[Music]
very much good morning
i'd like to call this meeting to order
we have um if you would join me in the
pledge of allegiance please
thank you
becky if you would help us determine
that we have a quorum
i will do a roll call please board
member ward
president
board member enriquez
is absent boar member macias
board member flores absent remember
ellen's
board member gandara is absent board
member sanchez president chair koran
present we have a quorum thank you
we've been asked because we have someone
joining us on the phone related to the
audit to
make a
slight modification to the agenda so i
would propose
i would entertain a motion to approve
the agenda with the change of moving
discussion item six a audit entrance
presentation so move manager okay a
second level
thank you
move item six a uh up to
number five above reports and
presentations just for the record
any discussion
hearing none
also i note that
board member mayor protem gandara is
here as well so becky would you please
vote on the agenda please certainly uh
board member macias or yes thank you
board member ellens
yes board member gandara
member sanchez yes chair koran yes thank
you
also
board member enriquez has joined us
thank you
i would entertain a motion to approve
the minutes from the board meeting june
of june 23rd
i'll move approval second
there's a motion and a second any
amendments notes questions on the
minutes
hearing none
if we can vote please
former masseuse
yes thank you board member ellen
yes former gandara yes former sanchez
yes chair koran yes thank you
thank you
given that the discussion item that we
moved and the folks on the phone i'm
hoping that we can have the audit
presentation first
now at the top of the i think that i've
heard the folks um i think they're here
with us so
yes ma'am chair can you hear me yes
please state your name for the record
and then
we're here
also with the we have documentation and
i think there's a presentation
as well but we are we did receive some
um
other documentation so
go ahead yes
thank you so um
i do not have a powerpoint but what i
have is the
outline that it sounds like you have in
front of you that i'm going to go
through
to
go over all the required communication
that auditors are to make
at this page of the audit and i'm sorry
my name is chris garner and i am the
audit partner from patio brown and hill
um in charge of the city and all the
component units
audit
so with that i'll just go ahead and get
started on um
the agenda if anybody has any questions
as we're going through it please
stop me and i'll do the best that i can
to answer any questions that come up
so the first thing that we have on
[Music]
what we're supposed to talk about is the
timing and so planning has already been
going on
remotely in the month of july
and will continue we're actually going
to be on site next week
to continue the planning phase of the
audit
um of the city and all the component
units
so that is again
started earlier this month and we should
hopefully wrap that up early part of
august what the planning phase talks or
entails is you know one of the first
things we do is we look at your internal
control
we document what the internal controls
are and then we actually test your
internal controls um and specifically
with your organization we do a separate
test
of your cash receipts
um
we've done that the last couple of years
and so specifically that
with the animal services center we will
test your cash receipts um that are
being handled through your
through your organization
other part that we're doing during this
phase is the state auditor compliance
testing and so
the state auditor has a list of
13 15 items
things such as if you had to go out to
procurement
use of credit cards
travel and per diem so there's a whole
list of items that the state auditor
expands and requires auditors in the
state of new mexico to test and so that
is going on right now also
and then the last bullet point is once
we look at your internal controls we
test them
we look at the compliance testing that
for the state auditors complete then we
do what we call a risk assessment and
also frauding worries and so what
happens is with those fraud inquiries
we will talk to management and to others
just to get some insight
of any concerns that people might have
and we'll actually talk a little bit
about more about that toward the end of
the presentation but we take all that
information
we
determine if we have exceptions with our
internal control testing and then we
take a risk assessment and we go through
and determine what is our audit plan
what are the areas that we're going to
test and
come up with our final audit plan and
that's where we're at right now we're in
the process of completing those so that
we can get the risk assessment done so
that we can get field work which we have
scheduled for october and november time
frame with
planning and submitting the
audits
all audits have to be submitted by
december 1st to the new mexico state
auditor so that the city can
submit their financial statements to
gfoa for the annual award and financial
excellence and so that is the timing the
plan signing of the audit at this point
and we're still in the planning phase
the audit standards require that we talk
about our responsibilities and also your
responsibilities and so i'll start out
with ours in new mexico
we are required to do an audit under
regular
um us
auditing standards and then we also have
government auditing standards that we
have to follow so the state audit rule
makes
make sure that we follow government
auditing standards which really
requires us to look at your internal
controls
a little bit more
expand the testing than what regular
auditing standards do and so what our
responsibilities are are to audit your
numbers
that are presented to us
to make sure that they're what we call
materially correct
meaning we don't look at every
transaction we do samples
we also
look at the internal controls
and so we're not looking at every
transaction and so there could be errors
in those numbers but those errors are
not going to be big enough to change the
opinion of the readers of the financial
statement so when we take our audit and
you give it to a banker and they're
analyzing your financial status both
errors would not change the banker's
opinion of the organization and so
that's what our responsibilities are
um
to test and so
again
with the yellow book or the government
auditing standards we actually have to
take samples and test internal controls
that is not required under regular
auditing standards and so
again the new mexico state audit rule
requires that we look at
additional transactions and actually
test internal controls and so that's
what our responsibilities are your
responsibilities are to make sure that
you have
a trial balance
and that that trial balance is in
accordance with the standards that we
have to follow generally accepted
accounting principles or gaps most more
commonly referred to
and to make sure that you are performing
all management functions and that you're
making all decisions for you know the
internal control processes and that
you're following those processes so
management is responsible for
giving us numbers that do comply with
gavin so then we go through and audit
those numbers
under scope
we have six different entities
that
are a part of our audit of which animal
service center of inseam valley is one
of the fixed
and so we will issue a separate
financial statement for yours but you
are also included in the city's
financial statements so there are six
different entities that are going to be
incorporated when we go through our
audit
the last section
is other discussions and this is you
know during the risk assessment and
fraud inquiries up above
as i mentioned um this is where that
comes into play and so
you know if
this probably isn't the right forum for
some of these discussions to happen so
if you need to get a hold of us please
do you can contact either josie or
bernie bernice either of them can give
you um our cell phone number so if we go
through these last five bullet points if
there's something that you would like to
discuss with us please reach out because
again we do take it into consideration
and it does
affect our audit plan and it is a very
important process of the uh the audit so
as that first bullet point talks about
with the new mexico state audit rule
you know as we go through the audit
and we
have potential exceptions or potential
findings
all of that if it is discussed with you
at any point needs to remain
confidential
none of those issues can be talked about
until the audit has been officially
released by the new mexico state auditor
and because the city does go after the
gfoa award that typically should be done
by the end of the year so by the end of
december
your audit should be released
and then that information can be
discussed but not until then
so the last
four bullet points are really well we're
seeking information
if again if you have some concerns or
information you need to pass along
please call us
but one of the first things we need to
make sure that we have an understanding
of is related party transactions
and if you know of any related parties
where we're doing business
with
potentially a board member or somebody
please let us know so that we can look
at those transactions
if anybody's aware of any fraud
or has any concerns of fraud again
please let us know
what those concerns would be so that if
we do need to do special procedures or
look at something a little bit
differently that we do take that into
consideration
we need to be made aware of any special
audits that occurred if any and what the
results of those audits are so that
again we can incorporate that into our
audit plan and then just any general
concerns if there's a certain type of
transaction
that
folks have a concern about please let us
know i know in the past
you know all the different boards
and also city council has done a really
good job in
bringing up items
and having us look at that and so again
that is a very important part of it so
if there's any type of transaction that
causes you some concern please let us
know
and give us a call so that we can talk
about that
that is all the required communication
that i have to do so madam chair i will
open to any question
thank you chris i really appreciate that
um i am looking for questions from the
board but i do have a quick question
that's not
related specifically to this it's just a
general question but i assume that
because the animal services center
expansion was part of the geo bond
process i assume that you get you all
have a separate process or our geo bonds
are audited
um in a different kind of way but it's
sort of
within the realm of things that i think
might be part of this or can you talk
about how that
um that process might be part of this
okay so yes we will look at those geo
bonds as we go through the audit
we will both look at it when we're doing
the city's audit and your specific audit
so we will have to include in your
financial statements the information
related to the geo bond so there will be
a new footnote
that
will be in your financial statements
this year with new debt one of the
things we will do is get all of the bond
documentation
make sure if there is
covenants
that you are meeting those covenants and
so there will be testing that goes along
with those geo bonds as we complete your
audit
great thank you i just i just wanted to
make sure that it was part of this or if
it wasn't where where it might appear so
thank you very much for letting us know
are there any other questions from the
board
seeing none
thank you very much chris we appreciate
your your
joining us here today and we look
forward to hearing
and seeing the
final products of your work so thank you
so much
thank you madam chair have a good day
you too
okay moving on to
what appears on your agenda is item five
which is now i don't know i know five
and a half uh
ish reports and presentations we don't
have a member of cf
of the coalition for pets and people
here with us this week so we don't have
a cfpp
presentation so we'll start off with
city and county aco so
please
hope you guys can duke it out whoever
wants to go first county county acos
first yeah
no sorry not sorry no violence i'm not
from
using your words
thank you
i know
good morning board members and chair i
am brian halsey i'm the caseworker for
donand county animal control i'll be
presenting the june 2022 monthly report
for our reported stray animals we had
256 reported stray animals
out of those we had 176 stray animals
picked up we picked up 78 straight cats
and 98 stray dogs
we had 14 sick or injured animals and it
was split evenly this month seven cats
and seven dogs
and this month we had or in june we had
three owners surrender animals
and all three of them were dogs
this is our reported stray animal calls
for the four-year comparison
this is our four-year
field return to owner comparison chart
and for this month we had
for the june we had 13.
additional animals that we had picked up
again we had no owner surrendered cats
we had three owners surrendered dogs we
had the 14 injured animals
we had no where welfare hold animals
no neglect abuse or cruelty cases
we had four
animal service center quarantines we had
five home quarantines
we had no cases that pertain to our
courthold quarantine process
we currently have seven animals being
held in our courthole facility
and they are just waiting for
petitions and for cases to go through
the court system
and we had zero rabies submissions
these are districts just for anybody
that needs to see them
[Music]
um so divided through the
through each district
we picked up one cat and two dogs in
district one which was three all
together
in district two we had 18 cats and 12
dogs
the total was 30. in district three we
had 14 cats and 25 dogs
for a total of 39 in district 4.
we had 11 cats and 29 dogs for 40.
district 5 we had 8 cats and 9 dogs for
a total of seventeen
in district six
we had six cats and six dogs for 12
and district 7 we had 20 cats and 15
dogs for a total of 35.
just a note for everybody on the board
i did notice going through the stats for
june
a lot more people were starting to trap
cats in district 7 and that's why it's a
little higher than what it normally is
this is a stray cat picked up by
district
as you can see in district 7 again it's
going to be a little higher because we
have new people starting to
trap cats
this is our stray dogs
per district
and our reasons for unrelease
we had three vicious or livestock
attacks
so one had bit a child
so the owner released the dog for biting
the child
because they had other kids in the in
the household and then we had two that
were
accused of attacking livestock
something to add extra for our report
for june
we
ended up getting our numbers for our
spay and neuter action program contract
that we have for annually so these are
the numbers that came out of that
we
for a total of cats spayed they were
able to get 140 cats spayed
89 cats neutered
a total of the
cats bay and neuter program they got 229
for dogs they spayed 284
for the neuter they had 174 and that
total came out to 458 for dogs spaded
neutered
so the total came out to
687 for all cats and dogs that they were
able to get for spay and neuter
for cat rabies vaccinations they were
able to get 117
the cat microchips were 97.
the total cat rabies vaccinations and
microchip ended up to being 214.
the dog rabies vaccinations
came out to 228 the dog microchip was
170.
the total dog rapey vaccinations and
microchip came out to 3.98
the total cat and dog raby vaccinations
ended up to be 345 total cat and dog
microchips was 267
and total
cat and dog raven microchips came out to
612.
and that's the end of the report
for questions
thank you very much brian are there any
questions from members of the board
seeing none
thank you thank you again
good morning good morning madam chair
members of the board my name is gino
jimenez i'm the animal control
supervisor for the city of las cruces
and i will present to you our june
numbers
excuse me so for the month of june
2022 we responded to 454 straight calls
of those 203 were goa meaning the
officer did not have any contact with
that animal
we were able to apprehend a total of 251
205 of those were impounded at the
animal service center of those being 109
dogs and 96 cats
we were successful in field rtoing 46
animals back to their owners
and we
excuse me
we were unsuccessful in failed rtowing
10 and of those those are animals that
had some sort of identification however
we weren't able to return those back to
the owner
so that gave us a total of 56
identifiable animals
so here is our
graph for the three year stray
comparison
again 454 for last month gives us a
total of
2748 for the year
kind of keeps us right there within our
trend
within our average
next is our three-year field com filled
rto comparison again 46 for the month
giving us a total of 240 for the year
i was excited about last month's number
trying to get to that 64 again
we we strive to meet that number however
we only do it probably once or twice a
year
next is a graph for our community cat
program again
excuse me this is a new program so those
numbers are going to wave up and down
so last month we were we responded to 32
cats and trap calls of those were seven
that were already identified as
community cats so those cats were
released out in the area that where they
were captured
and next is our reasons for owner
releasing of animals five for aggression
five dogs for aggression one killed
another family pet and one bit a child
in the household
five cats were rtown or released
the owner was unable to care for them
any longer
two were the dogs were elderly and the
owner relinquished them
one was for a dog that the owner was
unable to care for any longer
and then finally one was a injured dog
and the owner could not provide
veterinary care
they were also in a wheelchair
and this slide shows the reasons that we
were unable to filled rto those ten
seven the phone
there was no contact made by phone or at
the resident with the registered owner
and actually one microchip came back to
an address in california and finally
three the microchips were not updated
meaning that the microchip was
the came back however there was no
information as to who
or
who the owner was or a phone number in
order to get in touch with them
and that is the end of my presentation
i'll stand for any questions
any questions from members of the board
thank you seeing none
thank you
i appreciate it
board member sanchez was
you were going to
no no a man of chair please support
member no i i just it's interesting to
see it's just i it's not so much it was
just more of a comment i think looking
at the data it's always interesting to
see that in particular
um
the
uh reported strays when you go back and
look between 2020 and 2021 it's just an
interesting some of the trends that i
see are interesting just because you
know we you know 2020 we were in the
pandemics obviously that's low that
makes sense and then we had the uh that
uptick in 2021 so it's interesting that
you know we've we've for all of this
year this calendar year
we've really kind of
leveled out right then
um
so that
oh god
yeah we might we'll come down and help
mr invaders we might need emt some sheep
are you okay miss travis are you okay
okay
so it's been nice to see like it's
leveled out but and i think the the the
other comments i think when we start
looking at those that you're unable to
[Music]
field rto i think when you talk
especially with the with the microchips
i think it takes me back to a
conversation we had on
um i can't remember if it was earlier
this year or even last year on how
we might be able to get owners to update
that information because um you know i
know i made the comment when i when i
moved the last thing on my mind was i
need to update
the uh the the chip information for my
cats
and you know within a couple within i
think within the first few months uh one
of my cats ran away and we weren't able
to find them so um you know like i said
it's just one of those things that i
think if if
there was any way that we could
i don't know the answer yet but i think
if there's that's one of those things
that if we could remind people that they
need to update that microchip
information so that way
in cases like this we can get their pet
back to them um so like i said so that
was really just the comments it's just
the things that bring that there were
those are the two items that brett kind
of tied in
um but it just as we were going through
it reminded me of that conversation
particularly
with microchip updating absolutely thank
you
thank you uh appreciated you know you're
welcome
thank you board member sanchez any other
questions
or comments from the board
hearing none thank you
thank you again
next up we'll hear the ascmv
shelter statistics
i want gino to know if he ever needs
anybody to volunteer to go to california
to drop a cat off be more than happy to
volunteer for that
sounds like fun
good morning board my name is clint
thacker executive director of the animal
service center mercia valley and i gotta
say it is good to be back
i was looking back and it's been since
march i think was the last time i
presented to you due to
surgeries and also covid
at my house and then we had may that
wasn't that was canceled
i appreciate
being able to be here and to talk to you
i would also like to give a big thank
you to bernice navarro our operations
director she presents or she gathers all
this information and even compiles the
report for me and writes the
presentation so i thank her very much
for that i also think
yes
i also think the individuals that work
with her to get the information and it's
and i don't know if you know this but
there's a lot of different arms there at
the center that
uh do aid in gathering these numbers up
so thank you very much to everybody who
puts forth effort to get these reports
together
so our current population as of
yesterday at the center is 511
and you see the comparison there between
the years
this is our intake 437 dogs in the month
of june and 377 cats
came in for a total of
827 that's the highest we've had in the
last three years
they're at the center
i'm getting really worried about the
intake numbers they seem to be going up
to the
pre-pandemic amount
as we continue to
look through the summer it could just be
that it's really high month and as you
see from gino's calls that
it was right in the middle there of his
call volume that was called volume and
this is intake volume so a little bit
different but
i believe there is an up to uptick
happening in our intake amount
our returns are six total we have five
dogs one cat
mostly health issues
and lifestyle changes and the behavior
problem for the cat
so people know and
what we do when somebody comes in wants
to surrender their animal we always talk
to him and find out why
and we're asking that question a lot
with them
if it's health issues we'll offer
some veterinarian care that we can
provide if it is
food can't afford food we can offer
some food that we have or even refer
them to a food bank for help we and then
lifestyle changes we're always there to
help with some type of adjustment
that they can do so we're really trying
our best i know in our staff meeting
yesterday we celebrated that the front
staff
diverted over 200 animals coming into
the center using this process
so it's it is successful
and we we do want to give some people
some
some options for that
oh there you go diverted intakes uh 230
was and so what this is is this is
diverting animals coming into the center
for various reasons it could be
that
they may have found an animal and we
scan it has a microchip and we contact
the owners and they just exchanged there
in the in the
front
of our building or the person may take
it there or somebody may call and for
owners surrender and say i can't afford
food and we can refer them
somewhere where they can get some food
or we could give them some so 230 were
diverted out of that total
so it could have been over a thousand
animals if it wasn't for
our great staff or my coworkers they're
working hard
this is our outcomes 18.7 adoptions 155
again that's the highest there
we've had in quite a long time uh
reclaims we're down a little bit 73 is
8.8
of the total rescues 21.4 percent
uh
community cats 13.5 percent euthanasia
was a 23.3 percent
and that's high because if you remember
in june we were battling our distemper
issue that we had i'm glad to report
that we
are
through our planning that we did
and through our aggressive treatment
schedules and also testing
that we were able to only have to
euthanize a very small number
that could that number could be a lot
more if we didn't act the way that we
did so kudos to the medical department
and dr hadden for
tackling to the stepper issue
at least our live release rate at 72.8
percent and that means a live release
rate is the number of animals that left
the center alive
so in june out of all of our intake that
we had is 72.8 percent left the center
alive our goal is 90 percent
and
we have hit that sometimes
and we continue to reach for 90 percent
90 percent qualifies use no kill is what
they call
these are our transfers that took place
in june again all 177 of them special
thank you to our local
rescues that work so hard to get these
animals out they take them into
their services from us
and we're able to move those animals out
some big ones there you see action
program for animals
uh cherish canine those are all local
enchanted pass
animal rescue was a good one for our
cats and so as front rage freedom rescue
was a good one as well we just thank
everybody that we work with
that continues to take animals from us
here's our euthanasia reasons as we were
talking about space
so sometimes it gets confusing
not sometimes it does get confusing the
way that we do our euthanasia and we
report this on our daily facebook charts
as well so you'll see that the the first
one is medical for space for dogs and
cats now it sounds like we euthanized an
animal just for space
and it's not exactly right what it is is
when we get to the point where we do
need to make some euthanasia decisions
we always look at
our medicals the ones that are injured
sick aren't responding
and so we euthanize those first
now the space is on there because that's
the reason why we're looking at them but
the reason is for the medical because we
need to make space so let's go to the
medical the ones that you see for like
the third one for medical
general or medical respiratory signs
those are specifically for that reason
we looked at and said they're not doing
good it's better for them to be
euthanized
and the other one is is we're out of
space
we need to make some room so we look at
our medicals first
the and you can see
dogs medical parvo
a lot of puppies came through already
having parvo
in our center
the hard thing with parvo is is that it
takes up to seven to ten days to show
clinical signs of parvo but they can
still be passing it
but in those seven to ten days when they
have it
so
we have changed a lot of our intake
procedures
our staff is wearing a personal
protection equipment on our ppe
to shield them and also other animals we
had a great staff meeting yesterday
where we talked about
barriers between us and the animal and
always carrying those
and carrying animals
with those barriers attached and so on
total surgeries 397 that we did
in june of 2020 and 2022
this is an incredibly high number when
you consider we only had i believe four
days
of contracted veterinarians all the rest
was done by our medical director
dr hadden
so 397 so she probably did around 300
surgeries in the month of june and we're
so appreciative of her and her hard work
unfortunately when it comes to that that
means that she's spending more time in
surgery than
other times in the center of treating or
watching and doing the things that she
really needs to do so
kudos to our staff that stepped up and
helped her identify those issues and
also for her staff that stepped up and
helped her as well year to date just for
2022 as you see there over 2 000
surgeries
being performed so that is incredible
visitors for the center is the highest
we've ever had in 2022 at
1556. this is of course
because we are starting we
opened up the center so people can in a
roundabout way get to our large dogs so
they can just come in and see
we are excited to have
the new way that we're doing walk
throughs whereas before they had to
have somebody accompanying them
as they walk through and we've really
opened things up so people can just come
in and walk i believe it's also helped
with the staff as well because they're
not having to
not waste time but be with an individual
while something else could be done
so it frees them up as well
so this is a slide that i wanted to show
we're still doing adoptions on a
volunteer basis what that means is
somebody calls in and says i would like
to see
this dog named fluffy
so you said would you like to um
come and visit or do you like to make an
appointment then i'd like to make an
appointment so 108 people
made appointments in the month of june
102 so 94
kept them and that resulted in a 60
percent rate of finalizing adoptions
so remember that 60 percent finalized
rate
now we look at walk-ins
so we had
of that
watkins in june we had 268 groups
of people come in
and that resulted in only 19
of
adoptions of people just walking in so
you see why we continue to stress
appointments because appointments is
really
the approach
a b line approach of targeting or having
individuals who are interested versus
having individuals that are just walking
through
and looking so that's why we continue to
do both
this is our volunteer team an amazing
1270 hours was donated to us in the
month of june that's because we've
partnered with dona ana county and they
have
the intern program where we've had a lot
of
high school kids that are
entering their senior
or junior years and they come in and
volunteer with us they do a lot of great
work everything from preparing adoption
bags to working in our our medical
area to surgeries to
writing on blackboards i mean it's our
on whiteboards
we have them do everything and we love
having them and so thankful for being
able to be part of that program at dona
ana county
we have 70 dog walking teams 23 cat cat
care teams
cat care teams are amazing they come in
and they help clean cats
and that's so beneficial to the employee
that's there
we have
a total number of 337 animals or i'm
sorry volunteers
in our program
website views is right in there in the
normal of 36 000 almost 37 000 hits
again this is and i say this every time
but for those who are just watching this
is actually
a view so somebody views a dog that's
one view and then they go back a page
that's another view and they click on
another dog that's a view
so we have 36 000 views
on there
now total facebook views these are
actually people that are coming to the
facebook page so almost 3 500 views the
highest we've ever had to contribute
that a lot
to our programs that we're doing our
volunteer basis that we're doing in june
of 2022 as well
and then our
dog and cat of the week is rain orange
throat we love having these guys
a lot of times they are
foster based or also they're at the
center so just call us make an
appointment and they're available for
adoption i'll entertain any questions
you may have
questions from the board board member
flores please
thank you madam chair
and thank you mr um
what's your name
backer
thank you mr thacker for your thorough
presentation
um
so
i do have a question a question about
[Music]
the wonderful interns you have
how much longer will you have
the number almost split in half i think
we we had around 14 so the numbers split
in half when school started but there's
still some that are it might be in an
accelerated program
so i think we have around
probably about five or six that are
still around the center but if you need
an exact number i can for sure get that
for you
well i was just wondering um
those total hours or over a thousand
they're there all day so they're they're
out there and so those numbers will go
down all that all that infrastructure
that all their help
once they'll go back to school or will
the internship program be continuing
throughout the school year
maybe weekends and stuff like that mr
macias
yes yeah just because somebody's in the
interim program doesn't mean they can't
come volunteer on a normal basis they're
more than welcome to come and volunteer
whenever they like but mr receives any
comments on the intern program
madam chair with your permission if i
could supplement please thank you first
of all let me take the opportunity to
thank the
mr thacker and the animal services
center but let me take the opportunity
to thank the city
who took on a substantial number of
these summer interns
the county was able to receive a 2.7
million dollar grant from the public
education department
we onboarded
high school students juniors and seniors
as county employees
and they were placed in
different
sites the animal services center the
city the county but nonprofit
organizations businesses
so they were all over this county there
are close to 500 alone here from the las
cruces schools public schools and
charter
schools they were paid 13 dollars an
hour
they could work up to 200 hours over a
six to eight week period
part of what we're also doing in
response to councillor flores question
is working with the schools that do
during the course
of the regular school year have programs
that place students in different
business or governmental setting so we
are working with them to transition as
many as possible we are working with the
las cruces public schools the intent was
to
give them a placement during the summer
but then
work
a situation out where if they wanted to
continue to do this and they had the
time during the school year
they would just stay in their placements
so i'm hoping that some of the students
that have
gone over to the animal services center
can continue or that the school
districts are able to shift based on
continuing demand and continuing
interest from the placement that was
originally identified
that's excellent thank you we even had
one in our office actually uh
so oh wonderful yes thank you so much no
thank you thank you guys for
coordinating it i'm not sure if that
answers some of your questions or
remember flores i would thank you i'm a
damn chair so um thank you mr macias
so they can continue uh with or with
internship funds or
they it isn't the same base of funds the
school uses uh its funding mechanisms to
support students in
kind of cl what would have been clinical
settings as you remember from law school
you know you do a
internship they call it a clinic
and so that that program is already
um
institutionalized within the school
districts they do it every year
so here it's just a handoff it's a warm
handoff
for those students that want to continue
i don't i and i believe that they are
compensated i don't know if they're
compensated at the level that the suburb
the summer program last year or the year
before it was 10 50 we were able to talk
them into letting us pay the students
thirteen dollars an hour and so it
attracted a lot of students
so i i the short answer is yes there's
the opportunity to continue with those
students at the animal services center
and there's probably an opportunity if
and i'll communicate it to the las
cruces public schools that there is a
need for potentially even more students
who would be interested in working at
the animal services center great thank
you thank you so much mr macias for the
thorough explanation thank you madam
chair thank you mr thank you
board member gandera
thank you madam chair thank you clint
um slide nine on the surgeries
is there
somewhere that makes a side-by-side
comparison from year to year
we can for sure get that for you yes
we have the years if you go to our it's
on the website under annual reports we
do report that annually
so you can see the total numbers i
remember that but i don't remember what
the number is from a year ago as you
don't so and you're in it every day so
it'd be helpful to put a year to year
comparison even a month to month would
be
would be helpful
i think to us and
i'd also like to see what you're
visioning what you're forecasting month
to month
in terms of what you would like to see
by the end of the year and then increase
by
so many
for the following year i think those are
important numbers
as well
yeah i'm glad that you clarified the
euthanasia rates specifically you know
when you all see the facebook posts
about
you know we're running out of room and
they're getting and then you know the
advocates are are putting out
certain things that it all gives us
pause all very concerning
um that you're just euthanizing
animals
um because there's no room and i'm
saying no no no you know i heard today
just yesterday
at the salon
someone speaking to
um someone picking up a cat trapping a
cat and they said we wanted to take it
over there and someone said that don't
take it here a staffer
because we it'll end up euthanized so
i just i just want to make sure and be
clear that when you're putting those out
that you're very
right
informative about what that means and
we need to probably say it over and over
and over again but also ensuring that
the staff isn't saying those things
because it's confusing people i had to
correct people if you're not in the
business or because i don't sit i you
know you don't sit on the board a lot of
people generally have that perception
that we're just killing animals that
were a no kill you know that we're not a
no kill we don't want to kill animals we
want to be a no kill facility but we
also need responsible pet ownership as
well and i keep saying that over and
over again and reminding folks that we
have a lot of irresponsible
pet owners and
when we people want to point the finger
we should be pointing it to the
irresponsible pet owners and how do we
move them from this that space into
being a responsible owner
right yeah and the question or the
answer to that would be education
and that's just one in the tool that was
education some enforcement
etc for that
thank you for bringing up the
euthanasia issue there was a article
that ran
several weeks ago that stated we
euthanized 27 animals in three days
for space and like i said that was not
true in fact the article
we
we wrote a
clarification to it and sent it to the
editor and they pulled the article
there was even somebody quoted in that
article that doesn't even work for us
and they stated that they did work for
us
so there was a lot of misinformation but
the damage had already been done and it
was a continual education process
that we're still
fighting just over that one
article for that
we did another i did another interview
on tuesday
explaining the process of
why we do
state them that way of space and medical
it does sound confusing but for
statistics it's what we need to do to
keep that going and also we talked about
in the news interview some ways that we
can get animals and continue to move
animals out of the center and have those
live outcomes we call them
absolutely thank you clint i really
appreciate you and staff and all the
work i know times are hard i know
they're they're y'all are working really
hard and then we get a number of animals
you know weekly daily i'm seeing the
stats
and it gets overwhelming so i just want
to say that thank you thank you
thank you any other questions from the
board
seeing none thank you clint
and i think we'll be
calling you back up shortly but for next
we're on to the committee reports the
finance committee board member enriquez
yes thank you madam chair good morning
board
so there was a meeting last week i was
not able to attend but lead demus ran
the meeting
in my absence and
they did discuss an item that will be
brought later the resolution
and either she'll be available for some
comments or i can provide those and
right now we have armando lerma to give
the financial report
please okay thank you thank you madam
chair members of the board
my name is armando lerma accountant with
the finance department and i'll be
presenting the financials for
unaudited financials for the period
ending june 2022
um i would also like the board to note
that these financials are preliminary as
we're still going through our
end-of-year and audit process
okay so we'll begin with the statement
of net position
so for the period ending june we had
cash balance of
six hundred and eighty three thousand
six hundred and seventy one dollars
receivables of a hundred and eight
thousand and eighteen dollars
which makes up our total assets of seven
hundred and ninety one thousand six
hundred and eighty nine dollars
and for our liabilities we had sixty
nine thousand four hundred and ten
dollars
our revenue collected in advance three
hundred and fifteen thousand
four hundred and sixteen dollars which
leaves an unassigned fund balance of
four hundred and six thousand eight
hundred and nineteen dollars
okay next we have our change in net
position
total revenue for the period ending june
is three million six hundred and ninety
four thousand and thirty two dollars
total expenditures three million four
hundred and nine thousand three hundred
and thirty three dollars
with the transfer of seven hundred and
five thousand dollars from earlier in
the year
it leaves us a net change of
uh four hundred and twenty thousand
three hundred and one dollar reduction
of a fund balance
okay next we have the same numbers but
how they relate to budget
so this being the final month of the
period of the year our budget parameter
is a hundred percent
total revenue came in at 96.1 percent of
budget
and total expenditures at 88.7 percent
of budget
okay next we have our
line graph of revenues and expenditures
by month for the year
we can see our revenues increase
slightly from last month
to 297 000 from 260
but also our expenditures also increased
from 329 to 388
okay
next we have our percentage of our total
expenditures
so of our total expenditures of three
million four hundred and nine thousand
three hundred and thirty three
forty nine percent with salary
benefits sixteen point four percent
temporary services four percent repairs
and maintenance two percent
services seventeen percent supply seven
percent
insurance two percent
capital two percent and other at one
percent
okay that completes my presentations i
now stand for any questions
thank you very much
any questions from the board counselor
board member flores uh thank you uh
madam chair
so as far as um page four the transfers
where
what does that mean
where does that money come from that was
just a transfer from the general fund to
a capital fund that i believe was
discussed previous
for uh shelter furniture fixtures
i think clint discussed that correct um
so and then the other uh page three
so the net change of 420 301 dollars
where does that go
that is just a reduction of the fund
balance so it just stays in the same
fund correct great thank you mr ladmine
and thank you madam chair
thank you board member flores any other
questions from members of the board
board member
canada please counseling board member
um
thank hello mr derma welcome thank you
for your presentation you did awesome
thank you
and slide six
total expenditures at 3 million i like
this very much
um
[Music]
are there any expenditures outstanding
obviously i think is around 96
but what is that total and are we in
line two
so
so this is the 96 percent was the
revenues i believe
let me go back
so the
yeah the 96 was the revenue and the
total expenditure was 88
um those numbers are not final and they
are more likely to change um
both in both ways you can still see more
revenue and more expenses
so those numbers are not final at this
moment but i guess what i'm asking is
the expenditure piece
how much is out there you know right
because
people have made purchases but it hasn't
been invoiced yet that kind of thing do
you know what that total looks like
i do not have that information i can get
it to you i don't imagine it'd be
it looks like i hate it for you to have
to walk down here with your broken good
morning good morning
so the outstanding balances if there
were any they would most likely be for
june services okay that were billed in
july
and would be paid either in the end of
july or august and that amount would not
exceed the 100
which would be a 3.8 budget so it would
not exceed the budget amount okay thank
you josie i appreciate it thank you mr
lerman those are all my questions thank
you
madam chair thank you both thank you
i appreciate it any other questions from
the porn
okay
seeing none thank you both thank you for
your presentation
next up the executive committee um
we did meet
uh
clint and i were in attendance on july
5th
um
we discussed the upcoming agenda for
this and then planned for some future
conversations about what kinds of um
sort of communications and information
we would like to share about with the
board about
um future expansions of the
of the asmv and and strategies to
staffing those and all of that so
that's that's my report clint i don't
know if you have any other things to add
okay
thank you
facilities
board member gandera thank you
madam chair unfortunately we didn't meet
i didn't know if we did meet and i'm
just like it's so early in the month let
me go back and look
i'm sorry uh
clint can you help us i sure can um
counselor our commissioner alan's and i
did meet yay thank you and able to
discuss it thank you for covering
commission christopher allens would you
like me to talk about some of the things
we did or did you have some input as
well
it was not a long meeting because there
wasn't much to discuss but
the construction of the new facility is
proceeding on schedule
and you expect substantial completion
in december of this year
that is correct according to the new uh
that came out about three four weeks ago
uh the news completion is slotted for
december there is significant delay
because of the some of the door hardware
that's going on there but
in full we should be done by december we
did do a walk through yesterday
i did a live video on facebook of that
if you want to see that and we talked
about there's kennels in now
for our intake area we're excited about
that
i talked to the contractor and he said
we're at a solid 78 possibly 80 percent
completion
thank you any other facilities related
notes
no thank you both
um that's the end of our reports and
presentations
uh next up if you remember we did move
6a to the beginning so we're at 6b as
what as it appears on the agenda that
you might have the ascmv
feasibility study presentation
so i'll turn that over to you clint
thank you very much quentha eckert
animal service center museum valley what
we did is we teamed up with asa
architects they're the ones who designed
the current or the new facility we have
and they did such a good job and they
know have experience designing animal
centers what we did is we teamed up with
them to talk about
changing our existing center that we
have now
we've always talked about changing it
into a
medical facility
medical being animals that came in
from acos and over the counter can be
there or animals that got sick from
being at the center were also doing
sterilizations at the center as well
so they came up with this plan
again the feasibility study to change
most of what the ascm looks like
this portion right here is not being
touched the gray part that you're seeing
so the new lobby the admin area with the
offices vet techs
bathrooms that will stay the same
what is being changed significantly is
the kennels that here along the side
this is like right now this is our small
breed kennel area
and this is our some of our intake
kennel areas so they would be totally
taken out
and then
all the kennels will actually be removed
and purchase new kennels for it because
right now they're diluted they're in bad
repair and they only have that one drain
that's in
each kennel and it's round versus a
trench drain
that the kennels sit in the middle of
or the kennels i guess they back up to
the trench to the trench drain and then
you can spray the feces and waste right
into it and then it all goes down into
the drain
so all dog kennels that you see here
will have to be redone there
we changed
to have the cat areas right here
off of the front lobby it's going to be
housing feral cats public cats rescue
cats and in-house cats that's all for
staging for surgery
they're going to be happening
we did not
we did not change this area here this is
the laundry area
uh electrical hot water and then the two
bathrooms that are there but the laundry
will stay there everything this is a new
area when i say new i mean what's
existing there will be taken out not
added on
so
here is the
actual surgical area we'll have and then
the prep and they can prep up to three
to five animals in this space
and this up here currently is a kennel
that goes all the way across
we'll be taking out those kennels and
having some isolation rooms that we can
treat animals
individually or even in groups so like
parvo parvo is treatable
as long as we have an area where they
can be and we can treat them
individual
we do that
so we'll create those rooms
this is our x-ray we currently do have
an x-ray machine that's used all the
time and we have it so that's a great
great addition but so we make room for
the x-ray it's staying where it's at now
and then we do have a new addition for
two surgical offices one for the medical
director and one for our veterinarian
that we hope to get any day now
the other add-on that we have is
this area here
is
outside right now it's not the green
roof area that's that's over here but
this is
the um
it's just surrounded by a fence so we
would close it in
for that
in addition
so here's where here's the old
our current building here's that place
that we would enclose and include in
this also includes the shelter offices
that are right here it'll be add-on and
then i would like to have a
generator currently right now the animal
service center if the power goes out
we're out there's there's nothing there
to to help run so we have a generator
and it's
the scope is for it to run at 50 power
for the entire center so that's added in
and then this right here is also added
into the feasibility study so this is
the new center and this is just a large
space
that we left empty it was included in
the original design and it's just a
large area for gathering conferences
staff meetings things like that
it's basically an open box cement slab
and slides in a roof unfortunately
because you're adding square footage you
have to also
per ordinate or codes you have to add
bathrooms
so the bathrooms will be provided
et cetera but that is also part of this
scope is to add that large gathering
place
this has all this went through several
different design phases
it's not just something they came
together and presented to us and we said
okay
we met five or six times with aca
architects to get it down to this design
so kudos to them for helping us
so you're saying that's really good
clint but what is this going to cost
that is a great question
we are looking at for these services
right now with how much it is it's a 7.6
million dollar project
this is
broken down for you by construction
costs of 5.4 million we have some soft
costs including
to be leed certified
and also for
furniture's exposure or
furnitures and fixtures
the art requirement that is gone up to
two percent by the time this goes up it
went from one percent to two percent of
your total cost
by ordinance so the state has to be for
art you know that was a little bit of a
contentious with the new center as well
that some people feel like we should
spend that on animals but we were able
to to
have a beautiful art pr or art piece
that we're putting out as our
main is it's gorgeous i love it but
anyways that's part of that as well
so soft costs would be almost one
million dollars and then the full
project cost with
gross receipt tax and the contingency
comes out to be the 7.6 million
this is information i'm not going to
request right now that we fund this
obviously this is something we would
like to have as soon as we can for some
changes that really need to happen but i
just want you to know there's a plan
there's we looked into this this is the
design we like to have
i will start having talks in the coming
months
with
counselors and commissioners about
possible funding options
and just having on the radar
and also there's i know there's another
go bond coming up with those questions
that we could look into as well so just
have it on
your front brain global areas that this
is this is the things that we're looking
towards and this will of course benefit
the city and the county as well for
those changes so i can entertain any
questions you might have i probably
won't have the answers to them
but i'd be more than happy to talk to
you about them
board member flores please thank you
madam chair and thank you again uh clint
for your presentation
when you said that a veterinarian is
coming soon so you open the door on that
one
how soon is soon we have not had any
advice again we've
uh changed i mean you're praying for
somebody oh i'm praying hard okay i'll
get my rosary out yeah god is i think
tired of hearing from me about it that's
for sure
it's a continual frustration all across
the country
like i said i'm in a group of a lot of
directors with the best friends animal
society and the program i was in for
leadership certificate
everybody's having problems
el paso right now is in a huge issue
because two of their vets left and they
don't they don't have anybody in
building right now
so they have to farm their
sterilizations out and it's causing
major issues for them
we count our blessings every single day
for having dr hadden on staff
we're very thankful for her
and
the things we're doing to battle it
we're going to be rewriting the job
description right now it's really heavy
on you're going to be standing there and
doing surgery all day and for a
veterinarian that's
doesn't sound quite appeasing so we're
going to be rewriting that we also have
to look at the salary a little bit it
taps out at 110 i believe if i remember
right 110 000
[Music]
and while that sounds good with
anybody that can choose anywhere to live
basically right now
that we need to increase that i believe
just a little bit something to to get us
up
we also need to
better
better show some of the points that
we'll be doing for instance we'll pay
for your continuing education credits
we'll pay for your licensing we'll pay
for
a lot of those bonuses and things moving
bonuses allowances things like that that
some of the places don't do
so it's just a matter of looking
appeasing and getting in the right hands
and showing it's even to the point where
i had somebody come and say their friend
is going into vet school and i said well
in five years when they get out
do i have a place for them to work
so
we're working on it
thank you clint as in so far as housing
goes i know that housing is exorbitantly
expensive
and houses you can't find a house for
less than 300 000 today
so what a lot of people are doing is
being
buying outside of the city of las cruces
and our housing committee
is working really hard to
get affordable housing
not just
housing the homeless which is very
important
but to um
to have housing for people who are
earning maybe 150 000
and can't buy a house
so 110 000 sounds like a very good
salary but in reality
it's very hard for someone to come out
you know if someone's here and already
has a housing
there's no issue there
so i hope that you're able to
do that and and maybe um
maybe refer them to live in vado or
mesquite and commune anthony i mean i
don't know
what to do with that but
yes that is a big issue
no there's no housing here affordable
for a hundred and ten thousand dollars
i met people during the the uh go bond
issue um excuse me yeah the go bond
meetings
and that's where i gathered that
information people coming up to me over
at dacc when it was held there
i mean this one woman was almost in
tears because she heard all these
wonderful things about las cruces and
so the new housing that's going up is
incredibly expensive
so um yeah so root for las cruces and
let's pay our people what they deserve
to get paid so they can buy a 300 000
house
so thank you and then how long does it
take for an animal to recover from parvo
a lot of it depends on the animal when
you catch it but because if it's
severely the parbo attacks the
intestines and so they are they actually
die of dehydration not
specifically because of parvo
so it all depends on where you catch it
and the amount of fluids and how well it
reacts to it and catch it in time but
within a week or so you'll see
improvements
of first clinical signs and then how can
it's very highly contagious right it's
highly contagious before they show
clinical signs and then five to six days
after they show clinical signs
so the the um recovery rooms would that
be just for one parvo
afflicted uh pet
if i remember right we would have some
kennels in those areas
and we'll keep as few in there as
possible as or as is needed but it's
the way that we had we had to use the
best that we could so that makes sense
of of the area we had and i feel like
they did that they did a good job of of
meeting
space and requirements
great thank you mr um thacker and thank
you madam chair thank you board member
kandara
thank you
madam chair
clint thank you for this feasibility
study we've been working on it i know
and waiting um patiently for it
if you had to guess or prioritize and
phase
you know each of these projects what
would it look like
or each of like you know it's a large
sum of money seven million
and they range from you know different
types of improvements
if i'm asking you to prioritize what
would that look like phase one two and
three phase one would definitely be the
kennels the kennels are almost to the
point of being useless right now
with the way the drain system is and
spreading diseases
we can't we can't clean them properly
the way that they're designed
or to clean the way that we would like
to our medical director would like to so
kennels is definitely phase one we would
knock everything out
uh put the french strain probably take
out all the concrete so we can start
over with fresh virgin concrete put the
trench in and have the new kennels come
in
so that would have been because then we
could use it from animals from the the
news center that are sick
could come over and
get treatments and things there and then
the second phase would definitely be the
surgical area it would be this area
right here
so this would be completed with the
kennels those changes but this area
would be our second phase
so we would be we would be able to do
surgeries
in the manner that we need to and then
the last phase would be this back row
here and also the
um
right here and the generator as well
would be the last phase
thank you clint very helpful do you have
prices totals for each of those phases
and if you don't that would probably
be helpful yeah i don't but we can get
those yeah that that would be my
recommendation clint do you currently
have a lobbyist
no what do you mean by a lobbyist like
someone who lobbies for us up at the
legislature for different bills and
capital outlay and those kinds of things
i do not joanne faray has
mentioned that several times but the
process of doing it you have to have it
done
a year in advance and her and i have
talked about it and this would be a
perfect opportunity for it we have the
funds
i'm sorry we have the amounts that we
need
for specific things and
but she almost made it sound like you
have to have everything in place and
then go
ask for the money for it and that's been
the challenge of meeting those deadlines
for it well you have the feasibility stu
i would recommend that you get a
lobbyist and start advocating with our
legislators for capital outlay funding
um much of it has to be shovel ready
and you got to get to that point so i
know the city is starting to have
conversations with our lobbyists it'll
certainly be on my list
for for um
as i advocate for certain priorities
moving forward but you have there's a
lot of priorities that the city has um
you know related to this so in terms of
geo bond i
that that
um
how it is how should i put it
ship has sailed that's exactly the
wording i was going to i was looking for
the ship has sailed so
that would be my recommendation um
i think when i've recommended to other
of our not you know our
groups that we share with the county um
for instance the south central solid
waste authority they've hired a lobbyist
and it's been
fruitful very beneficial so that would
be my recommendation
um and
as as far as as how to move forward with
this thank you madam chair thank you
thank you very much board member
massiest please
thank you madam chairman let me just
follow up to what counselor
gandara was discussing the thing is is
there if there is something feasible now
you have to get it on a icip list and
that's going to have to be by the middle
of august
so i would suggest that rather than
mr thacker
trying to find and
pursue a lobbyist at this point that
maybe the city and the county could just
add
these priorities to the icip list that
they're about to submit
you know i i spent a little while in the
legislature so maybe i
can
have a little bit of a discussion about
it
but all we're doing is competing among
ourselves
um
so even if the animal services center
gets a lobbyist and pursues that funding
well that's
in some ways it's
competing with what the city and the
county are trying to pursue at the same
time
so it makes a lot more
organized approach to me
is to make sure that the city and the
county are having discussions
about where
animal services ranks and priorities for
both the city and the county and that we
be advocating through
probably what our already established
lobbyists are because lobbyists don't
necessarily come cheap
and so
as
mr thacker has to struggle with his
internal budget that's what we're
basically telling him you know go hire
somebody to go advocate for you in the
legislature but then we may be
undermining some of your efforts by
saying no no no
there are other priorities that both the
city and the county have so i think that
we have to merge that overall effort and
coordinate that overall effort in terms
of trying to you know
have greater success if we're pursuing
state funding and yes there's going to
be an abundance of state funding this
year i don't know how long it'll last
but it certainly is there this next year
so
if there are projects that you've made
some movement on
then you should be providing as far as
i'm concerned that list of both the city
and the county to see about adding it to
the icip that we're about to
submit
two questions sir if i could
first is who's a representative from the
county that i would talk to about the
icip list and what does icip stand for
infrastructure capital improvement plan
and it's basically the mechanism
that the legislature uses or excuse me
the department of finance and
administration
that's where the list first goes
so that they can
have an understanding of what the
different municipalities and counties
and
universities so everybody is competing
for those same dollars everybody is
competing for the same dollars
and you're competing really against one
another in terms of what is the greatest
priorities and what has the greatest
likelihood of gaining funding and
support from local legislators
so again the concern that i have with
you you'd be meeting with individual
legislators and then they'd ask you well
where does this priority rank
with the priorities of the city and the
county
you know that puts you in a very
difficult
position because you're going to have to
say i don't know
unless we have that discussion and
determine if
there is a project that needs
funding a capital improvement the
building
the expansion of some facility
so in order to have that kind of
discussion
you have to know
where do you stand because your entity
is basically a city county operation
yes so
you can you can talk to me directly or
michelle blackwell basically handles our
our list
the county commission recently adopted
its icip list that will be submitted but
they're certainly still the opportunity
to
modify it
thank you very much sir and mr enriquez
who in the city do i talk to about this
yes i can help you with that great thank
you very much
thank you board member board members
macias enriquez uh board member gandara
did you have one other thing you want to
do i do i i appreciate the feedback from
um
i call him judge macias we've known each
other many many years so you know i'm
very coordinated and collaborative and i
don't i'm not
insisting that we compete for these
dollars i think it's important to get on
the icip list it's very important but i
also know that you're getting larger and
larger and there not only are we talking
about capital outlay projects but there
are laws on the books currently
clint as it relates to animals that
we've had conversations about
um that need some
attention to and that also is what a
lobbyist does
and and so
i would recommend that still strongly
and
you know coordinate your efforts with
the county and city i certainly will
have a conversation with larry haran our
lobbyist and ifo as that appointment is
coming up soon in the next week or two i
think i've seen it on my calendar so
um i i don't i don't um
you know for me it's it's very
i'm very visionary and i'm forecasting
for you and as you should right down the
line years in advance what it is that
you're kind of moving for
and
i mean you're going to have a pretty
large operation now that you have the
new center and and and we have a lot of
needs
um so that that that's all i i will say
about that thank you
thank you board member gandra and board
member macias please
um
thank you madam chair and again
certainly not to
have a difference of opinion because
there it is not
there
everything that counselor gandara is
saying is absolutely correct in terms of
where you're going
but if you're needing to move quickly
related to this session then you
then let me make a couple of points
one
no lobbyist
because i
know almost all of them
no lobbyist
knows as much about animals and the care
and the institutional structure that is
needed to support these efforts better
than you
no lobbyists will know more
and the the opportunity
is that there are only legislators from
this county
that are going to be willing to support
a capital improvement project for you
so doesn't make any sense don't talk to
any legislator from santa fe or
bernalillo county i'm sorry they're
going to tell you they have their own
needs in their respective areas so you
have basically
i think it's 12
legislators
in this community
that you need to get over
to your operation
it has to be
beyond representative ferrari
to be supportive
you need everyone to know what you're
doing because your institution services
this entire county
it affects everyone
your projects would be what would be
considered
county-wide projects that every
legislator should know about and be
interested in supporting so i would
encourage you
now
begin to make sure they're coming in
to your facility make sure they're
seeing what you're having to deal with
you talk to them about your needs that
is the most effective lobbying tool that
there is
thank you very much appreciate it
thank you any other questions or or
comments from the board
all right seeing none thank you for this
update
in terms of what the possibilities are
and i think
as
board member gandhara mentioned having
phases in mind
the big ask and then the smaller asks i
think makes it a lot easier in those
conversations as well
all right next up we have our next
agenda item is resolution
2022-08 budget adjustments
and approval of ascmv positions so
clint please thank you very much again
clint backer animal service center lucia
valley executive director talking to you
today about resolution 22-08
now there are three main items in this
resolution that we group together
for ease
first
is we have some money coming in from
dona ana county they've increased their
funding by 300 000
so that is the resolution
to accept that we're also adjusting the
fiscal year 23 budget in the amount of
136 475 dollars
this is
for purchasing of or it's additional
funds to purchase the
fixtures furniture and equipment
access control security and kennels for
the new building we previously did that
705 but because of increasing costs we
had to come back and ask for more so i'm
asking for permission to access the fund
balance in the resolution and adjusting
the balance for the 136.
and then the bottom one has been worked
out with the
worked closely with the executive
committee and with the city and myself
it's authorizing seven new full-time
positions
three office assistants three animal
caregivers those six positions are for
the new center that's going to be coming
online in december
and when you when i look at that and say
well december we can do that later it
takes roughly two or three months
to uh at least a month to get somebody
or to get these announcements out and to
get some people hired so we're already
looking at september october time and
then some time to train
so we're right on the cusp of needing
those to get as soon as possible and
then also the tnr coordinator that goes
along with the city's tnr coordination
or tnr program
that's been discussed several times with
the city
at their
city councilor meetings
there is no extra funding at this time
requested for the full-time positions
the plan is is that we reassess six
months into our budget
and we can
look and see how much money is needed
to supply these because with as you saw
in our fund balance turning back quite a
bit of money
that
the majority of that money that was that
was turned back was from personnel
so we feel like there might be some
funds there just to reassess at our
six-month mark
and have promises from the city to
assist or help with funding
if needed
so your board options our course there
are yes to approve no deny
amend or table
thank you clint i would entertain a
motion to
i would entertain a motion
item
seconded by board member gandra
any discussion please or questions board
member sanchez please thank you madam
chair
what is the i know you're saying you're
not requesting any funds for the new
positions at this time but what is the
anticipated
budget
for those positions and the reason i ask
is i think
while i understand
the strategy to wait and look at the
mid-year and re-evaluate that point my
concern is that then
you may have hired these people you're
now
then forcing either the county or the
city to then have to
provide additional funds because we're
at that point so i'm just trying to
understand you know what what is that
anticipated amount that you're looking
at for those seven positions for for
annually
including and i don't know if that's
been done in terms of what the costs are
what the salaries benefits and so on
what is that total cost for the budget
so
just to recap what you're asking is what
what is the total amount for those
positions
at the current time i don't i know it's
been told to me and i know i have it on
my computer but i can't remember the
total amount because it also entails
benefits
and everything i know their salary is
around 14 an hour for the first year and
then 15 after that
but again i don't i can get that number
for you for sure but off the top of my
head i don't have that
that is important um as part of this but
i think this is also some of these are
also reclassifications is that a
no these are all news they're all new
okay
um so that is an important that would be
an important detail to have and it looks
like someone's coming up to help
answer
that question hi please hi
budget analyst i run an estimate i'm not
sure how much the tnr coordinator is
going to be paid since it's a new
position but i just
put it at 60 000 so we're looking at an
average of about 350 000 including
benefits for all seven positions
which aligns with the
shift
with the shift in the county support
budget so
go ahead
board member sanchez were you going to
say something no i was going to say that
that would that would align with
recurring funds from the from the county
um or closely to it i think the only the
only thing would be that the the other
budget adjustment that was requested for
equipment which is that 136 thousand
dollars but
i appreciate the bulk that gets me a
ballpark what we're looking at so thank
you so much appreciate it
thank you other questions from the board
board member masias i'm not sure if your
light is on for okay
no
okay thank you board member gandala
thank you
chair kran thank you um clint for the
presentation slight do
the tnr coordinator what is the salary
for that
we estimated around 50 to 55 000
and
where in the budget will we find the
programming for the tnr
program what what does that consist of
well the
so you're asking in my current budget is
there a tnr program fund yeah i mean
you're going to pay for that what are
they going to do and how are you going
to interface with the animal control and
assist in the tnrs that need to occur
so the tnr coordinator is going the job
description will outline what is their
responsibility for the most part it's
going to be a major education role
for going out and educating individuals
so in other words mediate
with individuals that have cap problems
they're to
work closely with or coordinate with the
city and county animal control officers
on hot spots and major areas that need
to have that education in place
also scheduling
anything that
needs to be
placed in the future such as events
it's it'll be a major role
in in the program but i think education
is going to be
the at the forefront because
if word doesn't get out and educate
those that either one love feral cats or
two don't like feral cats or i should
say community cats
then
the program's just wafering wave
wavering and that's kind of where we're
at now is we are cats are coming in and
cats are going out but there's
nothing in the process
to educate and that's the main concern
clint when you say educate are you also
providing tools to the public that help
differ right mitigate some of the issues
that feral cats are causing in the
community
that it has always been part of the
ascmv to have some of those on hand to
mitigate
however we that's the discussion that
needs to occur
with the city and also the county
is this something where
where i'm going to be using our funds to
purchase deterrence or is this something
that animal control is going to be
because right now animal control has
deterrence
i can see this as
if it truly can be set up as a
partnership or coordination
that our tnr coordinator doesn't have to
go out everywhere the animal control can
help out and and
educate some areas and hand out of
course that all depends on how many
officers they have and it depends on
their call level and also the time of
year
but the main answer to the question is
is if we can get the grants and things
that we've been told to go after by like
best friends has said that they will
purchase the deterrence for us and help
us out
we have maddie's fun that's also been a
big a big increase for us or a big push
to get a program like this out then yes
we will have those deterrents out to
give to individuals
okay um
the other the other thing is
um it requires neutering right surgeries
and stuff and so like are you prepared
for
the numbers that are going to come in
with
this coordinator
and are you forecasting what that might
look like
to be honest we have not forecasted what
it would look like with this role in in
place what we have forecasted is we're
already doing hot spot sterilizations
incorporating those into our our weekly
sterilization goals we also
accepted a large grant from petco which
we're going to be doing a celebration
today
50 000
and that was came before you earlier
to accept that grant so that will be
utilized to
basically farm out these sterilizations
to other vets that are in the area one
specifically specific vet is working
with us and going to include 20
surgeries a week
so that will help us out a lot
on that um
so
yeah the coordinator is a position we've
all been waiting for for some time to to
get in place yes yes all right thank you
thank you glenn thank you madam chair oh
go ahead i will defer to board member
enriquez i was just going to follow up
but i think you'll say the same thing
probably
yes uh i hope so thank you madam chair i
was just going to add that the city did
approve the policy but also with that
policy there was also with the
subcommittee that put a lot of hours and
effort into creating what we're going to
place as a handbook and that handbook
will have a lot of the operations and
duties
from all parties involved and not only
the coordinator will do education but
outreach and and get volunteers involved
uh with this program as well
thank you
thank you i was going to say something
similar but i would anticipate that so
so just as a matter of process and
clarity i would anticipate that there
will be future budget adjustments to
support this program that will increase
the overall budget that the city is
expecting and and because we've we've
articulated our support for that and our
policy i would anticipate that in the
future when there's a better idea of how
much those things will be and how they
fit into the existing structures i would
anticipate that that will come to this
board
and and in many cases this board is sort
of the precursor to adjusting the city
budget um that goes to the animal
services center because it is something
that we've we've sort of put a priority
on so just acknowledging that process
too but i would anticipate that there
will be a further budget adjustment in
the future
um
madam chair my question is directed to
um assistant manager enriquez in terms
of the handbook uh mr entry
when can we expect that
a lot of that documentation has already
been done i think we'll just have a few
more meetings with mr thacker and animal
control to kind of consolidate that once
the coordinator
the job description and the posting and
everything is done we'll work
in in sequence with that and try to get
it as soon as possible
so two months three months uh yeah it
might it might be uh the the job posting
and all that will probably take a couple
of months so i would say yeah within a
month we can we can have that handbook
ready okay thank you
thank you both
any other questions from the board on
this action item
okay
go ahead board member messiest please
forgive me for just diverting back to
some of the prior discussion i think
it's somewhat associated with this
clint in terms of the discussion that
we've been having in terms of outreach
to the legislature and funding for
capital improvement projects
you have an amazing constituency
of animal advocate organizations in the
community that i believe that you should
incorporate in whatever efforts you make
to our
local delegation of senators and
representatives so they can really see
the broad-based support that goes beyond
just
elected officials elected or appointed
officials but it really goes into the
community which really draws their
interest in supporting different
projects i think so any kind of meeting
i just want to encourage you that you
have not an overwhelming number but
still a select group and i know that
from time to time there are
controversies and differences of
opinions but i think in general the
advocacy
groups in the community really support
better placement and
better facilities for dealing with
animals in the community thank you
thank you board member messiest any
other questions
or discussion hearing none becky would
you please
call the role or remember macias
yes
board member flores
yes board member ellens
yes board member gandara
sanchez yes chair quran
yes passes
all right next up
we have after the action item we have
public input and i know that there are
some members of the community here if
you're here to speak um
officially can you please raise your
hand just really quickly so i can have a
sense of who all's here to speak
okay
i'm gonna open it up and i'm going to go
from the left up as is our tradition
here and start
you have three minutes so if you can
keep to that three minutes
i won't put on a timer but i would
appreciate your your support in in doing
so thank you
so i'll start here from from the left
going up first rows i assume no second
row third row fourth row
please come up
thank you
[Music]
hi my name is patsy tarin and i spoke
with at the city council meeting here
not too long ago in regards to the tnr
program
and i i have a couple of questions and
would like a little bit of clarification
probably i would might need it from mr
thacker
but um
at that meeting they had discussed
hiring a tnr coordinator and at that
point they said that they thought that
that would be done probably within the
next month
so
as far as the discussion that you all
had earlier
it looks like the tnr coordinator
position hiring is going to be held out
for how long now
this was
one of two formal steps to make sure
that it's officially approved i normally
wouldn't talk but one of two formal
steps that makes sure that it's
officially approved and can be listed on
the job description so
i think as soon as we
finalize those steps and then move it to
to the hr department to to get that
moving okay hard to say but with with
luck um it will be as soon as we
possibly can so
i'm sure okay um i don't know
oh i'm sorry
board member flores
okay please thank you
so as far as hiring goes it would go
through the hr the human resources
department of our city
and
there are
a number of factors that go into hiring
and i won't get into the weeds too much
but suffice to say
that it's always a lengthier process
than expected one would think there's a
posting put it out there'll be 10
million people not maybe 10 million but
there'll be several people applying
and the way it's going right now because
we have a lot of vacancies we have
vacancies in most of our departments
and so i asked one department director
why and the answer is
nobody's applying
so it isn't that the city
isn't out there
advertising recruiting
it's just that people
are not applying so
please understand that it's not a
um because it's not being put out there
it's because of there are different
several factors but the big one is that
people aren't applying for jobs and this
is
department-wide i don't know if the
county is experiencing that but i know
we here at the city are so
anyway thank you madam chair thank you
and i apologize to have taken up time i
should just let you keep talking and
finish
that's okay i understand that i own a
business too and nobody is applying for
a job
um
i
did you are you all aware that there's a
tnr event today
okay
when i was here previously one of the
questions that i was asked is how many
cats could they take in a day and when i
was up there today they told me that
they expected to do 50 cats today
so that was i believe
one of board member
gandalas questions that you had had for
me at that time and we we were able to
get some cats in today but then again it
is only two cats per person again so
we're still working on
trying to trying to get under control
when we get two cats in but four more
born so that kind of
is a hindrance the other thing is is i i
heard uh
i believe it was mr thacker say that
they are doing hot spot sterilizations
i've left my information many times up
at asmv and have not been contacted by
anyone there and have asked to be
included in any kind of
those events that might take place that
could do targeting so i would like to
you know find out more information about
that
and um
the handbook that you spoke of
was that the handbook that's basically
going to be the policies and procedures
for the tnr coordinator that we're going
to be waiting for that's going to be
like two to three months out
i'm not sure who spoke of that earlier
okay board member and
ricas do you want to mention talk about
that more
yes ma'am thank you miss darin
the
handbook that we're talking about is a
combination of the duties of the shelter
the tnr current coordinator and the
animal control officers so a combination
of those operations that hopefully we
can get most of the documentation is
already put together we just need to
compile that handbook it might take a
month or so
okay
thank you sir and i would
like to thank all the board members um
for your attention today and i would
also like to thank everybody that works
in animal control and ascmv
the people up there were cranking it out
today when everybody was bringing in the
cats and they are amazing people and
doing the best that they can
and i just really appreciate everything
that all of y'all and all of them are
doing
thank you for coming and thank you for
speaking next up that was the fourth or
fifth row ish uh
jerry
nope
next step okay go ahead
come up sir
we can help you get the microphone
closer all you have to do is state your
name for the record
sir
and then say your comments please
[Music]
yes
hello my name is samuel
and i like
cats and dogs
and i love everybody who are standing up
for them
thank you that's what's your last name
samuel please maestas okay awesome thank
you
we're glad you're here you want to keep
talking you're doing a great job
thank you so much
we appreciate that
we're glad you're here buddy
okay
that was a great job go ahead next step
please
please be careful
are you sure you're okay yeah okay
my middle name is also grace and i have
all the scars to prove it yeah really
all the aches of pain
okay my name is renee chavez
manny it's good to see you it's a good
after good morning or good afternoon
whatever time
i'm here to speak
because
i was made aware of a situation
a wonderful situation on behalf of
fosters
and how what they do to accommodate
the asc mv i was going to get those
letters together
and
basically we want to help i want to help
we know i know there's numbers galore
these people are incredible
now i know there was a miscommunication
and whatever doesn't matter what matters
is that we need to move forward and we
need to get help in
and everybody wants to help i want to
help i'm a constituent
and i want to help mr thacker i know
he's got a tremendous amount of
responsibility i'm retired i spent 25
years in banking i know what it is to
have those responsibilities probably not
those but
responsibility
but i am speaking on behalf of these
fosters
they are remarkable
they have been terminated okay there was
a lot of confusion there was a lot of
emotion
going on at the time
but what we what i'd like to help do
is bring things to a positive to help
all of you as well
because if we can connect i'm a
community constituent and that's what
i'd like to get involved in is
connecting a lot of the community
to help also
what this foster has done you need to
hear about she turned negative situation
into a positive what was originally
thought to be
an abusive situation she took she
listened to this man she educated him
everything that you're saying i agree
with because
um and in regards to the levels that
need to be addressed the community needs
tremendous education
one of the things on behalf of them also
is that they're saving you hundreds of
thousands of dollars
by the work that they do i see what they
do i've seen what they've done
by taking in the animals they buy their
own
materials the only thing that they rely
on from the shelter is that they give
them
food and or medication
a lot of these fosters are medical techs
so please
please
don't let them go
we'd like to see i know the community
would like to see them continue
to be involved
to help
because we know that the the center
needs the help
so
please
please listen to what i'm saying
and please
you know just reinstate them let's move
forward let's get all the negative out
and let's go forward because we want to
do that
that's what i wanted to say and and
this these people these girls are
wonderful
and you'd be
i mean you'd be losing a lot by letting
them go there was quite a bit
so um i thank you for your time
i really hope if we need to continue so
we can we've got some wonderful ideas to
to share
to help
forward that are going to be cost
effective that can save maybe not even
cost anything but just in the
communication alone that's a big thing
that i saw too when i first got involved
that there was a lot of glitches and
that happens communication needs to be
clear
and concise and everybody needs to be in
order so we all and the fosters need an
order
so
basically you know it's it's wonderful
everybody's doing a great job
everybody's trying
and the fosters are saving money so why
are you going to let that go
that's it i just
hope that you'll take all of this to
hard reconsider reinstate these flusters
we're not sure of how many we've you
know
it's been rather hectic and we haven't
gotten
figures but please reinstate them
because they're
wonderful they help the sick animals
they make space for the shelter so
that's moving things in a positive
forward motion
thank you you're very welcome thank you
for coming out to me thank you thank you
speaking
of
board member ellen's
clint in this regard
concerning that situation that was
referred to
with a foster that um
basically was terminated as a
official foster of the animal service
center
two i think maybe three of your
employees
wrote a letter to this board
explaining the animal services position
regarding
what had happened in the abuse frankly
that our people have been receiving
most of the negativity is coming over
facebook
are there any plans to have these two or
three employees who addressed us
to
use the same vehicle on facebook
so that
some of the naysayers
can see that there are two sides to the
story
for one i was unaware that anybody wrote
the board
i did not know that
two
social media is
for lacking better term a necessary evil
i mean we move a lot of animals through
social media
to that regard
we move
and do very successful things with
facebook however just one person
posting something that's inappropriate
or are not true
kind of poisons the apple or poisons the
batch per se of a positive message we're
trying to spin so what i've been trying
to do through this whole thing is
answer questions that may be coming and
we we try to do that but via a private
message
to the individual
we have not been feeding
this on facebook
because
it's it's like feeding a monster kind of
in a way lack of a better term monster
but
it's
if you if you
if you've ever been involved in a
facebook argument per se quote unquote
you know there's never an end to it and
it's never it's never a good thing
so what we do is
is we say call me
talk to me
love to get the straight answer for you
so no there's no plans for us to go out
on facebook and and say our part of our
point of view our point of view has been
spread across facebook already by the
individuals
they posted the letters that we written
to them
everybody can see our side of it
so
that's that's the plan is is to
continue to spread the good positive
things that the ascmv is doing
well
it seems to me there's a way to do it
without saying that you're
posting this on behalf of the animal
service center
these are individuals employees
who can
post anything they want
but it seems to me that their comments
were so favorable
that
they cry out for
publicity
i
again i'm unaware of anything that was
sent so i can't comment on what the
subject was for him but
i don't know of a way that we can get it
out and also employees are not allowed
to comment
whatever they want to especially while
representing the animal service center
that was the issue with what we had
because we had to terminate the foster
was what happened
under the name as an animal service
center foster and just to be clear to
the board i've said and i've said online
i've said facebook and written in the
letter to the individual they are not
banned from the ascmv they can still
foster they can still come or they can't
foster but they can still rescue
and all it means all you need to do is
just join up with another agency they
can foster for another rescue
that's fine but they can't do it in the
name of the ascmv
so there's still the opportunity for
them to foster
well
i'll leave it to your description thank
you thank you for letting me know that
there's support from the center i
appreciate that
thank you board member ellens and thank
you clint and thank you for the comment
we'll keep going with public comment
good morning harry please state your
name for the record
okay good morning i'm harriet dan house
and can i pass these out to you guys
yes
[Music]
okay
okay so
i'm here today to uh request an
inspection of public records and um i
have it in writing here
but i would like to inspect
and copy the following records a list of
all current fosters
through the animal service center of
messiah valley
as well as a list of fosters who have
been terminated
with within the past five years
and with that the following information
when they were terminated
how long they had fostered
what they were terminated for
and when they were notified of their
turbination
and i'm willing to pay whatever fee is
necessary to get these records
electronically copied or paper copied
i've asked the animal service center
several times why i was terminated and
and i requested it in writing
and i have yet to receive an answer on
that a firm answer
i work for the city as well
i took time off from work to come to
this meeting today to get the
information that i've been seeking for
the past month and a half
um
yeah so that's it
thank you
harriet just so you know i will also
email you a copy of the place where you
can submit this request thank you to the
because i have your email i think
thank you next up please
come on down state your name for the
record
hi i'm cheryl hayne excuse the mask i
hope i sound okay i'm just trying to be
careful
sure is that better
not echoing anymore all right
so i'm a new foster i've been fostering
since may and had the unfortunate
experience of ending up right in the
middle of this current mass when i
started fostering
first i'd like to say i think people
underestimate what fostering costs and
not just economic costs although those
are significant
but also emotional cost
and when
people when you have an animal in your
home
for an extended period of time
there is an attachment that comes and
there is a
concern for the long-term consideration
of the animal and that's what you have
with fosters you have people who care
you have people who buy the pill pockets
to give them the drugs you have people
who buy their beds you have people that
buy their leashes we buy their harnesses
i have probably spent six hundred
dollars on two fosters
i also helped and harriet helped harriet
took
one of my fosters who was getting
adopted out of state
all the way
up to nebraska and met another
carrier to pick him up and take him to
his new home in illinois we have more
animals here than we can handle
i've done fostering i've done animal
advocacy
for
probably 25 30 years never officially
with a shelter before and i cannot
understate
the frustration that i've run into
frustration with
people personalities and those things
shouldn't be in the way of everything
and i don't mean just with the fosters i
mean my staff i mean with trying to get
answers
so
one of the things i have here is a list
and when you're looking through those
packets what you're looking at is 26
letters
from people who are at that rally who
state that the version told
by the staff at the shelter they don't
match
we had children there we had
grandchildren there we had huge numbers
of community members we had 17 fosters
we had at least one employee from the
shelter who was there
off duty voicing her own
situation and we were all off duty none
of us were representing the shelter and
none of us were rallying against the
shelter we were rallying against the
laws that allow
three dogs to be returned to a place
where one two fosters walked in to see
four dead dogs on the ground
and they were asked to let those dogs go
back after having them for three months
in their home
and in their care
we also
have issues with the
evident
evidently there's an opinion and because
somebody is about to volunteer they
don't have rights
that they don't have rights to free
expression the first amendment is not
freedom of speech technically when you
add in all the court cases it's freedom
of expression
and holding a rally participating in a
rally organizing it which by the way it
was organized for by multiple people it
was not one person but one person had
terminated for that
it was not organized and put
to be against the shelter i am sorry if
the shelter staff felt differently
i also did not see
mr thacker there he knew about that
rally for several days beforehand he
knew the press was going to be there
one of the items in your packet
is from a press person who was there and
saw what was going on
and the description
on his termination letter versus what
happened
but either way there is
a right of non-retaliation against
volunteers for freedom of expression
they weren't representing
foster schneider was not representing
the shelter
when she
organized it helped with it we weren't
recognizing the felt shelter when we
went up
you were returning the dog was being
returned not by the shelter they were
picking them up which foster snyder
mentioned three different times one
before they arrived one in the middle
and one at the end
that doesn't match up with what the
shelter staff is saying but they weren't
there for the one at first 23 people 23
constituents
at least four of them are people when
you were doing your go bond came to my
house i was brand new back into the city
i grew up here and came back after 50
years
i'm from places where all dogs are fixed
before they leave the shelter all cats
are fixed
it's a very different world other places
and i get it and i get how hard it is
and i do want to say and it's off
subject
my past history i'm a compliance officer
i work for higher education i work for
law schools
when you're mentioning the difficulty in
getting a veterinarian veterinarian are
considered professional licenses
there are scholarship opportunities and
grant opportunities one of the things
that keeps a professional from coming
and taking a job for 110 000 which
sounds like a lot but it's not we all
know that
it's not a lot of money you have to
either have dedication or nothing else
to do
and that's not the kind of person you
want
but there are programs state and federal
to help them handle their student loan
debt because that's what's keeping them
from coming
they just borrowed 450 000 they're going
to have to pay back monthly and they're
being offered 110 000
but there are programs to help them pay
that back
and working to make sure that's included
when you go out and talk to them about
coming to why come to new mexico we do
have a professional scholarship that
will pay their to their interest on
those loans
there are federal programs that you can
pay back based on your income
so they're not spending
advice
even if all they borrowed was 200 and
thirteen thousand i think is what the
227 thousand which is for just the
stafford loan and most of them
prioritize that the monthly payments
twenty eight hundred dollars on that
loan
how are they going to 110 a year pay
that back
but there are people that can help with
putting that out there and how to
help show how to make it affordable to
take a job in an area like this
especially a job where they can
accomplish so much
and that's the difficulty
in the financial aid field we always had
so i just wanted to add that because i
think when you're looking at what you
can offer them that's something that
could be very valuable to a lot of
people who are walking out with debt and
have no idea how they're going to pay
back those loans
and feed their family and clothe their
children thank you
i do have some additional
public records requests because these
are things that in your package you'll
see that i've asked for and haven't
received or that
foster snyder has asked for others
one is the policies and procedures
manual covering the fostering program
i've asked for it numerous times you'll
see the requests in that packet for it
and haven't gotten it a request a public
records request in this state can be
oral or in writing oral didn't work
in writing didn't work
now in official format we're going to
try again
because to help in what we see is a huge
problem these are some of the things we
need thank you if you can bring it up
that would be great i would appreciate
it and i would also like to know i
looked all over the web so i could not
find who the
person okay
well the city clerk christine rivera can
help but i'll i'm gonna send harry a
message but then i'll also follow up
with you if
this
okay awesome we'll follow up thank you
thank you very much
next up
hello good afternoon or morning
as you guys can tell i'm a little bit
nervous it's my first time ever speaking
um but hello my name is michelle
gonzalez i'm actually a student at dacc
um
today i've come to support our fosters
um because i do follow the facebook page
uh for visa
valley
animal services
when i hear about these dogs being
euthanized i think to myself
the animals had a chance
and i'm sorry i get emotional because
you know
they're no different than a human they
have a heart they have they feel they
have feelings
um and when i hear about these little
dogs being euthanized
i think you know they deserve a second
chance if there's members in our
community that are willing to give up
their time
you know get a space for them take them
to their appointments why not give them
a chance
to be able to care for those
animals and
you know and me as a future animal
advocate
i think fosters are amazing
they even make a big impact in our
community
not too long ago we were on a soccer
field and
my little sister said
mommy that doggie needs help
so you know that impacting me be like
hey you know you never know the younger
generations are coming up and as they're
getting older they're realizing hey you
know these little animals need help
they might even be our future
veterinarians if you even think about it
so
i've known foster schneider
for a while now and
even though if it's not her dogs like
she still helps out not too long ago my
little dog was sick and i reached out
hey you know i need this how you know
what can i do
and she gives me her advice
you know and i've gone to her home and
everything and the animals look very
very happy
something that really warms my heart me
as a pet owner and maybe as you guys too
as pet owners if you guys have one
you know that's i'm pretty sure that's
something everyone would want to see you
know their pets very happy
you know and
i also took a visit at
a shelter and i've seen two dogs per
kennel and i think about wow you know
what is it like being trapped in a
little kennel for these long hours days
nights when they're
when there's people that have big yards
you know other dogs for them to interact
with and for them to get you know to be
running around and be happy as
animals
so i think having fosters in our
community
is a big impact and can definitely help
many other shelters as well as your
guys's
especially with the numbers going up
with space being so tight and then
i think a lot of dogs lives would be
saved
you know if they give these fosters the
opportunity because they are a great
help to our community and i hope that
deeply in your guys hearts you guys can
realize what difference every foster can
make in our community and the difference
for a shelter
thank you so much
thank you very much for your comment
good job
and i'm going to call up the
next public
comment
further and i have to apologize i have
to run to a
doctor's appointment right now which is
just across the street but
if you can take it over okay i turn it
over to former chair sanchez and i
apologize for having to to run but i'll
be back as quickly as i possibly can
thank you madam chair so is there any
other public comment all right
so we're on to we're on a chair and
board comments are there any comments
from the board this time
all right
mayor protegra thank you thank you i
appreciate everybody that came out today
appreciate the comments um we'll
definitely look into it have some
further conversations with
mr thacker about what are our next steps
um to move on um secondly i made mention
last month
about um recommending that we have a
strategic plan former vice chair sanchez
um clint you were not here but i hope
bernie sent that over i think this is an
important thing to
do in
in
visioning right what the center is
is going to work on for the next
three to five years and so if we could
get that scheduled and on the books that
would be helpful
and then
finally i
[Music]
i want to say that
if if you're not familiar with me or
aware what my expertise is i worked in
many years 27 and a half years in the
child welfare
world and we worked with our foster
parents and
i know how invaluable our fosters
were to us in that
and that scenario
there were also rules and regulations
that they had to follow very
specifically
um and i i'm going to to say that again
that there's rules and regulations but
i'm getting the feeling
that people are unaware of what those
are and um
i'd like to um publicly um
asked clint
to get us those policies and procedures
for foster so and volunteers i think
those are all very important we need to
be as transparent as we can if you have
a website those things need to be put up
on those websites so there isn't any
question
also i want to be clear
chair sanchez
in terms of ipra requests what sort of
process
because we are an entity that serves
both the city and the county and then
for some reason people are not familiar
with the process for these sort of joint
right
groups and so
clint if you could be clear about what
those processes are specific to the
animal services center as it relates to
ipra requests
and where they might send it how they
can request it that would be helpful if
it's not on our website on the ascmv
website it should probably be there and
if you could
tell us specifically how to get to that
point and what your process in the time
frame by which when people request when
they can expect it thank you chair
thank you mayor president
okay
seeing that there are no other board
comments then i'll ask for a
motion and a second for adjournment
remember my counselor can't do that
okay
move by mayor protegra i'll second the
motion so we'll call this meeting
adjourned at 11 21 am thank you all for
coming
this uh this morning
you