policy and procedure this is one where I
am curious on who has developed programs
of Education since it seems like one of
the duties of this board is to educate
the public now what was a little
concerning that was just mentioned
offhand I didn't have this in my notes
before but it said that there has been
controversy even with how boards have
educated the community that has led to
issues too so I'd be curious on what
type of budget is done within this
education
who makes the curriculum
who decides on the curriculum and what
type of I'm sorry we've missed we must
have misspoken if we gave you the idea
that it was organized in that fashion
that it was a school or had a curriculum
or any such thing rather
there are controversies that come out
and the public thinks oh that's terrible
and in some cases you know I
know some of them myself firsthand not
going to get into it here the officer
was correct
and had to do certain things the public
doesn't know that there might be
policies that the police department
comes out with
one would hope that after some initial
reluctance on the part of the police
department and perhaps the union they
would work together on some of these
issues but no it's not a school and I
think the case that Earl was talking
about is one member as could happen here
none of you of course but it could
happen on the city council that one
member would go say something
that the rest of the world didn't agree
with and there would be a controversy
well that's what happened here somebody
said something
and there were consequences but it
wasn't as part of any organized
curriculum from what they told us
and I appreciate that with the
curriculum but even like what what is
handed out what is given to the public
as far as nursing you mentioned if you
know that in advance
well that's why I'm asking if we're
we're going to put it in writing then we
probably should know what it is that
we're asking to do if we're going to put
it in an order notes and then it becomes
law then I would like to know what I'm
putting into law
you're I'm I'm sorry Google all due
respect
your you can feel that way that's fine
thank you but it is a question that I
have to ask before I make a decision up
here on something like that so thank you
so much sir and mayor my time is up
thank you counselor counselor Quran
thank you I have I have sort of two
types of questions a few related to the
process of how we might move forward on
a few things that have been discussed
and then also on
specific actions that I think
we can sort of look to and and I'll ask
for follow-up from you all and from our
city manager to see what opportunities
there might be
related to the process and this is
somewhat
um to what a number of folks have
mentioned here I'm curious what the next
steps for this particular ordinance
would be
I think there are some possibilities it
sounds like it definitely needs to have
further review from both
internal city folks and sort of a
feedback loop and and some iterations
happening so I think I would be curious
to see where this goes I would say if it
went to the public safety select
committee I would ask that those
meetings be open meetings and that the
community
folks be able to engage in that context
but I think any number of other places
are possible but I do think it also has
to go through a few legal reads and on
on our end so I'm curious about that I I
think that's up for discussion here
I have another process related question
related specifically to some of the
things that Daniel from the ACLU
mentioned I know that the police have
their internal policies and procedures
and I actually know that the use of
force policy was really updated most
recently in 2021 I'm curious what the
typical process for updating internal
police processes are and I think there
have been some opportunities for us to
have a conversation about how we can do
that so that's one of my questions that
I would hope we can answer going forward
and then
for Action I
um I would actually I am curious because
it does sound like as part of what
you're proposing or what you're
suggesting might be an opportunity
um
some of I think what you're talking
about as related to accountability in
the disciplinary process to to police
and I do think that
uh we might be functioning under not
necessarily all knowing what's happening
right now as it exists so I would ask
that we have a work session on the
existing police processes and that
includes a couple of things that we have
outstanding Matrix on the on
disciplinary action which I know that
the chief was working on
and also sort of understanding how the
use of force Cadre and Internal Affairs
interface and could interface with
something like either a hybrid model or
a civilian police oversight independent
model so I would like to ask that that
we hear from the police to
to understand those mechanisms of
accountability that exists so that that
can also inform whatever we we do next
at another work session
and then my last action question is
related to the oir contract I know that
we're under a continuing
um kind of month-to-month contract
related to that but it does sound like
there is consensus around
including two new aspects into our oir
contract that is one related to
some type of community engagement your
model would include Community engagement
with a civilian police oversight board
or other models that I think that oir
has enacted but I would ask that when we
revisit the oir contract we also I think
the plan is to include use of force
randomly selected incidents of use of
force but I would also ask that in
addition to that sampling we include all
um
in particular related to some of the
things that we've really been talking
about here that the oir contract include
that random sampling of use of force but
also
any deadly
Force use gets referred to oir as well
so I hope that we could include that as
a part of our contract when that happens
so that all of these questions as when
oir has come I've heard even Dr Goodman
and Dr Neeson have asked why didn't you
include this incident that we're that
we're referring to and I hope that we
can strengthen that in the contract so
that all of those use of deadly force
um
which may or may not result in in death
be included as part of the oer contract
so those are my questions for follow-up
and hope for Action that we can
sort of have further conversations
um and I appreciate you all presenting
and considering some of the things that
that I questions that I had I appreciate
you answering a lot of those in your
presentation so thank you for that so
that's it thank you okay so let me ask
some questions if I may so
so on on the first I guess second page
it has here all members of the board
shall reside in doniana County
um
why not city of Las Cruces so are you
saying that we could appoint County
residents to a City Las Cruces citizens
review board that would certainly be my
suggestion I think there are
some people who are
um
who don't live within the city limits
but are either prominent citizens or
otherwise spent a lot of time in the
city and have either expertise or
experience of the police that would make
them good members so I wouldn't limit it
to city but that that's not a decision I
think only ad hoc committees could we
allow County resident ad hoc committees
committees that aren't permanent I think
only permanent City committees they have
to be City residents it has to be City
residents we have no problem with that
so on the next page where it says the
board
shall have the power to investigate can
you expand on that what power were you
all looking for
and what would investigate would
investigate why
okay
um if there would be a
let's take an incident that it was
public and
you know has been resolved as far as I
know and tell me if
account
tell me if you don't want me to discuss
the Valenzuela you know you don't have
to mention names just hypothetical
please hypothetically you have a
situation
that's resulted in somebody's death and
it raises a lot of implications it may
be that the physical actions taken were
appropriate under the first of all I
would hope the board would investigate
training and other matters without a
specific incident like that and try to
improve upon what we have but there are
fair issues as I mentioned earlier
about whether to use a particular hold
about what justifies chasing somebody
down and perhaps getting in a fight
I mean it's tough some of these officers
may be put in a position where they're
chasing somebody who hasn't done
anything all that bad but the rules say
there's a warrant out on him I got to
get him and all of a sudden there's a
fist fighting they kill somebody and
that okay that officer may be
a perfect wonderful person and following
the rules or he may not be
so I can answer these or get these
questions answered and then go move on
to the public
one of you said you wouldn't be looking
at personnel and there's a couple things
here on item I and J it says the board
shall hold public meetings and shall
regularly report to the public on its
activities and other policing
information it determines to be in the
public interest
so I would think that
if there was a situation it's usually
just usually one officer maybe two but
that's in the public interest and so how
would you not
be able to know who that is is what I'm
trying to get at
or just the very very mere fact of it I
think it discloses who it is and then it
says um
the boards I use and establish
discipline Matrix and guidelines to
recommend discipline for outcomes
resulting investigations complaints
follow the board and or LCPD I think
counselor Abita kind of touched on that
a little bit
and and I have to concur with her that
we don't we don't get involved in that
and so for us to provide that type of
authority to award when us ourselves
don't have that not saying that we need
it that's why we have evil here and his
him and his management team
so can you expand on that a little bit
I'll take a look at the provision
um
I think they should be able to do it
um
certainly there should be
or could be restrictions on publicizing
information about specific individuals
before somebody before the cities made
its decision
and perhaps before the courts have but
the investigation ought to begin before
that doesn't have to all be public and
as I say in Boulder they take they
signed confidentiality agreements and
what would be covered in that I'll get
to that one in a little bit so so let's
just use hypothetical there's a
situation that happened and earlier I
thought I heard you say you why does
something take so long and you want that
information out did you did you say that
yeah I said it not it ought not to take
a year and a month and Counting
I get some statement from somebody about
this is all right and here's why or
we're charging this person or there's no
criminal conduct but we're disciplining
this person whatever right it's very
common for the city to go into
protracted litigation that can take two
to three years
so it's almost by the time it's settled
you know it almost sounds like you want
to see the information
immediately and I don't think we can do
that is that what you're we're wanting I
think you probably can do it I'm very
you know I've handled litigation that
lasted many many years
okay so let's stop right there let's
stop right there so what if that
information gets leaked and now they
want to sue the board you're bored not
and the City
earlier I heard you all talking about
wanting to reduce liability
by the very fact that you someone and
and I've seen it happen years ago that's
why I've been hesitant but who's gonna
who do you expect to pay for the the
liability the claim the five hundred
thousand dollars are going to sue a
board member for I know because we're
not allowed insurance guy we're not
allowed we're not allowed to provide
liability coverage for you that's
something here that you would have to
to take on your own
that's if you didn't go outside
you're um well that's already that's
certainly a reasonable question if you
could not provide a liability to the
members
um I gotta guess that that's you know I
know you're brilliant but I'm sure that
question has been raised in other cities
and uh I appreciate you bringing it up
and I'll try to find out how it's been
solved yeah the information that I saw
that uh one of our policy analysts gave
none of them have the that Authority
that you're asking they're all advisory
they're like well these are the
recommendations we made and I don't
think they were talking about but that's
okay I just this is advisory too
well here's a little bit here's a little
bit a little bit more more power there
but that's okay I just wanted these are
just these are real preliminary
questions that that why I wanted to have
our initial discussion first yeah but
you know but that's okay we're good uh
let's see here where I want to say oh I
think it was Dr Nation who talked about
the budget it was 50 000 and then a
hundred thousand but I didn't hear the
part What oir charges
can you talk into the mic please
uh right now we're contracted for 75 000
right they're going to want to charge us
keep in mind they only come here every
six months right to make a presentation
yes it would probably go on and yeah
well that's why I wanted to know what
the price was that's if you recall every
time I've mentioned this I yeah over and
over and over I asked you have you
checked the price so you didn't check
the prices what oir charged extra with
these other other cities that they are
have the hybrid model even in Boulder
they're charging by the hour
so they have different kind of
contractual Arrangements but I think it
was Eureka's
budgets 90
000 a year
um so when I said 50 or 100
000 it would depend on how many uh
complaints I mean if we'll have enough
for a halftime person then be 50. I'd be
guessing in but uh excuse me I thought
the hundred thousand was for the
Ombudsman or person that was going to be
leading this I didn't know that was for
oir I would be the person who is
collecting all of the complaints and
independently away from the police
department and the board and that person
be responsible for making sure that oir
gets all of the complaints I mean that's
one of our issues here we're not sure of
that but this person who we'd be paying
let's say full-time a hundred thousand
would have that responsibility in
helping them with the investigations
with involvement of the board and the
police department be like a liaison
person
yes sir okay so the other thing I want
to close with and I'll turn it back to
um
well we'll ask for some public input is
two things I'm sure you're aware under
Chief Dominguez he I think this this
upcoming graduation
in December will be the first of those
officers he recruited with a special
bonuses ten thousand or twenty thousand
dollars if you have psychology
background or sociology background
um
you know that was that was in response
to
some of the concerns you know and I
think they've all agree that police
officers
they're very multi-talented but to be
able to handle uh other situations
they're not trained in that so they have
some training but but to be able to do
that that's why the the chief was
focusing on that
one that's one item the other is and
thanks to the chief uh Smith and
Dominguez and the city council really
for funding project light which is now
when you have a situation you'll have
two you'll have people from the fire
department as well as another person
who's not a police officer but has that
training to hopefully defuse situations
so you don't
you don't think that that that has shown
has shown what the city is trying to do
with the various departments are trying
to do to recognize the situations that I
think we think those are wonderful yeah
what you could do but they have excuse
me but they haven't been given the
chance to they just started they just
started in mid March 6 I think was the
first day for project project light
and um so I mean those are things that
and we're spending uh very we have a
good investment in that program and so I
think that that is yet another reason
why
I mean it's not like we're just sitting
here not doing anything the the Chiefs
and and the council
um if I may I think project blade has
modeled on what Portland has and
Portland has the kind of board we're
talking about as well
um
I mean obviously you have your opinion
but my response what you're saying is
those are great things you
take credit for them
[Music]
but to me it's like saying well I swept
my house so you know I don't need
somebody to clean the windows and that's
a silly analogy but there you have a red
alert situation
and you're taking some steps but there
are more that we think you reasonably
could and should
it's kind of like if I swept the house
and my wife says no we're bringing in
professionals who can clean this house
okay
so now I'm going to go to members of the
public
I'm sorry I just can I say one more
comment before you go to the public
thank you sorry for interrupting you
um just want to make sure I get this
last word in
um firstly I also would like to make a
couple of asks to you all of my
colleagues and of course the city
manager on continued continuing this
conversation
um you know since I've been on city
council all I've known is for us to
fully resource the police department
um I think we've increased wages bonuses
positions vehicles
um I think when PD asks for something
this Council has provided it and so to
me it makes then sense that we get to
ask for high standards and
um I think it is to me it's very clear
that high
clear rigorous use of four standards
protect everybody involved they protect
constituents and they protect officers
involved and I think we as a city should
be training from the beginning on high
standards and maintaining those high
standards as their careers continue with
the city police department and not only
do high standards of use of force lead
to less injury or Worse on both
constituents and officers they lead to
significantly less liability public
dollars being used for settlements and
so I really feel like there's a pathway
forward and I hope that there's an open
and good faith conversation between us
Advocates PD around how we go about this
um you know like Council corn said I
think strength strengthening our use of
force policy is necessary
um and I would like to continue having
that conversation
um whether it's in another work session
I think often what I hear from Advocates
is that there is a lack of data and
transparency the public feel often in
the dark about
um whether it's in the immediate
aftermath of a use of force incident or
in general what is happening with our
Police Department
um I think for me it would be important
to better understand the use of force
Cadre that the police department has
implemented again I think there while
there's obvious things that cannot be
shared publicly I think it's the more we
keep things behind closed doors the more
mistressed in Susan so I think public
facing departments are important to
cultivating public trust and then of
course yeah I agree with you mayor I
think project light is so new and fresh
that we have to give it an opportunity
to to thrive but that again that's a
critical piece of the puzzle because
when there's a fire we send firefighters
when there's a medical emergency we send
paramedics when there's a mental health
crisis we should send Mental Health
uh professionals and I think fire
um excuse me police chief Dominguez has
said that significant amount of calls
more and more to the 911 system are
mental health related and so
um I think implementing and investing in
alternate Solutions is critical and I
hope we continue doing that and I hope
we continue to see that project expand
in whichever form and so I whether this
it happens at the next oir report or
sooner hopefully
um I I want I personally want to see
those conversations continue to happen
counselor court and I can continue
talking to the city manager but I I at
least you know want a commitment that
this conversation will continue because
regardless on whether you fall on the
spectrum of you agree with this
particular solution or not the wider
conversation around
use of force and implementing high
standards I think is necessary
okay well see what you started so
counselor Flores wants to say something
yeah I just want to add no I just want
to clarify that our police department
does get extensive training how do I
know I went to one of their training
sessions and and I happened to know the
attorney out of Los Angeles that does a
training who was a previous police
officer and they are given very clear
parameters and in fact the fire
department was there too I don't know if
Chief was there I know chief chief
Dominguez was there Chief Smith I
believe was there too firefighters were
there but I just want you to know that
our police officers do get extensive
training and missio Lynn the attorney
who trained him is a previous police
officer and it was quite detailed and
just sitting there as a
you know just as a non-officer it was
exhausting and believe me I would never
never be a police officer it's bad
enough being uh never mind
but it I just want you to know that it
isn't as if our police officers and when
you think of
all the things that can go wrong and do
go wrong
we're fortunate that more things don't
go wrong and my humble opinion on that
for what it's worth which is probably
peanuts but from the peanut gallery I
would like to say that there has to be
more psychological
profiling and um
assessments as to someone who can really
handle that job I personally not because
I'm only five foot three and this and
that but psychologically I wouldn't be
able to handle it you know even if I
were six foot four and 360 pounds I
wouldn't be able to handle it so I just
want you to know folks that it isn't as
if the police department is just you
know having Donuts somewhere and kind of
just taking off willy-nilly and we have
had very unfortunate situations without
a doubt but
there's so many hours that have to be
fulfilled on this that and the other so
there you have it thank you Mr Mayor
counselor I'm going to say a closing
comment and then I'll turn it over to
the members of the public because you
reminded me of something I thought you
were going to mention about when some of
us went to the
the training at the community college
but you know but earlier I guess it was
probably I don't know 10 years 12 20 12
years ago I was selected to go to the
Citizens Academy for the FBI and so I
went to that and was really it was six
weeks it was a great training and they
they concluded with this
this video I mean it's so realistic it's
very similar to the one in donana
community college but the FBI had their
own
and um
you know it was incredible it was so
realistic that I could feel my heart
pounding and I was trying to cover my
partner and I tried to shoot him and I
was shooting up into the tree I told the
agent I said you know I think this
thing's not cited right he got in just
shot it and it was cited right
the difference is I knew I was going
home that day
and I knew it was a game I knew it was a
monitor I knew it was but it was that
realistic
and uh and then fast forward to a few
years ago well I guess it's been were
you on the council you were just started
simulator right and I was determined
there were there some fella got pulled
over and they all got killed you know
individually and I was determined not to
so I had my gun out all the time and and
I ended up shooting him because he did
tell him pull out a gun
yeah yeah
exactly so what I'm trying to say is you
know and I tell this to the new officers
every time I'm so fortunate that they
have accepted the challenge
job of being a police in the firefighter
first responder is so difficult because
the firefighters see a lot and deal with
a lot too and now they're even under
attack
but what I'm trying to say is
I told him I said I wish we could pay
you triple quadruple we pay you I I know
it's it's just a drop in the bucket
and we appreciate what they what they
deal with because it's it's almost every
day they're out and you don't know if
they're coming home I I live next door
when I was a kid growing up to
auspicious police officer I think a lot
of it
I learned a lot you know we were just
little kids and Mr Gonzalez when he was
going to on his uh his uh
route
they would all line up give them a hug
and a kiss and I used to I said what are
you doing that for he says because we
don't know if he's coming home that
night
but this was 1972 73 Las Cruces a lot
smaller City back then you know today is
just a wow it's you just don't know you
don't know I mean our officers do the
best I say those examples because I'm
sure and then I I've come across
officers as different departments who
unfortunately did take a life and it was
they were in the right
but it affects them so much forever for
the rest of the lives they a lot of
times they retire or we forget about the
families that were affected on the other
side too I mean it's a tragedy either
way
but I just wanted to say that
and so now I'm going to go to there was
about seven people who had their hand up
and since the
red side one for chili I'm gonna start
on my right
and let's start on the second row so
this gentleman here you've got we're
going to give you one minute sir state
your name and just come forward and give
us your what you'd like to say Richard
Barella I would like to say that I'm
sorry Richard burrella okay
I would like I'm having concerns about
the comments comments about profiling I
mean that it sounds like a
a defamation issue that could arise
because uh I mean you can create mental
illness I mean a group of people can
create a mental illness in a person just
by a
trying to outwit them when they're under
stress from a a crime that's been
committed you know that's my concern
thank you
okay
next row anyone in the third row fourth
row yes ma'am
yes
when you got one minute please just
state your name one minute one minute
city council thought too much
just
okay we're going to go ahead and start
your one minute right now it doesn't
look like you're going to talk
she won't give us
Justin you don't want to take a picture
of this
investors
if I ever had a chance to speak you
might know that I know something too but
I've never had a chance
no she won't give us her name okay so
that was third row anyone else on the
third row
fourth row
fifth
sixth
yes ma'am
good afternoon council members
Mr Mayor
I am a believer can you excuse me can
you state your name and speak my name is
Loretta King
k-i-n-g I am a believer in
communities involvement in our Police
Department
I am a retired California Public Safety
dispatch supervisor I retired from an
agency there
we're we're in a time when our Police
Department
is at issues with a changing Society
oversight through our
complaint system
being able to identify problems before
they happen is ultimately important I
think that we need to be vigilant we
need to avoid problems before we get
them we shouldn't be in these lawsuits
or anything we should be proactive in
avoiding this allow the community to
speak and to be heard
thank you I have a little bit more but
I'll wait
okay so now I'm going to start on my
left and I'm going to start in the back
so that's a ninth row this gentleman all
the way in the back and excuse me sir
sir and there's someone right behind you
Mr Mayor City Council Members my name is
Kenneth Davis I am a detective with the
Las Cruces Police Department as well as
the current uh president of the Las
Cruces Police Officers Association I
just wanted to come up here and let you
all know that this is a topic that
conserves this very highly and that we
were present here to see all the
information that was presented today
just so there was no assumption that we
weren't interested in this at all thank
you
thank you and thank you for your service
Mr Davis yes sir
how do you do Mr Mayor and counselors my
name is Mark O'Neal
I I have a little different model to to
bring up about an oversight committee I
don't like the word oversight I don't
like we're talking about monitoring the
police department investigating the
police department I like an idea of a
committee that involves a couple
counselors of Public Safety person maybe
the person in charge of the mobile units
that help assist the police department
a couple members of the city council uh
a couple community members and and two
members from the police department
including the police chief and his
Deputy that does the training a
committee
instead of calling it an oversight
committee a group that's a solution to
our problem so we can have better
policing that's what we all want we want
the maximum safety for the city we want
better policing we want less crime we
want less lawsuits this committee could
help with policy and procedures not
investigating they cannot investigate
thank you Mr ongoing litigation anyway
thank you you'll be happy to hear that
uh
chairs we have a Public Safety Committee
and then Congressman counselor Vasquez
would also give input a lot of the
changes you've seen a lot is because of
the working with our Police Department
our police chief and such so thank you
for that so that was the eighth row
anyone else on a throw
seventh row
sixth row
fifth row
you all are the fourth row
here are the fourth row
okay so no one's on the fifth row
okay now the fourth row is that Rita I
don't know that
good afternoon I'm Jennifer cry
city council mayor city manager
I resent the fact that some of you are
treating that this like they presented
something that you're going to vote up
or down on they were trying to come up
with a possible solution did they not
DOT an eye did they not cross a t so
you're going to vote down you ignored
the intent of what they were doing
they were proposing something because
the public safety select committee is
private it's closed it's not transparent
so let's have transparency
we all care about Public Safety
the safety of officers but we have got
to communicate
not obstruct
okay so that's still the fourth row
anyone else on the fourth row yes ma'am
mayor and council members and City staff
my name is Gene berlowitz I live in
District Six Las Cruces following up on
what Jen said I have had no role or
involvement in the proposal that was put
forward to you today and I don't know if
that's the best solution as
Council women being Como has suggested
there are other ways to deal with this I
don't know if oi the next presentation
from oir Will
make me feel any better than the last
one did which was kind of like the dance
we had at the beginning of this meeting
but
transparency which is a word many people
have used here today
is the word that means something to me
and I want to add one new word to it and
that is because we have no transparency
there's fear
I fear our police and I know many other
people do too and that's not positive
for our city
thank you okay so that's fourth row I
think that's that third row
mayor council my name is Rob wood my
question is how did we get to this point
of considering uh citizen oversight
Committee of policing we got here
because of people like Juan Garcia of
the Community Coalition of conservatives
in action that have been repeatedly
pointing out at these Council meetings
for months that we have a council that
wants the public to see criminals as a
group that has been
victims of victims of something created
by some social injustice and a desire
and they deserve rights that deny the
police of performing their Community
safety purpose
thank you
thank you so how about on the second row
anyone Oh Charlotte or were you going to
speak no okay
second row
Peter no yeah all right first row
Michael
saving the best of last of course
thank you
my view is somewhat different from that
of the proposals here I think that while
I endorse what they're doing there's too
much attention I'm sorry we didn't get
your name my name is
we're giving a lot of attention to
excessive force but I think we're not
giving enough attention to the culture
which enables these successes
and in smaller instances infuriate
citizens and create distrust
I don't think there will be any police
reform until there is moral reform which
means that there has to be honesty at
all levels of the legal system
an officer made five false charges
against me
the city manager agreed that I deserved
an apology he asked me to write it for
him I did I specifically said I don't
want anything that talks about hurt
feelings and and poor Communications
and my response was to get an apology
which was about hurt feelings and
Communications this is not the way to
treat citizens to trivialize their
complaints
and you omitted this information from an
oir report the citizens review board is
going to get that information out on the
street and we need to do that okay thank
you Michael
okay Mr burgunda
and just need to state your name please
uh first of all I want to uh command the
people here
to my right that are proposing
Solutions
for our
issues that we're facing not only in
dealing with police
but the whole subject of criminality
that no one is addressing not even the
police chief or the Las Cruces Police
Department or the city manager or the
mayor or the council
you're going to have to face
your voters if you continue to find ways
for looking for excuses to not listen to
what people are saying
that's the problem here you think you're
too important to that that you don't
have to listen to your citizens that
vote for you for you
thank you
okay well that concludes our
presentation on these civilian police
oversight commission discussion I
appreciate Dr Neeson Dr Green and Dr
Goodman for your presentations
we
the next item is going to be the Natural
Gas and energy line of business story
thank you
looks like utilities director Adrian
Whitmer is going to kick this off
thank you
great
Mr mayor council Adrian Whitmer
utilities director
when you all came to us and asked if you
would let us know how natural gases
procured I took it a little bit further
and said what a great segue for us to be
able to come and talk to you about
Natural Gas and energy line of business
and it's a great opportunity for us to
also then let you know that we plan on
coming back
on a quarterly basis so that we can go
over other lines of business to kind of
let you know what utilities is up to
So today we're going to tell you a
little bit about Natural Gas and energy
we're going to tell you about the
procurement of how that procurement
occurs
we're going to talk about the transition
plan and the basic Financial benefits
so there's some interesting facts
about our natural gas system
it's supplied to City residents and
businesses for 87 years with changes
from a private company to an association
with the village of hatch
and is now a part of an Enterprise of
utilities department and as a part of
funded utilities
enterprise system the only money that we
bring in for the revenue is the only
money that we have to operate and
maintain
it's a non-profit
and anything that is additional is put
back into the system whether it's
Rehabilitation operations or maintenance
and I also have on here that you see the
original clean energy with the natural
gas vehicles is we've always been
Visionary all of Utilities in providing
Clean safe and Affordable Services
an example is the previous use of the
natural gas vehicles and providing a
clean natural gas station of which
is now no longer in use as we move
forward with our transition
I think another additional example in
utilities being Visionary and
specifically Natural Gas and energy is
that they have been sponsoring tasks for
work which is the waste management
education research Consortium
so and what that is is an environmental
design contest where University teams
throughout the country can participate
and one particular one was converting
captured carbon
and recycling it into other uses
one team actually utilized the car the
captured carbon dioxide to formulate
other chemicals that are used for things
like fabric dyeing leather tanning
resins waxes and varnishes they did so
well that that particular university has
actually filed a patent
this last year and I was one of the
people that was on the committee for
judging on that was the vehicle to grid
resiliency
and derms which he
essentially is distributed energy
resource management systems that include
load management between user and
provider
that was very interesting so it's really
great to see that we've got new and
upcoming Engineers scientists and
chemists looking at the same exact
issues that we want to work towards as
part of our transition
as part of that we thought we would show
you what our natural gas service area is
you can see the outline of the city
limits and our actual natural gas
service area is quite a bit larger and
we currently serve both inside and
outside of city limits for over 45
000 customers
and so as part of our large customers we
actually have 12 industrial customers
here's our 10 largest customers we're
starting with one through five
and they're not in any particular order
but we're just showing that because
not all all of our they're not all
industrial like obviously the city of
Las Cruces is not industrial Nora is
Memorial Medical but some of the other
ones are
and here just happens to be
the other time
or the other five can I count today
and with that I would like to turn it
over
to Ramiro Fiera he is our interim
natural gas deputy director
good afternoon mayor and Consular
Council my name is Ramiro Pera once
again I'm the interim deputy director
for Natural Gas and energy
okay the Natural Gas and energy line of
business maintains
1011 miles of gas lines
this includes gas service lines to the
customer meters gas mates feeding the
service lines in the road typically
and
two transmission lines
our pressures range from a quarter
PSIG which feeds homes to 837 which is
our transmission lines that are being
fed from impossible natural gas pipeline
our sizes range from half inch
polyethylene to 12 inch steel lines
we maintain about 91 regulator stations
that reduce pressure from our
transmission lines to our distribution
line systems
we have approximately 57
employees plus four contracts positions
the we are regulated by what we call
fisma which is the pipeline and
hazardous material safety administration
through the New Mexico public Regulatory
Commission
the line of business of programs for the
our Administration
construction maintenance and corrosion
pressure and service compliance and
Regulation and training and energy
management
we went ahead and put some pictures here
of the programs doing everyday work the
pressure and service program do routine
maintenance on the regulatory stations
the construction maintenance and
corrosion do welding work and a picture
of the compliance regulations and
training inspectors
here are some awards that the natural
gas line of business has received in the
last five years the American public Gas
Association system operating achievement
recognition program which is a soar uh
in 2019-2020 we achieved the bronze
level and in 2021 we retrieved the
silver the soar program honors Natural
Gas Distribution utilities to
demonstrate commitments to Excellence in
four areas system integrity
system of improvement employee safety
and Workforce Development
in 2022 we received the Safety
Management Excellence award this award
was given to apga members that
consistently operate at a high safety
level
charity establishing the system as an
achiever of excellence in the field of
Safety Management
on our April 5th of this year we had the
opportunity to meet U.S Secretary of
Transportation Pete butterjudge at a
project site here in Las Cruces where
the gas utility was abandoned in the gas
line
this at this meeting I was informed
about being awarded 10 million dollars
in grant money this is part of the
natural gas infrastructure safety and
modernization grant program this grant
funding provides Monies to repair
replace and Rehab existing pipeline
infrastructure
and now turn over to Mario Puentes
thank you
mayor mayor Pro tem city councilors city
manager good afternoon
my name is Mario Puentes and I serve as
the gas business analyst at Las Cruces
utilities
what are the responsibilities of my
office is to manage the natural gas
supply and transportation contracts that
bring natural gas to our city
and so I am prepared to provide you an
overview of what that activity entails
so we have three natural gas suppliers
in the city we have shell Energy North
America we have the New Mexico energy
acquisition Authority and the public
Energy Authority of Kentucky
the nymea the New Mexico energy
acquisition Authority was created by the
city of Las Cruces and the city of
Gallup via a joint Powers agreement in
2007.
the uh the peak entity was created in
1998 by two Kentucky cities that city of
Henderson in the City of Carrollton
both of those Supply agreements that we
have with them are what we call prepay
agreements
and that is because both namia and Peak
issued tax exempt bonds and then
remitted the proceeds from the sale of
those bonds to A supplier in exchange
for a 30-year supply of natural gas
and because the supplier was paid up
front and it was a big pile of money
they're able to generate a discount from
the monthly market price of gas and so
as of April
2023 that discount amounts to about 3.6
million dollars that has circulated in
the Las Cruces economy
now it's not that big relative to over
the years how much we spend on gas but
it's still money that stayed in Las
Cruces and not paid out to uh out of
state Corporation
when we entered it when the city entered
into both the peak and the name
agreements
um we agreed to buy a specific quantity
of gas every day for the term of the
agreement
and it's broken now by month you know
for example in January we buy like 3 100
deck of therms a day from Peak
and
1485 from namia
and it also stipulates that the price
will be the monthly index price out of
the San Juan basin
and so then going back up then to to the
Shell contract the supply contract
Michelle we kind of termit the Swing
agreement and that is because we know
exactly how much gas we're going to be
buying from Peak and emea and so then
Xiao provides the remainder of a
requirement so we're we're in essence
swinging into to Shell so that's the
only reason we call it a swing agreement
and then I'll talk I'll talk about the
services agreement shortly
that's all okay
okay so we buy gas on a monthly basis
and also on a daily basis so about one
week before the a particular month
begins we submit our order to Shell
that is what we call the first of the
month order I have the acronym here fom
that is a term widely used and it
relates to both the monthly monthly
order and also to the first of the month
price
we send them a letter and we are very
specific as to how much gas we are
committing to buy for the coming month
we also are specific as to where we want
that gas sourced from
and then as the month rolls out we in
the winter time we frequently make
changes because as the temperatures you
know you know we have what they call a
temperature sensitive load we'll make
changes throughout the month
that monthly order volume is priced
based on a monthly published index price
out of the either San Juan Basin or
premium Basin depending on where we are
sourcing the gas
unless we have put a hedge on that gas
or on the price
and then changes that we make throughout
the month or during the month those are
priced according to a published daily
index
and we do hedge our prices for gas
deliveries in future months
and we generally do that for the heating
season namely November through through
March
and we do that are kind of what we have
done in the past few years is we do it
in multiple transactions
for example if we had established a
target of say locking in 60 percent of
what we're going to use in January we
might break that out into three
different transactions you know so we'll
pick a day when the market has given us
an opportunity to do some uh do uh
lock in a portion of that and then on a
different day we might do another 20 and
so forth
and the number one reason for doing that
from at least from my perspective is
that we absolutely avoid picking the
worst day to hedge your gas so if we all
did it on one one day and that just kind
of ended up in retrospect being the
worst day to do that so we have we
reduced that risk and we also are able
then to study the market and not ever be
hurried to to do this
now if we jump over there to the
transportation side of the industry
100 percent of the natural gas that is
delivered to the city is made by is done
by the El Paso natural gas pipeline
company or epng
and in contrast to the commodity Market
especially specifically the prices where
there is no regulation on pricing
epng's rates and its operating in terms
and conditions are approved and
regulated by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission or the ferc
the agreements that the city has with
epng specify how much capacity we have
on the pipeline basically how much space
we have in it to transport our gas and
then it's further broken down into
whether we can you know it's broken down
into the San Juan and Permian basins our
capacity is about 55 percent out of the
Permian Basin and 45 percent out of the
San Juan
day-to-day business on El Paso on on
epng or El Paso or the pipeline I use
those terms kind of interchangeably
you you have to nominate your gas or
your gas requirement and to do it timely
you do it one day ahead of time so for
example this morning we nominated how
much gas we want for tomorrow
and so once that is entered into the
system then there's there's what they
call a confirmation on both the receipt
and delivery side
once it enters the the EPG computer
system then it goes through various
Cycles
and the PNG is evaluating you know your
contracts it's also availa evaluating
the pipeline conditions are all the
paths clear and so forth and so on so by
tomorrow evening is when we will get a
report from EP G tell it you know
indicating how much gas I've was
actually scheduled that's that's
important because that is the number
that we are credited with having put on
the pipeline and it's the uh basically
the book of record
so the services agreement with shell
authorizes it and actually obligates it
to make the nominations for us so when
we sent him that order at the prior to
the beginning of the month they know
exactly how much gas we have committed
to purchasing so basically they just
take that that quantity divided by the
number of days in the month and they're
making those nominations on the epng
system
and they are also authorized to do other
functions you know sometimes we may owe
the pipeline physical gas or they may
owe us gas and so we'll we'll work with
with shell and ask them to pay back pay
back the gas or take the gas and we're
looking at pricing we're looking at all
kinds of other things that are going on
and so and they also are able to at
times post some of our capacity that
we're not using and if somebody else can
use it that can mitigate some of our
transportation costs so in the
summertime we kind of take advantage of
that opportunity especially over the
last couple years where the pipeline was
really constrained so there were some
entities that wanted some capacity and
so we were able then to to mitigate our
transportation costs
this last bullet just pertains to there
are times when the company epng will
declare what they call an operational
flow order
so once they do that then that basically
turns on their penalty structure and so
we need to pay attention when that's
happening and and so
that's when things get a little bit
anxious or the market gets anxious
so this chart shows you the
transportation capacity we have on on
the pipeline
you can see the profile there that's
what they call a seasonal profile where
we have more more capacity in the winter
time and then it kind of drops down into
the summer time and then picks picks
back up
and I further broke it down into the
Permian in San Juan by just the color
shading
so the way this works is like if we
focus in on January we have close to 35
000 decotherms of space on the pipe to
to move our gas
and so we we reserve that capacity by
paying a reservation fee and it doesn't
matter how much of that we're using we
we need to pay for that
and one thing that I would I guess would
be good information is that we hammered
this capacity out about 20 years ago and
it was a
a regulatory process where the El Paso's
contractual systems and it's time it's
operating in terms and conditions were
really restructured by the ferc and so
we would have liked to have seen higher
numbers in the winter time and smaller
capacity in the
higher in the winter smaller in the
summer
especially if you notice the big drop
there from February to March
that that is not reflective of how our
load works but it really this really is
the product of a of negotiations that
were that took a couple years to finally
get through
this is the a chart of the entire
pipeline capacity so this is the png's
capacity
that is that is fully subscribed this
this represents about five million Deca
terms a day
and the biggest holder of that capacity
is the WB section that stands for within
basin
that's kind of in the area surrounding
both the Permian Basin and San Juan
basin
there are communities and cities close
to it that are subscribe for that
capacity for delivery for their use but
there's also big holders of capacity
like British Petroleum shamron and
Conoco that have access then to the
plants to the processing plants and then
they take that gas off to what they call
the scheduling pools and then off off to
other pipelines they're taking the gas
either east or west
and then of course you see California is
a big holder of capacity and so is
Arizona
Las Cruces we have about one percent of
that capacity and so you can see that it
is the the point for make for putting
this here was that it is fully
subscribed and all this gas was flowing
in the wintertime there wasn't any
idle capacity
this is an overview of the epng system
like to bring your attention to the
lower right hand part of the screen
there so there's where the Permian Basin
is located like West Texas Eastern New
Mexico area
and then you have the San Juan Basin up
there in the four corners area
the EPG system has is broken up into two
main segments you have the North Main
Line and you have the South Main Line
the South Main Line somewhat parallels
the interstate 10.
and then you have the north system that
parallels closely to Interstate 40.
so our capacity in the Permian Basin is
then further broken down into pools so I
said that we have about 55 percent of
our total capacities on that Permian
Basin and then it's further broken down
into what they call the Keystone pool
and the waha pool and those are just
instruments that were created in order
to facilitate scheduling
and then the capacity is our capacity is
then is further broken down into paths
as to how you can get the gas to Las
Cruces
from the Permian Basin there's only one
path it exists on the south system and
we are on the south system so basically
it's kind of like a South to South
system pretty straightforward but when
you go to the San Juan Basin since it is
on the North Main Line there are four
different paths that are allocated to
Las Cruces is how we can get gas here so
the gas can flow from the San Juan Basin
down into the north Mainland and
actually head Eastward until it meets up
there with the in into the Permian Basin
area and then come back to Las Cruces or
he can head Westward and you see three
so
apologize for that you see three
connecting pipes connecting the North to
the South system so it can flow down
that way so there are times when there's
pipeline maintenance pipeline
maintenance going on Force Majors all
kinds of things that make a make it
challenging to to get the gas here
and I think one final point I wanted to
make here was those little oval markers
along the line along the pipes those are
the compressor stations so that's
basically a big facilities compressing
that gas 800 pounds 900 pounds up to a
thousand pounds per square inch making
that gas flow
foreign
on this chart is even though they chose
your North Main Line in your South Main
Line being kind of like one solid black
line they are really made up of multiple
pipes so it is not just one big pipe
floating after there's four or five big
pipes flowing moving that gas
now we get to the cost of gas
so the cost of gas is a pass-through
charge to our to all our natural gas
customers and it is made up made up of
two components
cost that we pay to suppliers and the
costs that we pay to the transportation
pipeline
any changes from month to month
and based on the market prices go up and
down and that is what we are that's what
we're buying and then the interstate
pipeline conditions the pipeline has a
tremendous impact on prices and it is
not just the epng line there's other
pipelines in the southwest that also
impact
Market commodity prices
so it covered that the
that our contracts have a first of the
month pricing
stipulation unless we have hedged that
price so here's a picture of about a
year and a half of what that monthly
price looked like
starting with January of 2022 through
now and so you see that 2022 was
starting you know kind of stayed for uh
in the five dollar range up until May
and then as the cooling season put a lot
of Demand on the on the pipes you see
some some prices going up in the summer
and then you see it kind of settle down
pretty uh
I guess to an acceptable level there in
October and November and then it took a
big jump from November to December at
five dollar a jump which was a hundred
percent increase at that point and then
it just skyrocketed in January and that
is
that is what um
that's where the I guess the financial
pain came in with that price there in
January and then it quickly dropped down
to in February time to where it was in
December and then you can see it now
it's back down to the three dollar range
in the San Juan Basin and a dollar fifty
or so in the Permian Basin
this is very similar chart except this
is the daily prices
but you the relationship is is you know
you can probably overlay one with the
other and and you could see the the
close relationship
um and then as we get the the big
volatility air um timeline here is in
December that's where you see the prices
get up there too close to fifty dollars
and and as the suppliers were lining up
their supply for January that's the
prices that were being commanded and so
that's kind of what helped what
established that first of the month
pricing to January of uh of 33 dollars
foreign
so these are some of the bullet points
that were we were reading about and of
course we were definitely privy to to
some of it but that that was a sustained
colder than normal weather in the west
including the Pacific Northwest and and
uh and obviously in California so this
led to high gas demand for both Heating
and for power generation
and then there was also reports that
there was less gas flowing from Canada
down to Northern California and part of
that was related to the fact that the
Pacific Northwest was so cold that it
was taking a lot of the gas that would
normally make it down to Northern
California for power generation and for
storage replenishment and so the other
another Factor was storage levels in
California
driven part in part by the the
prolonged droughts that we have had you
know so that reduces river flows reduces
hydroelectric generation so they switch
over to natural gas and and so
California was not only
bringing in gas for their current
Heating and power generation but also to
repent we replenish their the storage
facilities
and then of course we had the epng line
2004's major that it was out basically
put that pipeline out of service from
August of 2021 until February 15 2023 so
that limited Permian gas flow Permian
Western gas flow and so it was the San
Juan Basin that had to kick in and and
and
fulfill the demands that were being put
on it and it raised the price to a
historic level I've never seen it
a price that high in the in our in our
area at 33 dollars
so finally that gets us to what our
customers saw in January and this is how
we calculated their cost of gas rate
so you see the rows one and two that's
the San Juan gas
and
one of the things I wanted to point out
here was that we did not buy a single
deck of thermal the San Juan Basin that
we were not contractually committed to
doing so
and so everything else then is out of
the Permian Basin and another point I
wanted to make here is that we have
low from Row 4 to row seven those are
the different layers of fixed prices
that we had out of the uh that we had
executed in 2022
so had we locked in all our gas on the
first time we had an opportunity it
would have all been at 7 53 as opposed
to blending in 753 661 712 and 590 so
that kind of reduced it you know so that
reduces the risk of just picking the
highest day that you do this
and then of course the the last the last
component there they're on row nine
that's the epng transmission charges and
fuel charges that we we pay to the pipe
to to move that gas
I thank you for the opportunity to speak
to you and I'm finished gosh Mario that
this was a master's dissertation this
was really good thank you oh yes uh
count counselor Flores has a question
question so what does it mean then to
have a fixed price if it goes all the
way from
you know 30 let me see 32
32 dollars down to 590 or so what's the
fix what does if it's a fixed price why
is there that
variance
does it have to do with the seasonal
stuff
no
mayor concert Flores uh no so what I'm
showing here is these are all the
packages of gas that we had lined up for
January
and so
both the peak and the nemia gas
is not hedged
so we have so we're about you know we're
buying ninety six thousand on 100
decatherms from Peak at the market price
of 32.77 and then Namibia we're buying
46 000 at the market price of 32.80 and
then line three we're buying
153 574 at the market price Permian and
so that was the market price of the
Permian Basin then the remaining ones we
we fixed those prices but it's a
culmination or it's a summation of all
this costs that are that make up the
rate so we paid Peak 3.1 million dollars
for its gas
there you see on the amount side on the
amount column
so to clear to be clear with that
Council of Flores
we did not hedge the peak and the name
gas we do not have an instrument
currently to hedge that gas
we're working on it but we have we don't
we don't have a way to hedge that gas
currently
thank you thank you very much thank you
mayor
thank you Mario thank you counselor
natural gas I think is sold much like a
stock on the New York Mercantile
Exchange or something like that and the
price is changing so the city will buy
just like anything else there's a good
price but we'll buy us so much of it and
then and then and then sometimes it goes
up up and down up and down it's kind of
tricky
that's why we have a businessman running
at that part
thank you all
Adrian Widmer utilities director so now
let's talk a little bit about the
transition plan so we've got a draft RFP
we have it turned into Sac so that we
can get a review on that and once it's
okay it'll go ahead and it'll hit the
streets so based on that we are
certainly hoping that we get it out on
the streets get those back probably
around June and perhaps depending upon
how we decide to actually end up doing
the sack because we may end up doing
interviews with depending on who is
proposing so it may take a little bit
longer but we're certainly hoping to get
a notice to proceed done as soon as
possible
and so you know with the adoption of
elevate in 2020 and the comprehensive
plan by city council
and the climate action plan is when you
all approve the resolution 21-153 in
2021 for the energy transition plan
um
as part of that in 2022 when you all
approve the rates that included the
decarbonization rider and it's the
proceeds from that decarbonization rider
that's actually now at a high enough low
level to actually fund the transition
plan
and this just kind of gives you a basic
overview
of what the scope of work is going to be
obviously it's going to be much more
detailed than this but this just kind of
gives you an overview of what we're
planning to do with a transition plan
and with that I will turn it over to
Dominique for financial information
good afternoon mayor council members my
name is Dominique Rodriguez the
assistant utilities director
um so this slide
kind of talks about some of the
financial information for the utilities
department as a whole and then shows the
gas portion of it franchise fees are
paid to the city which is two percent of
our sales the utilities department pays
almost 2 million dollars in franchise
fees of that the natural gas portion is
about 574 thousand dollars
admin fees are also paid to the city
which come downtown and pay for support
services that are housed here which is
hrit risk those type of things so
utilities department for fiscal year
2023 we paid about 3.2 million and the
natural gas portion of that was a little
bit over 832 thousand
we also have within our utilities
department and cellular reservices these
are housed in our shared services fund
and this is uh includes components like
our customer service billing receivables
office of the director so any kind of
lines of business or programs that
actually support each utility as a whole
so that shared services fund for fiscal
year
2023 excuse me was about 18.3 million
dollars of that natural gases portion of
that was over 5 million
the next slide talks about our current
Bond rating so we are Bond our we are
rated excuse me at a double A2 that is
uh one below the highest Bond rating
level
um and we are uh our debt is issued out
as a joint utility system and that is
outlined in the master ordinance which
was approved
um with ordinance number 1593 and
basically what that means is the master
ordinance pledges revenues as a system
so the system being gas water and
wastewater however each utility pays its
own debt individually so if water needed
a bond or a loan to go out to help with
capital projects the system is looked at
as a whole in terms of revenues but
water will only pay for that debt that's
tied to that
um Adrian talked about the transition
plan and so
to move away from this master ordinance
it would have to be amended we did talk
to the bond Council they did let us know
that that rating will go down and
they're actually running numbers for us
to know what that would be
um specifically for water Wastewater and
then gas itself so we are talking with
them to see what that would
um what that would do
on the right hand side it talks about
debt service coverage excuse me for 2022
our debt coverage ratio as a system was
1.64
and
um we within our rates we we try to get
our debt coverage for each utility at
1.3 so 1.64 means that we can cover
1.64 times of that debt or it says you
can pay your debt one time and you have
64 percent of your income left over to
pay your other bills so a 1.2 is good
we've imposed a 1.3 and then the 1.64 is
that much better for us as a utility
and that's all I have on financials
thank you
Dominique
so just our final thoughts excuse me
um so you know energy is used and it
does affect all lines of business and
natural gas is currently our only method
of emergency power so in that emergency
Powers is what makes sure that our wells
our boosters our lift stations and
Wastewater plants can continue to
function if in fact there's a power
outage we're hoping through our
transition plan and as other
energy sources become developed over the
the next few decades that we would be
able to continue to transition but at
this point in time and we're not sure
how far that is that should be something
that could be covered in the transition
plan is to actually utilize the natural
gas for emergency power until we can
actually utilize something else
different
and so essentially you know thank you
for letting us have this discussion with
you all on the line of business of
natural gas and it's really exciting for
us and we definitely look forward to any
questions and then we look forward to
coming back to you probably here in
about three months so that we can cover
another line of business for you and
with that um we'll stand for any
questions or or not thank you so much
thank you Adrian councilman Como thanks
mayor and thank you so much to the whole
lcu staff that are here today with this
presentation I wish people would have
stayed I find every time you all present
incredibly interesting so
um and again I always make sure I say
this because I feel often like the folks
who work at utilities no matter what
line of business it is is often a really
invisible job yet such an important job
about how we cook and how our water is
warm in the mornings right and so I just
always want to say express my gratitude
toward all of you and the men's staff
that the lcu has I just I did want to
know that I am excited about the
transition update Adrian
um I'm look really looking forward to
seeing that evolve one of the things I
didn't notice
specifically mentioned in the scope and
something that I care deeply about is
ensuring that in whatever transition
whatever that looks like and however
long it looks like that you don't lose
staff that staff remain a priority that
transition bring people that they train
people right like I just want to make
sure that the people who have worked in
this industry for years can are able to
continue to do so if they want to and so
for me that's something that's a
critical piece that any
folk anyone anybody if you're doing
interviews that I hope that you ask
um and then you know really I think it
was
um on page 17 with the graph
um I to me this really is one of the
biggest reasons
that no actually that's not Pitch 17.
can you do where the January was like
way up here to me this is really the
graph that kind of explains why we need
to transition so badly what we need to
find Alternatives and prepare for
Alternatives because we're kind of
beholden to this system and our folks
saw this huge increase in their bills
and
um it's just it's time that we start
doing that and we put urgency you know
behind policies and legislation whether
it's at the state level or the federal
level that will help us find
Alternatives faster
but I certainly think it's important
that we do it responsibly and don't
leave anyone behind so I just I didn't
really have any questions but I just
wanted to make that statement Adrian and
thank you all very much thank you very
much
thank you counselor beta thank you mayor
and thank you to all the lcu staff I
also want to record uh recognize
commissioner a little in the audience so
thank you as well for being here
um really it's such a thorough
presentation so thank you uh the one
question that I have is in regards to
that 10 million dollar grant that we
were able to receive and with that we
know that we need to do some wine
replacement do we have an estimate about
what that looks like about what the
immediate need is for
for our lines already
uh mayor counselor abanta Adrian
utilities director what's really great
is that particular Grant had specific uh
projects associated with it and so
Romero's grouped in an excellent job and
so they actually told them there was two
projects that were cut and so the nice
thing is is the rest of those that were
kept from that we're taking a look at it
if you want to come up and chat a little
bit more about it Ramiro is that they
are actually going through and whatever
their top priorities are they're going
through that to find how the 10 million
dollar works the best and it is through
a priority process and thank you and it
it's it is for modernizing it for rehab
that kind of stuff it's not for new
yes and thank you for that uh
distinction I know that that's been a
priority to make sure that we don't add
new lines but I know how important it is
to take care of the lines that we do
have and to make sure we have those
correct pressures for safety so
um I just want to make sure that as we
balance it we're also recognizing that
why we do have these lines that we are
very much responsible for that safety
yes thank you thank you and thank you
mayor
one thing to point out and I think you
heard Adrian talk about backup or
emergency so during the the winter time
when this the gas spiked up if there's
no sun then they need the gas to
generate the power to generate the
electricity so they that's where they I
think that's where they got Texas big
time so
okay well thank you again very much that
was a pretty impressive you
before you think that might be something
Council can have access to and that
might help their constituents the lead
over down the road to explain how that
how that came about
okay thanks thank you thank you
all right last item is going to be at
the ground ambulance transport update
thank you
well good afternoon mayor members of
city council fire chief Jason Smith
today I'm going to be providing to you a
ground ambulance transport update we're
going to go through a few things that
we've been working on for the last
several years at lcfd
so we're going to cover some of our
certificate of necessity background
where we've been in the last 40 50 years
or so review our settlement agreement
progress basically we had a mediation
settlement with the county and American
Medical Response and we have some things
that we need to implement to stay in
line with that settlement agreement and
we'll cover those we'll also go over the
current system performance and then
we'll talk about ambulance transport
Billing at lcfd
so if you go back in in time when we
looked at this for the health policy
Review Committee the earliest resolution
I could find was from 1977 when the city
was Contracting out ambulance services
to two different companies Consolidated
ambulance and Associated ambulance
through the 70s and 80s there were
numerous contracts that were either
performed by the city or by the county
or jointly the last one being in 1989
where
MMC was providing EMS transport the city
was providing maintenance on the
ambulances and a fee per call and the
county was providing ambulances
the capital for those
going into the 90s in 2018
had the sole certificate of necessity
for the area they were issuing the
contracts managing those contracts and
the performance
at the same time lcfd started providing
EMS care so in the 90s we started
training EMTs so we started going more
and more into the EMS realm in 2006 we
had our first paramedic class graduate
and now I'm happy to share that of out
of the 163 sworn personnel we have 51 of
those are paramedics and we've got a few
more coming they're working on their
testing and their certification
so 2006 we started adding paramedics
shortly after we added our Squad program
to start supplementing the system
and along the way we started noticing
that there was a decrease in the level
of service we were receiving under those
contracts sometime in 2015 the issuance
of that we had an increase in call
volume increase in population and at the
same time we were seeing an increase in
our response times from the contracted
service so we went from a contract in
2007 that required a response within 8
minutes and 59 seconds that was changed
to 10 minutes and 59 seconds in 2015 and
that's currently the contract we work
under
so in 2018 we brought to city council a
work session in December followed by
resolution 19112 asking for us to be
given the direction to pursue our
certificate of necessity so we wanted to
have more influence in that contract and
we wanted to make sure that our needs in
our strategic business plan were being
meant to or spoken to
so we started our con process it was it
was quite lengthy in March of 2020 we
filed shortly thereafter there was a
protest by AMR and Oneonta County by
July we had negotiated a settlement
agreement and those protests were
withdrawn
that resulted in a settle settlement
mediation two phases the first phase
that we would keep our con and we
wouldn't transfer it and to anybody
basically we went to contract out
services
and we're also allowed to provide
transport under certain circumstances so
if we were expecting the AMR ambulance
to be longer than 11 minutes to scene we
could dispatch our Squad to provide
transport
also if we were already on scene there
and there was a life or limb issue or we
already had a patient who was under mih
so mobile integrated Healthcare was
already seeing that person we could
provide transport and then if they
needed paramedic care and AMR was not
able to provide that we could
the other thing that we agreed to in
that resolution was we would have
matching tariff rates and we'll talk
about that a little bit more
the second phase of this settlement
agreement we are to enter into an mou
with the county for nine years it's
renewable every three currently we have
that at legal for review so we're close
to having that implemented
the city will manage services or
contract out services for ambulance for
the entire County we'll also work at
supporting each other when we reissue or
reapply for our con and then we did a
competitive request for proposal
together with the county and a part of
that is the county is to pay for any
subsidy related to that RFP if it's
needed so I'm happy to say that we have
issued that RFP and we're close to
entering into negotiations next month
with the selected contractor
the county did just renew their
certificate of necessity this past year
and to the settlement agreement we
didn't file any kind of
disagreement with it we supported their
reissuance
we're also going to be forming an
ambulance oversight committee this is
very similar to the one that we have now
it's made up of First Responders so Area
fire departments the county some of the
hospitals and we're going to be looking
at expanding that committee so that all
the hospitals have representation as
well as
the local departments our First
Responders who are usually first on
scene
the objective of that is to review
response times and look at clinical
interventions and if there is any
impact or penalty that we need to charge
to the selected contractor that approval
goes through the ambulance oversight
committee and then we administer that
and we're looking at operations under
this new agreement to start the
beginning of next year
so our current system performance we're
looking at our ambulance Review
Committee which is kind of the the
mirror of our ambulance oversight
committee this one is managed by the
county and overseen by them they looked
at response times from July through
December of last year AMR had just over
3 500 responses within the city
their Benchmark time they're supposed to
be at the 85th percentile responding and
being on scene within 10 minutes and 59
seconds they achieved just under 65
percent during that time frame they also
had almost five percent of their calls
it took greater than 21 minutes to
respond and these are only calls where
they're responding lights and sirens so
it's what we determine as code three
for the city response times we looked at
two different groups we looked at our
squat program to report those benchmarks
we did not have 3 500 calls for that
sorry that's from the other slide
we had
somewhere in the realm of just over a
thousand calls that were code three
lights and sirens at the 1059 Benchmark
our squads were on scene at 84 and a
half percent engines and trucks at 94
and then within our strategic business
plan our goal is to be on scene within
nine minutes the squads achieved that
73.5 percent of the time in our engines
and trucks just below 88 percent
now in order to address some of our
increasing response times we're looking
at fire station 9 which will have an
engine and a Truck and a squad and we've
also implemented a peak hour demand unit
at Station 8 we're running an extra
Squad so we actually have during the day
during our peak hours four squads in
service and we're hoping we can meet our
strategic plan goal numbers here shortly
just to look at the number of ambulance
transports that we've provided in 2022
we did 4 600 transports to the hospital
from scene and year to date so far in
2023 we're just over 1800.
a look at our response times overall
we've got a pretty good distribution of
what we'd like to see I know it's very
hard to to really see that on the screen
but far left of the graft is zero
seconds to respond far right is just
over 29 minutes so you can see the
greatest concentration of our response
is are right in between three minutes
and 20 seconds in about eight minutes
now our system has been changing and
getting busier year after year I'm
coming up on 21 years with the
department and back in 2002 we were we
were excited to just get to about 11 000
calls now we're close to 22 to 24 000
calls in our system
and it's not just the city of Las Cruces
that is
busy it's the entire County area and I'm
hoping
this will pull up
a map from GIS so
definitely put our GIS Department to the
to the test this last week we asked them
for uh
a chart with all of our
call volume over 2018 to 2022 on there
and they put it up on a nice video that
showed it trust me it's awesome it does
things here in the middle and then shows
calls happening but I don't know the
password for the presentation so
does anybody
no password
I love fire
Department
so we'll skip that one
take t-board's word for it between Chief
coaches
it's great
but basically after off of all the data
that we looked at for those four years
we can see what our peak times are
basically eight o'clock in the morning
to about eight o'clock at night is when
our system within the entire County
really Peaks we see a lot of call volume
overall overnight hours which you'd
expect lower calls for surface
here is just a
screen capture of the video where you
can see the highest density is within
the city of Las Cruces extending out to
the etz area some call volume up and
hatch down to Oregon Sunland Park but we
came up with four main areas that see
the most call volume
so billing for lcfd this is part of that
resolution 21090 where we had have to
implement matching tariffs
we've contracted out for a third party
to administer our billing that's EMS
management consultants and they are
working with us to go through CMS to
register us to build with them and
private insurance companies
part of that process we talked about how
do we have relief for hardships
so we have anywhere from zero to 150
percent of the poverty level you can see
a hundred percent reduction in your
personal billable account all the way up
to 300 percent and we have payment and
billing options that break down that
bill to smaller chunks that can be paid
over time
so here's an example of that hardship so
if you have a family of four uh the
latest uh
federal poverty level it's thirty
thousand uh in household income if
you're at that level for your household
you'll have 100 reduction in your
payable bill
all the way up to ninety thousand
dollars for income which honestly covers
almost all of your city employees
you have a 25 reduction in your bill
and here are our tariff rates there are
other ones for non-emergency transport
but the one that we're focused on lcfd
is our 9-1-1 calls so Advanced life
support two this is when paramedics get
on scene and we have to do a higher
level of intervention as well as
administer three different Advanced Life
Care medications or the same one three
times so this is like a CPR so when we
get on scene and we're starting CPR
we're going to do an airway an advanced
Airway to secure that so we can
ventilate the patient we're going to
administer things like epinephrine
and we do that multiple times over the
call that gets billed at an advanced
life support too
Advanced life support one is an
intervention from an advanced EMT or
paramedic where we give one medication
or one intervention
our basic life supporters are basic EMTs
providing intervention and then we also
have a fee for just a patient evaluation
so a lot of times we get called the
patient doesn't require transport or
they don't want to be transported for
any medications or interventions we do
on scene we will build that
so leading up to this we're looking at a
July 1st implementation of sending out
our our bills we're going to look at
education for the public which is going
to be updates on social media our web
page also some Outreach we plan on
leaving pamphlets or Flyers behind all
of our EMS calls letting them know what
our tariffs are who to get a hold of
what the bill will look like so they can
I expect because it's not going to match
City PO Boxes it's going to be for the
billing company it's going to look a
little bit different but it will have
our our new logo on there and identified
as being from the Las Cruces fire
department and the city of Las Cruces
we've also done training for our staff
emsmc provided online training for all
of our personnel and they're making that
way their way through that course and
it's about a two-hour course online
so into the future that new ambulance
RFP that contract in place January 1st
2024 we're going to be looking about a
year after that hopefully opening
station nine
we're looking at pursuing automatic Aid
agreements most definitely with the
county as we try to partner more and
more with them as we are managing this
contract and this service together also
with NMSU Messiah any of our neighbors
nearby and looking at ways to to create
Innovation and new programs for the city
so if we start to recover some revenue
and we see that coming in
what I propose is that we reinvest that
back into the department rather than
supplementing or removing General funds
entirely that we say how can we support
the mih program how can we fund light
project on an ongoing basis and as we
receive more revenues or even cost
sharing through CMS or Medicaid that we
put that back into these programs to
grow them and meet the need for the
community so that we can work on the
prevention side of what we'd like to do
when it comes to prevention response and
Recovery
so in conclusion this is a pathway that
we've been on from the city for many
years as you can see going back to the
90s when we first started training EMTs
to our first paramedic class the squad
program going for a certificate of
necessity that is a hard one for me to
say at the end of the day certificate of
necessity
and now to going into billing and
managing the RFP for the entire County
it's really only possible because of our
membership and our firefighters that
respond to these calls
value what they do and their dedication
to Integrity customer service and
teamwork so we look forward to trying
new and inventive things and to bring
further updates to council and with that
we'll stand for questions
thanks chief
okay who councilor Graham
councilman Como sure
thank you so much thank you especially
for that really tricked out map I've saw
it in my head it was beautiful
I know you you mentioned briefly but I
didn't see it covered can you talk a
little bit about non-emergent transport
the burden that that can put on the
system and how this new this new
strategy might help to address that
thank you mayor council Graham you're
referring to inter-facility transports
transports from hospital hospital and
hospital to home correct or I'm thinking
to facility to hospitals so maybe some
of our
um
Senior Care Centers rehabilitation
centers so thinking more about that
facility to facility transport
okay thank you um that is a is a concern
because when units come out of service
from the 911 system to facilitate those
transfers it does reduce what we have
available for 9-1-1 conversely though it
does move people in and out of the
hospital system so it could be freeing
up a bed a spot in the emergency room as
patients shuffle through the hospital so
you go from emergency room to bed on the
floor from bed on the floor to recovery
or rehab hospital it does move patients
around one thing we're aware of when we
issued the RFP is there are
facets of the RFP that speak to
Performance when it comes to ift and
some of the penalties we put in in place
or proposed putting in place address the
9-1-1 performance so we're aware of the
impact of that but when we look at the
health care system and needing ground
ambulance transport it's it's kind of a
30 000 foot look that we have to have
for it
okay thank you
um is that something for which we could
bill under this
would that be included in the tariffs so
under our our settlement agreement ifts
are are not a key feature of what we're
looking to do at the city we're focused
on 9-1-1 response I will say that we've
put the ift as a Sole Provider into into
the RFP and propose that as part of the
contract
because those revenues should reduce the
cost of providing 9-1-1 service so we're
hoping that will actually reduce any
subsidy that's needed
okay great thank you that clears it up
um last question you talked about public
and Community Education
give us an idea of what that might look
like
so when it comes to billing we're going
to update our tariff rate as well as
like an example of of the billing most
likely that will be left behind and I've
got a battalion chief coaches who's in
charge of that effort with emsmc of how
do we get that word out to the public of
you're now going to expect these bills
from the city
so we're kind of aware of that I think
it's really this presentation Outreach
at the time of call for service and then
using the internet social media
definitely and I would BC coaches do you
want to anything
you want to chime in
nope
I anticipated that
um and I would also think as
um as my fellow council members are
staging Community meetings doing any of
our Outreach that would be a great thing
to have you join us and include that all
right thank you so much thank you mayor
thank you councilman Cuomo thanks mayor
thank you Chief Smith and just a side
note before I ask my question I just
have one question but GIS Works
incredibly hard and I'm sure they did on
that map so if they somebody can send us
the link or something that would be
great they I think you said this
um last week but they were at our TSI
PRC
um
meeting earlier this month than they
presented and they're they're just
really incredible if they ever had an
opportunity to come to work session and
present some of their innovative ideas I
think that would be wonderful
um Chief I actually that was really
great information thank you for the
update whatever we can do to help get
the word out please let us know really
my only sort of startling
um
point in your presentation I wondered if
you had information on it who does for
lack of a better word oversight on like
ambulance standards like who would have
oversight over AMR for example
the state like who sets the standards
for service
mayor councilman come on
state
has regulations under nmac for both
Firebase and EMS response as well as the
public regulation commission and then
you're required to have medical control
medical oversight so you have a
physician who oversees your scope of
practice but there is a National
Standard as well and then a state EMS
bureau that sets the level of care you
can provide okay well I really I think
this this
this is a good service to our community
so I appreciate where the work that you
have put into this and it was funny I
don't know if she's going to say it but
I'm going to say it for her because in
your graph of the times she was she
whispered to me don't leave your house
at Friday at 11 and I just thought that
was really funny
thank you
and here's the map as promised so just
as wonderful and amazing as we promised
uh it shows the call volume for County
now this is a four-year period a month
at a time
so to do anything more detailed like
hour by hour I think we would be here
until the next work session
and I think everybody wants a chance to
go home once
wait I'm sorry Chief can you explain
once again what is happening everything
thank you every dot that you see on the
map is a call for service in the 911
system
each time it changes that's all the
calls in a given month
so it's month by month over almost a
four year period it's a lot of data a
hundred thousand something points that
GIS helped us to log and illustrate here
on this map
so it just kind of really shows that
over the four year period there's been a
huge increase in in service that happens
and as you see it over the four year
it's quite a lot
but really wanted to illustrate that
when we looked at this RFP and the
services we're looking at at the county
as a whole and we're really partnering
with donana County and their fire and
emergency services to make this happen
okay okay
um counselor Flores thank you Mr Mayor
and thank you Chief uh Smith for your
presentation I have questions about
um well when you Bill individuals
um
I
well insurance companies pay for that or
not or when you build when you Bill do
you say
you know your carrier may be able to
help you out with this and or anything
like that because I think if I received
one of my sons had to be transported and
when my then husband called for the
ambulance
a bunch of or the firefight everybody in
this is Los Angeles there was about 10
fire trucks and they were all trying to
build and I know that here we have AMR
and then we have our city uh you so
um what happens when the you know when
all these there's all these responders
and what happens to um you know Joe
citizen or Josie citizen
mayor council Flores thank you
so there's call for service and if we
respond and it's on an entire lcfd
response to our Squad which is an
ambulance and one of our engines or
trucks they they respond to the scene
they get patient information we're going
to gather identifiers that we can as
well as their insurance information
whether that's a private insurer or CMS
medicare Medicaid
and we will submit all of that once the
report is complete to our billing
company they'll go through the report
they'll they'll build it out they'll use
that insurance information as well as
Hospital information or contact the
local hospital to get patient
information so we can build the
insurance provider so that's the first
step is to figure out if the insurance
provider what their portion is is to pay
anything that's residual like you may
have a copay or deductible that gets
built out to the individual okay
now so
you indicated I know that the
negotiations or the presentation back in
2018 was contentious
and so the contract is coming up for
renewal in 2024. and
the renewal with donana County so
do you see any bumps in the road or
anticipate any
you know
any hesitance on the part of the county
hesitation no hesitation I think with
with the county we've definitely moved
from
trying to find each other and understand
the different points of view to issuing
this RFP together and being
collaborative in our approach so I don't
think we're going to have any
difficulties working on this with with
the county
we are working through the RFP process
currently AMR is currently confirmed to
extend their contract
all the way to the end of the year until
January 1st when the new contract takes
over and AMR contracts with the county
they do currently okay has but there is
crossover sometimes no there is yes
because I your dots go all the way down
to Vado and Anthony probably
um I mean I think so um
so then what are the automatic Aid
agreements that that's prospective
correct with uh the county NMSU and
Messiah those are prospective those are
perspective where we're beginning to
talk with the Chiefs that represent the
County chief cherry
chief for NMSU and chief of Messiah talk
to them about what type of calls we
could respond to on an automatic basis
so if it's for a CPR if it's for a
structure fire that we could extend our
services and assist those areas where it
makes sense so Oregon
is really isolated from most access from
the rest of the county our fire station
five six and future nine will be closer
to help render Aid so if they need help
rather than having to make this request
and call people it could be automatic
through our computer aided dispatch to
send the units that are needed so we're
looking at trying to improve those
relationships and go from a mutual Aid
agreement where we have to call and
agree to where it's just written and
adopted and it's an automatic Aid
so if you don't have the automatic Aid
agreement then it sort of makes things
harder to do I mean it adds more time to
the response Council that's correct it
adds more time it slows down the process
there's a request a permission
so it does slow it down where we could
have it as part of the the cad system
great well thank you again very much for
your work I think we could we wouldn't
be able to survive without you thank you
thank you Mr Mayor
any other comments
so Chief I have a few thank you for that
presentation
um wouldn't this service replace AMR
we're looking to replace AMR or are you
going to work together we're working at
reissuing an RFP so nobody was excluded
no companies were excluded from that
process so we're going to work with the
the top scoring bidder on negotiating so
okay so I guess my question is
if the city wins the bid I guess the
well fire department or mayor to be
clear we we're not putting in a bid for
the services it was contracted out
because it's for the entire County
what we did is part of that RFP is we
carved out a portion of the most
critical call types that we want lcfd
responding to only so CPR stroke chest
pain
very acute trauma where it's a level one
highest priority trauma patient we want
a full lcfd response within the city and
that's what's was placed in the RFP
currently under the mediation agreement
we are providing over 4 000 transports a
year because those units are delayed so
we're waiting on scene for too long for
for AMR or it's a lifer limb in a
situation and we're providing transport
right away
okay so AMR could still it could still
possibly exist both AMR and the city
response yes any any selected vendor in
the future will co-exist with with City
lcfd ambulance units Okay the reason why
I bring this up a couple things one
um prior to Obamacare the there was the
county has what they call an Indigent
fund and it's about 1 16 of our gross
receipts tax because we're County
residents too it goes into a fund and
these are old numbers but I wrote them
down a long time ago it's about back
then it was 4.5 million that they
collect annually
and I know they gave or give 1.3 million
to AMR
so if if we if the city is going to be
picking up a good portion of of their
territory I would think that they need
to reimburse some of that to the city
that's just my my take they give a
million to local providers 1.3 to AMR
and I have here distributed Statewide so
that's telling me that they're probably
if they still get the three times match
so if they can take money they can get
three times of Medicaid money so that's
like I said this was a while back when I
wrote this down so that's one thing
two is typically
for volunteer firefighters
house insurance your personal
homeowner's policy usually has a
coverage of five hundred dollars and it
was meant because some volunteer fire
departments Bill residents
reason why I bring this up is if earlier
you heard counselor Flores ask how will
it be billed
I think if the bill comes from the Las
Cruces fire department and if they live
in the city and if they have it in their
homeowner's policy I mean I think that's
500 that could be had from their home
insurance not their health insurance
that could be also but this could be as
a supplement and to my knowledge there
would be no deductible so I just wanted
to point those those these uh
information out that's all but other
than that that's that's good
thank you mayor
okay so if there's nothing further
all right well thank you for the
presentation and entertain a motion to
adjourn move to adjourn second second
we should be my counselor beta second by
councilman Como that we adjourn
Teresa this is on a motion to adjourn
the meeting
counselor beta yes
counselor Graham yes counselor Ben Como
yes counselor Koran yes counselor Flores
yes counselor Gandara
yeah she left a long time ago mayor yes
okay it's 4 53 p.m we are adjourned
thank you