yes
[Music]
morning everybody it's 9 A.M on April 27
2023 and we will call this board of
directors meeting of the animal service
center of the Messiah Valley to order
if you would all rise and join me in the
Pledge of Allegiance please
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation
and under God indivisible with liberty
and justice for all
and Becky if we can have a roll call
please
remember de Leon is absent board member
Ward
present former Flores
I'm kind of sort of here yes
good morning
member Macias is absent board member
Quran present board member Shayla
Hernandez
president
here
chair Sanchez present and board member
Macias is entering the chambers we do
have a quorum
all right then we'll move on to agenda
number three which is changes to the
agenda and approval of the agenda
move to approve the agenda please um
yes I am
wanting to table
the action item B resolution
202304 amend the ascmv fiscal year 24
budget
I believe there is a budget adjustment
that is coming
to us and after speaking to Barbara de
Leon there is numerous concerns about it
and I think we need to table it until
Clint is here and we have that
conversation as the executive and the
finance committee I understand that that
particular
budget adjustment did not go through the
finance committee correct recommending
that it does correct so I too
um second that or well I don't know what
the correct but I think that it has to
be tabled
thank you okay so councilor corn I know
you had a a motion on the floor would
you be okay if either amending that to
uh with mayor Pro tems sure suggestion I
know if we approve the budget by two
well
um or with the with with I guess prove
the agenda without
uh agenda item 7B
I move we do that which is not tabling I
guess just remember I guess when we've
got stable I guess do we have to have a
motion approve the agenda and then table
right so I second the emotion the second
emotion to uh to the agenda uh well the
motion was to approve and so that kind
of Falls in a gray area procedurally or
parliamentary
so we I think we're so we just need to
approve the agenda without or with the
removal of action item 7B
all right I move
I amend my prior recommendation to
approve and to include the removal of
action item B and I said okay so we have
a motion on the floor to approve the
agenda with with the removal of 7B and
we have a second second hi florist okay
we have a second by counselor Flores are
there any comments on the
agenda
okay I just have sorry I just have a
quick question about the thing that we
just tabled yes
um this is amending the budget that is
that we approved
right last time
I believe what the way we're pretend
you'll have to correct me the way I
understand it is uh I think the concern
is that the there might be some addition
there there could be potential
amendments to that uh budget but it
would have to go through the finance
committee first before coming back to
the board of directors for approval so
it doesn't affect the fact that we
already approved the budget right
so it would be an amendment in the
future because for the city we can't
it's already in the budget thing and the
next meeting will be after correct so
this would just be I think the the
things that we've approved would be just
the preliminary budget and then we will
come back later to approve the final
budget
if we don't approve the final budget if
our I thought we approved the final
budget at the last meeting
it may recommend a they presented a
budget we had
um our right recommendations back and if
you recall and thank goodness Barbara is
here
um if you recall you
um judge Macias advocated for the 15
right we that budget included 14.50 is
my understanding so if that was the case
then that budget item that budget as it
was presented to us is not does not
include the fifteen dollars
um
Madam chair just as a point of
information although you don't debate a
tabling motion if that was where we're
still at but nevertheless just as
information Clint had come to the make a
presentation to the County Commission
related to the budget
and we had
discussed with the commission that there
would be a need for an additional 24
000 I believe is what was identified in
order to bring the 1450 up to 15 and the
County Commission voted to support an
increase of which would be half of that
amount twelve thousand dollars so if
that's the only item that has changed
from the prior budget and I don't know
that that's the case but if it's
literally twenty four thousand dollars
above what this command this board had
already previously approved
then
I for one don't think it's worth
having to go through the whole process
again if that's the only movement in the
budget
and my I guess my question is or my
point is if we table this till our next
ascmv meeting that will be after the
city approves our budget so then it will
then the budget will not be submitted on
time uh to the city well it can be
submitted and and again the city council
can amend
uh into the budget or into the budget
request the additional twelve thousand
dollars in order to accomplish the
fifteen dollars an hour and if I I may
add
um board so just as reading through the
minutes from April 7th we did have a
motion to approve the budget at that
time as proposed and it was approved so
we do have a we do have a budget so this
would be I guess this would be the
obvious is as a as the resolution
2023-04 says to amend the budget so at
least now like I said if we need to
amend at you know the next meeting
whatever it may be we do have a budget
going into this fiscal year we can make
our amendments and I think as the county
manager is suggesting we should be able
to at some point amend uh both the city
and the County's budgets as necessary
that's what I was hoping for
clarification on so thank you I just
wanted to confirm that that was what was
happening Mr Leon and I'm sorry Dr ahead
and I see you up so let me let me go to
uh to board member de Leon and then
we'll come back to you is that okay fine
thank you so much chair I appreciate it
so my recommendation was going to be to
adopt within our the budget the amount
that the board had approved at the April
7th meeting if there is a need to make a
budget adjustment for the going from
1450 to 15 an hour once we're in FY 24
then we will need a budget adjustment at
that time however we could monitor the
budget to make that determination as to
whether that was necessary but to me
what I was recommending to our our
Budget Group within our finance
department is to adopt the number that
was aligned with the approval this board
made or the recommendation that this
board made of the April 7th meeting I
wasn't aware of the of the discussion at
the County Commission and going forward
I am making a recommendation to Clint
that any budget adjustments that come to
this board first go through the finance
committee we met last week and this
wasn't a discussion item so it was a
surprise to me when I saw this item on
the agenda and then just trying to get
information about it has been a little
bit difficult so I think we'll be fine
to uh
um to adopt the budget recommended by
this board and then just monitor the
budget for any adjustments necessary
Within fy24
okay and I think that and just for and
again I I follow you thank you Miss uh
uh de Leon I just uh looking through and
I know this was exactly the the motion
was only to amend the budget by twenty
four thousand but I think the point to
have
any budget adjustments going through the
finance committee is well taken so I
think I I can support I think the
amendment at least for now uh to table
or at least approve the agenda without
this uh the resolution on here sorry Dr
Hadden
yes sorry I was gonna try to provide
some clarification but y'all got through
it that my understanding was that the
budget was approved and that this was an
amendment to the approved budget that we
were trying to get in order to get up to
the fifteen dollars an hour as Mr Macias
had requested so that was Mr chairman
again if it caused some consternation
then then I should make the apology but
this board recommends
but that's all it is it recommends and a
budget that the believes is appropriate
so at that point it leaves the
jurisdiction of this board and it goes
to the city council and to the County
Commission
so for uh adoption into their respective
budgets so it was an item on the County
Commission budget we discussed it I'm
the one that raised it with the
Commission in terms of still attempting
after I got clarification as to the
amount of money that would be necessary
to take the employees up to Fifteen
dollars an hour and I I think that this
board knows that I've been advocating
for that site and feel that it was out
of line and I think that there's a great
deal of sympathy if not outright support
for that goal so when we when the County
Commission took action to agree to
increase our contribution by the
additional twelve thousand dollars we
had suggested that they Mr Thacker come
back and have that conversation with the
city but at kind of the city council
level where Staffing the budget process
so if there was some breach of protocol
on my part for initiating it that the
County commission level then I apologize
for that but I think the intent was to
still carry out what was hopefully the
overall majority position here on the
board thank you so if maybe I should
have just immediately called Barbara and
said we're putting in another 12 000 can
you talk to the city council about an
additional country distribution as well
thank you Mr Macias
and thank you chair and also judgment
see us so I just want to emphasize too
that this determination to
um enter the budget as it was a
approved or recommended by this board on
April 7th won't uh prohibit us from
moving forward from actually
implementing that change with respect to
the 15 an hour base wages it will just
require us to monitor the budget as to
whether or not we actually need an uh
amendment in the fy24 fiscal year
because as you know with fluctuations
and expenditures whether they're from
vacancies or or projects that are not
moving forward or whatnot we may or may
not need that additional twenty four
thousand dollars to be added to the
budget but that's just part of budget
management we can move forward with
implementation okay thank you Miss
Daniel thank you Mr Macias so I know I
think unless there's any other comments
I know we have a motion on the floor
still to approve the the agenda without
20 without resolution 2023-04 in this
agenda
if there are no other uh comments at
this time I'll ask for a roll call of
the approval
board member mercius
approval of the gender sir
yes thank you thank you board member
Flores
yes former Quran yes former Michelle
Hernandez
yes former Gandara yes chair Sanchez yes
motion passes oh okay
all right so we are on now thank you for
uh we're on to agenda item 4A which is
the approval of the minutes from ascmv
March 3rd 2023 work session if I can get
a motion in a second before
is there a second
second by councilor corn
are there any comments
input okay if I can get a roll call
please on the agenda item 4A
former Macias
yes board member Flores
I have to abstain I was not present
thank you foreign yes former Michelle
Hernandez yes
yes passes
thank you now we're on to gen item 4B
which is the approval of the minutes on
the regular ascmv board meeting held on
March 23rd 2023 if I get a motion and a
second
for approval so moved moved by
commissioner Sheldon Hernandez
seconded by Corin seconded by councilor
corn thank you are there any comments
amendments changes
hearing none if I get a roll call on
that agenda item please borrow Macias
yes board member Flores
I have to abstain I was not present
former Quran yes former Michelle
Hernandez yes board member Gandara yes
chair Sanchez yes motion passes thank
you here we're on the agenda and horsey
which is the approval of the minutes
from the ascmv March 30th 2023 work
session if I get a motion on a second on
that item please
still lived we have a motion by
commissioner
seconded by corn thank you councilor
corn on the second are there any
comments changes
all right thinking of the roll call on
agenda item 4C please
foreign
yes board member Flores
abstention
yes former Michelle Hernandez yes board
member Gandara yes cheers Sanchez yes
motion passes thank you all right now to
agenda item 4D which is the approval of
the minutes from the ASC MV April 7th
2023 special meeting if I get a motion
and a second on those minutes please so
moved shelter Hernandez thank you
commissioner seconded
uh we have a second by councilor Corin
th okay are there any comments input
changes
it's all right hearing and seeing none
if I can get a roll call on agenda item
14 please
yes well remember Florida
yes yes
chair Sanchez yes motion passes yes
all right now we're on to our reports
and presentations uh we're on to the 5A
which is the Coalition for pets and
people presentation by Cruces cool cats
Miss carlosa
good morning good morning
I love your T-shirt by the way so cute
yeah love it
hello my name is Joseph and this is my
mother Selena Cardoza we're both oh
sorry uh my name is Joseph and this is
my mother Selena Cardoza and we both are
with Chris's cool cats and this is our
logo
that has been officially registered with
the state on October 2020 and we bought
our first cat that cat house February
our Christmas coolcast submission
statement is to improve the quality of
life of our community's homeless cats by
with the cats and kittens by medically
treating them socializing and providing
food in a nurturing environment so we're
able to find a forever home for all of
our adoptable cats also to reduce the
feral cat population through the TNR
trap Newton release program and every
opportunity to educate our community on
the importance of taking care of the
cats spaying and neutering
you know although we would like to help
every cat our focus is our feral cat
population here's a couple of things
that we have done for the community
on a weekly basis we help our community
with our team in our programs and anyone
who's interested in helping out their
community so far we have fixed over 220
cats
we also have gone into
take fix and domesticated feral or
unsocialized cats in total we have gone
into three homes and saved over 60 cats
we take in feral Mama cats with their
litters until their kittens are weaned
off from the mother and then we fix and
release the mama cat back to their
owners and we try to adopt out the rest
of the litters and so far we've rescued
over 25 Mama cats with litters and nine
orphan litters
we also take an unadoptable cats from
the shelter and we re-home them at our
Sanctuary currently we have 35
unsocialized or unadoptable cats that
we're still working with in hopes to
get adopt them out as a pet or as a
working cat
and then meet my mother she is our
founder and president of Cruces Cool
Cats she also has two full-time jobs and
helps fund uh and cleans out with the
house
and this is Joseph Lucero he's a
full-time dacc student as well as a
part-time part-time worker and a
full-time caregiver at the cat house he
uh he works with adoptions the TNR
process he goes out to The Community to
talk about responsibly owning a cat or
tnring trapping cats
it's
and then some of the other board members
that are not present with us we have
Nadine who is our vice president Jesse
who's our Treasurer and then we also
have Caesar who's also just another
member
since we have opened we have tnard and
rescued 463 cats and Counting
and then we've also I think we've
discussed this but we've went over to
three houses with cat homes
for you this one or
and then I'm sorry Duo overcrowding at
our Sanctuary we've been really focusing
on trying to adopt our cats and helping
out the community with the tnrs we
currently have 86 cats at our location
um if we forgot to put in a slide if you
want to check us out on our website it's
cruisescoolcats.org we also have social
media on Facebook Instagram and tick
tock
any questions
okay are there Missouri County Manager
oh sorry we'll do uh can I imagine from
CS and then counselor Flores
good morning thank you for the
presentation do you help residents uh
capture uh feral cats in order to have
them spay or neuted
so uh yes my uh mother would
um keep in contact with people around
the community and we would schedule a
time whenever we can get them fixed at
the animal shelter and I would be the
one to call them find a time when I can
drop the traps off I was showing how the
whole process works what they need to do
and then once they do traffic hat I
would bring the um I would go pick up
the cat we would take it back to our
location until ready for the surgery
we'll tell them what we what what we
expect from them and after that I would
release the cat back to them and then
also sign in with paperwork with that
too oh wonderful
um was there a phone number on the in
terms of how to reach your your mother
it'll be on our website on your website
yes
thank you Mr chairman thank you thank
you Mr Macias councilor Flores
thank you Mr chair and thank you so much
uh for being here today and and
presenting I'm really
um in awe and um it's quite apparent by
the pictures you have that you really
take care of the cats the pictures are
so adorable looks like they're just
lined up eating all of them and then
they're all on their little tears
um so are you a 501c3 yes we are and um
how long have you since 2020 and then
you purchased the house in 2021 20 and
2020 is when we were registered with the
state as a 501c3 and then we were
collecting cats by then at that time at
my house but when we bought a home for
the cat sanctuary that's when we started
taking everything in it yeah
I just want to thank you so very much
you brought tears to my eyes thank you
thank you
thank you Council Flores counselor corn
I just wanted to say thank you and I'm
looking at your web page and it looks
like you can potentially donate via
Paypal there so thank you I was going to
ask you first how we can help support
you and then the other part is I don't
know what your major is at the ACC or if
you want to take a class so you can look
me up I'll see you next in the fall
hopefully uh yes my major right now is
currently a hotel tourism and restaurant
management just trying to learn how to
become a manager awesome I actually
might start a cat cafe
that would be we would we would all be
in for that but please let me know if
you ever need anything at dacca I would
be happy to help you out too sure
thank you Council Court mayor Pro tem
thank you thank you so much for the
presentation and for all your service to
our community we it's no
um
everybody knows we have a feral cat
problem in our community and I feel it
sometimes at different times it gets
worse I know we've had our issues in our
little neighborhood and it's been a
topic of district one meeting
um issues if you will so appreciate that
now do you actually
assist the Neighbors in the cats or do
you if someone said hey I need a cat
um
trap would you would you provide that to
them and then like an exchange of of
traps or how does that work
so we own about 10 traps so we do lend
them out we do have people who already
have traps but just don't have the the
time or the money to fix the cat so they
would ask us if they can uh help us out
now are you working with other you
mentioned the center and scheduling for
um
neutering and and such
um
do you work with other 501 c3s that
might have the ability to do that the
neutering much more quickly and maybe
more my question is how quickly are are
we turning around the neutering for you
because it matters right we have to we
have to make sure we do that and do it
quickly enough so that we're not
populating right the the neighborhood so
can you talk to me a little bit about
that so with our the TNR program that we
work with is with the shelter so we have
so many slots every week and so on a
weekly basis contacting people him going
to their house educating getting there
two days before picking up the cats and
and I have two full-time jobs he has
full-time school and work yeah um it
between us two it's very difficult just
for that once a week so we haven't
reached out to
um uh the other 503 503 C's um
501c3 sorry it's okay
um
because I think once a week right now is
is uh all weekend right at this time got
you okay all right thank you again very
much for your efforts we really
appreciate it
um and now that this is going to be it's
live stream and but recorded and people
can see it and get the information and
um I love of what you're doing so
appreciate you very much thanks thank
you very much I'm sorry to answer the
other question we do hand out
um traps with no charge uh we haven't
haven't stolen or damaged at this time
so we haven't done any charges we just
hand them out and just ask to bring them
back good and I guess one last question
what are your needs what do you need
on our website we actually do have a tab
for donations list okay so if you want
to look under that okay it would just be
like small little things
um I mean we always go through a lot of
towels uh especially cleaning with the
cats
um and litter and food also does hop out
too okay very good thank you so much
thank you chair Sanchez thank you mayor
Pro tem and thank you for pointing that
out I think I'm I when counselor corn
had mentioned uh the the website I was
able to I was trying to figure out and
see how it was laid out and I appreciate
it I see here on the on the very right
side you have the wish list so
thank you and I think as mayor Pro tem
Gandara had mentioned it's hopefully
people will you know be able to watch
this and know how they can donate I
really appreciate everything that you
all do here in the community especially
for these cats I think when when
especially for
um when you come into these homes that
have so many and the efforts I think
seeing the pictures as you went through
the slides it's
um all I can say is thank you because
it's such hard work
um and and those situations are just all
of a sudden it's like a huge
so many there's so many cats that can be
involved with it so thank you for
everything that you do with the cats and
the population for the community and
working with the ascmv appreciates you
coming to present to us and inform us so
that way we get to learn of another
great organization because without a
doubt the ascmv and the county the city
we wouldn't be able to do all of our
efforts would be for not or we wouldn't
be able to keep up with it if it wasn't
with member or members of the community
like you so thank you all so much if
there are there any other comments
question
okay thank you so much for coming and
taking time out of your day thank you
thank you
it was a very cool cool presentation yes
all right we'll move on to agenda item
5B which is a city and county ACO
reports
what are these days I want to see you
guys do like a a paper rock scissors to
see who goes first it's okay we we
discussed it before it even starts so
thank you Mr Halsey good morning
good morning
um Mr chair and the rest of the board my
name is Brian horse Hulsey I'm here to
present the donana County Animal Control
monthly report
this is for the March 2023
for March we had 299 reported stray
animals we were able to pick up 209
stray animals it resulted in 58 stray
cats and 151 stray dogs
um that number usually starts to go up
around this time of year because it
starts to get hotter and the dogs start
roaming more so we end up getting more
dogs and cats
we had 14 sick and injured animals we
had nine cats and five dogs and we had
19 owners surrendered animals and they
were all dogs
this is our four-year comparison chart
for our reported Strays as you can see
from from this year to last year it's
around the same and that that Trend
usually stays if you look through all
all the four-year comparison
uh we had for our return to owners and
field this is if animals were picked up
within the field and we were able to
find IDs on the animals or the owners
and we were able to give them back to
them in the field with so they don't
have to go to the Animal Service Center
in Mississippi Valley we were able to
pick up 28 for return to owners
our additional animals picked up we had
no cats we had 19 dogs for owner
surrenders for sick and injured animals
we had 14 we had one welfare hold for
the new board members that were for
welfare holds are usually when
um
the border patrol or the sheriffs or
anybody that picks up someone for
detainment and they have animals we
usually do a welfare hold at the shelter
for them so that way the animals could
be looked at that's what those generally
entail we had two shelter quarantines we
had five home quarantines we had two
cases for for the county at the time and
the live evidence at the time of this we
had three two of those have already gone
through court so now we're only holding
one animal at this time we had one
rabies submission and then we started
doing the diverted intakes
and so we had 55 diverted intakes so
that that way they didn't end up going
into the Animal Service Center
these are our districts
and these are the string animals that we
picked up per District district one was
pretty pretty mild for us in March which
is always a good thing our big one was
District three and again that usually
ends up popping up for district three
every around this time due to again
getting hot and as you can see it's a
lot of dogs that was our hot spot
um it's usually District 3 and District
Seven but for some reason District Five
was pretty hot for March
and these are our Stray Cats picked up
by District
and these are our stray dogs picked up
by District
and these are our reasons for owner
surrenders for March we had two that
they just weren't able to keep them on
the property
um
they didn't know what else to do with
them and they didn't want to end up
getting fined or anything through us so
they under surrendered them we had five
that were either vicious or livestock
attacks we had three that showed
aggression two that were injured or sick
two that were abandoned in the new
landlord didn't want the dogs on the
property
for there were just too many animals and
they had to reduce them and one the new
landlord didn't allow pets at the at the
house
and for that stand for any questions
thank you are there any questions on the
report from the county the only the only
question I had and I'm just wondering is
as we get through the year and I know
we've had a few of operations in some of
the different communities so far I think
well one I think one this year but do we
see any uh change in numbers after we go
through and do a sweep in the
um in the communities
um in some communities we do and some we
don't
um it's kind of Hit or Miss and I I
honestly think it just depends on
um the people that were able to actually
talk to and have the the communication
and education through because sometimes
when we go through you know people are
working things like that so we miss
we're unable to get in contact with some
people but I think the education parts
um pretty big I know we go through
education and we do go through that
every month we do track it so if you'd
like I could give you the March numbers
for Education next next month if you'd
like yeah no I appreciate it that would
be great I just I think the the only
reason I ask is because I'm just you
know as we start doing more and more
engagement and I just kind of curious to
see what we've learned as as we go
through any best practices that we can
take to the next
um you know into the next community that
we go into so yeah we're always trying
to look into that we always have you
know a lot of education on hand for the
officers we
um
I know when I was an officer I can't say
for the officers now because I'm not in
the ability anymore but we used to keep
packets for people that had a whole
variety of things from spay and neuter
to 10 Essentials to restraint from just
a wide variety of things so okay great
thank you
are there any questions other things
questions comments okay
thank you
good morning chairman members of the
board good morning
for the record my name is Gino Jimenez
I'm the animal control supervisor for
the city of Las Cruces I will present to
you our March
numbers
for 2023 we responded to 521 reported
Strays of those 255 or Goa meeting the
officer did not have contact with that
animal we were able to apprehend 261 and
of those 226 228 were impounded at the
Animal Services Center 130 were dogs and
98 were cats we were successful in
returning 38 cat animals back to their
owners those are animals that never
crossed the threshold of the Animal
Services Center we were unsuccessful in
returning 15 animals that had some sort
of identification so those identifiable
animals were impounded so and we also
had a total of 53 identifiable animals
here is our three-year comparison for
our Strays as you can see we're slightly
on a rise with 521 bringing the total to
1407 for the year
's our three-year field RTO rate again
we did 38 for the month uh bringing us
to a total of 99 for the year
this graph is really all over the place
you can see that September October and
November we were pretty
equal for the years in the past I can't
explain why this year is any is
different from the years from the past
Community cap program as we all know
this was a new program or a new slide or
new report data collection for this
board what I've tried to do here is show
a two-year comparison so in 2021 a 2022
was the first year that we were able to
collect a whole Year's data so that was
as shown in the orange and tan and then
this year is the blue and green so for
March we were able to we responded to 84
calls for cats and traps and of those 17
Community cats were released back to her
in that same area which they came
reasons for owners surrendering animals
this is a huge list this month
um eight dogs three puppies three adults
five puppies uh the owners could no
longer afford
four dogs for parvo three dogs for
Behavioral issues two dogs that had
bitten and the owners no longer wanted
them two dogs for aggression two puppies
did not get along with the owner's older
pet two cats the landlord does not new
landlord would not allow in his property
one is a dog landlord did not allow
again
one cap for aggression two dogs four
euthanasia one was hit by a car the
other one was suffering from seizures
one dogs he was unable to keep it secure
another dog sick unable to provide
Veterinary Care One dog for old age one
cat was injured and that owner could no
longer could not afford veterinary care
either and one cat for the owner had a
lifestyle change
here's our reasons we were unable to
fill our to five because the chips were
not updated
seven no contact by phone or at the
residence one having in El Paso Texas
address
one for a registered person no longer
owned the dog and did not know who they
gave it to or could no longer remember
who they had given it to one the owner
was arrested however their address was
in Alamogordo and finally one chip was
registered to the father in Anthony New
Mexico
however the son who was the owner was
homeless and he had no phone number so
we had no way of getting that animal
back to either party
and with that I will stand for any
questions
thank you Gino are there any questions
near pretend thank you chair Sanchez
good morning good morning thank you for
your presentation on the 500 plus calls
can you tell me how much time you're
spending each of your officers on those
calls right like you're going and
I'm assuming all the work that takes
place in that and I I would like to see
a
sort of a breakdown of the number of
hours that you're spending on these 500
plus calls
um what it it what it entails in terms
of when you
do are successful with the field returns
how much time are you spending on those
and how much time you're spending on
educating right the community because
you do a lot of that as well to include
the cat
our TNR program uh chairman mayor Pro
tem Gandara that report is actually in
my excuse me
in my Peak Performance report that is
given to city council okay um haven't
seen it yet okay I do it every month I
yeah I don't see it we don't see it
right oh okay counselors so thank you
for importing me I will be talking to
you
um if if there's a way that you can
incorporate that in the presentation I
think it is important I really would
like us to move into being less
reactionary and more proactive because
it maybe might be that we're
spinning our wheels on things that may
not
um well at the end it doesn't yield like
a return on investment it's just not
it's just not I think helpful so if I
could have that I think I would better
assess what might be the direction that
this Board needs to take and although
you're with the city manager's office
and I understand that and I see
Lieutenant Whittle out in the audience
I'm just feeling like
we see these numbers all the time and
very little our you're successful
um
your although you're successful in these
and we see the numbers it makes me feel
like maybe we we need to
move in a different direction I I'm
thinking I don't know what that
direction is yet Gino but if you could
give me what those Peak Performance
measures are I think it would be helpful
and then my next question is around
um
when I see the unsuccessful attempts and
you give us that list
um I'm wondering if we can work with the
Animal Services Center because every
um Monday they're presenting to council
I don't know if they present to the
county but they're presenting the
council and there's an education
component to that and right now we have
learned so much about TNR it's been
really fantastic but not only is it
being that council's being educated by
the public right and so I'm wondering if
some of these topics you and are um
Animal Services said Amy she does a
wonderful job and please say that to her
Bernice and Dr hedden
she is really
doing a fabulous job educating Community
about that but I'm wandering around
things like okay an individual can
afford treatment or food there are
programs out there that I'm not quite
sure that folks are aware of so maybe
that collaboration I see Gene out in the
hygiene it's been a long time but I see
Gene and the group that they organized
right kind of bringing everybody
together I'm feeling there's some
siloing still if we can have some
conversations and just be better
equipped in terms of how we're educating
community in some of these areas maybe
we'll be more successful I don't know
it's a it's maybe it's a shot in the
dark but something worth maybe doing
some small experiments around okay
chairman Mary Pro tem let me answer I'll
answer both questions for you okay so
number one on their straight calls going
back through memory because I don't have
my report in front of me I know that our
response time is within 14 minutes so
when an officer puts himself or herself
on that call to respond to a straight
call it's taking him or her 14 minutes
to get to that call to that area per our
sop the officers are required to search
the area for a minimum of seven minutes
that's just a minimum we start off in
the the center of where that call came
in and then expand our search radius for
that call within seven minutes seven to
ten minutes if the officer hasn't come
in contact with that stray animal more
than likely we're not going to it's
moved on because that call could have
came in at let's just say for example
eight o'clock but the officer was
already on other calls so they're not
actually responding to it till 8 30.
sure but once they get there they're
spending that seven to ten minutes on
that call trying to find that dog this
is something that is throughout the
nation
um 50 percent of reported stray calls
are not being we're not making contact
with that that's across the board that's
what the Albuquerque that's El Paso
that's Dallas that's Tucson
um that's so that's across the board
um in some areas in some jurisdictions
they have actually stopped acos from
responding to straight calls however our
state statute says that we must
so we do that I don't know how those
other agencies got away with it because
it becomes a public safety issue if you
don't respond to that call because what
if there's always that what if that we
don't respond to that stray and it ends
up mauling or biting or causing some
other injury so at least we're making
the effort and we're successful in 50 of
the time rather than zero if we don't if
we take that out of the ordinance
um going back to your educational
questions
before covid we were doing at least
three presentations a month on
educational in elementary schools which
is our focus our Target we were doing uh
presentations at like the Old Navy
safety days
uh National Night Out all these other
places
um but that was before covet during
covid we really cut down on our service
services so that we wouldn't uh expose
citizens we weren't exposing ourselves
to Citizens that may have been covet
positive and vice versa so our services
really really went down for that
then there was a loss of Manpower that I
had I am staffed for eight during covet
I was down to four
thankfully as a matter of fact on Monday
I am fully staffed now I got two
officers that I need to train and I
project that within the next month and a
half they'll be out on their own
responding to calls independently
with that I hope to bring those programs
back that were cut during covet good
um as a matter of fact it was good
seeing Selena here because she was one
of the presentations that we did during
uh covet we did the Cruces Cool Cat
event at La Llorona park with her so
that was one of the few events that we
did educational events that we did
during covet sure
um
Tuesday we started out again we had a
Cub Scout presentation at hillrise
elementary so we're starting yes I see
my my priority this year is to really
get my officers trained up so that they
learn the job initially and then with my
more seasoned officers get them back
into the schools and doing those
presentations because we feel that we
make more of an impact at the elementary
school age but not saying that we can't
come to a community event like you said
earlier your District open houses or
district meetings absolutely we would
love to be invited to those so that we
can
let the constituents know what services
we can provide for them or what
um maybe clear up some confusion as to
what actually Animal Control does
Gino thank you I really appreciate that
and your vision hearing what your goal
is for the coming year I'm just asked
and I think it's great please do it I
think anytime we can educate the
community about what you do and the
various
issues that we're encountering and how
to address them is excellent I'm just
asking for you to partner with Amy and
maybe start moving and I don't know what
Clint's vision is about the other types
of training that it is going to be made
available there but I know she's just
done a bank job she I the things that
I'm learning from her and what they're
presenting is is excellent and I just
think there's a partnership opportunity
with what you're seeing in hopes that
maybe you can tag team it I'm not sure
but maybe that's just a different way
that we get information out so with that
I'll turn it over to you chair Sanchez
thank you thank you mayor Tim are there
any other comments questions for
supervisory Menace I I just had a just a
this might be to the board as a whole
and because I think
um 500 calls is a huge number and I
think that's exactly as where where
mayor potem was going at least I think
was you know the amount of resources it
takes to respond to 500 calls and then
you know half of them are gone on
arrival
um and and then even then out of the
ones that are still there I mean it's
still the 38 is still a pretty good
amount that you're getting from those
that are that you do get when you're
there but I'm just wondering and it just
is is
just something that that the mayor Pro
tem kind of pointed out was the the
education that comes from reporting the
reports that she get that the city
council gets
so I'm just wondering because I know
this is I promise I'll get to where I'm
going here
um you know you talk on education
through the schools because obviously
the kids are huge advocates for that but
yeah it made me think you know is there
any other ways that we can
um educate the community uh whether it
be through Facebook podcasts I I you
know I don't know because I'm just
trying to figure out what's a what's a a
good digestible way that our community
can take in information
um and that you know throughout the
county so that they know what they can
do whether it be updating microchips so
that you know I mean that would have
been if you could have had I think I saw
something like eight eight of them or
there was eight or ten of them that
didn't have microchips that were updated
I mean just something small like that
adds up through the year but I mean I
don't know I'm just trying to figure out
and I'm I'm definitely open to figuring
out we we have so many of the usual ways
that we reach out through through radio
through you know
I'd be I would love to hear even from
the community if there are ideas on how
we might be able to reach them in
different media Outlets because there's
so many different ways that we can
communicate these days I I don't have an
answer but I would
I you know I'd love to hear to see if
there's anything we can do I think again
pre-covet we were doing exactly what you
were talking about and it's just a
matter of us getting back in into our
routine we do work closely with the
city's Pio office as a matter of fact a
public PSA went out this week in
reference to uh we call them hot dogs uh
big dogs left in cars during the warm
season like at the mall at Walmart's
Albertsons stuff like that so I think
it's just a matter of pushing that
information through the city Pio and
maybe updating our web page giving
everybody that information so that they
can get those PSAs okay
thank you and I so foreign
yes it's an excellent idea to get the
word out as much as possible but um you
did mention that you attend Community
meetings and I presumably
um I I know that City councilors have
Community meetings in their respective
districts so maybe I know
commissioner Sanchez frequently has
meetings that I see advertised in the
bulletin and so we'll be sure to
advertise or contact you I I don't I
don't know we we set up these meetings
and I guess our community outreach
person can contact you to see what your
availability is and then you can present
at six districts and I know
my district has you know it's in the
East Mesa has a good turnout of people
who attend so
thank you for sharing that you go out to
it's a community and and thank you for
your work I really appreciate it Gino I
think you're overburdened when when um
when mayor Pro tem asks for how many
hours you spend out there I turned to
Mary Lou to Ms Ward and I said oh that's
a lot of work but you already have those
numbers so we can see how difficult your
your task is so but thank you and Mr
chair I beg to be dismissed I have a
conflict I have another meeting finance
committee so I'll be rooting for us
thank you counselor Flores chairman and
just to respond to uh board member
flores's question
um I think it was April 4th we were
invited to counselor abita's a community
meeting in uh
the old paper Center Franco Brian papin
Center so we were there as well but
again to this the counselors City
councilors that are on the board reach
out we will be happy to present at your
next meetings Community meetings
thank you thank you thank you counselor
sorry I didn't mean to sorry oh sorry
good I was going to go in this word and
then I'll come or unless did you want to
add to us I I was actually going to add
to this and say I'm hoping and I'll talk
to Clint at the Animal Services Center
when I have my community meetings I'm
hoping to make them a little bit less
talking and more doing so I'm gonna see
if we could potentially have like a
microchipping event as part of my
community meeting so then since it seems
like microchips are a big part of that
so I I'm I'm just trying to think even
not putting more work on you but maybe
long-term saving you work hopefully
absolutely
thank you councilor corn Ms word please
thank you thank you chair I just wanted
to point out and um thank you Gino on
the on the report and thank you Brian
um in regards to the Stray numbers of
animals reported that's just the
reported
um responding strain number of animals
that's not including the other types of
calls that the officers respond to so in
all there's the re you know response to
other calls so those numbers go up
tremendously of what the officers
respond to
and if I may sir
um in response to uh
board member Awards a statement
during covid we responded because again
like I said we were we reduced our
services we responded to about 12 000
calls for those two years
um before that we were up to like 15 000
calls now that we're fully staffed and
all the covid restrictions have been
lifted we anticipate going back up to 15
16 17 000 calls now calls for service
and again like board member Ward said it
includes care maintenance cruelties
snakes livestock
follow-ups which could be a phone call
everything so we average about 15 000
calls a year
that's a that's a
a huge number yes
so thank you and thank you for pointing
that out I know as we've had discussions
I it's
I I think we we've seen both on the city
and the county that the staffing has
been a particular Challenge and having
to serve as such large areas and and be
there like you said in in as you
mentioned earlier in your presentation
to be there after a report it's almost
impossible so for everything that both
from the county and the city thank you
to all your teams but yes I just
whatever I I just if there's other ideas
I would love to understand it but
whether you know wherever they're coming
from because if we can find ways to just
continue to think out of the box and try
you know I I know in the for us on the
county side I would love to be able to
try things that you know if they're just
different and seeing how they work if
they don't work then we take some
lessons learned and we try something
else new it's but it's such a big I I
know animals is is one of the hot topics
and when I do have my public meetings
and that's why I'm appreciative that we
always have someone from from Animal
Control at the meetings because I assume
as you mentioned and it sounds like it's
a you know Hot Topic here in the city as
well
and the credit absolutely goes to the
officers out in the field they're the
ones that are keep that do those reports
I just gathered the information put it
together for this report but they're the
ones out in the field doing all the work
so the credit goes to them
okay thank you okay
we'll move on to uh agenda item 5C which
is shelter statistics and activities and
the 2022 annual report
I don't know if uh Dr Hatton or Bernice
will
be presenting
yes Dr Hadden will attempt to okay
I appreciate you so much for doing this
I know
find find the right right where to be
okay I am Dr Hadden medical director at
Animal Services Center
sorry about that I'm filling in for
executive director Clint Thacker
so our
our population
at the center continues to go up
2023 is 4 23.
it's I did the calculations late last
night and early this morning it's about
23 percent increase on our populations
which goes along with the
roughly 23 percent increase in intakes
for 2023.
the intake methods
owner surrenders we still get I feel
like a significant amount in this in
this community
Returns the seized and Welfare holds
those are through the obviously city and
county
Strays that come in by the public or the
16.6 percent
and
the acos bring us the most
as it should be the born in care
we try to really limit those those are
all animals that come in pregnant
that welp or queen prior to us giving
them out to rescue or into surgery
we try real hard not to have that happen
the March returns
the reasons for the returns or dogs
behavior problems
to other pets
the the owner's pets weren't compatible
with the new ones that's why they were
returned that one was a hard one for us
to
to verbalize to so that we understand
what we're trying to say and cats
behavior problems and the same other
pets not not compatible
with the new incoming pet so the
adoptions were returned
diverted intakes this is where the front
staff talks to folks coming in with
animals and
gives them options sometimes it's a
surrender to Foster they still surrender
it to us but they take it home and they
keep it whether it's an owned animal or
a stray animal that they find
they it goes It goes back home with them
it doesn't come into the center
they do eventually come in we don't know
when we haven't figured out how to track
that yet we're working on it
so our March outcomes
they're the numbers are going up for I
believe all
categories but the percentages are down
because the intakes are up
so our
so we're we're getting their adoptions
is 18.9 percent
you guys can read the slide so Community
cats
and euthanasius the euthanasia number I
believe went up
a lot
because we have parvo
parvo comes in from the outlying
communities these animals if they break
with parvo within seven to ten days of
intake we say that parvo came in from
the community
okay
we have no facility to house these guys
so if it's one of a litter of seven that
gets sick we have to let them all go we
can't keep the other six
anywhere where they can't potentially
contaminate the rest of the population
so that I think that's a lot of where
that number comes from
so our live release rate also has
dropped a little bit at 72.5 percent
our transfers our rescue Partners
they're wonderful we couldn't do this
without them
um
the the ones that have pulled the most
just in March I mean the the small ones
they all add up
the two hearts two paws
the Animal Rescue League from El Paso
Cruise Crusaders is in Arizona and
oftentimes they help by coming to get
their animals
that gets the transporting off of us
Halo there in Arizona also
and Shepherds Beyond borders they pull
and take animals to Foster and then they
transport their animals out also
which which is a huge relief for us
the March euthanasia reasons as I stated
earlier our
the biggest number comes from medical
parvo no treatment we can't treat any of
them we just don't have the facility to
keep them separate right now
it's
so there's there's a lot then the
respiratory signs
and the aggressive dogs those are all
the
the big big numbers
surgeries March surgeries are down a
little bit
which which I didn't notice until I
looked at this so I'm I will go back and
address that and we'll get them back up
so our goal has been 400 a month and I
know that's pushing it but that's that's
what I want to
to be able to do and we have been short
surgeons so it's
but we're working on it of of the
the March surgeries the 66 of them were
tnrs
32 adoptions
62 shelter or Fosters and 14 others
but year to date we've done 829.
our volunteers also we couldn't do what
we do without our volunteers we have 300
volunteers a total of 524 hours in March
they help doing the dog walking that's
how the dogs get out of their kennel and
they also support the cats they come in
and help the kennel staff take care of
the cats
among other things all the off-sites we
always have
have volunteers come to there
our visitors in March dropped down just
a little bit not much
our web page views up a little bit and
we are trying I
and this has been over the last year
we're reaching out with social media
we're doing Tick Tock Instagram all
those things that I have no clue about
but they do them
we we had input from Fosters asking for
us to get into Instagram and we finally
got the right people on it and they're
everywhere they do everything
and the Facebook
views are up
in March also
upcoming events one of one of our off
sites it's Happy Panda it's a
on May 6th I also wanted to mention here
on some of the we've been invited to
some of the county cleanup
things I forget what their their
specifically called
operation Community sweep operation
Community Suite thank you
um and we've been to one and we're
planning on going to several throughout
the year
providing vaccines microchip and
educational material it's Saturday
mornings in different in in some of the
outlying areas
so we're trying that to see see what
difference it makes because these
outlying areas that we've we've chosen
to go to is
the intake from those areas oftentimes
are the ones bringing in the disease so
we're trying to make those vaccines
available
our pets of the week from Amy
crash the cat and Rapunzel the dog
and I believe yep
all right that's that's our March stats
if y'all have questions
I will attempt to answer
thank you Dr Adam yeah I think you
didn't a marvelous job stepping in so
thank you for for doing that are there
any questions Miss Ward
S I don't have a question I just want to
uh uh say thank you for participating in
those events with the county they we all
appreciate that it's very crucial to the
constituents of the county to have that
out there and that's consistent with the
community sweeps that is kind of
something that we used to have years
back with the aces project that's kind
of the same concept where the officers
go in door-to-door prior to those
cleanup events and educate with the
codes and Animal Control Officers
Community Development Planning and
Zoning that type of thing and educate on
any violations and then they come back a
week and a half or two weeks later with
the resources with the roll-offs with
the you know the Partnerships with the
shelter and whatnot provide those
communities with those resources so it's
really important for those constituents
to have access to that so we really
appreciate that thank you very much
thank you Miss Ward County Manager
Macias thank you Mr chairman and again
on behalf of the county I'd really like
to thank you Dr hedden for that that
effort I was unaware that we were uh
coordinating uh with you uh with that
effort I would like to have a follow-up
discussion not here but in terms of the
what you're observing in terms of the
potential diseases that are coming from
animals that are in the county I would
like to have that follow-up discussion
okay yes
thank you
I I know that this probably
provokes some anxiety a bit but not my
comfort zone I know it is I know I know
I've known you a while now and so but I
appreciate it you do such a wonderful
job and the perspective from being the
medical director bringing it to the
board I think is one that's very
important so I'm I hate to even suggest
it but maybe quarterly you come and sort
of talk about the diseases and the
surgeries and the things that you're
seeing it would really bring just a
different lens that we don't normally
see I think would be helpful yes it's on
my list okay I have I have several
I'm trying to figure out how I can bring
more than just numbers a better
perspective of what we are accomplishing
with the funds that that y'all provide
and the things that we want to do we
want to do more but we're limited so I I
do want to bring something like that
I'll become an agenda item at some point
and we'd love to share we'd love to
incorporate you as an outstanding agenda
okay but not where it takes so much time
for you even if you do it by zoom we're
sort of okay you know working with that
you don't even have to leave your office
you can do it from there and we'd love
to hear from you
well some space very quiet space okay
thank you all right all right thank you
mayor program
Mr chairman doctor hadn't forgive me but
could you
reverse the names of the two animals I'm
struggling with Rapunzel with no hair
right that looks more like crash and the
cat looks more like Rapunzel and since I
have to read read a script that each of
the County Commission meetings are
related to encouraging adopting these
animals did you photoshop if you don't
switch the names can you photoshop the
dog to have laundry
hair me personally no I can't but I bet
we have someone on staff that could
we'll see what we can do for you well
and if not I'm going to have a picture
taken of you oh okay you can be under a
rubber okay
thank you Mr Macias
is there a Mr wait oh
I see the Mike and is that you okay I
just want to make sure I wasn't sure
which Michael was going on here thank
you sorry about that
okay sorry
uh thank you chair doctor I just wanted
to make sure that I understood so you
mentioned the with respect to parvo the
limitations for the quarantine or in our
current facilities so once we have the
medical facility operating as a
standalone
building will that protocol be able to
be changed yes
it'll it'll depend on how much week how
many we can hold I have to find the
right
the right kennel and have the staff that
has to be dedicated staff I can't have
staff taking care of them and then going
to general population and taking care of
them because of the cross-contamination
so but yes that is the plan that we're
going to split some of these folks up
and I I think that we could probably
save
get live outcomes for anywhere from 70
to 80 percent of these parvo puppies
that we put down
because again we put down the sick one
and the entire litter
and that's that's really hard for us
because
they're asymptomatic at that time
but we just
for the greater good
we have to but yes that's that's top of
my list
okay thank you so much and I know we
have we had a question at um Council on
Monday related to the operating
expenditures for the medical facility
once we are able to utilize it as such
and and just the need for clarifying
within the fy24 budget what were the
assumptions associated with that medical
facility so I think we'll be coming uh
with uh or asking you for some more
information so that we can provide that
to the counselors yes and I've I've
spoken with Clint about I need I've I've
limited what we do treat
financially wise and I have big plans to
be able to do more but I have to make
sure that we have the finances for it
so finances staff and facility wow thank
you doctor I appreciate that thank you
chair thank you Mr Leon commissioner
yes I wanted to point out two things one
amazing work on the Instagram and Tick
Tock and all that stuff
um just seeing those numbers rise means
that there's a lot of
uh attention going to the Animal
Services Center which is really great I
am currently scrolling through the
Instagram feed right now and Tick Tock
it's great I love that kind of stuff
um second off there was on the
euthanasia report I just have a question
on the
designation of Texas I'm guessing and
how we come into those
um
TX means oh treatment treatment TX is
medical shorthand for treatment that's
my bad
so what's the difference between the
medical parvo non-treatment euthanasias
in the medical
where's that at Medical parvo tricks
so
the medical parvo treatment means they
were treated and those may be adoptions
that we treat as an outpatient that end
up not making it so they come back and
we euthanize them the non-treatment are
those that we test they're positive and
we euthanize
okay so with that being said thank you
for the clarification I literally
thought I'm in Texas
so my bad
and with that being said too if you did
get that space for
um to treat parvo medically within the
uh Services Center we would then
probably see those numbers rise with the
medical non-treated parvo lowering yes
okay cool thank you for that
clarification yeah and we would we did
go through the same thing and we'll see
it on the annual report with distemper
last year you know when we had our big
distemper we can't hold them they we
could probably get them but we don't
have the physical space
to hold them for the extended period of
time that you need to for distemper
thank you commissioner
any other comments questions for Dr
Hadden
okay thank you you're welcome
okay we're on to committee reports so
and I know uh Mr Leon had to step out
but we'll move on to the finance
so come on up
you have the annual report
sorry we saw the annual report I
apologize no that's okay
okay no I didn't
let you off so we'll go quickly we got
all the ant questions answered
previously so we'll just
Zoom right through this
and y'all have
I understand you sorry about that
okay
okay I think Clint saved this for me
just so that so I could practice
president team
tell him thank you later
okay the annual report this it's a
little late in coming but we're finally
here
so our intakes the city had 4049
from obviously different
different areas
primarily the unrestrained from Animal
Control and the unrestrained from the
public were the the highest numbers
the county had a few more 4736.
again the distribution is roughly the
same the unrestrained from public and
the acos with the highest numbers
so a total combined intake for 2022 is
8869.
and that is going up it's going back up
to
getting closer and closer to pre-covered
numbers
and we we are trying very diligently to
stay within our capacity for care
our capacity for care is it's not really
a number there's a lot of different
aspects to that and
it's it's based on the type of housing
that we have for these individuals
within our mission it states that we we
our goal is for the most Humane housing
and handling of these animals and so as
numbers go up and our facility doesn't
get bigger and even with the new
facility that's not going to quote
unquote add on that number of animals
that we can house I
I hope everyone understands that
so our monthly intake in 2022
it continues to go up in the summertime
summer and fall it seems to go up and
we're just getting there
species intake for the year the majority
was dogs and then cats
then they have to throw in a couple
different chickens roosters the reptiles
I don't know what they were
we had a hedgehog
rabbits Birds
a little bit of everything
last year we even had some tortoises
come in
they were stray tortoises
we learned how to microchip a tortoise
they're strong
so the outcomes this slide
we
the percentages are incorrect it has
been corrected
now just not on the presentation so
what's on the
um the web page for the annual report
will have the the right ones so the
correct numbers are
euthanized is 23.6 percent rescues were
21.8 percent adoptions also
21.8 percent
Community cats at 12
1295 was 13.7 percent
return to owner is 10.8 percent over a
thousand animals which I think is great
um owner requests use to the nation's
6.7
and then
I was just going to read them if they
were different but
expired in shelter was point seven
percent in foster care point six percent
and those the ones that expire in Foster
are usually neonate kittens typically
sometimes the neonate puppies but the
neonate kittens are really hard to
to keep and then the admin missing
I'm going to go back to the center after
this and find out what that is
adoptions
are going up again
I was looking at this this morning and I
was going to go back and see what we did
in 2019
that made our adoption numbers so high
and it may be just relative to intake I
don't know but I thought well maybe we
can
do what we did then and get more
adoptions
one of the numbers that I wanted to
bring when I come is our adoptions per
capita
you know as well as stray per capita and
things like that to just kind of put
things in perspective
okay canine feline adoptions
our transfers are picking up
we're getting there
the we it hurt a little bit last year
because of the distemper not just here
but Nationwide there were places that
had never seen distemper that were
having
it bad
so the live release rate
for 2022 and
cats was 76 percent and dog 72.6
I feel like I'm just reading the slides
so I can speed through
so the overall release rate was
74.6 again it's affected by our
inability to treat okay both distemper
and parvo
and here's our euthanasia breakdown the
respiratory signs no treatment
and space medical the space medical is
if we need space we're choosing a
medical
an animal with a medical issue
to create space for a Healthy Pet
again in 2022 the euthanasias went up a
little bit again I think because of the
distemper
our public services and Outreach
our surgeries for the year were 4474
my goal is 5200
we'll get there at some point
visitors seventeen thousand
Facebook views came down a little bit
for the year
holding our own for the website and
here's all our Instagrams Snapchat I
hadn't thought of them and tick tock
and the person that I believe does the
majority of these is our volunteer
coordinator she's the one that does all
the videos
and
she also works with the Foster
coordinator we're trying to get Fosters
to put things out there also to promote
their pets for adoption
and these are the stats for the two
drive-through clinics that we had last
year and we're having another one is
scheduled for June 3rd that has been
confirmed
June 3rd of this year at Field of Dreams
these are our some of our folks that are
regular volunteers that we see all the
time that even I know their names
they're great they're
yeah
and so this is the mission and what I
meant what I started to try to quote we
strive to meet the highest standards of
Humane Animal Care and husbandry and to
promote the responsible pet ownership
through public education and Outreach we
are working the volunteer coordinator
also is doing some of these public
education she takes one of my
technicians out and goes to the
elementary schools they've gone to a
couple to try to reach out to them okay
and that's all
right and I don't know who that is
Council corn thank you and I don't I of
course and true political political
fashion I have more of a comment so
don't worry it's not a question
um but I just want to point out I mean I
think this is a really powerful thing
especially if we think about slide like
we Face fundamental conflicts in our
jobs about what is
our communal responsibility what is
individual responsibility what do we pay
for what do we expect others to pay for
what do we hope the community pays for
and I think slide 10 which talks a
little bit about transfers
I just want to stick that and I'm not
using this as a moment to grandstand but
I kind of am as a point
um that is we we look to at least one in
five animals that the shelter deals with
is transferred to another Community
organization that's a non-profit and uh
contrastively a number of the animals
that we end up not being able to take
care of
um
are not are in that situation because
they have not been properly vaccinated
right so I point this out because this
in the big picture
um one our state anti-donation Clause
prevents us from doing things like just
vaccinating everyone all the time and I
would again critique our state
anti-tonation Clause because it
undermines some of our Collective goals
and two sort of I just want to point out
that within our community
we use public dollars to do everything
that we possibly can to help address
these issues but we also rely
significantly on the generosity of
spirit of a lot of people who who do
things who do do things
um
and and I know that transfers sometimes
have a cost to the to the Animal
Services Center as well but typically
where we're transferring to is also
deflecting the responsibility to further
a further place in the community where
people have to sort of
step up and and be a part of that
community so I take this moment to
interrogate our role and our capacity to
change something when it's limited by
how we distribute goods and services
where who we expect to take
responsibility for things and and I'm
not saying that individuals don't have a
responsibility but I think we have
we have to change how we provide
services up to Upstream changes because
otherwise we'll always be in this
situation and and looking to communities
to support us and so I say this sort of
in the in the bigger critique of what we
do and also the bigger gratitude of what
you do at the at the Animal Services
Center which is
um
doing the best that we possibly can
given the the restrictions that exist on
both ends of our of the work that we do
and I I urge us to think about every
opportunity changing those dynamics of
of where in the Stream we're intervening
because
putting to sleep a bunch of puppies
because they're in a parvo litter is 100
preventable and we could do more of that
if we didn't have some of the
constraints that exist in our community
and so I just urge all of us to think
about how we use our political positions
to to change some of those dynamics of
how we fund Animal Care and Control in
our community and also just give
gratitude to you all for what you do and
and how what attacks it is on you as
individuals and how important and and
how much I know that you care and and
want to make a change in that so so I'll
stop grandstanding but I think it's it's
an interesting
it's an interesting way to think about
how public money is spent or not spent
and we're not spending it efficiently
frankly and we're looking to other folks
to to take responsibility for something
that we should do better at I believe
ASA thank you
thank you councilor are there any other
questions comments anybody else want to
know what a pocket pet is
a fits in your pocket
is that like the Hedgehog that you had
mentioned and okay
and I'll you know I'll take the the
second counselor I completely agree with
you
um in in how we can approach things I
know that's
um
obviously I think when one big piece of
the anti-donation is being able to reach
out to those in the Indigent community
and and working through I think one of
the things we've worked with SNAP but we
need a
a bigger swath here that we need to be
able to work on so um completely concur
with your sentiments and your comments
okay
thank you Dr okay
now I'll go away
okay now we're okay so now we're on to
the finance committee report
yes thank you so much chair so the the
finance committee met last Thursday and
we reviewed the quarterly financials
with Animal Service Center staff and so
just a reminder we're coming to you all
quarterly with the reports but on a
monthly basis we're still reviewing them
within the finance committee so today we
have Liam Beasley with us from the
financial services department to prove
to present thank you so much Liam
thank you Barbara good morning Mr
chairman other members of the board as
she mentioned I'm Liam Beasley I'm a
senior accountant within the city's
finance department and I'll be going
over the financials through March 31st
on the first slide we have the
highlights for the statement of net
position at March 31st cash was
3449. receivables were 664 000 and this
gives total assets of 667 540.
and the reason the cash is so low and
the receivables is so high and this I
believe was discussed in last week's
Finance uh committee meeting as well is
that there were five months of Billings
between the months of November through
March these get sent to the county for
their portion of the annual funding of
the center and these haven't been paid
and it was determined that they were
being sent to either an incorrect inbox
or an outdated inbox and so they weren't
just being processed the county is aware
the city reached back out and
resubmitted the invoices and so they're
going to be following up and making sure
those get paid soon
and so that's just why the cash would be
so low
and then moving down to liabilities they
totaled to 115.5
000.
the revenue collected in advance was
251.7
000 and the fund balance was three
hundred thousand
and then moving on to the change in that
position
the total revenues through March were
three million and seven thousand
expenditures 2 million nine hundred and
ninety three thousand
and with transfers out to the capital
fund for Animal Services of fifteen
thousand seven fifty
the net change and fund balance was a
decrease of 1 353.
then here's the same information the
change in net position but with the
budget to actual comparison
so if we look at total revenues the
total budget was 4.2 million and then
with the march actuals of just over 3
million that ended up being 71.9 percent
of the budget
then with the expenditures the total
budget was 4.3 million and with the
actuals of 2.99 million
that ended up being 69.3 percent of the
budget
and the budget parameter for the end of
March which would be three quarters of
the way through the year would be 75
percent
and this slide will show the
month-to-month revenue and expenditures
uh just a few notes the decrease from
January to February is reflective of
some Capital spending that occurred
during the month of January for the new
center
and then the increase from February to
March is because there were three pay
periods that posted in March so it's
just how the bi-weekly payroll kind of
three of them just happened to land uh
within the month of March and normally
there's only about two per month
then finally here's a breakdown of those
total expenditures of the 2.99 million
52 went to salary 18 to benefits
temp service is one percent repairs and
maintenance half a percent
Services 15 Supply six percent Insurance
two percent other one per percent and
then Capital was five percent
and if you have any questions I can
stand for those
thank you Mr Beasley are there any
questions counselor I'm just weighing in
all the time
um
board member must yes I I think that
Rapunzel may have been trapped in a
tower before she got to the Animal
Services Center and that's where her
name came from if that helps with
context at all no I just have a
difficult time for a dog that's follicly
challenged to be called Rapunzel you
know I I just I'm struggling with it
and that means that
she was tortured in the tower
you know I I don't know but that's the
only it's the only logical thing I can
think of that isn't giving her a wig
which I also support but um you know
thank you counselor are there any uh
other questions for Mr Beasley
all right thank you Mr Beasley thank you
for the update
all right we're uh on to
5d2 which is the executive committee
update
um the executive committee met it was uh
with mayor Pro tem Gandara myself and uh
Mr Thacker and there was not a lot of a
long discussion in in our meeting this
month it was mainly geared to the uh the
discussions around the budget uh some of
the requests and some guidance based off
of the feedback that we've been
receiving from the board but all the
discussion was was being was around
working on that budget so but that was
essentially it for our
executive committee meeting
so then if there are no questions on
that we'll move on to our facilities and
I know mayor Pro tem Gandara is not here
but I do see Miss ascensellos
and I know we have uh this was a under a
sub item under this which is the new
ascmv facility artwork progress right
good morning my name is Ceci
vascomselles for the record I'm the
public art coordinator in the quality of
life department and thank you for
inviting us to come here and give you an
update I'll start with reviewing the
project first and then show you where we
are
okay so city council approved the design
concept recommended by the City Art
board and created by artist veto debari
Mr dabari's art piece is titled Sun
shelter
the artist was inspired by the Animal
Services Center logo using the same
color palette that Brands the center and
the cutouts are influenced by elements
found on the Center's website
this slide shows the scale of size the
sculpture is nine feet tall it's made of
steel which is laser cut with patterns
like cats dogs bones fish and other
elements the color is powder coated onto
the sculpture it weighs about 800 pounds
and the maintenance will be relatively
simple an occasional wipe down or gentle
power wash should keep it clean and
bright
the location of the sculpture is the
corner of baton Memorial West and
Rinconada Boulevard the first photo is
standing at the location Facing East
the second photos facing west
and the last photo is curbside at the
facility facing Highway 70 and you can
see
it's pretty visible by the traffic
that's passing by and on both the
streets and the highway
the utility postmarked in red is for
electrical access
if we add lighting later on and I pass
by there all the time at night and it's
pretty well lit so it may not be needed
but we'll access or reassess that once
it's
it's installed
so the City Art board released a call
for artist for a freestanding public art
sculpture for the new Animal Services
Center in early 2021 an art selection
committee was designated for the project
and they reviewed the 139 submissions
that were received
three top finalists were chosen and
invited to present their proposals to
the committee the presentations took
place at a public meeting held at City
Hall in July 2021 the design proposal
created by dabari scored the highest and
the selection committee recommended the
design to the City Art board and they
approved it for presenting to city
council
we also presented the design to the
quality of life policy Review Committee
and to this board
of course
the design concept with a previously
approved budget of 68 thousand dollars
was approved by city council at a
regular meeting on October 18 2021.
the committee scored the finalists based
on Project criteria the call for artists
stated that the piece should serve as a
beacon and needed to be visible from
Rinconada Boulevard Baton Memorial West
and Highway 70. it also asked that the
RPS reflect the services of the center
and engage the community and Animal
Services Center staff
this is the sculpture and it is finished
and I haven't shown this photo to anyone
so you are the first I hope you feel
special
um so it is it was fabricated in Texas
and it's ready to be transported here
um as soon as we have a concrete base
set in place for it
um the artist is working with a
sculptural engineer to get stamp
drawings for that and we have a
contractor ready to go when they have
those drawings which they need to put to
install it
so
um we're hoping if all things go
according to plan we should have an
early or have it in place by early May
done completed and as soon as we close
out the contract with the artists we can
start planning and unveiling and and
I really hope that we can do that at the
same time that we do the ribbon cutting
for the facility that would be the best
case scenario so
um
with that I'll stand for questions
thank you are there any questions
counselor I just wanted to say
definitely as you're planning the this
is will be the second as you know of
course public art project in my district
so please let me know how I can support
it through through promoting in within
the district and also
um
whatever whatever support you need
please let me know and and we can lay it
on thick to make sure that we get right
so folks there to see it thank you
appreciate that
so we're in Texas were they
making this
um chairman and board I don't remember
exactly I'm
no I really don't remember
okay I was just curious I guess this
would be a TX
sculpture
sorry couldn't resist so very cool well
I'm looking forward to seeing this and I
I hate to admit that in all the times
that we've seen the plans for this I
never picked up that all the shapes
inside of of the the designs were even
smaller designs so that and thank you
for I I for for explaining that and
seeing it because now I can
I like I said my eyes my eyes are
finally open to it and so like I said I
I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that
I've never had never noticed that so
it's very cool I'm excited
um actually and and counselor corn I'm
excited that the the the initiative that
the city has put to be able to have some
of these
um works of art that are going to be
placed in City facilities so thank you
and thank you Mr vas Gonzalez for the
update sure you're very welcome and
please don't be embarrassed because
that's kind of the beauty of this piece
is you don't notice everything right off
the bat until you get up close so
all right thank you Mr chairman before
we go on to the next item let me
apologize because I have to leave to an
11 o'clock meeting but miss Ward will
um substitute for me I just also wanted
to bring to the commission's attention
if you weren't already aware of it and
addressed it earlier but today's
commissioner shelandas's birthday and so
I really want to encourage everyone to
show them a little bit of Love Today
speaking from experience a young man
benefits from positive encouragement by
others so I hope that that occurs for
him and I want to compliment him for
having come to work today where most
people would have taken the day off
and and miss a day with with us
exactly thank you uh Cody management CS
appreciated
um and I will actually I will turn it
over to uh commissioner Hernandez I know
he has some updates uh from uh mayor Pro
tem Gandara on the facilities committee
so yes first off thank you yes it's my
birthday
I actually asked commissioner Sanchez if
it was normal for my lower back to hurt
this morning and I was told yes so I'm
definitely feeling that age today but
um Mr chair uh the facilities committee
did meet
um and I do have some notes from that
meeting
um we were made aware of the access door
reader issue
um and we actually did get an email from
Anthony Garcia he said the readers uh
needed to be replaced and that there's a
quote and they they're trying to find
the money to purchase the card readers
that are needed to make it work so we
were made aware of that
um we did have an employee suggestion of
handling cleaning protocols in the
kennels working on simplifying the
protocols and hanging them in the back
of every kennel I believe was the
um
the recommendation that was brought to
our attention
also looking into dishwasher issues
Ecolab has come out or is coming out
there was an issue with water draining
from the machine itself
the new facility will be getting eye
wash station there is a purchase that
has been made and we are waiting to get
it installed from my knowledge and then
a lot of shelving ordered for the new
facility computer and blue room for
note-taking
checks prior to euthanasia was something
that was brought up due to a prior issue
that happened so I believe that will be
something that will be implemented uh
meeting was
April 6th about the county helping with
concrete poor costs with the labor force
and the abilities that we're able to do
I believe that meeting was had
with the county and also Clinton so I
think we're just waiting on an update on
that and then
thrust is kind of just about the artwork
we just had our updates so that's great
but that's everything that the
facilities
committee discussed at the last meeting
right thank you commissioner are there
any questions some facilities
all right
very good then uh thank you that wraps
up our or completes the committee
reports we move on to uh item 6A which
is under discussion items which is uh
regarding the plaque for the old
ascmv building mural
hello this is the plaque that will be it
will be hung in the lobby of the new
facility correct and it's
I believe it's a representation of that
that's in vic right now we were informed
that we do have to wait until the
facility is actually hours before we can
hang it but we do have the plaque and
that's where it will go
very cool and Bernice Navarro
um and this artwork was created by Tracy
Jamison and as most of you do know it
was on the old building the front of the
old building at the top that was painted
across the top of that building and so
on the plaque it does state in
recognition of the mural artwork that
served as the face of the former Animal
Services Center of the Messiah Valley
Building
that's a thank you Miss Nevada and I
think it's really cool to see the
the way you're able to put it on to the
plaque and that way it'll be
um
memorialized in the new center
any comments questions from the board
very cool thank you so much for sharing
that with us
now we're on to action items so agenda
7A resolution
2023-03 is accept the fiscal year 22
Financial audit report
Mr Beasley Mr chairman members of the
board again for the record Liam Beasley
countdown with the city's finance
department
um our auditor his name's Chris Gardner
from patio Brown and Hill he's going to
be presenting these and he's actually
called in on the line for this meeting
so I'll navigate the PowerPoint for him
and then he will
explain his process
okay thank you ma'am can you hear me
yes we can hear you sir okay perfect
thank you
here it's just a summary of the required
communication that we did at the exit
conference however there's been one
change and we'll talk a little bit about
that
as we go through the process so
you go to the
first slide
first plant talks about the results of
the audit I mean the report that we
issue so we issued what we call an
unmodified opinion or as I had in
practice their clean opinion so it's
exactly the type of report that you want
to receive and our report states that
the financial statements are fairly
presented in accordance with the
standards that we have to follow as your
auditor so in essence this is the
highest level of assurance that Auditors
can give and this is exactly the type of
report that you want to receive
sorry about that we just wanted to for
for you to state your name again for the
record so that we get it on you can hear
it clearly
sure my name is
Harner and I was the partner in charge
of the audience thank you Mr Garner okay
sure
from the X
Prince and in New Mexico but the auditor
requires that we perform what we call a
Yellow Book got it or as it's referred
to on here a governmental Accounting
Standards audit in a yellow book audit
we actually have to go above and beyond
testing internal controls than what
regular Oddity standards require and
then the state audits are also under
this yellow vocada requires that we do
certain testing like procurement travel
and per diem
um there's a whole various items that
they expand that we test so what we do
is we go through and we test those items
and in this report what is we just fell
out what we're doing above regular
auditing standards what they require and
then we talk about the results of our
testing and so when we had the exit
conference we did not have any findings
when we submitted the audit to the state
auditor we ended up with one finding and
I'll talk about that here in just a few
slides but in this report we're not
giving an opinion we're just spelling
out how we're doing
um above and beyond what regular
auditing standards and then the results
of our testing like I said we'll we'll
follow up in just a few slides about
that
the next slide is talking about
difficulties in encountered in
performing the audit and as you can see
on the slide you know the audit went
smooth we did not have any difficulties
and really the whole reason for this
particular communication is just to let
the board know how are your records
being maintained when we ask questions
are we given good support are we giving
good explanation
is it in a timely manner and based upon
our testing uh you know we were given
good responses we were given good
supporting documentation you know when
purchase orders are supposed to be
approved we didn't have any exceptions
so from the standpoint of what really
the standards are trying to accomplish
here is just to let you know that your
accounting records are being well
maintained for your organization
if we go to the next slide
talking about audit adjustments and so
again the importance and the reason the
standards want us to talk about this is
to let the board know are the Auditors
coming in and changing lots of numbers
and making lots of adjustments so that
you should be maybe a little bit
critical of the numbers that you're
given to them throughout the year but as
you can see on this particular slide we
did not have a single adjustment and so
again the communication that the
standards are trying to let you know is
that you should feel confident you have
a good internal control structure to
accumulate the numbers and so that when
the reports are given to the board you
can feel confident that those numbers
are accurate and when we come in as
Auditors we did not have a single
adjustment to any of those amounts
the next slide is dealing with that
particular issue that I talked about
earlier so when we've completed the
audience uh two years ago
the state auditor has changed how they
have audits get submitted to them it's
moved to an electronic process and a
website a portal that the state auditor
has a couple of years ago
um so let me back up one more for just a
second when when the um state auditor
goes through a mandatory contract that
they require the city
um complete with us
there's not separate contracts for all
the jpas of the city there's only one
contract for all five audits that have
to be done when we complete the city's
audit
as a result there was only one place to
upload the financial statements and a
couple of years ago we actually emailed
it to them because there wasn't a
separate portal set up set up for your
organization and when we did that they
said no you need to go through and
upload it to the state Auditor's portal
and just do it all five entities under
the state Auditors
particular site that's set up for the
city of Las Cruces so that's what we did
this year and you know we've we sent in
a couple of requests because the audit
wasn't getting reviewed by the state
auditor and finally about a month ago
they responded and said well we don't
see your audit
correspondence with them talking about
the fact of we did exactly what you said
but they they stated that because of the
amount of documents that were put on
their portal they got dropped off and
they weren't there and they could not
see them and thus we had to have a late
audit finding I tried fighting because
we did exactly what they said and it's
really not
um our fault or your organization's
fault that uh you know that it got
dropped off of their system but they
wouldn't give up their stance and so
just to get it done we wrote up a
finding there really are no consequences
from of the finding next year will be
removed and your audit was done you know
in November well in advance of the due
date and that will happen again this
year so this will just be a one-time
binding and you're on it and should be
removed next year
I did when we wrote up the regular
findings I gave you the facts on the
causes and stating that this was really
due to technical errors based upon the
submission and how the audit is to be
uploaded to the state honors website so
it was spelled out in the findings just
to give the readers context of why it
happened again there's nothing that the
city did incorrect
unfortunately the state audit Rule and
then the state otters off
required us to have it because in their
minds they didn't see it until just
about a month ago and they determined
that we had to have the findings so
again when we had the exit we did not
have this it came as a result of the
process that
does when reviewing their financial
statements
the last slide that I have so we go to
the next one is just some financial
highlights
and as you can see over the last few
years the revenues have gone up for the
organization they increased about 400
000 from the prior year and the majority
of that increase is the the County
contributed two hundred thousand dollars
more and then charges for services were
up a hundred and twenty thousand
and you can also see expenditures
increased about a million dollars and
this is primarily due to an increase in
personnel and related Personnel cost of
about four hundred thousand and then an
increase in service expense of 370 000
and so
uh you know even though the expenses
were not quite a bit the revenue still
exceeded the expenses so you did not
have a deficit for the year you still
had a positive income
uh during FY 22.
and with that I'll put up any questions
that anybody might have
thank you Mr Garner are there any
questions on the audit
audit finding
I think it's a obviously a little
frustrating to have had that audit
finding but understand where it came
from when so but otherwise
I think that there are no questions here
Mr Garner so I want to say thank you for
you and your team and the uh Mr Beasley
the support that you all provided as
well so thank you all for uh for the
completion of the audit and and the
report
thank you thank you
okay and so well we do need a
a motion and a second to accept uh this
uh fiscal year 2022 Financial audit
report I move we accept the audit report
thank you Council corn second all right
we have a motion and a second from uh
commissioner Sheldon
any comments on the motion
okay I'll ask for a roll call please for
my reward
yes former Karen
board member
Hernandez yes
Sanchez yes passes thank you Becky
very good now uh so we will move on to
public input our third members of the
public that are here for input
write them up to speak now
not seeing any so then we'll move on to
chair and board Commons are there any
comments from the board
no I I did just have one note and I
think for hopefully for the next meeting
I know that we are needing to have a
start preparations for the uh evaluation
for the director for Mr Thacker and so
hopefully we'll have
um just some kind of preparation because
that'll have to be done I believe in our
June meeting so we'll start to have at
least kind of having that discussion
next month so we know what to expect
going to our June meeting so otherwise I
think that's the only comment I need to
make at this point
thank you okay well then if we are done
with that then we'll move on to the last
item on the agenda which is adjournment
so if I can get a motion and a second so
moved second all right we have a motion
a second for the adjournment
if we can get a roll call please
form award
yes
Quran
yes orner Michelle Joe Hernandez yes
cheers Sanchez yes passes
thank you all right then we are
adjourned at 1105 a.m thank you all for
coming and uh Happy Birthday to
commissioner sheldonves