foreign
[Music]
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good morning welcome to the Animal
Services
center of the Messiah Valley board of
directors meeting but I ask you to join
me in the Pledge of Allegiance please
foreign
[Music]
the Quorum certainly uh board member
Delon
present thank you board member Ward
present
uh board member Macias is absent former
Flores is absent
board member Sanchez president
here board member Hernandez
here chair Quran here you do have a
quorum thank you
um next up I'd hear any changes or
updates to the agenda or a motion to
approve please so moved second moved by
board member Gandara seconded by board
member Sanchez any edits comments
hearing none uh Becky please form a
reward
yes former Sanchez
yes
remember Hernandez yes chair Quran yes
thank you next up I'll give you a few
minutes
um to check out the minutes from our
December board meeting uh
I think that Clint won the ugly sweater
contest and this isn't in the minutes
but we'll you know make a friendly
amendment in our heads to to remind
ourselves that Clint is the reigning
champion of the ugly sweater contest and
other than that I would entertain a
motion to approve or hear any edits I'll
move approval of the minute
moved by board member Sanchez seconded
by board member Gandara any other notes
hearing none Becky please thank you
board member Ward yes former Sanchez yes
yes remember Hernandez Epstein thank you
chair Quran yes thank you
all right thank you next up we'll hear
the from Michelle Correa I'm glad that
you please come on up from the cat's
meow state your name officially for the
record and I think that you're a
presentation
um
is the first one so
thank you Bernice it's great to see you
good morning Michelle thank you good
morning everyone
seems like I just saw you all like a
month ago
hope everyone had a good holiday
refresh my memory on how to make this
big
the social PDF slash slideshow oh okay
cool thanks guys appreciate that
I just scroll down okay
uh so I'm here to give a presentation
about uh the cat's meow resource and
Adoption Center
it's gonna be just a
very quick little
slideshow we opened our doors in October
of 2014. we actually started making
preparations to open this facility in
the late fall of 2013. at that time Jake
Sims was actively involved with this
organization and as many of you may know
he was a realtor and he had secured this
piece of property which we still are at
today we wanted something that had
fencing and was somewhat secure since
these animals were going to be
unattended for a portion of each day and
Jake did a great job in finding this
property for us took us a little while
to kind of get it into shape it used to
be the Green Thumb Nursery on Mesquite
Street so some Renovations had to be
done but once that happened we moved in
and immediately started taking kitties
in and we haven't stopped this is just a
little picture of what it looked like
that hasn't changed a whole lot if you
walk in today it looks pretty much that
way
we do currently have about 80 cats in
Residence about half our youngsters and
the other half are older kitties our
initial Focus was on older and special
need cats but when covet came everything
kind of changed and there were a lot of
kittens that needed help and so we since
then continue to take in a lot of
kittens as many as we can possibly
manage and all of our adoptable kitties
are on our pet finder site we actually
have a volunteer who used to volunteer
with us physically but she moved to
Aztec and she still maintains our social
media thank goodness from a distance and
she does a great job so those sites the
Pet Finder and our Facebook are pretty
much updated on a daily basis
oh did it again dang it
oh
okay
we have a lot of great volunteers takes
a lot of folks to clean these litter
boxes and keep these cats happy and
healthy we have two shifts our first
shift is from ten to one and then our
afternoon shift which isn't quite as
physical the morning shift does a lot of
the cleaning the afternoon shift does
Special Projects we are open uh four
days a week in the afternoons and so we
have visitors from one to four on
Tuesday Thursday Saturday and Sunday and
those days can be fairly busy so the
afternoon volunteers on those days take
care of the visitors facilitated options
things of that nature
it's a little bit longer shift because
we actually close our doors at four but
then the cats have to be fed litter
boxes have to be re-scooped so if you're
lucky you get out of there about 5 30 if
you're on an afternoon shift and all of
our shifts generally have somewhere
between three and four volunteers we're
very very lucky we have wonderful
volunteers nobody at our organization
gets a dime it's an it's all volunteer
organization
um
with covid and with the volume of
animals coming in that needed vetting we
reached out to Dr Starr of Paws and
Hooves in El Paso and we started doing
clinics with her doing somewhere around
35 to 40 cats a month
the number 3000 is actually a little bit
misleading because that includes when we
were working with big kitty fix and
Markman and I were involved with the no
kill Coalition we were actively involved
in big kitty fix and so that number is
those cats plus the cats that we have
done plus about another
470 that we did last year so around 3
500 cats between big kitty fix and Cat's
Meow have been spayed or neutered
probably
during the covet period between August
and December 2020 to 2023 about 60
percent of the kitties that we vetted
were are in-house cats we gave the
remaining slots to community we didn't
give them they paid a co-pay if they
were able to to help us manage those
expenses because these clinics cost
somewhere around twenty six hundred
dollars a piece and so
we would help people if we could but we
if if they were able to help us we we
worked together and we were able to help
them get their cats fixed including some
tea in our cats
last year we found homes for almost 500
cats and kittens that doesn't include we
did a few transports into Colorado and
so if you take that into account we
actually did exceed 500 as far as cats
and kittens going into new good homes
um
this isn't cheap rescue work is very
expensive our expenses last year were
over two hundred fifty thousand dollars
as was the previous year
we have wonderful donors we do a few
fundraisers and we manage to squeak by
every year so we feel very fortunate to
be able to continue to do this work
we did raise our adoption fees this year
for the first time since we opened we
now charge seventy dollars for a fully
vetted cat
um just with their cost of everything
going up we needed to raise our fees
just a little bit
we do offer return guarantee on our cats
whether it's a week or five years from
the time somebody adopts from us
if things aren't working out or Life
Changes which we know that happens and
these cats need to come back we require
that they come back to us that's part of
the contract and we take them back and
find them another home
um and there's been a few cases where
we've actually repossessed a few cats
when we found out that they were not
abiding by our contract so we're pretty
serious about making sure that our cats
are cared for
that's just a picture of our little
Desert Garden one of our volunteers Ron
who sort of built this thing from the
ground up and he tends it and loves it
and we all enjoy it so we appreciate his
hard work and appreciate everybody's
hard work at cat's meow it really does
take a village to take care of these
animals and we hope you all come by and
see us one of these days thank you do
you have any questions
thank you so much Michelle are there any
questions from the board
reporter member Sanchez and board member
Gandara please and not just a not a
question as much as a comment and I know
um my family was lucky enough that we
adopted a kitten uh from you all last
year and so she's uh running wild
through uh the house and was very uh she
was very appreciative of having a
Christmas tree this year oh yeah so cats
love Christmas trees but she's uh I hope
you um decorate them oh that that is
there's a few less ornaments to put away
this year so but yeah no she's it's been
great and we've appreciated
um you know I know when when they came
it was it was a surprise for me for my
birthday and so
um you know but so my family got to
visit you're all uh the facility and and
really enjoyed it so thank you so much
thank you for all you do in the
community we appreciate folks like you
we couldn't do it without good
volunteers good adopters donors it it
really does take a lot of moving parts
to keep it moving so so thank you very
much thank you thank you madam chair
thank you board board member please
thank you thank you so much for your
presentation I don't have quite the
story as
um board member Sanchez has I'm allergic
to cats unfortunately but I so
appreciate you coming and participating
and all the work as you know
um in in the city of Las Cruces we've
had some issues with our feral cat
population and a troubling start to our
TNR program but I think we got it off
the ground and people are starting I
think the program is starting to gain
traction so we get a lot of calls from
people who are very interested in doing
TNR so it's just a matter of
you know getting those vet resources
together to make that happen where it's
more affordable yes absolutely and so I
know I was in a
evening meeting with Jardin De los Ninos
for their flourishing families program
and one of the mentees works in
managing mobile home parks and one of
the things that she brought up as issues
was the problems with feral cats running
around and and just animals in general
and so we spoke of the programming and
all the advocacy at work that is
happening around that and so what sort
of programming do you have educating
Community about
um
TNR and the importance of that we don't
really have a formal program but I I
basically take the majority of the phone
calls that come into the center my
number is all over our social media if
people call me
um I I basically do the best that I can
to give them their options as far as
managing uh you know the the feral cat
population and mobile home parks are a
Mecca and the acos can probably speak
more to that than I can but cats because
those trailers have skirting generally
they're really great for shelter and
protection for these cats and so they're
everywhere in these parks and if there
was a a way to go in and just trap that
Park out and you know get those cats
sterilized
that would go a long way to helping
solve some of these issues because a lot
of the kittens that end up at our place
and I know at the shelter and other
rescues are The Offspring of these cats
out yes and these cats can have up to
four liters a year yes I know I know and
then you start reproducing at a very
young age so things get crazy very very
quickly exactly and that's what I've
told her and she's very interested in
you know training up her residence and
making sure that people are aware that
there's these service providers out
there that can help sort of mitigate
that that issue so again thank you so
much for the work that you do I really
appreciate it thank you thank you all
for thank you madam chair have a great
day thank you thank you Michelle we
really appreciate you and your ongoing
work yes I agree I applaud
yeah thank you
um
next up we'll hear from from city and
county acos you all decide who gets to
go first I think I can see there's some
discussion happening okay our County ACS
please come on up right
good morning
good morning Madam chair
and the rest of the board my name is
Brian Hulsey I'm the caseworker for
donana County Animal Control here to
give you the December
report if I can bring this up
that goes
okay
so for donana County we had 226 reported
straight animals out of those 226
reported Strays we were able to pick up
157 stray animals
it ended up being 73 stray cats and 84
stray dogs they were almost pretty close
even this in December which is odd for
us we had eight sick or injured animals
that were picked up three of them were
cats and five for dogs
and as our trend for December due to
Christmas and the holidays we had
an above average number of
owner-surrendered animals we had one cat
and 19 dogs
so this is our reported straight animal
call for your comparison for everyone to
see as you can see
um for 2022 it was
wasn't really as as active as we were in
like 2019
um
but we we still had some pretty high
numbers
this is our four-year field return to
owner comparison chart this is um dogs
or cats that we were able to pick up
find microchips or find the owners and
return them in the field so they didn't
have to go to the shelter we had 22 for
December
um these are additional animals picked
up so again we had one owner surrendered
cat and it was for attacking livestock
we had an owner surrendered 19 owners
surrendered dogs eight sick and injured
we had two welfare hold and again that's
for if a sheriff's deputy or border
patrol or anybody ends up stopping
someone and they have animals in their
unit or in the car and they're going to
seize the car and the person then we
come and pick up the animals as a
welfare hold
um we had no neglect or cruelty cases we
had six shelter quarantines we had zero
home quarantines
we currently have six animals in our
live evidence facility we had one rapey
submission which turned to be negative
for rabies and then we added a new slide
for the board we've been doing this
since I was an officer but we just now
this month started to track them
we had 39 diverted intake so that way we
had 39
animals or people that we were able to
give extra resources to where we didn't
have to end up picking up the animal and
taking them to their shelter
these are districts
and these are our stray animals picked
up by District in district one we had
two dogs in District Two we had nine
cats and 15 dogs District three we had
seven cats and 25 dogs and District Four
was our hot District again we had people
starting to capture and trap cats again
in that area so our number went up
pretty high for cats being caught so we
had 44 cats and 21 dogs in District Five
we had 10 cats and 12 dogs
District Six was pretty quiet for us in
December we only had one cat
and District Seven we had two cats and
nine dogs which was pretty slow for
district seven as well
so these are our stray cats by District
again you can see that District Four
usually
has the biggest uptick for trapping cats
that seems to be our trouble area for
all the feral cats
these are straight dogs
and these are reasons for release of
ownership so we had two where the people
were unable to care for the animals we
had six dogs come from Rome property
because they had way too many dogs and
even with a multi-site permit they were
still way over their dog limit so they
ended up giving up six uh we had eight
that were either vicious for attacking
animals people or livestock for eight
and
just for that one as a note as well I
believe four of those dogs were the dogs
attacking their own livestock the same
owner's livestock so they just got rid
of their dogs
we had two sick or injured one
aggressive and one was abandoned at a
rental property
and for that I'll stand for any
questions
thank you Brian any questions from the
board
board member word
um it's not a question I just wanted to
add it I'm not sure what board meeting
or somebody asked it might have been
commissioner Ellens at the time in
regards to the educational Outreach that
the the County Animal Control Officers
were were doing at the time and I had
asked
um
um Brian Hulsey to compile those stats
they weren't put in the report but I did
want to to let the board know as of last
year anyways
um the officers did
um put out
2994 educational Outreach that didn't
include any kind of community sweeps or
anything like that that was just the
times that they were at someone's house
talking to them reaching out to them to
educate them on whether it was a cat
incident or a dog incident whatever that
may be but
2994 times that they reached out to them
that superseded the amount of times that
they actually went out for calls for
service
because you know they might have
initiated something where they saw
something or maybe we had calls in the
office something like that
I did want to add that
that's great thank you and thank you for
sharing any other questions from the
board
seeing none thank you
good morning Madam chair members of the
board my name is Gino Jimenez I am the
animal control supervisor for the city
and I will present to you our December
22 numbers
well if I can get us started
here we go
so for the month of December we were we
responded to 394 straight calls
223 of those were Goa meaning the
officer did not make contact with that
animal we were able to apprehend 171
animals of those 108 were dogs and 29
were cats that were impounded at the
Animal Services Center
we were successful in field rtoing 34
dogs and those were animals I should say
those are animals that never crossed the
threshold of the Animal Service Center
so it helped to reduce the number of
animals being housed there
we were unsuccessful in field RTO in 17.
those were animals that had some sort of
identification however
for unknown reasons or reasons that I'll
come up with in my slides later on why
they were impounded
so that gave us a total of 51
identifiable animals
next is our three-year stray comparison
so you can see for the month of December
we had 394 bringing us to a total of
5691 calls for stray animals for the
year
looking at the chart it's pretty we keep
within that Trend if we look at charts
from the past I believe it's all going
to be about the same our hot months
March through September are really
active and then October November
December January we kind of slowed down
a little bit
here is our three-year field RTO
comparison again we were able to fill
our to 34 dogs bringing our total to 491
for the year
is our community cap program graph
for the month of December we were we
responded to 27 cats in trap calls and
we were able to release four of those
cats
so our total for the year for calls was
506 556 and we were able to release 102.
reasons for owner releasing animals we
had three for aggression three dogs for
aggression one dog for sick uh an old
one the owner no longer wanted it
because it kept escaping one dog for
Behavioral issues and one cat for six or
old
here are reasons for not being able to
fill the RTO again 13 there was no
contact at by phone or at the residence
one was in Arizona address one was a
county address and one was Alto New
Mexico address
uh one owner we were able to contact and
they claimed that they were out of town
one it was a wrong number and there
still was no contact at the residence
one the owner claimed to have owner
released it today to the Animal Service
Center so that tells us that that chip
was not updated with the new owner's
information
and the last one was the owner claimed
to have given it away and didn't have
information as to who they gave it to
and with that I was down for any
questions
any questions from the board no thank
you very much
thank you I appreciate it next up are
the shelter statistics please director
Thacker thank you
thank you madam chair ascnv board thank
you for uh being here today we'll talk
to you about
our December numbers
and I apologize the jacket but it's kind
of chilly in here I'm Gonna Take It Off
so the current number now at the center
365 is the current count so 329 dogs 36
cats
and luckily we have no others which are
usually guinea pigs so glad that they
are all unhappy homes
our December intake numbers into 2022
for December 414 dogs came in 231 cats
nine others well that grand total of 654
is the highest we've been since 2019.
and this is how the animals came into
the center this is a relatively new
slide that we added so you can see that
over half of our animals came in by
Strays by Animal Control Officers
which means they're doing a great job
one that's surprising to me as always is
the owner's surrender and how high that
is the almost 17 percent of our total
intake was owner surrender so we
continued to battle that fight
um and we can go over that a little bit
later
we had a total of eight animals returned
uh most of them are almost all of them
were dogs
so the biggest one being the landlord
doesn't allow and some lifetime changes
behavior issues
ETC
we had 258 diverted intakes what these
are are these are when
somebody comes to the center they either
usually it's a stray animal that they
find
um or it could be an owned animal and we
asked can you hold on to that animal a
little bit longer
um you know walk around your
neighborhood see if somebody takes it
and if they say yes then that's a
diverted intake so just any intake that
comes in and we divert it away from the
center we count as a diverted intake
there's our outcomes we ended with a
78.7 percent live release rate and
that's the number of animals that left
the center alive out of our December
numbers
our biggest percentage of the way they
left is through adoptions we had
222 and the next being the rescued at
27.4 percent so almost that 79 percent
even though we had more animals come in
the center or our highest intake in
December since 2020 or 2019 we still are
right there with last year or in that 80
79 percentile
if you remember a live release rate the
goal we want to hit is always 90 percent
that's what qualifies us as a no-kill
facility
that's the number we always strive for
so in 2020 we did hit that at 90.1
percent however 2020s when we had an
incredibly limited intake because of
covid and we were able to reach that
transfers continue this is our rescues
in other words can continue to be an
incredible way we get number adults out
both dogs and cats 179 and this is where
they went so we again action program for
animals did a fantastic job taking their
local rescue
uh and we sure appreciate all that they
do for taking animals from us usually
they take the
um the medical issue once so that
creates lowers our our euthanasia rate
which also helps increase our live
release rate but uh and bottom line it
saves lives that's what we like to see
some of our outside ones the out of
state Halo animal rescue is always a big
one they are back up and going and want
to work with us
and
others that are out of state to continue
to work Animal Rescue League El Paso is
a great one too
these are euthanasia reasons for
December the number one for cats is
behavior feral because of the change in
the County ordinance we are having to
euthanize the number of feral cats that
is because of the two mile limit within
the um
Rio Grande
so being able to relocate a cat is not
you don't just go and drop it off
somewhere else that is certain death for
an animal so it takes months to relocate
a cat
and it's just resources we currently do
not have so the best resource that we
have currently for a feral cat that's
something that two mile limit is
euthanasia best for the cat
and for us the number one reason for a
dog is aggressive you know they're in
that facility they're assaulted on all
fronts by their senses sight smell
Etc so the aggressive does come out on
them and on those we we just can't hold
on to them again we don't have the
resources to work with them on a
one-on-one basis
so this is I know this looks really
confusing but there's four categories
TNR adoptions shelter and other and each
line is a month in those categories
so the one we're looking at is the one
that has a number on top that's the 12th
month or December and so they did 87
trap need to return they did 127
adoption surgeries 68 shelter or Foster
and then 75 other other can be anything
that needs to happen
whether it be a broken leg or an
amputation
or stitches or fixing just anything that
is another there
so year to date they did
4474 so they met their goal the goal for
the doctor hadn't has for them is 4 000
surgeries in a year so they overcame
that did a fantastic job
our visitors pretty steady and 1 623
uh this is December appointment or
adoptions by appointment I think this is
going to be the last time we have the
slide starting in in 2023 when we report
January numbers you will not see the
slide in there just because I think that
we are I mean we prove a point by saying
that adoptions are the best way to do
adoptions there so 62 percent of the
appointments that were made ended in
adoptions whereas the next slide you
look at the walk-ins we had total number
of groups is 360. and it only it
resulted in 102 adoptions which was only
28.28 percent
so
but regardless we're still doing uh well
on adoptions
our volunteers continue to be a huge
Source a powerful Source in getting
animals out I know just a couple weeks
ago they were able to get every animal
and they are adoptable area walked
so a total of 395 hours in December
website page views
36197 as you can see they're pretty
consistent
Facebook views continue to to be pretty
high ten thousand seven hundred and
fourteen uh we get
a lot of traction on several things that
happened in December a lot of activities
adoption you know we had the home for
the holidays we had our foster program
as well that have a big presence on
Facebook
some of our upcoming events we have
Super Sunday Road Race So a fun race
we're going to be doing on the fifth
NMSU Basketball game are going to have
an information booth there so people can
ask questions about our facility about
you know what we do we'll be there and
answer questions our drive through
vaccine clinic is this is the one we had
to cancel is scheduled for February 19th
and then the kitten baby shower a fun
event for our foster program
is February the 25th
and there's Angel and Queen Catherine
who are pets of the week I'll stand for
any questions
thank you Clint any questions from the
board
no
seeing none thank you again Clint
sharing and giving us
up to date sort of picture
next up are committee reports I um I'm
going to take a little bit of chairs
privilege and ask that the executive
committee go first or say that the
executive committee is going to go first
in part because
um
I realized that I neglected to invite
our two new board members to sort of
introduce yourselves and and share who
you are so I uh
if if I can take a bit of chairs
privilege I'll do that and then give the
executive report and then turn it over
to finance and Facilities so first off
if you wouldn't mind introducing
yourself please
I am Christopher shelter Hernandez and I
am the new uh newly elected County
Commissioner for district one for
doniana which is Picacho Hills all the
way down to brino and I'm glad to be
here thank you madam chair thank you and
we're glad you're here and board member
daily young please
good morning and thank you chair for the
opportunity Barbara de Leon I am the
chief administrative officer for the
city I very much appreciate the
opportunity to serve on this board I've
been with the city for almost a Lucky 13
years
in a variety of positions looking at
operations and financial performance for
the organization so thank you very much
thank you
okay really quickly to the executive
committee we did meet
um
earlier this month and on I think
around January 3rd in the morning so
thank you Clint for meeting with me we
discussed the upcoming agenda the need
to have the elections which you'll which
we'll be having shortly of of new
officers and also a number of other sort
of things to follow up on including
um
the assess the the sort of evaluation of
of the director as well as upcoming
budget sort of planning very lightly and
so I don't know if you want to add
anything Clint
then I will turn it over to board member
de Leon as the for the finance committee
report please
thank you madam chair so the finance
committee met last a Thursday the 19th
and we heard the preliminary report from
the very capable Josh saffel who's
coming to the podium right now to
provide you with the information for our
December Financial so I'll turn it over
to Josh
good morning Madam chair members of the
board my name is Josh saffell and on
behalf of the finance department of the
city of Las Cruces I'd like to present
the unaudited financials as of December
31st 2022.
so to start with we're looking at our
statement of net positions in the
general fund we had cash of 658 879
dollars uh receivables of 265 636
dollars giving us total assets of nine
hundred twenty four thousand five
hundred and fifteen dollars
we had liabilities of a hundred and
fourteen thousand eight hundred and
eight dollars Revenue collected in
advance of 249 280 and this left us with
an unassigned fund balance of five
hundred sixty thousand four hundred and
twenty seven dollars
moving on to our change in net position
we see for the period total revenues of
2 million one hundred and forty five
thousand one hundred and ninety dollars
and total expenditures of one million
eight hundred and seventy five thousand
nine hundred and thirty seven dollars
and after a transfer out of ten thousand
five hundred dollars we see a net change
to fund balance of positive two hundred
fifty eight thousand seven hundred and
fifty three dollars
uh looking at our budget to actual
change in net position the total
revenues of 2.1 million were 51.7
percent of budget and the total
expenditures of 1.8 million were 43.8
percent of budget so of course our
budget parameter was fifty percent so
our revenues were a little over which is
good and our expenditures were under
which is also very good
looking at our graph for revenues versus
expenditures by month we see the
expenditures were well over the revenue
the increase in expenditures is
explained by
a larger increase in the capital outlay
there was a purchase of capital and
that's basically why we see that jump in
expenditures for that period
looking at our percent of total
expenditures our total expenditures were
one million eight hundred and seventy
five thousand nine hundred thirty seven
dollars of that 52 percent was salary 18
were benefits 15 was excuse me 15 with
Services 6.1 percent was Capital two
percent was Insurance five percent was
supplies
one percent was other one percent was
temporary services and point four
percent was repair and maintenance
and that will conclude my presentation
and I stand for any questions
thank you any questions from the board
board member Sanchez please thank you
madam chair
um Mr staffel I just had a couple
questions and it's just around uh you
know the budget parameter is going to be
50 since we're Midway through the year
and just
um I was just curious particularly on
the expenditure piece of it and why we
were so low on
um really on on the supplies as well as
services and I don't know if
um while that's always good to be below
I didn't know are we is it either an
overestimation are we just not
um not having those expenditures as we
originally planned or uh have we are we
have going to have some big expenditures
that are going to hit us within those
two areas the supplies and services
uh those are good questions I might turn
to the department for their input thank
you
thank you Josh thank you for the
question uh commissioner Sanchez yes the
we have been watching our purchases on
supplies very carefully because we knew
that we have a new center that we need
to equip we have made some major
purchases on that that are going to be
hitting that supply line so that will be
coming up okay and I think like on the
services piece I think we want to be I
think we're almost uh about two hundred
thousand dollars under what we thought
at least on the budget parameter fifty
percent so
um we budget 902 000 we're 275 000.
um I said is there anything that we were
anticipating there or anticipate that is
coming in the next half year or is this
uh Services is a wide array of things so
I I don't know especially if there's one
specific or or several but we can look
into that and let you know okay yeah and
I think like I said I think if we're
under and I mean like I said I know
you're watching uh very closely
particularly I know we've had the delay
of the of the opening of the of the new
uh building in the new center but um
just we'll just kind of get an idea of
Are We is that going to be an area that
we will potentially be under or
um if we're planning on something so
like I said and you don't have to answer
they said if you can just give me that
information I just be okay yeah we'll
look into it I can tell you that I mean
we're going to be moving money around
because of the purchases are significant
but
probably coming out of the services into
supplies Etc but we'll look at it and
let you know yeah and I think that's
exciting I think that's where I was
going to go with the thing because I
think as we as we start to identify and
we move into the to the new building
obviously you're going to find little
things here and there that you're going
to realize that oh man we might have
missed this or we need this or the price
has increased and so this gives us that
hopefully this gives us that that a
little bit of uh cushion to be able to
go into for that without having to make
major changes so thank you sir thank you
thank you madam chair thank you very
much are there any other questions
for Josh for
board member de Leon
no not for me thank you madam chair all
right thank you very much thanks Josh
we appreciate you next up facilities
please board member Gandara
we didn't meet this month
um I don't know if Clint has an update
on that but I will defer to him
promise I'll get back on track
not sure if you wanted to share any
facility related updates Clint but uh
thank you well the facility is looking
fantastic how about that for an update
we have a big beautiful building that is
about 97 completed
there are a lot of small items in that
Center that are still not completed some
places we don't have doors sometimes we
have a door but not a window on the door
some places the stucco's not finished I
mean it's just so many little things
that they're contractors so they're
having a hard time getting their
subcontractors out to finish just those
little things
however it's it's not an overwhelming
issue because we still can't inhabit the
building
um we we have no cat kennels nor do we
have any dog kennels
so hopefully they're saying mid to end
of March is when they're saying to have
those items in
so we're hoping for that as far as the
existing Center we are holding off on
doing any major fixes I mean we had a
door that that got caught by the wind so
the arm got bent so you know we're
replacing that
that was just last week we have just
small things here and there but we don't
want to invest a lot of money into it
because we are looking to remodel
substantially once we get word hopefully
we get word that we were awarded some of
that legislative money so we can get
things started
that's what we're hoping for so thank
you
thank you and
board member de Leon do you have an
update as well please I do thank you so
much Madam chair I appreciate Mr Thacker
reminding me that at the finance
committee meeting we had a discussion
about the
financial reports that are provided to
the board monthly there had been a
proposal by the finance department to
provide those reports quarterly because
not much changes on a month-to-month
basis but they're certainly very
meaningful on a on a quarterly basis so
just wanted to raise that as a potential
for discussion for the board to make
that determination or to determined to
continue as we are currently doing
thank you I I would say that I think
quarterly would be
um would be fine to have that
conversation but I'd defer to my board
member fellow board members if there are
some concerns or things that you would
add to that conversation
Madam chair I think I'd agree I think
the only time that we might deviate from
that is if there's something significant
within the finances but otherwise I'd
agree with that assessment
any other sort of inputs or
considerations and my understanding is
you all would still be meeting and
having those conversations just that the
presentation would only come to the
board once every three months
um Madam chair I think that's wise I and
I I agree with board member Sanchez if
if there is something of concern we will
certainly uh present that to you at the
committee report but otherwise the
formal financial statements uh would
just be provided quarterly and Clint and
Josh please uh correct me if I'm wrong
in medicine yes correct thank you and
thank you for that recommendation board
member Gandara go ahead I'm okay with
that I think that's
um probably much more
feasible for the finance department to
put everything together and present I
wonder if I don't know what that major
thing would be we're running out of
money I mean if there's some
maybe some headers that we can suggest
that these are the events that we would
need them to come back into the to
present to the board and I don't know
Madam chair if you want to speak
at your executive level about what those
are and then come back and present those
to us but okay I I think that in the
event these three things happen they
will come monthly to us or alert us in
some way
and I would I would imagine you're sort
of go ahead board member Julian
um thank you madam chair yes and I I
wanted to note of course we will be
looking at the the guides that we have
for expenditures on a monthly basis if
we see significant deviations
um that's something that we would bring
forward but also as Mr Thacker mentioned
earlier as we see preparation for the
new facility coming up to speed
um and and that's something that we
understand it's not a concern uh we may
mention that but
um again we're going to be looking for
the kind of standard parameters that we
measure our expense our expenditures by
but very much welcome guidance from the
board as far as the certain particular
things to be keeping an eye on thank you
I also want to remind the board that the
city is going into a budget retreat in
February
I think this meeting happens after that
budget Retreat so Clint if you have
anything you think needs that the Board
needs to be aware of specific City
Council Members we need to be aware of
that so that we can advocate for that at
budget retreat
thank you I I believe if I remember
right Leanne de mooch with the budget
was saying that the retreat is in like
the first part of March because I told
her that we are going to be presenting
the budget to the board
for in February
so it's okay so I forgot I'll talk to
her about the retreat and we'll for sure
get something together if we need to do
a workshop or a you know a special board
meetings you can have the information
for the budget because we do have some
like new position that we're requesting
we have a salary increase possibly for
the staff for like a cola cost of living
adjustment things like that that I think
the board should be aware of before we
go into any major you know before we
present the budget in a formal manner
you should be aware of so I'll work with
her on that states
okay thank you thank you madam chair
thank you
um board member de Leon and then board
member Sanchez please
thank you madam chair so the retreat
will actually be in in February
um it'll be a two-day retreat but I just
wanted to make note that we also have
two work sessions scheduled on the
budget one for March and one for April
as well in addition to the the May
meeting where we typically adopt the
budget so we definitely will make time
at the work sessions to give a an update
on how the jpa budgets are looking at
the retreat itself we are allowing some
time for some key City departments to
give a more in-depth information about
their budget proposals as well but we
have the additional work session
schedule where we'd be able to discuss
jpa budgets
thank you and and I would say I think
um sort of to Clint's idea of giving
some some precursors I think uh it would
be great to for for the board to see a
preliminary sort of sense of you know
any added staff or big changes that you
might be considering I think that's
important to bring here also to sort of
make sure that those conversations are
happening everywhere and that we have
all the information and if they're that
way if there are any data points that we
feel like would add to that conversation
we can we can sort of put that out there
on that and
request it from from you all as you go
through it please board member Sanchez
thank you madam chair and I think all
this discussion is uh very important I
think also on the county side one of the
things that hopefully I'm not speaking
uh too far ahead but I believe uh
commissioner Sheldon Hernandez and I uh
where he would agree with me that we've
already been talking with the county
manager that we are wanting to have
these discussions on the county level as
well looking at developing our budget
and having more input similar to what
the uh the city has been doing and so
Clint that'll be kind of having an idea
whether you know you bring have
something for us I don't know I don't
know the structure yet we're still
working that out but I if we can start
looking at that and what your needs are
then that way we can
um the the County Commission can start
looking at those requests and we can
start looking to see what we can do
going into the next fiscal year
thank you commissioner and just so you
know where we're at in our budget prep
so level two I'm sorry level three is
where the director enters in the
recommended the big items are increased
to the budget and that's where we
currently are Level I have a meeting on
February 1st with the city
representative to go over those level
three asks
so once those are completed and in then
it's as early as February 1st then I'll
be able to get a work session together
with the board I mean so the budget is
and how much once you think that we're
not working on it yeah we're definitely
in the process of yeah and I think it'll
just once we know have a better idea
we'll communicate with you Clint just so
that way you're you're aware of kind of
what we're looking for and when we'd be
looking to have your input as well but I
just want to let you know as well that
that's something we're trying to push
for on the county side to be able to
have that input before the preliminary
budget is proposed in the end or for to
the commission for approval so thank you
yeah
thank you very much any other questions
from the board
all right Clinton uh next up we have a
discussion item related to to the mou
um with donieri County Humane Society
who we heard from I think last month at
our at our meeting
yes ma'am chair uh so the mou you have
before you is more or less a it's so
the we decided to do mou while talking
with them because we do so much with the
doniana county Humane Society that it
was brought up by them it says why don't
we have an mou to show that we're
working together I think they'll protect
or that would assist both of you and we
and we agreed on that so we sent it to
our attorney
and he was in agreement with it and
checked it off sent it to them they
signed it and sent it back to me now if
you recall several years ago we were
when we were redoing the contracts with
some of the outlying Cities the board
did give me approval to sign mousse with
other government entities or other
entities but I wanted to bring this to
you just so you were aware that we had
an mlu together and working with the
doniana county Humane Society
all right thank you and again I don't my
understanding is that this as an mou is
not something that we would officially
approve
but I think that this is just in the in
an effort to sort of make it transparent
and make sure that we all know what's
happening in terms of
all right
thank you very much any questions
discussion concerns
all right Harry none next up in terms of
action uh we're needing to elect
officers again to sort of take for
February to to start the ground running
as as a new slate of officers and
tradition has been that we've shifted
between the city and the county on an
annual basis I and I think that there is
General consensus that that's the the
plan this year again
okay I see heads nodding
given that we have
two positions chair and vice chair and
then we also will follow up with
Committee Member appointments
so I would entertain a motion to for the
next uh
chair of of the ascmv board I think I do
it by entertaining emotion
or a self-nomination nomination
I nominate board member Manny Sanchez
for chair
second of this nomination
second okay
board member Sanchez do you accept this
nomination I do yes okay then are there
any other nominations
hearing none
um Becky if we can please vote for the
chair
board member Sanchez from reward
yes
board member Sanchez yes foreign
yes remember Hernandez yes chair karon
yes
uh do I just hand it over right now to
you no I'm just kidding I'll go through
to to the end uh all right I think that
we also need to elect a vice chair which
uh has historically been switched again
complimentary County city folks in those
two positions
so I would entertain any motions for
would it be completely inappropriate if
I nominated Iman yes
she's not here
um I'm worried about her actually I've
put out some feelers but I'm not sure
um
yes
I'll put my name out there I guess okay
I'll second the nomination uh there's a
move and second for board member Gandara
to the vice chair and the second from
from board member Sanchez any other
nominations
thank you board member Gandara
all right hearing no other nominations
please for vice chair
remember Ward yes former Sanchez yes
former Gandara yes remember Hernandez
yes chair Quran yes
thank you very much and then to the
Committee Member appointments this is
something that we sort of I think have
the discretion to do I
recommend that we sort of follow in the
tradition that we have going which is
the finance sort of does stay with with
board member de Leon just because she
she also works really closely with
budgeting and finance the fiscal agents
of the city
um if if unless there's any input from
the board
contrary to that the executive committee
is is typically Jared by the chair so
board member Sanchez are you all right
exactly
thank you and then the facilities
committee I'm not sure if board member
gun that I would like to stay chair if
you if someone else would like to to
stay in there you're you're okay with
representing on the facilities
okay oh go ahead please
it's me sorry
um I I just want to note that the bylaws
do state that the city does the city
ex-official member is the one that's
over the finance committee and then the
ex-officio member is over the facility
now in years past it's been whatever
whoever the board wants to do and I I
love working with councilor Gondola so
if I don't have any problem working with
her and I'd love to but that's the
bylaws state that and so I'll go either
way I'm good
oh
which okay I I think I I think to keep
sort of separate voices board member
daily on i i would support board member
Gandara sort of staying in that position
just because I think it's good to have
different folks having conversations
along the way if that's okay with you
all
um
so okay
thank you then the committee sort of
leadership is is established thank you
for stepping up those of you who who
have
next step is public clarification Madam
chair
and the executive is it both the chair
and vice chair that need to attend those
meetings or usually yes it is the chair
and vice chair but for the last year for
the vice chair hasn't really been in
attendance but yes okay the vice chair
is is okay and we've been having those
meetings via Zoom
um so okay in addition that it's also
the past president who's a member of the
executive committee as well yes
you're not off the hook yet
all right then
yes
thank you for clarifying that and Madam
chair do we have to have a motion to
ratify those
I
I think there are appointments which it
may or may not
[Music]
vote on this slate which is finance
Barbara de Leon executive
many Sanchez and Facilities Cassandra
gandra if that's okay I would entertain
a motion Madam chair oh go ahead I so
apologize for interrupting but I noticed
that for the finance committee it says
it will consist of one non-voting
representative from either the city or
the county that would be myself and one
voting member of the board and so I
wanted to clarify whether there was an
additional appointment that I missed
it it would be one of the members so we
have you as the chairs the ex-official
member and then you have a county member
and a chair or a county and a city
member on each committee is how I read
it and I don't recall sorry madam chair
to jump in I don't recall if
commissioner Allens had been previously
on the on the finance committee
okay so it was actually appointed by Mr
Macias that Mr Macias Jonathan Macias be
on it because he was on the invites
and then also Yvonne Flores was from the
city and she was on it as well
so so the language just States one
non-voting member from either the city
or the county and one voting member of
the board that those are just two
people to the finance committee from the
board
and I believe it says later on for the
finance or for the facility committee it
says the remaining non-voting member
yeah so I took that to be as the
ex-official members or the non-voting
numbers that's correct okay but for
finance it just looks like we need one
uh ex-officio member that would be me
and then one uh member of the board
which would be
probably board member of Macias
or or Council Flores I believe
unless unless with her not being here do
we want kids without either of them are
here
representative on it so probably okay
and I think it would be I would
uh I wouldn't be opposed to having uh
the county manager Macias and then
councilor Flores as those members on the
finance committee as well if there are
no objections to that but my
understanding is it's actually not
County Manager Messias it's it's
assistant County Manager correct
messiest different
one who also serves as an ex-official or
is designated as an ex-officio I think
so board member Flores would be the
voting member and so maintaining those
two
neither of whom are here to consent on
the board
on the finance committee rather I hear
them yelling yes from a distance
okay
does that have a so that
does that sound like that fills in the
finance committee ish
okay thank you madam chair just for
clarification we have the chair is Miss
de Leon and then the county is Jonathan
Macias
and the city is Yvonne Flores is that
correct yes
the other and
clarifications about the committee
members okay
hearing none I would entertain a motion
to sort of appoint these as a slate of
folks
I'll move approval Madam chair of those
appointments thank you
second Gandara thank you
by board member Sanchez seconded by
board member Canada
any further discussion
and this is just for the finance
committee correct this is for all three
committees okay who else is on the
facility committee then I have councilor
Gandara is the chair
who's the representative from the county
I'd recommend that commissioner
Hernandez I'm spacing
Hernandez
what what is it Hernandez
[Music]
and I'm sitting I don't know what
happened I just said brain fart because
I would recommend that he sit on the
facilities committee okay Chris is a
voting member
all right
and as the facilities okay admittedly
um
no you're good and admittedly we've been
struggling with the committee attendance
over the last year so I think that it
will be it's helpful to reaffirm this
this and make sure that we know who's
there board member Sanchez please
were you going to say something oh no
you're ready to vote no I just didn't
know if we have to now retract do we
have to remove the motion or is the
motion still
acceptable
I would say that uh the motion is still
acceptable okay cool okay
do we we're good on the motion yes then
I call the question
former Ward
yes former Sanchez yes foreign
thank you madam chair if I may I just
want to let the board know that I will
be canceling the all the meetings
and then rescending with new committee
members okay so don't be alarmed if you
get a cancellation we will do it at the
same time okay
okay thank you
it's public input I will start on my
left hearing any Jerry's taking her head
any other public input Tina Michelle no
no seeing none on the left seeing only
staff on my right then that ends public
input
chair and board comments I'll start at
the far end board member de Leon please
uh thank you madam chair
um no comments for me other than again
to just express my gratitude for the
opportunity to serve thank you very much
thank you board member Ward please
no comments board member Sanchez just
happy New Year everybody and welcome to
our new board members and uh it's
definitely been an exciting meeting so
far so thank you
and we'll look forward to February
board member Gandara happy New Year and
I look forward to the coming year
um getting into our new facility That's
so exciting yes thank you Boardman um
chair board member Charlotte Hernandez
please uh thank you for riveting uh
meeting it's great to be here and learn
and kind of go over the documents and
excited to Surf thank you
I feel the same we're really glad to
have you all with us and I think it will
be a great year did you have something
to say I'm sorry yes no no please we
Bernice and I were comparing notes and
we have Mary Lou Ward as being on the
facilities committee is that
because she's an ex-official member
is is that
okay is that what you want okay
yes and I feel like ex-officio members
who are apart from the non-voting
members I think that's kind of a
different sort of role but that sounds
very exclusive and good okay thank you
all right
any other comments for the good of the
order and if not I would hear entertain
a motion to adjourn so I moved
moved by board member Sanchez second
Gandara secondary board member please
thank you former award
yes former Sanchez yes yes former
Hernandez yes chair Quran yes