thank you
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
welcome to the work session of the Las
Cruces City Council today is Monday
February 13 2023 it's approximately 1
P.M
before we begin I'm going to ask if you
please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance
but also for a brief moment of silence
for legendary lawmaker by name of J Paul
Taylor who passed away yesterday at the
age of 102 as well as the 33
000 people who've lost their lives in
the earthquake there in turkey and Syria
please join me in the pledge please
of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for us thank you
okay we're gonna start off as we always
do with our pets of the week and
Jennifer Martinez from our
Communications office we'll introduce
one cat and one dog
I am having difficulty sharing the
screen and I'm not sure exactly why and
I think it might have something to do
with zoom
if you want to just read the describe
right
what they look like okay
how much money they have mayor and
Council I'm Jennifer Martinez with the
city's Communications office and today
I'd like to introduce you to Delilah
Delilah is a one-year-old short hair who
is Sleek elegant and overall the best
Kitty ever I noticed that she looked
black and golden very very cute she
loves to meow and tell you stories and
ask you for love and pets all she wants
is a forever home with humans that she
can love and cherish forever she
promises that she will be the sweetest
companion that you could ever adopt
there we go
let's see
hooray
we get to see her
okay
of course I finished reading about her
so I'm
going to tell you now about Max but then
I'll come back
okay Max is a three-year-old who is
sweet and friendly and enjoys car rides
and walks on the leash he doesn't mind
sleeping and crates overnight however he
prefers not being kenneled or being
contained for too long as he is a bit of
an escape artist so his new family
should stay with him on a leash outside
until a yard is some sort of
um escape proof if possible you can meet
these two by calling the animal service
center of the ascmv at
3820018 there is an adoption event going
on this weekend that's from 10 a.m to 1
p.m Saturday Downtown at the farmers
market and there's also a love of love
is forever adoption event that takes
place through Saturday the 18th where
all adoptions are discounted the fees
for fixed animals is 25 and if they are
not the fee is fifty dollars and there's
also a drive-through vaccination clinic
that takes place from 9am to 2 p.m that
goes on this Sunday at the Field of
Dreams thank you mayor okay thank you
Jennifer
next is going to be Irene para from The
Economic Development Department
we're going to discuss the jobs of the
week I'm not sure who was assisting in
the viewing of this these slides but if
they can assist me again for the jobs of
the week thank you
somebody behind the scenes awesome thank
you
okay so you're not doing that
I thought wow you're pretty talented to
talk and work on that while you're
while they're loading that Irene bought
it with economic development good
afternoon everyone New York City Council
okay
oh there we go all right so we begin
with the city of Las Cruces who was
looking for an engineer this position
pays between 69 000 a year and 99 000 a
year and is open until filled White
Sands Missile Range is also looking for
an electronics engineer and this
position pays 52 000 a year and closes
on February 17th Quest machine is
looking for a packaging clerk this
position pays 12 an hour to Fifteen
dollars an hour depending on experience
and closes on March 3rd angel wings Home
Care is looking for a caregiver this
position pays 12 an hour and closes on
March 3rd Sherwin-Williams is looking
for a store associate this position pays
13 an hour and closes on May 5th and Pep
Boys is looking for an auto mechanic
this position pays between twenty six
thousand and forty six thousand a year
depending on your experience and closes
on May 5th
next slide
I needed to do that can they do that
whoever's doing this next slide please
thank you mayor yeah
yeah what's that person's name in The
Wizard of Oz though
back there
you go okay great the New Mexico
Workforce Connection office would also
like to announce a rapid higher
recruitment event this Thursday from 3
P.M to 6 p.m and these are the positions
they are hoping to film apprenticeship
employee representative customer service
associate career Consultants business
consultant and a disabled veteran
outreach program specialist
slide please
and of course for any questions you can
reach out to the local office at
575-524-6250 or at their office at 226
South Alameda Boulevard and of course
online at employ nm.com
okay great thank you Irene
okay so next on we have two items on the
agenda and the first one is going to be
discussing pedestrian safety surjana and
and I guess some Consultants are also I
guess that's the person who's on the
Zuma
Arizona city council my name is srijan
abasnet I am the city Innovation
strategy manager
see
so while the PowerPoint loads up uh in
the spirit of comprehensive and
strategic planning I do want to just
remind ourselves that roads are so much
more than just a way to get from point A
to point B they are so critical the
entire transportation system
is just
um
a really comprehensive Network and
conduit to getting ourselves
to places
but also creating places
that we can have a great built
environment that affects our Public
Health it actually contributes to
economic and social Mobility
Economic Development and so it's a very
complex system and while today we're
going to focus on one aspect of it I
just want all of us to be cognizant
there are so many pieces to this entire
transportation system of course with
that we are going to focus on pedestrian
safety for today
foreign
and then we do have our colleague over
at tool design on standby today Trung
vote will be presenting the content of
this presentation we've worked with tool
design before on creating our active
Transportation plan so they are very
familiar with Las Cruces and some of the
policies that we've been trying to
implement through the years
we are going to talk about some best
practices but also some sound principles
that we can bring into our design
standards and the way that we build our
streets with that we do have some short
and mid and long term countermeasures
that can help us create more Safe
Streets for our our public and then I'll
go over a couple of next steps just to
give you all an overview of where we are
in the process of implementing some of
these policy changes
so with that I'm going to look to maybe
Adrian to check if we can hand over to
Chong
trying to go ahead and unmute yourself
yeah
oh all right
um well thank you for having us as a
part of this work session
um just checking really quickly are you
presenting slides on your end and I
should should I be able to see them from
Ryan
are you not able to see them
I do not see them no
no and if we can't get those up that's
okay I can just I can just speak
um to the slides from from what I see on
my own desktop hold on we're going to
share a screen
believe Adrian if we can give trunk
control so that he can
um
Advance the slides on his own or should
I do that
okay Tron can you see it now I can yes
okay go ahead and just you're gonna have
to just tell me when you're ready and
then I'll I'll Advance the slides for
you that sounds great all right well
let's move on to the next slide uh what
we're going to cover in the next 20
years excuse me uh I'm gonna need you to
state your name and the company you're
with please of course yes uh my name is
trevo I'm with a company called tool
design
um I am the office director for our
office here in Denver I'm a planner and
engineer I've been working in this
multimodal Transportation space for over
a decade now and it's really personal to
me as a as a father as a husband as
someone that cares about humanity and
the planning and design of our street
Network this is really important to me
so um thank you for the the opportunity
to to dive into what this looks like in
Las Cruces
so before we jump in I want to just
explain that uh We've made some
observations and want to explore what
existing conditions are like for
pedestrian safety in Las Cruces and then
what it could be or maybe what it should
be in Las Cruces moving into the future
so let's move on to the next slide on
the next slide here just some really
quick
um stats about the number of people that
are killed on on our roadways it should
be a very sobering number right it's not
just nine people it's not just the
number but um these were these were
people with with families and lives
um so from 2011 to 2020 we saw that on
average there were nine people that were
killed in roadway crashes across Las
Cruces every every year on average so
that's all modes that's not not just
pedestrian fatalities we'll get into
that in uh in a second
um out of those nine people about three
to three or so
um two to three were pedestrians and so
production safety is a is a really big
uh priority for the city of Las Cruces
and
um and it should be something that we're
trying to tackle with everything that
that we've got so moving on to the next
slide I want to compare New Mexico and
Las Cruces to the rest of the United
States
um you might have heard of a an annual
report by smart growth America called
Dangerous by Design unfortunately for
2022 New Mexico topped the list of all
50 states New Mexico was the most
dangerous states for pedestrians the
3.76 number is the number of pedestrian
fatalities per 100 000 people
it's as a per capita number Las Cruces
comparatively is is right below that and
then you can see the the national
average is 1.91 the production
fatalities per year per 100 000 people
the next two states on the list are
Florida and then South Carolina and
those numbers are 3.22 and then 3.19 so
so New Mexico is is by far the most
dangerous place for pedestrians and um
and we're seeing that in in
in recent years there have been uh
more potential fatalities than in the
previous five years and so when we're
looking at
2011-2015 those production fatality
rates were were not great either but
then from 2016 and 2020 they've been
meeting fully higher
moving on to the next slide
safety is a community goal right it's a
priority for us we
state it as a clearly defined goal in
our active Transportation plan and
comprehensive plan and other other
planning efforts in design efforts as
well and it's not just Traffic Safety
um in Saving Lives but there's also the
benefit of Railway safety contributing
to Economic Development and
sustainability so safety is a priority
but this is intention with the reality
of safety on our streets
so next we're going to dive into two
different approaches to safety so we've
talked about existing conditions for
professional safety we talked about our
prioritization of safety but now I want
to talk about two different approaches
to safety and this will kind of help us
frame the rest of the presentation of
the rest of the content that we get to
so on the next slide there's a lot of
text on on the slide but I want to
really dive into every single line
because I really think it's important so
the conventional approach to safety is
what we've been doing enjoy the status
quo
prioritizing motor vehicle travel
whereas the systemic safety approach or
you'll also hear me called the the Safe
Systems approach
um is is more
um it really does prioritize in an old
Paramount safety
um and reducing and eliminating
transmutability crashes so let me go
line by line
um they're all important and they're all
connected so the very first thing is
that the conventional approach to safety
assumes that you put signs and markings
and traffic signals out on the street
um you we you know we have traffic codes
and laws and rules of the road and
everyone should just obey but the
reality is that people are human and
people make mistakes and so the Safe
Systems approach says Hey folks are
going to make mistakes how do we make
sure that if they do make a mistake it
doesn't result in a fatality or Serious
injury
a response to folks making mistakes the
conventional approach might say hey we
gotta just provide enforcement right
that's the solution people should just
be enforced into obeying
um the rules of the road and and the
safe system approach says yes
unfortunately it can be part of the
solution but maybe it's not the only
solution and maybe there's more
sustainable ways to uh to make sure that
our streets are safe but that doesn't
depend on
um a speed van necessarily or officer or
or someone out there making sure that
folks are following the rules of the
road the conventional approach says that
we should prevent all crashes that every
crash is equal and the same and that we
should just get to a point where there
are no crashes at all whereas the safe
system approach says crashes are going
to happen and maybe it's okay if it's
you know only property damage if it
means that we don't have any more
fatalities and it means we don't have
any more serious injuries on our streets
maybe that's okay to have just those
problems only crashes so those crashes
that may be you know really slow speed
rear end crashes or
um or or maybe uh crashes that are
primarily side swiped or anything like
that but the ones that are really severe
those are the ones that we're trying to
talk about the safe system approach the
conventional approach says that deaths
are inevitable it's just a part of doing
business we just assume and kind of
tolerate hey and we're going to make it
this easy for folks to be able to drive
around that it's just folks should just
expect that they're going to be decks
and um and and I as well as a safe
system approach says that's not
acceptable
um deaths are preventable and there's a
way that there are strategies to uh to
to get to that point the conventional
approach tends to be fairly reactive so
we see where crashes are happening and
then we say hey let's fix those
locations which I think is a good thing
but the safe system approach also says
that we should focus on the system so
the geometry the operations the
characteristics of one intersection that
happens to be a bad spot those
characteristics might also exist at
another intersection but we're not
seeing crashes there because people
maybe are walking there because there
aren't the destinations or maybe they
just feel like it's too unsafe to walk
there and then finally the conventional
safety approach says that safety is
primarily for drivers and so this kind
of assumes that the majority is the
priority whereas the the Safe Systems
approach says that we really need to
focus on safety for everyone
so moving on to the next slide
um
taking a little bit deeper into the safe
system approach this safe system
approaches something that has been
embraced by Federal Highway
um it's it's uh it's something that kind
of assumes shared responsibility across
the planners the designers uh policy
makers elected officials as well as
folks that are using um the the roadway
and the transportation system so the
idea is that we plan and design and
operate and maintain roadways streets
intersections Crossings trails and then
the the customer the client right they
use that Network and I'm sure the
response will follow in some rules and
there's some share responsibility there
but when people make mistakes
planners and designers including myself
just kind of look introspectively and
wonder why are they making these
mistakes why is alluding to to these
undesired outcomes and then sort of
retool rethink and reiterate so that
we're making Transportation even safer
so that that's the sort of safe system
approach I'm thinking holistically about
transportation
moving on to the next Slide the
conventional ease of traffic safety
include engineering education
enforcement emergency services but as we
think a little bit more about a
different approach this this safe travel
for all approach might be a bit more
holistic right so rather than focusing
on sort of departmental and maybe siled
approaches to safety safe travel for all
assumes that everyone has a role to play
so interdepartmental coordination
collaboration and a focus for for our
presentation today we'll really focus on
Safe Streets and safe speeds
so moving on to the next section here
we've talked about traffic safety
nationally in terms of what's happening
in recent years nationally and in Las
Cruces we've talked about how safety is
a priority we've dived into the
differences between the conventional
approach to safety and maybe a new way
it's the systemic way sustainable way of
thinking about safety and now I want to
jump into some key principles for safe
design so I'm going to cover about four
or hint or a handful and then each of
these are accompanied by local examples
which I know that's not your genre and
Mark Miller are available to answer any
specific questions about these projects
and about what's been happening uh
recently with with these examples
so when we look at uh this example South
Main Street
um we can see that it's two lanes in
each Direction they're fairly wide Lanes
Milwaukee environment isn't super
friendly the bicycle environment isn't
very friendly we're seeing
um a pretty pretty uh bad speeding and I
might argue that this isn't necessarily
a uh an enforcement problem right so
from 2016 and 2019 we saw 30 crashes per
year I mean and then about a third of
those led to an injury what we see uh
roadways that are designed in a way that
encourages speeding we shouldn't be
surprised that they're going to be
speeding related crashes or just or just
speeding violations
on the next slide you can see a cross
section of what Main Street used to look
like and then after the Reconstruction
uh what it looks like with the one
lineage Direction a two-way Center left
turn lane a buffer and bike lanes and a
sidewalk and one of the one of the great
things about this kind of approach so
some folks in the industry will call it
a real diet or a lane reallocation the
idea is that
Imperial Highway has some really great
supporting guidance around this as well
it's in some really great data but the
idea is that this is safer it's more
comfortable it means that drivers aren't
speeding in the same way that they might
have if they have two lanes in each
Direction and then the satellite return
line also provides a place for drivers
to queue up before they before they make
their chart
moving on to the next slide
um this this just describes and explains
why speed is such a major factor and so
um it's just a matter of kinetic energy
right so if someone in a car is driving
at a higher speed and they strike
someone walking they're delivering more
energy to that person's body and the
more energy that's delivered the more
likely that person is going to die and
so on screen here every single person
icon represents uh pedestrian fatality
from 2016 to 2019 there's 15 of them I'm
13 of them occurred on roadways with a
higher uh higher posted speed limit so
35 miles per hour per hour or above you
can see the majority of them happening
occurring in the 35 mile per hour range
perhaps that's because that's the number
of there's just more roadways that are
posted at 35 miles per hour perhaps
there are more destinations that people
walking want to get to along those
roadways maybe there's a sense of folks
that that are are on those roads but
then are speeding they're driving faster
than 35 miles per hour faster than the
posted speed limit so we're seeing nine
out of ten 87 of
in Las Cruces occurring on roadways
where the closest speed limit is 35
miles per hour or above
moving on to the next slide when we
think about safe safe speeds
we are looking at streets that are
designed for the safe speeds that are
desired what we kind of want what we
expect from our roadway and not
necessarily uh what what folks are
currently driving
at any time we're expecting people
walking or bicycling
um to a rolling to be Transit we need to
think about lower speeds and the
trade-off is that if we've got higher
speeds folks that are driving are going
to have less time to react to people
walking bikes and crossing the road and
then if there is a collision the
likelihood of serious injury of death is
that much higher
a place uh where we really did a great
job I think of of addressing the
speeding problems on Alameda Boulevard
I'm going to show you data on the next
slide but this was such a fascinating
project because right away we saw a
difference right so on the left side
this is what it looked like before
um the the restriping of Alameda we've
got two lanes in each Direction
um the sidewalk people walking on the
sidewalk they're right up against a
travel Lane it's a pretty hostile
environment for people that are driving
but down the right side you can see that
there's one lane in each Direction now
there's a two eight so I don't have turn
lane bike Lanes which provide the
benefit of space for people bicycling
but then also provide a buffer between
travel the general travel lane and then
The Pedestrian Lane
on the next slide you will see speed
data over a course of several weeks we
collected sweet data on Thursdays at the
same location at Alameda and Hadley and
we saw that before the reconfiguration
about 18 of Voters were traveling at
least 10 miles per hour over the speed
limit which is 30s they're driving
uh 18 of folks were driving about 40
miles per hour or more before the
project went in and then after the role
I was reading figured we saw that drop
to about seven percent and we also saw
fairly
um fairly significant decrease in the
number of
um of uh motor vehicle trips as well
along the roadway and so you can just
imagine right so you've got two big
Lanes in each Direction folks that want
to drive over the speed limit are going
to find a way to do that maybe they get
into the left lane and the driver around
others whereas with a three-lane
configuration
um the the slowest driver actually gets
to sort of meter on the traffic behind
them so pretty impressive results from
my perspective
moving on to the next slide when we
think about Safe Streets we're also
thinking about physical separation for
people walking in bicycling from
motorists
so that could be infrastructure or that
can be what happens for traffic signals
and from a sort of both horizontal and
vertical separation so on the next slide
when we think about time and space that
can happen at
signalized intersections for example so
we'll talk a little bit about some of
those countermeasures
for uh signalized intersections it's a
great example of this a local example
are the pop-ups from 2021 and we saw
that these installed the temporary bike
lane extensions along Nevada Avenue and
Walnut Streets and then shared Lanes on
Idaho Avenue but he's basically
simulated separation between people
bicycling and people driving just using
temporary traffic cones basically the
Ballers we saw of the respondents felt
much more comfortable riding in spaces
like these uh 35
respondents said that they felt
comfortable writing the pop-up in the 50
said that the problem improved the
streets so great example of providing a
separation for different modes
on to the next slide shifting automobile
trips to walking bicycling transits
another key strategy and um it's one
that's really challenging right because
you've got to have all the necessary
ingredients in place
um in order for folks to feel like they
can walk or bike or reach Transit
instead of driving so the idea around
Traffic Safety can be connected to that
idea around occupational safety and
occupational safety all of these
strategies are effective in one way or
another but they get they get less
effective as you kind of go down this
triangle so the very top the most
effective strategy for occupational
safety is to remove the hazard or to
replace the hazard with something else
so when we translate that to roadway
safety that means removing cars right
cars are the ones that are are killing
people and seriously injuring people if
we could convert uh hardships to walking
bicycling of Transit what that means is
that we're going to see more people
walking more people bicycling more
people using Transit that means they're
safety numbers but then there are also
fewer fewer threats to to safety for
vulnerable users and then of course
everything else is important they can be
effective but they only are so effective
if we don't address the first two
strategies
okay so now um on the the last slide
here for this section wanted to touch
really quickly on
um uh the culture of safety and then
three really this is not just specific
to this business was in to Las Cruces
this is just this is General kind of
across the board
um all communities will deal with with
one or more of the
of these roadblocks to promoting a
culture of safety so the first one is
community opposition maybe there is a
plan or a project to reallocate roadway
space to provide a dedicated space for
people walking or people bicycling but
community members are opposing losing a
travel Lane um or Museum parking lot so
that's that's one common real block
another one is political reluctance or
maybe a lack of political will maybe an
example of that is an elected official
saying hey we've got this funding for
Railway safety but I want to
re-prioritize it or deprioritize it and
then reallocate that pointing somewhere
else and then finally a third common
rule block is the internal practices
this is sort of like uh this is hey this
is the way that we've always done things
or they could be written design
standards and guidelines or it could
just be sort of unspoken policies and
sort of unspoken rules of dumb
um that folks use to prioritize the
motor vehicle travel I would really
appreciative prioritizing safety
so moving on to this last section uh I
want to touch on some existing efforts
to tackle the problem of safety in Las
Cruces and then I want to jump into just
some really quick examples this is not
going to be comprehensive but I want to
jump into some quick examples of how we
might Advance safety in a short the
medium in the long term
so moving on to the next slide I want to
touch really quickly on the limitations
of Crash data so what this slide is
showing is that the talk and shipping
factor and this is based on this is
based on npo's data and data from the
state New Mexico DOT it shows that
alcoholic drug involved crashes that's
the top and shipping Factor what does
Mike Miss though is that this doesn't
this doesn't represent
crashes with multiple code contributing
factors right so someone might have been
under the influence but maybe they're
also speeding and so this is just one
limitation of the data that I wanted to
touch on speeding as a top contributing
factor is still a fairly it's a
significant percentage of crashes that
we're seeing at least in the data
so moving on to the next slide I want to
touch on lighting 21 of crashes in Las
Cruces occurred in dark and unlike
conditions but there's Nuance here right
I want to touch on the reality that
um maybe there are fewer people driving
it darkened on the conditions maybe
there are fewer people walking in dark
in other conditions but it's still
something that is of course a safety
factor that that we want to talk about
so I want to applaud the recent work of
City staff to explore
and improve lighting across the city
using drone imagery I think it's really
interesting and what a great strategy to
identify where lighting coverage is is
currently inadequate or lacking we know
that that City staff who are identifying
Five Focus areas that will that will be
lighting improvements and certainly that
will have some effect and we'll love to
uh to learn more about that once once we
we get additional Lighting in
uh moving on to speeding we know that
staff have been exploring automated
speed enforcement via speed bands that
can be deployed to different locations
as needed certainly looking forward to
the outcomes of those of that effort as
well but of course we know that this is
sort of a short-term kind of fix right
and we would love to see more
self-enforcing self-reinforcing Street
design that encourages folks to not
speed even when there isn't a speed van
present
and then finally the the third effort
that I wanted to touch on is this
intersectional safety analysis using
artificial intelligence based video
analysis at two pilot locations my
understanding is that there's a there's
a procure process targeted for for March
23rd and it can it can find it can
identify
safety issues using Ai and using
technology and so what a great use of
technology to uh to get data that we
wouldn't have otherwise so looking
forward to seeing seeing the information
from from those two intersections okay
so now I want to jump into some short
mid and long term countermeasures
strategy Solutions this is these are
just examples this is not
all-encompassing and um well to to be to
Define what these mean low low uh sorry
short term our low-cost Solutions
implemented quickly maybe their signs
and markings that sort of thing
um things that we want to do to respond
to existing safety issues right rather
than saying oh it's just going to
require Railway reconstruction to solve
that safety problem what can we do in
the short term on the other other side
of the spectrum is the long-term the
long-term Solutions so these are roadway
reconstructions imagining sort of uh
just
Street design intersection design
Crossing design just being completely
different in the midterm kind of
everything in between that maybe is a 10
to 15 years off maybe it's five to ten
years off and then I want to tackle four
different safety objectives so One Is
Safe speeds the next safe Crossings and
then lighting and then load separation
so in the next slide here again these
are just some examples but in the short
term to encourage
safe speeds of course we can use speed
safety cameras maybe
speed vans that sort of thing maybe in
some really quick build traffic coming
so in the form of vertical deflection
speed cushions speed humps race Crossing
sometimes they're asphalt but sometimes
they're there can even they can be
rubberized and they can be installed
since the pavement sort of on a pilot
basis
um in the the midterm category to
encourage safe speeds we've seen this
right this is on Alameda and hopefully
we're going to see on on Main Street
um reducing the number of travel
engineering those traveling with
providing other infrastructure in the
streets this is this can be done as a
you know regular annual paper
resurfacing and then of course setting
the appropriate speed limits and the
design and the um the operations kind of
a four stop and in the long term more uh
more permanence uh traffic calming and
then Railway redesign and reconstruction
those are going to be the some examples
of really great strategies to encourage
safe speeds as we move on to Safe
Crossings on the next slide you'll see
some similarities here but in the short
term we're looking at signs we're
looking at markings and we're looking at
some operational things so leading
potential Leading The Pedestrian
intervals effectively give pedestrians a
head start at signalized intersections
and so it doesn't cost anything right
it's a really cool it can be a really
quick thing it's more of an operational
thing in the midterm we're looking at
some some additional traffic Colony but
some median references maybe some curb
extensions that sort of thing enhancing
pedestrian Crossing so using wrap or
chain of Rapid fashion beacons these can
be really great
ways to draw attention driver's
attention to potentially Crossing
pedestrians and they've seen great
success across across the country and
then in the long term maybe they're
we've got an example of a production
hybrid begins here but it could be full
of traffic signals if it makes sense to
do that the benefit of these versus the
rapid flashing beacons is that drivers
are only required to stop on Reddit
so moving on to lighting this one's a
bit more straightforward but I think in
the short term
um the the collecting of data
um collecting an analysis of data and
then allowing uh more facilitating uh
residents and others to report broken
street lights that's a very simple
short-term kind of fix whereas in the
mediums long term we're looking at just
more enhanced lighting both at the
street level but also for pedestrians
and then in some cases they can be used
to enhance Place making as well and
Urban Design
and then finally moving on to separation
um in the short term we've got
opportunities and and the potential to
stripe walkways and bikeways and then to
repair existing sidewalks we've got
existing sidewalk Network let's make
sure we're taking care of it maintaining
it maybe even filling in some micro gaps
um I imagine that there there might be
some locations where it's a really
simple fix to disconnect two sidewalks
if they're really like if the Gap is
really small in the midterm maybe
there's opportunity to reconstruct the
sidewalk and reimagine what it looks
like maybe there is the opportunity to
include some kind of amenity zone or
landscaping or trees and in the long
term of course anytime there's any kind
of Railway reconstruction where we're
kind of reimagining what that roadway
space should look like there's the
opportunity to rethink that sidewalk and
how much space is provided for that
sidewalk in the amenity Zone and what
that experience is like
so that was a pretty quick overview of
what we haven't observed in terms of
safety and what we would recommend for
um for improving pedestrian safety in
Las Cruces so I think at this point I'll
hand it back to srishana thank you thank
you Tron for that presentation but
before I go to Shoshan I just have a
quick question
so I think what prompted a lot of this
work session item was obviously there's
been a few fatalities as well as people
getting injured have we identified the
actual locations of where they were
and
um perhaps what what are their ages I I
say that because when I was uh you know
when I was a teenager I used to think
that cars could see me you know because
they have headlights at night but you
know and then when I started driving you
realize you really can't see them unless
they're wearing some type of clothing
that's a reflective manner but do we
have the various streets where they have
been hit and maybe they were killed and
you know exactly I guess what I'm trying
to get at is I saw there was a couple
streets that were going to start as a as
a
pilot project I guess you could say but
you know where is there some particular
areas that maybe we need to address
right now you know years ago when we
used the red light cameras we identified
five areas that produced them a number
many number of crashes for the car
accidents and of course the top one was
Telshor and Lowman
so do we have that data or or not really
Mr Mayor um
sexual data collected by and
in report format by our Messiah Valley
mpo and actually I think their staff is
here and they can speak to that I would
also once they're done kind of talking
about that it maybe suggests that our
senior planner Mark Miller could come up
here and kind of talk about what we can
do with the data and what the data does
and does not really see so with that
I'll just
step aside and let Mr Dominic lawyer
thanks
good afternoon Mr Mayor members of the
council
my name is Dominic Coy I'm a
transportation planner with the Messiah
Valley and po so every year we do
collect data for the region
we do put it out in a report format
and if you go to our website you can
actually see the report itself we have
not posted this year's yet that'll be
coming up here in April
uh we will have that one out
and our website of course is Missy
Valley mpo.org
on there well we've lit since 2018 we
have done a safety report uh for
basically Las Cruces in the surrounding
area
okay so we don't have that right now
this is what you're saying or what I'm
hearing uh so we don't have this year's
and the other thing too to remember is
the way nmdot does crafts reporting we
get the data two years
back so basically this year we will be
looking at 2021 data as opposed to what
is currently happening so any of the the
tragedies that have happened this the
year or this past year would not be
included in that data
okay
I guess I was just even thinking you
know Google Las Cruces Sun News and you
know who got hurt and and you know
probably pull that up I didn't need a
whole lot just I wanted to identify the
the streets maybe there was a lack of
lighting in that particular area could
you know and maybe there was two or
three people that might have got hurt
that way but okay let me turn it over to
my colleagues and see if they have any
questions I I just I didn't know if you
had that data or not so
um councilman Cuomo Council Flores mayor
pretend thanks mayor
hung for the
very insightful
presentation just real quick while
you're here
um
councilor coren Graham and I sit on the
mpo and just last week we got a report
on lighting safety which I just sent to
Christine if she can share with you all
but so just on the point of the data at
mpo we have discussed lobbying an MDOT
about
their this two-year delay of data
because it's just frankly not okay I
think it delays a lot of safety
conversations we can be having and I
know that we were potentially working
with other mpos across the state to sign
on to something similar but it is a
problem like the El Paso mpo gets data
pretty consistently so I don't know what
they necessary we've heard many excuses
about why that is but I think it should
be something that is remedied and then
additionally mayor I did just last week
asked for the same thing just can we get
some raw data from last year from my
research on the Sun News I think there
were seven fatalities pedestrian
totalities last year of course the
locations are sort of all over the place
the one I remember mostly is on on West
Picacho but I did ask the mpo last week
if they could provide some of that for
us
just on that note and then
um just a couple of questions
this may be for you shrajana but the
presentation
um
noted that there were five Focus areas
regarding lighting can you share with us
what those are
your counselor Ben Cuomo srijanabasnet
so I would defer to my colleague suguli
from Public Works since they are the
department that is doing that particular
study thank you good afternoon mayor
Council Vancouver my name is sugili for
the record there's a Five Focus area one
is a downtown area one in the the
one on the
West I'm sorry the east of the downtown
area and then all the Historical Area
that's the second area and then another
area on the further north north of the
U.S 70 and the west of the Elks and then
another location is a Far East
oh
that about the area we have a five
focused area
for you
thank you we have the uh the map to show
the exactly five locations okay okay
thank you provide through the
disadvantages office thank you so much I
really appreciate that
I had a couple other questions so I'm
trying to really appreciated that
framework you laid out at the beginning
of the conventional versus systemic I
thought that was a great frame to start
this conversation and keep moving
forward and I very clearly heard you say
this this sort of moving away from the
hot spots versus the entire system which
is of course ideal right like that's
where we want to be and
I also you know I think it's important
that we start somewhere right and so I
think like for example these Five Focus
areas and then the couple pilot projects
I mean what is your suggestion you know
as expert there like how like Where Do
We Begin where does the where is the
best way to begin
um what what I would say but this is
where a lot of communities uh start to
think about where they prioritize their
limited funds right there's only so much
time there's only so much funding
um there are only so many resources
there's always so much energy and
um and part of the process when we start
thinking about systemic safety is
imagining where we're going to get just
the most return right on our investment
of funding
and so a lot of communities will
identify what they call an him or a high
Injury Network and the idea around that
they're they're sort of the railways
that you would expect right so they're
they're generally created with a lot of
data and Analysis behind them but you
kind of expect you can kind of
yes anybody could guess where the
crashes are occurring the most and where
we're seeing the most fatalities and
serious injuries and so um if we
identify those corridors as opposed to
hin we're saying hey we need to
prioritize funding on these corridors or
if there's a project proposal to
redesign or address safety or do
something along those corridors we
should give extra attention and maybe
allocate more funding to those locations
another way of thinking about it
because it can be challenging and
sometimes it can feel just so
um
daunting if you think about an entire
city sometimes what what folks will do
is they'll imagine a project maybe it's
Main Street maybe it's something else
maybe it's University and they're going
to say hey we're going to design this
roadway in the design phase we're going
to design this roadway to have zero
traffic fatalities and serious injuries
and we're going to monitor that and so
rather than saying oh gosh the entire
city how are we ever going to do this it
feels like there's no rival reason what
if we just started focusing on what we
can focus on which is maybe one corner
we have a immediate impact on something
like that so there are multiple ways to
to do it but you also see that at the at
the state level the New Mexico DOT is
about to put on Advanced effort to
develop a vulnerable real user safety
assessment and part of the requirements
of our VRU usas is to identify the
priority locations and so maybe they're
a hot spots but maybe their places where
we're expecting communities and partners
to to prioritize the funding so kind of
a short answer it's a really big
question but yes we we got to start
somewhere and a lot of times that's
identifying focused areas or Focus
corridors
no thank you I appreciate that that sort
of got my wheels turning about
um I mean up here as policy makers and
this one's for uefo I think for next
pedestrian safety conversations
um
I wouldn't and I know the next steps are
here but I would like to see more of a
flushed out like budget plan here's what
the budget we would need to improve
lighting safety across the city like how
what's the big cost what would that
actually cost and then where do we start
what's the big cost to reducing speed
limits across the street right like very
specific
numbers because I I actually do think
this is
um a key priority as pedestrian safety
given the number of fatalities last year
but then every year and so for me that's
something that I'd like to see moving
forward especially as we head into a
budget Retreat where I'd like to
understand what to advocate for
um so that's that's one of my big asks I
think and then my other ask as as the
presentation was going on I was thinking
about and this is for Public Works about
some of these
many constituent-driven asks for Road
diets and speed limit changes and
um curious if there's space to Advocate
to to remove the very lengthy process
sometimes that that is in place in order
to get there right where it's like you
need the majority of the people who live
on the street to agree to be able to
move forward you know I I mean you could
ask why would anybody want not want
safer streets but as you also noted in
your opposition slide that happens all
the time and I actually have had
resident constituents say why did you
put this those things in the middle of
Alameda and Madrid and sometimes it's
safety over convenience right and so I
am curious about
that process for public works if that
can be re-looked at and how could we
make it easier oh I'm looking at David
Tony's down here how can we make it
easier for cons
to begin road diet speed limit
um
processes that are brought on by
constituents
for the record
um yes we have actually been talking
about that about the process we have for
Speed tables and so forth chicanes and
the way that it is and I believe she's
on is already working on that kind of
um also so with the real lights coming
through you realize Las Cruces new
design standards that is part of the
process that we are looking at yes great
thank you so much Tony just when I think
I have a great idea you already had it
so
thank you thanks man I I think it's
going to be mayor Pro tem next because I
think but before she does I I have to
also put a plug-in for
perhaps ppio can do a campaign for let
people know that hey if you're going to
be walking at night or riding a bike at
night you might want to use a light you
might want to use some type of material
like that and I mean I know a lot of
people don't necessarily watch our CLC
Channel 20 but we may want to put it in
media as well as in the print
and so the other day I saw a bicycle I
had his white light on his red light on
but he had blue lights on his tires and
um yeah I mean he definitely could be
seen so I mean those are the type of
things that it was if it wasn't at night
I would have tried to find out who it
was so he can come here and be on one of
our videos but anyway so mayor Pro tem
and then counselor Flores thank
you
um
I'm sorry I forgot
Mr ball
thank you for your presentation I've
been waiting for this for some time this
is a really important issue for me
um I'm glad that that we've hired you
and that there's continued conversations
um internally about next steps
you made mention specifically the area
with the road diet around Alameda and
um Picacho and honestly that took a
significant amount of time and people to
address this and I know that we're
better for it for sure but this happened
pre-covered and it was very lengthy
process so I definitely agree with
cancer bengomo that the process probably
would I would like to see it shortened
because when you hear about the crashes
and you hear pedestrian deaths those are
always very alarming to all of us and I
often feel with a lot of our joint
powers of our jpos that
um there's sort of a gap in the
information that's being shared at one
time with counsel so I was going to wait
to talk to ifo at my individual Staffing
with him
um but I I understand at our our next at
our Retreat that
um
maybe City staff will be the only ones
presenting regarding the number of maybe
priorities that need to take place and
we're not going to hear necessarily from
our jpos and I I think that I would like
to see the presentation from our Animal
Services Center those boards like mpo
those boards that we share in common
with others and then I'd like to request
I was really looking forward to hearing
the data specific to the areas where the
the crashes are we're at because I know
you've been working on this for a
significant amount of time and the data
is here and the data is there but I
think it also feels like there's a lot
of gaps
um and we again don't hear that
information
um specifically and you're asking us to
go into a website right to look at the
data without any
um conversation about that data and um
it to me I think that's not the way to
go I feel like if we're going to do this
you need to have all the partners here
prepared right to have those
conversations
answer questions
um and I'm wondering if this went
through our transportation PRC or health
I know it didn't go through the health
and those are opportunities to bring
everybody together really hash out some
of this stuff and that way we have that
information
prior to these sorts of of of work
sessions
and so
my question was do we have an inventory
of the speed limits
um across the city in those area areas
where your
connecting higher level of crashes or
pedestrian deaths I mean do we have that
currently and and then the second
question would be is that how or one of
the factors that you selected those five
areas
that you just spoke of
good yeah mayor Pro tem ifo was able to
find some data although it's a couple
years old I think he sent it to 2019 and
he sent it to Adrian and Adrian should
have sent it you should you should have
it if you want to put it up it's
interesting it's a combination of you
know whether it was a car crash or a
pedestrian or bicycle so and then you
can see various parts throughout the
city and these were the fatal crashes in
2019. yeah so this at least gives us
some some ideas yes sure so can somebody
pull that up
mayor and the mayor pro team yes we have
a data to show that where is the speed
limit and what is the accident happened
and there's a two different the approach
we're trying to do one is find out how
we can address for the long term as
everybody mentioned right now we're
focusing on a short-term midterm and the
long term so we have to look at the long
term how we can make a and this make a
different code to make a more safer for
the old the user including the phone
level user bicyclist and pedestrian the
second is how we can address the issue
the reactively which is what we are also
doing it so whenever we have any
accident happen traffic engineer we've
been notified from the police and we
look at what the cost but unfortunately
more than a 95 percent of the times is
not the engineering or anything we can
address because it's a more for the
drivers or the pedestrians the mistake
you know as you saw that the one of the
the statistics almost
more than 90 percent of the the cause is
The Pedestrian I'm sorry the user's
mistake unfortunately but still we're
trying to find how we can minimize the
the the damage what reduce the damage
that's what we're trying to do it so
that's reason we focus on the several
the Cold War as you know the mayor
mentioned so we at at this point we
focus on the three Corridor one is the
the El Paseo there's a lot of the
pedestrian accident and then also we all
know see what's going on on the
Roadrunner that's also City street and
then also we would like to see how we
can make an improvement on the
University and then also there's a two
other code over which is not belonged to
the city which is the the nmdot one on
the North Main the most recent you know
the fatality happened at that location
and another one is on the Picacho that's
actually the nmdot so we closely work
with the nmdot he expressed how
our concern is and then how we can do
work together with the dot because we
cannot just to work alone so that's
reason we continue to work together and
then also trying to find the some the
funding because sometimes we're not able
to do the uh even the
the analysis you know the like the Banco
mask about what's the cost so for
example one
the the presentation I included in the
presentation
for the intersection safety analysis
with the AI it's about the ten thousand
dollars so in order to cover the entire
city we need about a million dollars
and also we've done several the the
speed study along the major code over
that's about
200 to the three hundred thousand dollar
cost and then even the time is about six
months to about a year so that's reason
it takes a long time to analyze what's
going on and then how we can address
them once we figured out the issue then
also we need to take a time to do the
design and the once figured out of the
design then also we need to define the
way to funding sure yes and then also
the other the difficult part as you know
everybody mentioned about the the
procedure but unfortunately our code
specifically spell out how to do it and
then what the process so we cannot skip
the process
no I'm not asking you to skip or process
absolutely if there's a Code we want to
follow it I'm not asking that at all but
um I I don't know very specific in terms
of like for example speed tables
I don't believe there is a process
spelled out with a time frame that it
takes to do that I think there have been
people within the neighborhood there's a
process that internally it was right
suggested and and that's what it's like
and this is what you advertise when
people come with concerns about speeding
in their neighborhoods right something
of that I mean it doesn't come to
councils so Council says gives it the
step stamp of approval right I'm not
suggesting that you not follow a process
what I'm asking is
um and and that's a very helpful for me
to understand sort of the amount you
know from day one to from six months to
a year right to analyze all the
information
understanding how costly it is and then
what those more long-term
Solutions or strategies are and and then
how to how to um basically Advocate to
us and maybe grants that you will need
to go for right to be able to do all
this so will you have this information
at
um our strategic session
um our budget retreat
and and what it would look like are how
far along are we in terms of providing
um the information the analytics to then
develop sort of the strategy moving
forward are we sort of at the beginning
stage do we need to do more analytics
where are we at
Miss America
I would defer to the lighting study of
course to Tony or Sue but if you're
talking overall about all of the data
that can go into something like this for
example you mentioned some of the
traffic coming
like speed speed tables you mentioned
that
in order for us to be more proactive and
not
simply react to requests as and when
they're noticed or
for areas that maybe do have the biggest
voice as opposed to areas that really do
need it but they just don't have time to
show up city council maybe and express
the reviews
we want this to be a holistic approach
um as much as possible because I just
off the top of my head I can think you
know just addressing a traffic issue
with creating speed cushions or humps
could be problematic in the long run if
we talk about emergency vehicle access
or you know
other there are other things involved in
that as well and so we do want to have
the best possible solution
with that being said
I am kind of lingering on this slide a
little bit because uh this was the last
slide to the presentation so I'm trying
to wrap up but
you've already established a city
council of policy direction for us
you've already said we prioritize
pedestrians and cyclists and Transit
users
and so we have taken things like your
comprehensive plan and active
Transportation plan the example of
Alameda and why it required such a
different
kind of I would say a second knock on
the door to remind us that it is the
number one implementation item already
identified interactive Transportation
plan and it only took us a few years to
come back to it and actually get it done
I think what we're missing is what
you've said repeatedly here there are
gaps to how policy is implemented and I
think one of the Visionary things that
our city manager has done is to
recognize that Gap and create something
an actual line of business to the city
that's called planning and
implementation and so we are actively
working on identifying the data
analyzing it and creating Solutions
it's just maybe a little bit more time
consuming than you would like however
the goal is to catch as many things as
we can with one solution and so in the
CIP Retreat My Hope Is that you all will
kind of
um have a more hands-on experience and
looking at this information and
digesting it and asking the questions
that you need to ask in order for us to
have a really good process moving
forward
and so with that I'm gonna hand over to
to Mark who can just maybe address some
of the data that you are or that you
were hoping to see today and just talk
about it just a little bit so you can
maybe understand our hesitance to just
take one aspect of one data set and say
this is going to address that problem
directly and completely
um mayor city council Mark Miller Senior
planner if you just give me one moment
so I can see if I can bring up
some of the data that we've been working
on
um so I could start by just kind of
refreshing
um everyone's memory city council and
her audience as well we shared this
previously this is through our open gov
platform the the transparency platform
that we do have
um here we have a specific Story related
to active transportation and it's kind
of our One-Stop
story where we can see all the different
bits of data that we're trying to
actively track and regularly update
the the the most recent years on this
you'll see you're kind of 21 22 I
believe but we're currently working on
updating that kind of as we speak
um you can see you know the the amount
of bike lanes that we have across the
city how much striped bike Lanes do we
have
um
where are our sidewalk gaps this is a
effort that's been worked on with Public
Works kind of an interdepartmental
effort to try to track
in real time
um where our gaps are when they're being
filled whether they're being filled
partially or wholesale
um
we also have just a few different uh you
know
key measures related to the right-of-way
how many how many trees do we have in
the right of way
the sustainability aspects of trees in
the right of way of Street trees but
then also when we talk about kind of
creating a place around
public thoroughfares constraining the
right-of-way
framing it so that we can kind of slow
down those speeds a little bit that's a
really important measure to keep track
of
um how how close to our res residential
dwelling units with the near Trails how
much do we actually have people walking
or biking and we also are tracking
um pedestrian and cyclist crashes you'll
notice that this is actually more recent
data than what was in the presentation
the reason for this is because these are
straight numbers from PD this isn't
going through the the process that you
all were discussing a minute ago of that
two-year lag and what the mpo relies on
the the drawback is is that this isn't
spatial it's not mapped out currently
there is that verification process that
the uniform crash reports from LCPD goes
through with the state and then goes to
mpo I think you're all aware of that
we're also tracking the walk score
um and a few other items that aren't on
here so this is just an initial thing I
wanted to bring back up to your
attention this can be shared with City
Council of course
but more to
the specific
crash data that we're discussing today
um in preparation for this work session
we did uh utilize the mpo data that
historical data up to I believe it was
and tried to kind of take it to the next
step and see what relationships what
correlations we can find uh Leverage The
the work that the mpo does currently on
this and I guess that thing that I'll
highlight for you is this this is
something we are working on we're
working on right now
um and the delay in presenting this to
you is because of the the complexity and
the Nuance of really trying to
spatially statistically analyze it in a
way where we can bring you a finding
there are so many different variables to
the why related to the where of these
crashes
um that doesn't live in the data that
isn't collected necessarily that it just
makes it a really difficult answer to
pin down
we hope to try and develop this a bit
further and then make this available
this is the raw data
um I I will say this this does not cover
uh mayor to your point this does not
cover those most recent crashes because
this is relaying relying on the mpos
crash reports which is only up to 2019
as Dominic
um highlighted
um so we did just want to put this in
front of you
and and show you that this is something
that we're working on and trying to
bring that policy uh connection and and
yeah I'll leave it at that and stand for
your questions well thank you it
probably would have been easier to ask
Justin Garcia from the Sun news to
report because it looks like he did a
lot of these articles but I already
found the seven one was at Idaho and
Locust one was at Picacho 17th Street it
was jaywalking one was a baton Memorial
East near Oregon Mountain High School
one was in the Target parking lot I
vaguely remember that another one was
I-10 south of Las Cruces near Vado one
was at Spruce in Virginia and the other
one was near Amador in West Picacho I
guess the train hit a pedestrian so
those were the seven last in 2022 and so
I just wanted to council to have an idea
of where these happen
so that we can you know see where this
project or Pilot that you all want to do
or have us do and how they correlate
with this and so and some of these
probably couldn't have really been
avoided I think like one of them may
have been driving in attention but and
and I didn't really get a chance to read
the Target parking lot but you know
those are this gives us Council I think
an idea I mean what happens is we hear
about these and then you know it's it
obviously causes a reaction and but when
you step back and look at it and you
read more of the details
but it's still important to let the
public know hey you you we really can't
see you the driver can't see you and I
want to say that the Department of
Transportation did a
some type of a program maybe 10 12 years
ago about the same issue that we can't
see you you can't be seen or something
like that and they would hand out it was
a Statewide campaign and maybe if we did
that here locally just something to
highlight to let the skateboarders the
people who ride the bicycles and the
people just walk in the streets hey you
know you might want to wear something
that's reflective you know I can still
remember as a kid my my dad this is back
in the 60s and 70s I think we're this uh
that that tape you know when you go for
a walk I forgot what those reflective
tape and I used to think you know but
then as I got older I realized what he's
doing and and so it's it's just
something about letting people know you
know we you might think that cars can
see you bikes can you know but but we
can't and if you can wear something
that's a little reflective that would be
good
counselor
Flores and then counselor
Quran and then come
thank you mayor and thank you all for
your presentation I think my
my
question or confusion or
inability to understand everything you
do
rests on the fact that we have
different factors that contribute to the
accidents quote unquote the instances
where people are injured or killed
and
um
and I think it's wonderful that you know
you're adhering to the um
realize Las Cruces or the comp
and all that but it seems to me that
um see I think we had like two or three
bicycle incidents within weeks or months
of each other and and we recognize we
recognize that we have streets that
aren't really safe road runner Parkway
for example I cringe that I mean I don't
understand how any planner in his or her
right mind would have put in elementary
school on a road that is really arterial
Roadrunner Parkway the speed limit is
35. and if you're going 50 you know it's
slow
and and a lot of people use that
crosswalk at the school and I you know I
just cringe because it's and then the
sidewalks there
on Road Runner Parkway
are so narrow that you can barely walk
with a dog on there and and I mean I
would never walk I think I walked it
once and didn't feel safe and never did
it again and uh and certainly not with
my dog
so um it seems to me that I mean this is
just someone who isn't educated in the
field
but
um
it seems to me that you would look at a
situation that
[Music]
um
to correct a situation that caused a
death or there's been several deaths
that are similar and try to rectify that
even if it's a small section maybe if
it's just a small step
um but I guess you know I I guess we're
you're looking you're looking at the
entire city you're looking at each and
every incident that is a safety issue
but it seems to me that there are
there are issues that are definitely
life life or death I mean we have more
bicyclists on on the on the streets now
and we we still haven't done anything to
make bike trails safer either by making
them wider making slowing down traffic
and I think that
I think for example if I were a police
officer with all due respect to the
department but if I were a police
officer and I was on how many tickets
can I give out today and will I get a
raise for it or something I would hang
out on Road Runner Parkway I go 35 miles
an hour and it's like people and I I and
I slow down especially in front of the
two schools El Camino and and Desert
Hills
but people are going by at least 50
miles an hour
and um and there could be so much
prevention there could be police
officers issuing tickets right and left
there I mean they could you know make
their quota in one day probably so I
mean that's that's a side issue but I
just don't understand
how
it boggles my mind I I don't understand
how you you know say for example your
department just said you know what we're
based on the fact that we have two or
three uh bicycle incidents where people
died within a short period of time let's
look at that right now let's focus on
that let's get money for that and let's
take all this wonderful stuff that Mr vo
presented and consistent with the
presentation and let's move forward
because I think the data is there and
that's that's the part that just boggles
my mind and you know year after year
after year and
um and there's no movement and it isn't
a criticism it's just an observation and
again and I preface that with the fact
that I'm an ignoramus in the field
um but I think I I share the concern and
the questions a lot of people do in the
city and to me one person dying because
of something that could have been
prevented as a result of a relatively
minor fix fix it and I'm saying
relatively minor because I'm not saying
oh build a huge bridge and or build a
huge Street just for bicyclists I'm just
saying whatever contributed to that
particular accident
so you know I'm just basically tucking
off the top of my head and again
sitting you know just sitting and
watching it
thank you Mr Mayor
thank you councilor Koran
thank you um I was hoping we could
perhaps go to the triangle
um slide again
with upside down triangle
thank you this this is actually I think
what I think what a lot of us are
getting at
um
I think the mayor sort of is alluding to
the the bottom of the triangle here and
I think
um I I would just like to say I think
we're looking at hopefully we can we can
think up in this in this pyramid and
that's the the I think expectation and
accountability that we have to our
community to to
re-engineer things as we can
um change the things that we need to and
and address systemic things like
um a culture of of speeding or cultures
of of not stopping at red lights
um
and really focus all all of our
attention and I think the idea of having
a more adaptable code I really do hope
that the realized code will enable us to
shift how we change these things and I
appreciate you all alluding to that so
that we can
um be more adaptable change our change
our roadways as we can and
address systemic issues I would argue
even looking at one year of Crash data
is really
you know hard to put in the content an
epidemiological context so I really
appreciate you all looking at this from
a bigger perspective and thinking about
the the top of the pyramid and and I
think we're all committed to
prioritizing that in our upcoming
conversations about the CIP in
particular so I just want to thank you
for including this because this is base
the basic sort of public health model of
of addressing systemic issues and and I
think most of us are committed to doing
things in this in this way thank you
thank you can you go back to the
convention versus systemics
and I wanted to just say this because
um I think it was a little bit triggered
by some of the narrative earlier around
um I because I just want us to like
really like breathe and live this
um I I think it's important to shift
away from victim blaming right like
pedestrians don't pose a car's risk to
vehicles vehicles do pose a risk to
pedestrians though so
the education cannot be solely on The
Pedestrian it could it should not be I
think that's irresponsible and so I I
think part of how we approach this issue
as policy makers as well as really from
this Frame and perspective because I
think it's actually even more dangerous
to say don't get killed by a car as
opposed to saying hey cars be careful
with pedestrians because you could kill
people right and so I just wanted to
reiterate that as I was hearing some of
that frame being repeated
I also think I think for those comments
counselor but I also think that the
pedestrian has a little bit of of skin
in the game as well I mean you don't
want them just dressing up in clothing
that they can't be seen I mean it's it's
tough nowadays for so many obstacles
whether it's the sun in their eye or
whatever may be the case but I hear what
you're saying but I also think it's it's
important that that um that they be and
again like I said when I was younger I
didn't realize that they can't see you
even though you're looking at them and
you say well can't you see me but no and
then when you start driving you realize
no you can't see them sometimes
especially at night
okay so what was um I have a question
thank you mayor and thank you again
srijana so
um
so do you look at areas that um
I mean I'm not saying they're a quick
fix but do you look at areas sometimes
and think you know this could have been
provide uh prevented or some tragedy or
an accident a death this could have been
presented if we would have had a lower
speed limit or this could have been
presented if we had another crosswalk or
this could have been presented and
um I'm looking I'm thinking about not a
quick fix but something
um for example have more crosswalks at
you know like the the big streets and I
know that Tony and David
Trevino and cedillo
I've walked with them
and we um and uh and we had a
constituent who was asking all these
questions and they very you know they
informed that well because of because of
the design of this street right here we
it's not required to have a crosswalk or
the way the streets are set up you don't
need a crosswalk and yet you look at
Sonoma Sonoma Ranch Boulevard and you go
dang there should be more crosswalks
there should be more semaphores you know
street lights uh regulating traffic
there because that's even faster than
Road Runner in my experience
um so do you do you do that sort of
stuff or
is it just too simplistic
yes it's too simplistic
Mr Mayor counselor Flores uh
uh I think that is one way to address
and enhance the transportation system is
to look at the data and to see if
there's something that was preventable
or that we can fix moving forward
however I think this is the piece that a
little bit gets missed because we do
have a lot of
um
I don't want to say siloing necessarily
but we do have a separation of expertise
and we have a gap in transportation
planning at the city and that's
something I'm gonna mention at the CIP
Retreat to you all
but this idea of having
an approach to fixing a solution I also
want to be very careful because I'm kind
of looking at legal right now
um
as to how I phrase this but
I think with better design and long-term
thinking we can provide solutions to
these problems I don't know that there
is a quick fix right now because
sometimes you can place a crosswalk and
make it more visible however it might
not be visible 24 7 and it might not be
the best location for the crosswalk
because the street was not designed to
be crossed at that point
so they're there so it's not a
straightforward answer and I can't
answer that for you today
if I had something like that
thank you mayor just a couple of
thoughts before we conclude with this
this item one thing I want to mention
you know in regards to to gaps is you
know I think we touched upon it a little
bit in the presentation just at the
beginning about how we have these
different plans we have Elevate we have
all these
there's plants coming out of our ears
when we talk about
you know all the things were great
things we're going to do for the city
and we'll go over this over this at the
budget retreat but this is I just want
everybody to recognize
this is pretty trailblazing I think
we're going to be closer than we've ever
been
with this new line of business that's
created so you now you have
long-range planning you have Performance
Management
and the CIP all in all in one area under
the direction of shijana and her staff
and so we're going to be taking plans to
implementation hopefully faster than
we've ever done and complete more
complete than we've ever done and this
is just one ostrich I don't want to get
into too much more detail because the
agenda item was pedestrian safety but
this is all a part of the the grand plan
right to to really move this city
forward and you know I certainly in my
previous City and I know cities around
the country I don't think they have it
this way I think this is really really
something that's Innovative
that's come from staff all departments
and particularly Shazam and her staff
but you know this is going to require
the the coordination and
teamwork of the entire staff from Public
Works to utilities to to everyone
together and so I'm really excited
excited about it
so you'll see in our budget Retreat
coming up just to manage expectations
too so the first day we really don't
have any other room we don't have room
for any other jpas to to present what
we're proposing is maybe a work session
I think Barbara sent me March 27th might
be
our next available work session where we
can invite them the hope is is that
they're they're coming to your
individual boards and presenting
thoroughly but you know having a work
session specifically for these jpas we
just have you know we've only been able
to fit five of our own departments and
that's a full day
and so that's why we haven't planned
with the jpas to present but we can
certainly have a work session and then
the whole next day
is all CIP that's all CIP and talking
about strategy and where this line of
business is going and you know some
exciting stuff for the future but we we
aren't going to implement this planet
it's all going to come from our
comprehensive plan
and it's going to that's going to be
directing our CIP as opposed to
other processes that we have but it's
going to take the coordination of the
entire
organization to be able to have that
buy-in and so that's why we dedicated
the whole second day to talking about
this and hopefully
the gaps will be filled we'll be again
more complete and and faster to get the
implementation
okay thank you just a point of view
closing comments yeah right I'll be here
10 minutes now uh Mr pili some of us are
going to be in Washington DC on the 27th
of March
I think the next one will be April 10th
if that if you're okay to
to wait till then we can plan for that
yeah there's about April 10th yeah
okay
thank you thank you thank you
was there some other did you want to say
something yes marins just wondering
before we move on if we could entertain
some brief public comment I know we have
I don't know if anyone out there is
itching to speak but we have members you
all are finished with the presentation
oh yeah sorry about that yes okay thank
you sure but I know we have some members
of our bike and pedestrian advisory
committee okay let me um thank you let's
see who who in the audience is here
wishes to speak just raise your hand one
two three people okay so three minutes
each if you want to come forward Andrew
state your name please
good to see that you stay involved after
you retired from the fire department
I've got to do something right that's
good uh Mr mayor council this is Andrew
Ben Como The Pedestrian advisor for
bpac so
some of the comments I'm super happy to
hear this that people are talking about
this trying to improve safety for
Walkers bikers Runners also
um so
not wanting to
create waves or anything like that one
of the things I heard and I hated to
hear it was when the comment was made
that
the Traffic systems are not the problem
it's the users it's the drivers it's the
I'm not I'm saying drivers two drivers
and Walkers when there's accidents it's
not the system and that's exactly what
the presentation was saying not to do
and so I hated to hear that piece
um
also a lot of times the first thing they
want to do is just let's just reduce
speed limits let's change the speed
limit signs but we know that people just
speed so the treatments of the roads the
reduction of lanes the chicanes those
type of things those Road treatments are
really going to be the answer to to what
we're looking to to provide here for as
far as safety goes that will that will
help to reduce traffic speeds things
like that obviously they are expensive
to do if you have to add them in
afterwards but they can be built into
projects
one of the questions they asked was
where do we start I think you start with
the low hanging fruit what can we do can
we change the traffic timing signals I
know in in San Diego the traffic lights
change but they change for The
Pedestrian first and they hold the
traffic so that they can cross for a
little start to cross and then go
because I myself have been
guilty of that it changes I start to go
and there's somebody trying to walk and
I didn't see them I I'm as guilty as
anybody so those systems are really
going to do it not relying on people to
do the right thing necessarily though
some will
um
as far as trying to identify specific
locations where people are killed
again we're going back to focusing on
the micro things instead of looking at
the whole system so while we do need to
do that I would like for us to to take
the step back and look at the bigger
system as they have presented that's
going to be more important than anything
else
also just
an example of what just occurred to you
there were missing the boat sometimes we
just did the Geo bonds they just
finished those wonderful trails that we
have but if you look at The Crossings at
the roadways
there's one sign put up a pedestrian
Crossing no treatments on the roads no
crosswalks how did that happen how did
how was that not part of the budgeting
and part of the system that was put in
place the trails are great but the
safety system of it seems to be lacking
somewhat so and then back to that push
the Alameda change and the system of how
it how long it takes
we were told that and I may be wrong on
this we were told the traffic study
needed to be was done but then it was
too old and needed to be done again when
nothing happens but traffic gets worse
how is the traffic study need to be done
a second time when traffic just keeps
increasing now I'm not a traffic
engineer so I don't know but that push
was done I'm out of time that push was
done by the public going to counselors
and forcing that happen that to happen
so it was too bad it had to be that way
but that's how it happened I may be
totally wrong in that but that's my
perception thank you very much thank you
Andrew
George Pearson we talked some about
speed currently unmarked roads have a 30
mile an hour speed limit this includes
almost all the residential roadways
pedestrian vehicle crashes at 20 miles
an hour having 80 to 90 percent
survivability rate but at 40 miles an
hour have an 80 90 percent fatality rate
that was reflected on one of the slides
in this presentation
speed is an important contributing
factor of these crashes an action item
that can be taken to help would be to
revise Las Cruces ordinance
27-12-6-1.2 and change the default
unmarked business and residential
districts roadway speed limit from 30
miles an hour to 25 miles an hour
changing the speed limit itself is only
a partial solution it would send the
message the council is looking at this
and raise some awareness of this but the
we will have to look at the design
issues people will drive at the speed
that they perceive as safe everyone
every one of us has gone five or more
miles an hour over the speed limit when
even intending to drive the speed limit
on the road
the street design changes are needed
the city council can make this happen
budget season is coming up you've talked
about this but I wanted to reiterate
that we set aside funds and support some
pilot projects to improve Traffic Safety
such projects can be done with paint and
signs and maybe temporary bollards or
mini traffic circles
let's look at changing traffic lights to
give pedestrians a head start to cross
an intersection or maybe we need some no
right turn on red signs that
High pedestrian intersections we've been
talking about traffic safety for some
time but with limited action I hope this
will serve this will deserve discussion
during the budget process and we can
make Las Cruces a safer Community thank
you
thanks George
good afternoon mayor and members of the
council my name is Ashley Curry I'm the
Las Cruces public schools at safe routes
to school coordinator and I just wanted
to first and foremost so thank you so
much for bringing this agenda item up
like Council agondor I've been looking
forward to this for many months and I
would also just like to say as I think
you're all commenting as well this isn't
a one-time event this isn't something
that we check off a list and say thank
you we address pedestrian safety and we
can move on and revisit it in seven
years time this needs to be an ongoing
and constant discussion I know that we
have had many start and stops to the
active transportation department here
within the city and it's very
unfortunate that Lee that that's
currently an unfilled position I
personally from the outside look at it
that it should be an entire department I
work with cities around the nation and
look at what other people do and I don't
know that there's anybody that's outside
that just has one person who would be in
charge of heading this all up so and
maybe speaking Out Of Tune but I think
if you're going to be looking at budgets
look at paying somebody appropriately
for that position so that we can get a
high quality person who's invested in
staying for the long term and also
having people to help that person all of
these things that have come up today all
of these events are one small item on
each and every one of your to-do lists
but if somebody had that as their
full-time job that would be an enormous
job and to be able to actually work
together with all of the Departments and
cross-department I think that that is
very key I'm very invested from the
school district's perspective in working
with the city and with the mpo and with
autonomous here the county the dot on
pedestrian safety issues because as you
saw from that inverted triangle the
number one thing would be to eliminate
vehicles and obviously that's not
realistic we're not going to go to a
pedestrian or Community but one of the
biggest causes of pedestrian congestion
is schools so if we can make our streets
safe for kids to be able to walking back
to school we can reduce a lot of those
conditions around the schools of traffic
congestion and as councilor Ferrara said
one of our walks is along Road Runner to
Desert Hills it's a scary place there's
no buffer we have kids right up there
against the road it is not kids are
squirrely kids are unpredictable we do
our best to control them we do our best
to educate them we do our best to teach
them to wear Hive is clothing and to be
visible we do that when we go into the
classrooms and work with them but at the
end of the day kids are kids the same
thing can be said for people who are
experiencing homelessness they may be
having other things that are going on
that they didn't you know know to be
more visible or not to step out in front
of a car but if we have again reduced
speed limits or infrastructure in place
I really feel like we can reduce that
we're not an invisible State we're
number one in the nation for pedestrian
deaths
um I do sit on The nmdot's Pedestrian
safety
um task force and they are addressing
that to your lag so just so you know
that's that is being addressed from that
I'm out of time I thank you for what
you're doing thank you thanks Ashley
okay so that concludes the presentation
shoshana
okay all right well thank you and is
Tron still on thank you Tron if you're
still there
and um
all right
thank you okay
thank you
all right next we're going to go to the
next item which is going to be the
mobile integrated Healthcare team
introduction
and I see Paul Ford will be making a
presentations that's at least that's
what it says where is Paul
have you ever heard Paul sing
he's a pretty good singer very good
singer I don't know why he's here I
think he'd be in New York
singing in an opera or something
I'll Excuse me while I find the
presentation
seriously he's good
he would think that he'd be like you
know on Broadway Paul Ford yeah
we should do the e-i-l was that what
it's called for City staff some City
staff
isn't that like the basketball players
good afternoon mayor city council Justin
Allen Deputy Chief and administration
for Las Cruces fire department as Deputy
Chief of administration I oversee our
community risk reduction section and
line of business and within that we have
the project light and mih programs so
today is an introduction to our team
I'll be passing the microphone over to
battalion chief Matthew Hiles who is in
charge of the programs
good afternoon mayor council members my
name is Matthew Hiles I'm a newly
promoted battalion chief I just promoted
to battalion chief December 2022 and I
have been assigned program manager for
the mobile Integrated Health and light
programs and I'm here to give you an
update on where we are specifically with
light
so I'm going to go ahead and get into
our presentation
so the light's going to serve
individuals expering mental health
crises
that's what we're there for we're going
to be part of the 911 system
light stands for to lessen the instances
of let's lessen the incidence of grief
harm and Trauma by providing Holistic
co-response For Those experiencing
crisis within the 911 system so they
have received appropriate
trauma-informed care in their time of
need now by holistic we also mean we're
going to have a social worker and a
firefighter paramedic as a team two
teams of two one is going to have the
firefighter paramedic one's going to
have a social worker
we're going to do a holistic overview by
the social worker which is going to
include their environmental social
mental health and we can also give a
physical
clearances by the paramedic on scene
with them
this is going to be an expansion of the
response we have for the 911 system for
mental health services for those who are
in crisis
and now we're going to go ahead and
start introducing our team on the left
you'll see Mindy Fowler Karina Jimenez
they are light team one
on the right there in this picture
you're going to see Michael Torres and
Allison Stoner they will be light team
two
I guess in deputy chief Allen said he's
in charge of the line of business for
Community risk reduction and he's been
with the department since 2002.
that is myself I've been with the
department since 2007 recently promoted
a battalion chief against December 2022.
this is Allison Stoner she has a
master's in social work and she's been
with the department since 2020.
Mindy Fowler also has her master's
degree in social work and has been with
the park department since 2021.
Michael Torres has been with the
department since 2016. has been a
paramedic since 2019.
Karina Jimenez she's been with the
department since 2017 and has also been
a paramedic since 2019.
this is Wes Smith he is our case manager
he comes with a master's degree with
public administration he has joined us
December 2022 and brings a wealth of
knowledge and experience with him
and as you know the Paul Ford the man
who needs no introduction but here he is
anyway
he is our mih coordinator firefighter
paramedic and yes he does have a
bachelor's of music from the University
of Hartford so mayor's correct he is a
good singer
he's been with lcfd for 13 years
this is Crystal Contreras she has her
masters of social work she joined us
December 2022.
who also comes with the great deal of
knowledge and experience
and then Lucio Avalos he's been with us
since 2011 and has been a paramedic
since 2016.
El sapodaka she's our assistant
management specialist she is from Mexico
and has done a lot of work in political
campaigns she does a lot of she works
with mih light and Fire Prevention to
collect our data
so what the light team will do well the
light team will provide infield
de-escalation okay part of the 911
system not the 988 system and I'll get
into that a little bit with the holistic
assessment which again goes back to the
environmental social and mental aspect
and physical aspect of that individual
we're going to have trauma-informed
interventions
transportation to definitive care with
our Community Partners it's not always
going to be a transportation just to the
emergency department that's not what
they may need they may need help from
our other agencies such as the peak
Messiah Valley Hospital
and uh we're also going to have
mediation and advocacy on scene medical
assessment care and clearance as
appropriate
crisis revolutions can include treating
in place with trauma-informed
interventions providing psycho
psycho-education on disorders and
medications education on and linkages
with Community Resources like I stated
before with the peak or Messiah Valley
hospital and the emergency department if
they need it
transfer transporting patients to the
appropriate facility or resource
providing appropriate follow-up so that
way we know that continue to get the
help that they truly need to to help
them through everything they're going
through after the fact
as I said we have the two light teams
comprised of a firefighter paramedic and
a social worker and the benefits do
include the holistic approach broader
scope of care in Infield medical
clearance
and with that infield medical clearance
we're also complementing the paramedics
with all the equipment they're going to
need on hand to work within their
complete scope of practice still under
the super supervision and medical
direction of Dr Ben divin as well
so what light is not going to do
light is not referral based response
that is where mih will come in it's
going to be two separate lines of
business
a team that responds to 988 calls is not
what we're going to be a part of we are
not part of 988 we are going to be part
of 9-1-1 the emergency response system
I've already started working with mervda
and getting those uh recommendations
worked on and hopefully by the end of
the week we can start making some drag
runs and work out any kinks
and this is structured not structured
for long-term case management again this
is part of the 911 system and it's to
help lessen what's going on at the
moment de-escalate
and it's not designed to operate outside
of City Limits this is going to be
strictly within the city limits
so here's some data that we got from
and 1070
LCPD Behavioral Health response has
happened in addition to that PD had
protective custody incidences of 649
lcfd went to 154 suicide attempts
uh lcfd went to 163 welfare checks
542 overdoses with a total of 2
578 calls alone just in this aspect
fire department personnel identified an
additional 280 calls as being attributed
to mental behavioral health issues after
a rival unseen
so as you can see these numbers are big
so light dispatch again only for 9-1-1
right now lcfd is not responding to
behavioral issue problems or suicidal
subjects but light will be going to
these and be dispatched to those
um
the overdoses a suicide attempt and CPR
in progress the light teams will be
added in addition to what is already
responding from lcfd and everything that
is set up with those that call Matrix
so for an example we already send
to an overdose an engine a transport
unit a PD unit well then now you're
going to see a light unit with that
so the type of data we're going to be
working on collecting when we get
started is the number of calls how the
available status the day and time if of
our peak hours if our peak hours are
what we really believe they're going to
be or do we need to adjust and how
um the disposition being the locations
that we take them is it what Community
Partners are we going to work with the
most or where's where's the benefit for
that person going to be
um and sometimes it might just be the
emergency department but it could be a
again some of our Community Partners and
how many times do we get refusals of
service because as you know if they are
coherent and they can answer our ano
questions they can refuse our service
and we have to leave them be
the interventions the de-escalation that
our social workers could be putting
forth or is it a matter of clearing them
medically whether we have to provide
treatment or really truly get them to
the emergency department to provide that
Continuum of treatment
and again just overall psychological
aspect of everything that's going on
with them
Trends we hope to decrease the
interagency co-response over time so if
we see a trend that you know maybe we're
not going to people as much as we are
because we went to them four times one
year but the following year maybe twice
maybe the following year to once
we see that Trend that we want to see in
a sense it's like
put us out of business you know like we
want to see people getting better
hours of operation are going to be from
Monday through Saturday 8 A.M to 7 P.M
so that's what we've identified so far
as what are going to be potentially our
peak hours for these uh types of calls
uh there's going to be shifts and each
team is going to work three 12-hour days
in a row on their fourth day they will
have a four hour shift will be which
will be their administrative hours
that's where they can either get caught
up on reports or any of the training or
CES that the social workers need to do
there's clinical supervision that they
still need to complete and work on
there's a lot that they have to do and
then the oncoming shift will start their
first day that week with four hours and
then do the next day for 12 hours so it
it's split uh Monday through Saturday
then they switch
that way they can alternate weekends
so Community Partners
relationships the Community Partners
facilities agencies and organizations
are integral to this project
by far without the cooperation of the
ctcp museum Valley Hospital including
all three hospitals being on the same
page and understanding what we're there
for and where they can fall in place
with us and where we can fall in place
with them is going to be huge
and to Foster this positive relationship
the light team members are we're going
to conduct face-to-face meetings which
we started on we've developed mous as
appropriate for example with FYI Inc
who's going to be another huge Community
partner of ours
um We Gather admissions criteria for
partners to Aid in referring patients
appropriately so what could be canceling
factors for that facility not to be able
to accept a certain individual but maybe
this facility can so it's just going to
be knowing who to go to for what
circumstance and that's just going to
happen throughout the process of just
um
the next few months
so last year was a busy year in getting
this started we started the hiring
process
January of 2022
which was identifying the need then
starting to build on the job
descriptions the openings and everything
plus posting everything getting those
that are interested and qualified the
interview process and it took some time
so the hiring process took all year and
the onboarding started June 2022.
since November and a lot for December
and January we've been ordering and
getting a lot of equipment and supplies
ready to go for our our launch date
and then we also recently got notified
in January of our federal funding right
at around a million dollars from
uh when Senator Luhan and Senator Hein
came and presented and that was very
nice
we updated our FYI agreement
in the protocol and development
consultation with FYI and Dr diven
started in June and we have pretty much
concluded all of that part so far so
policies and protocols for us are
almost concluded
January 16th through to February 27th
still just completing the equipment
purchases making sure everything's in
order and like I said before working on
the communications and training for a
dispatch from merva and making sure we
get our dry runs working out good and
response ready
February 3rd through 20th the final is
finalization of protocols and then just
more internal team training working on
the scheduling make sure that all works
out great and anything else that comes
up that we just need to work on
February 3rd through March 3rd we have
stakeholder meetings and this is again
this is kind of going back to what I was
saying getting with the peak CTC Messiah
Valley Hospital the three hospitals and
having those meetings with them we are
going to have an open house March 2nd at
station one
uh with those take stakeholders as well
so that way we can have those
face-to-face conversations those
impromptu questions that we maybe didn't
think of that they need to make like
that we need to consider and then just
to further explain our our goal in
detail and how we can uh work together
as teams to to make this uh program
really take off and work
and then also disseminate the
information uh with LCPD because we will
be working with them in the 9-1-1 system
and then as well as our own Personnel on
lcfd
and then March 6th is our goal to go
live and have them implemented in the
system
and that's all I have for now for your
update and it can stand for any
questions okay mayor Pro tem and
councilor councilor Brown thank you
mayor thank you DC thank you
I just want to stand up and like jump
for joy this has been you know a
brainchild for mine for many many years
and to have counsel that's prior and
sitting here today want the willingness
to support I just want you all to know
how man I am so appreciative of of what
you're going to do and the kind of
impact that you're going to make in our
community for our citizenry I just know
it's going to be positive it's not going
to be easy just being a social worker
and being out there in the field I can
only imagine
I've been there done that but I am just
so thankful and grateful to each and
every one of you please know if there's
anything that I can do to help with any
any anything you know go through evil
but I'm it's here
I'm so excited for you for you guys
really am
um my question is
um
around and I wrote it down let me see
the hours of operation and how you
selected those can you tell me a little
bit about that process
so the hours of operation we did do some
data research on what when the calls
were being generated for Behavioral or
suicidal ideations or suicidal attempts
overdoses and and so that time frame
really was just the bulk of it all to
start with that and again like if if we
need to adjust we will adjust but that's
it was just a matter of pulling the data
from past calls okay okay
um some of the data that you shared with
us specifically and you might want to go
back to the slide the suicidal attempts
the protective custody you know we've
been talking to
PD and and Chief and the DC's about
protective custodies and just the number
the sheer numbers there's just so much
right and then hearing from them
specifically and you mentioned several
times the emergency room and something
that I I want us to move away from many
of these cases are so not appropriate
for the emergency room but probably more
appropriate for some of acute care and
acute care that we might not have in in
our community or those that are
suffering from fentanyl or opioid
use and abuse
have you had conversations specifically
with the hospital and what that might
look like or are those the things that
you're going to be doing here with your
provider
um
communication I think that you're with
you know the open houses and such yes
that is something we're currently
working on and doing right now okay yes
we're still working on communicating
with all of them yeah okay
um
I I do want mayor and Council to to just
just know that I've I've had deep
concern about the fifth floor being
closed and continue to be closed I know
that there've been some very limited
communication with John about
why that is and I feel like
um
they should have the fifth floor open
and they do not
um and the excuses is there's not enough
providers there's a provider shortage
and although I think to some extent as
it relates to
um licensed social workers and
counselors and and I guess now
pediatricians there can add that to the
to the list
there are folks I I just think it's a
big issue and something that we should
really this if this is going to work the
that fifth floor needs to be open and
I'm asking that we have some very
serious conversations with
um
um John Harris and and their board
um and if we have to the Tennessee
boards very specifically because this is
this is outrageous that it has been
um you know closed for the amount of
time that it has been
um and and I think there's political
will on this Council to put the pressure
um and this is not a you know criticism
on murals part but it's something that
in order for the light project and mih
to work that also needs to be working
um as well and and I haven't heard a
good reason why especially when I know
there are specific entities that have no
problems recruiting that level of
expertise so with that I appreciate all
of you thank you for being here I know
you're missing some of your group I
think your team I don't see Allison out
there
um and Miss Contreras
but I appreciate you very much and very
excited and I look forward to hearing
the positive stories that you that you
have we heard a little bit of that when
Heinrich Senator Heinrich and Luhan were
here if you've talked a little bit about
some of the stories that were positive
and so I just really looking forward to
to hearing more thank you mayor thank
you mayor Pro tem if I may Council cram
before I go to kind of address mayor Pro
tem's comment ifo you may want to just
run this by John so I was talking with
the former psychiatrist who worked there
and and I think a lot of it I asked if
it was obviously to bring in a
psychiatrists it's going to be can we
match a lot of the pay that they get and
so I had asked him what did he think if
we this County and the city because they
received this you know it's both our
hospitals maybe help get that you know
take the current let's say they're
offering 250 000 for a psychiatrist and
if we were to this County and the city
kick in I don't know 25 or 50 000 but
this would have been ongoing for but I
know we can't really discuss that but if
you can let John know that might be
something there to will help raise that
level of compensation for a psychiatrist
and we might be able to get them maybe a
three 350. so
Council Corral
oh I'm sorry counselor Graham I'm sorry
and then counselor so many Becky's thank
you mayor
um thank you so much for this thank you
team
um as of this moment are we completely
staffed for both mih and project light
no not right now we still need a
firefighter paramedic on the mih side
but for project light yes we are
okay so so our only recruitment
shortfall how many how many firefighters
do we need to
recruit
into
mih just one
okay it's because a vacancy just barely
was made
Aubry Krause recently just uh
got a new position as assistant fire
State Fire Marshal in Oregon and so she
moved on to great things over there
which vacated the current position
thing I don't know if you're
anticipating
recruitment challenges if so is there
anything that we can do on our side
to make that a little easier for you
currently I think we will have it under
control we just need to fine-tune some
things I believe but I think we'll have
it okay great
um the other the other aspect
um I love how this is a model for trauma
informed care and for obvious reasons I
also think a lot about the trauma and
hardships that First Responders see when
they are you know when they are doing
these jobs and I'm wondering I would
hope that this will also be a model not
just for trauma-informed care for our
patients but for trauma-informed work
for our First Responders Mendy you and I
had a really great conversation about
that when I came and did an mih
ride-along
um is that anything you can speak to on
that side how are you going to take care
of each other in addition to taking care
of
our residents
deputy chief Allen for the record so we
do have a peer support group that is in
the department that we have been working
on over the past
past few years but it kind of fell out
the Wayside during covid we have stood
that back up though with a pretty robust
membership we are currently seeking some
training and have a training opportunity
coming up April or May through the
International Association of
firefighters are presenting a class year
for peer support on top of that we're
looking at sending several of the
members to specific peer support
training outside of the city limits
okay great thank you so much thank you
mayor
okay councilor Abita and then councilor
Ben Como
thank you mayor and thank you VC Hyles
and congratulations on your new position
a couple of my questions are just based
on the logistics of how we see these
teams needing to grow later on first
is there any sort of estimate that you
all have about how long it might take
for each call to be done because I know
it can vary greatly and so I'm sure
that's probably one of the tracking
items you're all going to have
yes it is one of the tracking items we
have um
I don't have a number for you or a time
frame for time on task
um but that is something we will be
looking at for sure okay and then
go forward then all I'll be put together
for us to say if we were going to fully
staff and fund this project we would
need x amount of teams if you want to
start making this you know expanded
service or seven day a week service then
we'll perhaps have those estimates for
us
yes after talking with Chief Smith last
week we would like to come back in
around the six month time frame to have
some actual data for you after a
six-month run and making those
adjustments and making note of
where we could you know get some help or
make some changes need some improvements
okay thank you and I appreciate that you
know with the the Boon of the million
dollars I think is fantastic
um but looking at like long-term
sustainability for this program whether
it's internal type items or if we're
going to be uh dependent or reliant on
other types of federal funds I think
it'll just be important for us to to
track and look what we need to advocate
for at those different levels
and then just a thank you to everybody
who's
decided to be part of this new program I
know it's going to be hopefully very
helpful for our community and not
necessarily some thing that um
firefighters who were in this Pro were
here what five six years ago thought
they would be doing so I know that it's
something very different so thank you to
everybody working on this program and
thank you mayor
thank you councilor Como thank you thank
you so much BC Hiles and congratulations
on your recent appointment
um and thanks to you all again for being
here it's been nice to hang out with you
the last month a couple times I'm
certain it's the least favorite thing
for you to do to come to these very long
meetings and hang out with politicians
but I really appreciate it and I think
it's a great opportunity for us to
um to lift you up and to highlight the
incredible work that you all are doing
so I appreciate it
um it's my understanding I think most of
my questions I will hold off
um because they're really around like
9-1-1 related and it's my understanding
that that's coming right the murder
um work session
I think so I think um there was last
time I brought this up Chief Smith said
that they were working on a um on a work
session with Merv debt to sort of better
understand their training side of things
how they're transitioning so I'll leave
those questions to then but just heads
up for that Maya I'm excited about this
six month plan I think that's really
really great and important especially as
we think about funding and the needs for
you all my other question though and it
wouldn't be immediate because I'm
assuming you had conversations but I I'd
be really interested to understand how
project light could additionally include
domestic violence calls and I know that
there's a lot of there's a ton of PD
um
protocols in terms of domestic violence
so I'm not suggesting taking that
completely away but I do wonder if
there's
um a space for this kind of team to also
um
to also respond to those kinds of calls
so I feel like I could probably give you
a better answer and after around the six
month Mark yeah definitely see how all
that goes um to say whether yes or no I
would think would be premature yeah
absolutely I I just wanted to raise that
today as something that I would like to
see if that's it's there's space for
that I obviously don't want to say do it
now because I am excited period that
this is happening and I think it's going
to save lives as it is and so
um that was really my only question I'm
really looking forward to that
conversation with merva about the
integration of 9-1-1 and how this is all
going to work but just wanted to say
thank you again thank you
okay
um counselor Flores thank you mayor and
thank you so much for your presentation
and thank you all and I do have a
request I wish that Paul Ford would sing
our not not today
but the Star Spangled Banner one of
these days maybe on July 4 or something
or right around there
maybe anyway but I do want to thank you
for this and I know that you presented
to our health policy Review Committee
some time ago it was when the right
after the social workers were hired
um so it's it's really wonderful to see
that it's been implemented and that
you're getting on
the only question I have or concern
is that I know that merva is going to be
critical in terms of uh I guess a 988
calls and the 9-1-1 calls will be going
so staff there are going to have to be
fully trained to distinguish
whether you know which entity goes out
and I think that yeah I think domestic
violence is probably we would maybe go
to LCPD
because it's the crimes are being in the
allegations of a crime going on perhaps
I don't know but but that's sort of the
fine line I think that's a real fine
line call for mervda operator
so I that that's the only concern I have
in so far as the training and then going
out to the right entity
but but again thank you so much for all
your work and nice to see you social
worker and all of you thank you so much
thank you mayor
okay no one else well I want to just
Echo all the sentiments that were said
here today and I want to appreciate my
colleagues mayor Pro tem and and
councilman Cuomo and all those that were
involved in this this is this is really
uh forward thinking and I know uh some
bigger larger cities more than us have
this and are beginning to do this and I
think this is trailblazing efforts on
behalf of the city as well as the fire
department and I think it's going to
work out quite well extremely well so
let us know whatever items or things you
might need to make this more successful
and and good luck
okay that was into your presentation yes
sir and if I could just say one more
thing um I do want to say I am very
proud of this team they're a very strong
team they've come together like a family
and that's what's going to make this
project really great so thank you for
recognizing that and they put in a lot a
lot of hard work so fantastic thank you
again thank you
okay if there's nothing further
entertain a motion to adjourn move to
adjourn
second by counselor Graham
Christine that we enjoy
this is on the motion to join the work
session conservata yes counselor Graham
yes councilor Ben Comal yes come to
Korean yes counselor Flores
yes councilor gandada yes mayor yes okay
we're adjourned it's 3 14 P.M
thanks
thank you
okay this is the agenda setting meeting
for our February 21st 2023 city council
meeting number one consent one consent
two non-consent two non-consent three
non-consent three non-consent for
non-consent for non-consent five consent
five consent six non-consent six
non-conscious I'd like to add item
number seven which is to authorize city
manager to sign documents needed to
receive funds due to the city of Las
Cruces resulting from the class action
opioid drug settlement and that'll be
consent okay seven consent and then
number eight will be authorized the city
of Las Cruces to develop a team to
discuss opportunities of additional
funding owed to the state of New Mexico
resulting from the class action opioid
drug settlement that also consent okay
and it will be consent