foreign
[Music]
you're now live okay so welcome back to
the second part of our meeting this is
going to be the work session of Las
Cruces City Council
today is Monday May 24th 2021 is
approximately 1 11 p.m and so we're
going to begin with the pet of the week
and Clint are you going to be presenting
the pet pets
yes sir I'd love to do that for you can
you see my screen yes
all right count of the week is Ziggy uh
he's a young mother she's a young mother
just two sweet kittens but they've moved
on and Ziggy would love to be part of
your family she's super loving available
for adoption at the ascove
[Music]
and
the dog of the week is Sarah Connor
eight months old a medium-sized breed
loves getting that attention from
individuals from people
and has a lot of energy so I need
somebody to to run them around for them
again female Spade these are both ready
to go home uh with you and your family
please contact us at the center Animal
Service Center also an exciting
announcement is our off sites our backup
and running of the farmers market we're
there Saturdays 9 A.M to 12 p.m last
Saturday was a great success everybody
said they were happy to see us back
so thank you
so Clint that's the first time I've seen
a pet with the first and last name
uh isn't that isn't that name isn't that
the name of someone in from The
Terminator
yeah yeah I believe so we're not gonna
get in trouble by using that name
I don't think so okay
long time ago the city got in trouble
for calling the breath analyzer
called the Batmobile and Hollywood Came
Calling and said hey you can't use that
name so
no
we can get her change they can name the
dog whatever they want if they adopt it
all right well we'll we get sued we'll
direct them your way
thank you mayor okay so next we're gonna
go to jobs of the week
so is that going to be you Dr bayadas
okay
yes Mr Mayor this is Francisco payares
with economic development for today's
jobs of the weekend please let me know
if you're able to see the presentation
can you see that yes excellent for
today's jobs of the week we have an
internal auditor that's what the city of
Las Cruces and that position closes on
June the 4th of 2021 there's also um
some positions available for Cooks at
the Courtyard by Marriott this position
these positions close on on June the
10th for 2021 there's also position
available at Rios de Luz Home Health
it's for an office assistant that
position closes also on June uh the 10th
for 2021 there's also positions
available at the Messiah Valley public
housing authority and that's for rental
assistance Specialists and those
positions will close also on June the
10th for 2021 and we also have positions
available at Frank Supply Company this
is with rental yard sorry that they're
offering a rental yard technician
position and that one closes in August
August the 10th of 2021. also New Mexico
workforce connections is carrying
several um online events for job fairs
so there's a virtual Town Hall event for
veterans in transitioning active duty
and spouses and that one is on this
Thursday at 9am there's also an event
for Mountain Shadows Home Care virtual
recruitment event that one is also on
Thursday that one is at 2 p.m and
there's also an aprendamos virtual
recruitment event that's on Tuesday June
1st at 3 P.M and these positions are
actually under the employee name.com
for upcoming and recorded virtual events
you can go to for the full list of jobs
internships and volunteer opportunities
of course the webpage employee name.com
as well as for the city of Las Cruces
jobs is government jobs.com forward
slash careers for slash Las Cruces and
the contact information for New Mexico
workforce connections at
575-524-6250 and they're located right
here in 226 South Alameda Boulevard here
in Las Cruces New Mexico thank you Mr
Mayor okay thank you Dr bayadas
okay so next is going to be our covid-19
update and I believe fire chief Jason
Smith is going to be presenting today
good afternoon mayor members of council
Jason Smith fire chief uh so I'll be
doing the covid-19 task force report
today
currently doniana county is turquoise
our positivity rate is 2.33 percent
uh fully vaccinated we're up to 50 in
the county
85 000 almost 86 000 individuals
state of New Mexico is also uh inching
closer to that 70 percent Mark with a
single dose for our residents here in
the state
and go to the next slide
and continuing on uh some news that came
out last week the FDA approved Pfizer
their vaccine to actually be
refrigerated for up to four weeks so
instead of just being a shorter amount
of time
we now have longer that we can store
That vaccine at normal refrigerator
temperatures
lcfd is still participating in the
homebound vaccinations as well as now
incorporating some businesses where
we're scheduling small pod sites
specific to a business where we go and
we can administer the vaccine to
employees
after hours and Saturday events are
doing quite well there's good attendance
at those events
also they're planning to do a farmer's
market event in June
Las Cruces Public Schools is moving
along with their 12 to 17 year old
vaccinations and their pod sites which I
believe are on Wednesdays
and overall the update on the Asylum
refugees I'm just keeping that on our
radar the Annunciation house in El Paso
has capacity and there are no changes
there
and with that that concludes the update
on the covet 19.
thanks Chief I just want to take a
minute to thank you in your department
for
taking the vaccinations to those that
are homebound also want to take a moment
to recognize mayor Pro tem Gandara that
was her suggestion on how we can get
them out to those and it's been working
out really well
so thank you for the two of you for your
ideas
oh counselor counselor Flores and
counselor Vasquez
thank you Mr Mayor and thank you chief
um
for that report Jason Smith that is and
um I Heard on national TV I believe was
NBC over the weekend at New Mexico has
gone to 70 but I'm pretty sure that's at
least with one dose of the two dose
vaccines so they are reporting us being
over 70 percent now
um but I have a question
um
so
Jason is there vaccines that are not uh
when you set up a vaccination site so
there are vaccines that are not haven't
been used
um when you have a vaccine event
do you have them left over
mayor councilor sword fire chief Jason
Smith
from some of the numbers I don't have a
specific case that I could point back to
and say yes this is happening based on
some of the information from acting
Battalion Chief Joe Leos it does seem
that some of the vaccines may not be
used that day so this guidance from the
FDA definitely takes away some of that
time constraint for using that vaccine
and gives us some more latitude to get
those shots into arms
oh excellent excellent uh so good to
hear that
um
yeah so how many uh people got
vaccinated last week
you know yeah councilor surgeon I don't
have that uh information for me right
now I can try to get that before the
next
work group and the next Health PRC and
try to pass that along or I'll get that
to all the counselors
okay I'm just wondering from week to
week are we increasing decreasing or
staying the same number of uh shots
given
that's the kind of information I'm kind
of curious about that's that would be
really interesting yes sir thank you
I'll ask our Personnel to put that
together and send it out oh thank you so
much that's that's great thank you Mr
Mayor also sorry the information I'm
getting is it's been decreasing we
haven't had as many people wanting to
get vaccinated as we did in the
beginning
that's unfortunate but that's the
situation
uh counselor
Lotus
your muted counselor
thank you Mr Mayor
and thank you Chief Smith
um thank you very much for all your work
and for the fire department's work and
all of this uh do you have any specific
numbers as to how many people you're
reaching the homebound people you're
reaching
mayor councilor Flores fire chief Jason
Smith uh so the new the latest numbers
uh put us at 291 vaccines given uh so
that's individual people that have
actually received the vaccine
we've received 519 referrals
and of that there's been a number of
individuals who have already been
vaccinated or we haven't been able to
contact then another group a smaller set
that actually is advised for other
reasons not to actually receive the the
dose or they've refused to receive the
dose
so okay so of the 519 referrals uh
you've had 291
um people you've been able to vaccinate
persons you've been able to vaccinate
are you still reaching out to the
remainder about over 200 there
yes unless there's other information
that's been received
um that they've already been vaccinated
or they're declining they make a number
of our Personnel uh firefighter Nathan
Carr uh he leads our our group of making
the contact with individuals and they do
try multiple times to call these
citizens and see if they can schedule it
so it is more than just a one a one
phone call attempt
great thank you very much Chief
appreciate all your work
counselor Flores did you get a new
computer
no but um
but it was fixed oh it was fixed oh okay
yeah I didn't have it for several hours
though it took that long to fix it
sounds good
thank you I'm glad you pointed that out
yeah thank you
uh councilor Vasquez
thank you mayor um thank you Chief Smith
um I have a question uh similar to
counselor Stark's question about the
decline in vaccination
um rates or or just vaccination
Acceptance in general
um from the vaccinations that we are
currently getting from the state and
that uh private providers are getting as
well
um do you anticipate that they're at
some point will be an oversupply of
vaccines that we can no longer store
uh
opacity uh and if so do we have a plan
when that
um that moment happens when the supply
is greater than the demand
a mayor Kelsey Vasquez
uh to your point I think like all
medications that you run into they are
produced and they have a shelf life
so I think between the Department of
Health and some of the other
organizations that are kind of
spearheading this vaccination effort and
this push
uh we are going to have to find ways of
being creative to find
people willing to take uh those
vaccinations
we run into that issue here uh outside
of covet with just our regular Pharmacy
that we run in the department where
medications expire because they're not
needed I do think we will run into that
so we're going to have to be creative in
informing individuals to take that step
of getting vaccinated and there probably
will be some vaccines that that go
unused
thank you Chief I appreciate that
honesty and that answer and I think that
definitely seems like a prudent next
step in our vaccination plan um in terms
of the uh incentivizing I don't think we
can afford to do a million dollar
lottery drawing like the state of Ohio
um but I'm sure we can come up with
other creative ways to help
get these vaccines out perhaps
partnering with local businesses as well
um to help do that uh the other thought
as well as some of my family recently
and ciudad Juarez
um have found themselves in positions
where uh even folks that are immuno
immunocompromised within a certain age
Cory are not able to get vaccines in
ciudad Juarez because they have a
shortage of vaccines and I know that
they are our neighbors to the South
well we have a close relationship with
the Mexican consulate and
um some of our friends from Juarez uh
and so folks are are actively looking
for opportunities in El Paso
um and in Southern New Mexico to get
vaccinated from so
um I would hate to see any of those
vaccines go to waste and go unused but
when they're just 35 miles south of us
and there would be tremendous
opportunity I think to get some of those
folks vaccinated
um and so perhaps that's something that
we can look into
um as as vaccines are in uh danger of
expiring
um you know we would love to see what we
can do to help some of our neighbors out
from uh from the south considering how
closely living our communities are and
and how it actually just contributes to
the regional Public Health that we
outcomes that I think we all want to see
since we are just um to a large degree
one large community uh so I wanted to
just bring that up Chief I don't know if
it's even legally possible but maybe
something worth looking into in terms of
of having uh vaccination drives perhaps
for our neighbors in the South if that
if it ever comes to having to waste them
great thank you thank you okay councilor
I think uh what you have is a good idea
I know that I think I read a report
where
President Biden is looking to send 80
million vaccines outside the United
States
I I know that um in fact I just texted
him
um judge Samaniego and Mexican consulate
I know we were working
between channels between Mexico City and
Washington to see if we can get vaccines
to uh our neighbors there in Juarez
because as you mentioned we are one
region and a lot of times they come over
to El Paso and then you know vice versa
El pasos come to Las Cruces
and I think that it's to the point where
it's to the point where I mean if
someone wants a vaccine they can get it
it's not like three months ago where we
had waiting lists it's it's it's this is
this is it's available if people want it
they can get it and that's that's the
key so you bring up some very good
points
we've got uh councilor Ben Cuomo
counselor beta Stevie counselor sorg and
mayor protection
thank you mayor and chief Smith I
sincerely apologize if I missed this but
um wondering about
um data by ZIP code and if that has been
available yet did I miss it I really
apologize if I did
mayor councilman Como Chief Smith I know
that wasn't part of the presentation
um is there a specific
data sets that you're looking for in
that the number of vaccines given per
zip code yeah I'm really curious about
um Equity issues and I think
um potentially with the
if there are certain zip codes that are
significantly lower than others I think
it could help with targeting it could
help with
um the kind of efforts that are being
made in the community where we could
have events right I think it's
um that kind of data could tell us a lot
County Wide especially Chief if you're
having
conversations with
um you know County officials as well in
terms of coordination I am just really
curious in terms of
um data by ZIP code
um just like we had data by ZIP code for
a number of infections I'd like to see I
know that that was a state effort and
I'm just curious you had somebody had
presented to us that that was
um something that was coming and I just
haven't quite seen it yet
uh councilman Como and Council Vasquez
I'll look into both of your your
questions or your comments and I'll see
if they have access to that data and how
we can package it for you guys for a
presentation
that'd be wonderful thank you chief
counselor beta stuvi
thank you mayor and thank you Chief I'm
going to be able to help you out with a
few of those questions that were just
brought up
um one of the items that we do have
um there has been populated by the Doh
the high social vulnerability index and
low vaccination rate index and it is by
ZIP code
um I have screenshots and some slides I
will send them to our city manager so
that he can distribute them out to you
all as well but it does give and I'll
just briefly um give off our top
um three and this is by the county so
the top three zip codes
um that have the lowest number of
vaccinations and this is data um being
used it ends at May 18th so there is
we're about a week of a lag but Sunland
Park so 88063 has a 37.6 rate Chaparral
88081 has a 39.9 and Anthony
88021 has a 46.5 percent rate on the
opposite end in Las Cruces the highest
vaccination areas
are Las Cruces
88005 with 57.2
um Las Cruces 88007 with 56.7
Vado
88072 with 56.9 and Las Cruces
88001 with 50.7
so that is some of the items
we also have a
a little bit more detail with our
vaccination rates for partial rates we
are keeping
um just a little bit of below the state
amount for our vaccination rates but it
is not with the same discrepancy as we
saw earlier before our partial rate was
63.2 percent of our eligible population
had received at least one dose and we
did have 52.5 that had received both of
those dosage
with the new regulations of having the
12 plus group in we did see a little bit
of a jump with those getting that
vaccine
um but we also had about
um 62 percent of our eligible population
for the vaccine registered so there is a
little bit of work to do with that but I
think one of the things that we're
looking at and because the vaccine is a
little bit more accessible
US changing and making sure that we're
able to go to locations is going to be
important for the vaccine so instead of
putting so much effort on just
registering people which is very
important as well but also making sure
that we're going out and just doing the
vaccinations and going to those sites
and and focusing on areas that we can
have that Mobility I think is going to
be important as we move on
so thank you mayor and all that
information
um as I said with our city manager all
right thanks
uh thanks for the information that was
really good I I wondered what the
percentages was as far as zip code so
thank you for that thank you councilman
Como for the question announcer sorg and
the ameripro 10.
um just let me comment on the
information that's been gathered or
talked about here uh much of what you
all are been asking about and the
information given by uh Casa beta stupid
you know stuff I've been wondering about
just didn't think about it at this
moment in time
um so I'm go so glad you shared all that
with us uh appreciate it so much
um and now the question that I wanted to
ask is gone I don't know what it is
anymore so I'm gonna pass thank you
mayor
yeah
mayor Pro Tem
thank you
um yeah I appreciate the thoughtful
questions you know at our vaccine task
force meetings we get some pretty
incredible data
um that's being given to us I typically
put them on my story so I'm taking
screenshots and and giving sending them
um connecting it to Facebook so you
might want to check that out
um but I'm wondering
um Chief Smith that we can get on the
off
um like on our work sessions because
we're doing this at every council
meeting and work session that we just
make sure that that our our Council as a
whole gets that information because it's
out there it's not that it hasn't been
given or it's not being worked on it
it's there and so I'd like that
information to be there's a specific
PowerPoint that is given by both um Miss
Don Sanchez
um the hospitals
um the university
um and we have been Ray um Senator Ben
Ray luhan's office represented and so
we're getting a a really detailed
um PowerPoint presentation with all
those numbers and some of the questions
that we are asking and I want to make
sure that it's cleared today about
Equity that we ensure that our the
people that are registered and or that
want it today get it and so it is true
to a certain extent that we're seeing a
decrease in people going to these
planned events and we have now changed
Direction in a sense to have more mobile
events and so one of the things that I
reached out to quite a few of my
partners in the faith-based community
um councilor bengomo and your other job
you were one of the ones I've reached
out to but several pastors and there
will be events and we're partnering with
La Clinica de Familia
um Amador Health Center those are all
folks that you know
that work with
and for our our more underserved
population
um and and so one of the things that got
brought up this last time was the area
up at the East Mesa
um Oregon those areas that maybe
typically people have difficulty with
transportation and or information and
just last week we understood that there
was going to be an increase in Spanish
um information going out to the radio
stations but also Telemundo and just
other areas because one of the things
that got sent relayed to me was that
Transportation was a big deal and if
there was a way to get mobile units out
to that area so that's something that
Don
um and Steve through office of emergency
management is looking at doing so if you
have areas in your in your District that
you think
um you might want to consider a mobile
unit let us know and we'll definitely
will give that send that information up
the chain and make sure that
that that's that that happens
um there is some size like El calvario
um and and we've worked with the
Catholic
the Catholic churches and the diocese
has been very open to to partnering with
us and just trying every which way to
get people
um
to get people if they if they want it to
get them the shot the other thing we
talk a lot about is vaccine hesitancy
um and what we're doing related to that
and so some of the things that um have
been challenged is are no longer like
we're getting it into pediatrician
offices and different offices because
people are more inclined or likely to
write to hear that kind of information
from somebody they trust so a lot of
that work has happened and I'm not
perfect per se but
um you know we have someone and Tessa
conservate this to be helped me with the
group that at New Mexico State
University they're doing some data
um some some capturing of data and do
and and be it it sounds like a phone or
focus group type of thing and getting
some really incredible
um actually some very good information
about why why the hesitancy and some of
it is right they just don't they don't
trust they may not have a regular
provider they're here during you know
misinformation or things like it's
genetically going to alter me or I won't
my I might not be able to have a child
or a pregnancy I'm worried about that
and all those things are are just
misinformation that we just have to keep
um speaking to
um and and and and Mandy Gus has done an
excellent job one of the biggest things
is just making sure we have the same
message moving forward
um and so with that um I I know Tessa
constructed this to be unmuted her her
um
unmuted so I wondered if she had
anything further to say about that mayor
thank you sir did you want to if you
don't mind counselor uh councilor
Beethoven did you want to chime in on
that
yes thank you Marin thank you mayor Pro
tem the only
um addition I would say uh with the nmsc
group another item that they're going to
explore as well is identifying
um trusted voices within those
communities that are hesitant
um so that we can work with those groups
as well because
um oftentimes it is not going to be as
effective if we bring in an outside
person to talk about some of these
issues if we can get the message with an
already trusted voice and so if you do
know of hesitant groups and
um or do you know of identifiable
trusted voices within those hesitant
groups um that is something that we are
more than happy to get a referral for
our name and speak with them as well so
thank you mayor Pro tem and thank you
mayor
before I go to counselor counselor I may
counselor beta suvi so I wonder you talk
about trusted voices I just thought of
La Clinica de Familia a lot of the zip
codes that you were talking about I know
they have locations there I wonder if if
they haven't been reached out to or
maybe they're I can't remember I don't
think I put them on the council on the
task force did I or I wonder if that
might be good because you know they they
trust them and they work with them daily
and and I wonder if they can let them
know hey this is important and
today at the very minimum if we can at
least get the first shot because the
studies I see they're anywhere from 70
to 80 effective
um and and that's better than you know
that's better than no shot and so has
that been discussed at all about using
La Clinica yes sir and they are um
helping out with vaccination efforts and
so what I can do is I will uh Circle
back and see if they are willing to even
um work with the states uh trusted
voices campaign there's a little bit of
media or if we can tie them in um to any
sort of messaging as well
perfect thanks okay counselor sword just
real quickly I remember uh if there was
somebody on the uh City uh government
here perhaps maybe the leader of the
whole city government would be the right
person to contact New Mexico State
University to see if they would be
willing to offer
um a free ticket or two to a event in uh
and they're and they're if they if the
person gets vaccinated for those that
are most reluctant Maybe
what do you think of that idea mayor
I think that's great okay maybe maybe we
can buy some tickets to the football
games uh the city and that we can help
sponsor and then give them you know give
them away I don't know we've got to get
Jennifer involves he we can we're
allowed to do that
okay but maybe the university would do
it on their own you know just
offer them themselves well that's
possible worth an ask anyway
basketball might be more important than
football but both
okay that's all thank you okay
um Council Flores
thank you mayor
um I just want to comment on the uh
University student
um or representative who was uh
addressing the covid-19 task force
my understanding
um or I believe it it was abundantly
clear that there will be a population of
um people who will not take will not
have the
um the back will not be vaccinated that
that was my takeaway my takeaway was
that
um there was just no trust and she said
it with almost the dead pen face that
there's just no trust so I I don't know
um
what sorts of measures have to be taken
uh
to convince those who are hesitant and
but I but this particular group seemed
to be uh definitely against it and so I
you know I think that has to be taken
into account for uh the persuasion I
don't I don't think they are open to
being persuaded
um but that was that was my Takeaway on
that
thank you
okay well that'll be your task is to
figure out how to get them to
take it
I'm just kidding all right well that
pretty much concludes our update so
thank you for that chief I appreciate
that
so we've got two items on the agenda the
first one is going to be the 2021
legislative session debrief and we have
Mr Larry Horan our city lobbyist and um
thanks for joining us Larry
uh thank you mayor members of the
council
let me
I'll start the PowerPoint with my share
so mayor members of the council I'll
just run briefly through the the
um highlight of the tracking that we
were that issues that we were following
on behalf of the city of Las Cruces and
then also talk about capital outlay and
as always please let me know if you have
any questions or want to interrupt when
we're on a particular slide and I'm
happy to go into more detail
um the the session ended just a little
over two months ago it was a 60-day
session that began on January 19th and
end on MAR ended on March 20th they had
a total of 814 pieces of legislation
introduced for a 60-day session when
there was actually some money available
that's a significant reduction in volume
of legislation in a in a normal 60-day
session you you would have over a
thousand bills introduced in each house
and so we saw a significant reduction
most most of that was because of rules
placed by the legislature particularly
in the house about limiting the amount
of legislation introduced because of the
challenges with the virtual session
um it was a virtual or a hybrid session
um for all the legislators for for any
members of the public including
Advocates and and people who wanted to
speak with the legislature it was a
completely virtual session the capital
was never opened
um during the session so on behalf of
the city of Las Cruces I tracked 131
different pieces of legislation that may
have had an impact on the city or the
interest and then based upon the
priorities that the city council adopted
last year tracked 44 different pieces of
legislation
um almost immediately following the
session and actually towards the end of
the session there was already a
discussion about a special session to
consider legalization a cannabis and a
couple other issues and so 10 days after
the end of the session and actually the
interesting piece is after the end of a
session the governor has 20 days to act
on legislation that was passed in the
middle of that 10 days after the session
on March 30th she called a special
session and called the legislators back
to Santa Fe
um to
to cons to consider just a couple of
issues one of them was legalization in
cannabis another one was changes to the
Leader Act to allow large projects of
over 350 million dollars to share
um 50 percent of local GRT and state GRT
to go back to the to the entity that's
that actually would be performing on the
project and then there was a legislation
dealing with expungement of certain
criminal records which included cannabis
related convictions and all three of
those pieces of legislation were passed
and signed into law the special session
only it only lasted for two days so they
were done by March 31st right before
Easter
um for Capital outlay funding the city
of Las Cruces had total uh funding
requests for all of our projects of just
over eight and a half million dollars uh
we received Capital outlay funding of
just over 2.3 million dollars for our
direct asks and the Community of Hope
also had a funding request which we
supported we didn't we did not introduce
it for him but
um was we're supportive of and that was
just over 1.8 million dollars as we're
talking about Capital outlay the other
thing that happened this session is the
legislature passed a law that requires
the disclosure of which legislators
funded
um which project so for the first time
after this session we actually have a
list of projects and Who provided
funding for us and that's the first time
that that's happened in New Mexico
um so just a breakdown of what we
received and you may have already
received some of this information so I
won't spend too much time on it but the
Brannigan Cultural Center received a
hundred thousand East Mesa Road
construction 414
000 received 400 000 for the airport
construction our law enforcement
equipment requests 464 000
um septic system Replacements 527 000
and East Madrid Avenue improvements of
four hundred thousand we also have three
different reauthorizations so a
reauthorization is a change for Capital
outlay funding that we we had received
in the past and you can either change
language extend the deadline or actually
change the purpose of the funding and so
um we have to expend the time for our
cinematic infrastructure
um Capital outlay that's been on our
books for a little while
um that was pushed out till June 30th of
we had received in a previous session of
just over 418 000 for Interstate
beautification
that was repurposed for plan design and
construction of median improvements in
the city of Las Cruces and so that
funding got reallocated and now has a
new purpose and then the VMware Dam
improvements we just had to change which
state agency was in charge of of that
project and where we see the funding
from
um legalization of cannabis and I know
this was adopted as a council priority
prior to the session there were three
different pieces of legislation that
were introduced in the special session
and they they kind of got hearings at
the same time and they had some as you
would expect
long and very in-depth discussions of
the legislation they all ended up in the
Senate towards the end of the session in
the Senate Judiciary Committee and it
became apparent towards the end of the
session that the parties were not going
to be able to come to agreement during
the session and and what always happens
or typical is is typical during the
legislative session as you get to the
closing of the session if you have a big
piece of legislation or somewhat
controversial they're reluctant to to
actually introduce it or have it on the
floor for a final vote because then it
can it can clog up all the other bills
that they want to um that they want to
pass and so the legalization failed to
pass during the regular session which is
why the governor almost immediately
um convened a I apologize I convened a
special session
um in the special session cannabis was
the the topic topic that was front and
center and the legalization of of
recreational Cannabis did pass the
legislature and um but the legalization
and sale will be getting no later than
April 1st of 2022. during that during
between now and then the Regulation and
Licensing department has been tasked
with adopting rules and regulations
for licenses issuing of licenses and
rules and regulations for those licensed
business and how they are going to be
able to distribute recreational Cannabis
from our perspective there's an excise
tax of 12 percent that incrementally
grows to a total of 18 by fiscal year
31. there's no tax on medical cannabis
but on a recreational Cannabis that's
what the tax rate will be and wherever a
a distribution center or shop is located
so the city of Las Cruces for instance
when we have a shop within City Limits
the city will receive a third of that
tax revenue so when it's at 12 we'll get
a four percent exercise tax all the way
up to six percent once it reaches a cap
in in FY
um 31 and there is no restriction or
limitation on on programming or any any
place that you will have to allocate
that funding so that will be general
fund Revenue that you will be able to
determine how to you know you have
control over that spending
um there's a there's a plant limit of
six plants per adult that they can grow
themselves or a maximum of 12 per
household
and um the I'm sorry I went a little too
fast on that and the other thing is you
you maintain the authority to make your
determination on zoning so
um regulate time place and manner of
distribution that Authority remains at
the the city level and so you do still
have some Authority as you would under
regular zoning
um as to as far as where you want to
have
um shops be approved to be uh located
and there's also and I'll also mention
there's a a task force that has been
created an advisory task force to
Regulation and Licensing
um to adopt those rules and regulations
and we and the assistant city manager
did submit his interest in application
as he had been in California when when
cannabis was was also legalized and so
that determination hasn't been made
who's going to be on that task force but
we did at least throw a hat in the ring
so we have somebody from Las Cruces
um to potentially represent
uh you'll recall during the session we
had a a meeting to discuss the Civil
Rights Act House Bill 4 and law
enforcement reform so I want to spend a
little bit of time on that
um House Bill 4 was the Civil Rights Act
that came out of meetings during the
interim of a Civil Rights Commission
um to determine whether or not they
should the state should adopt a Civil
Rights Act to allow for a cause of
action
um at the state level for a violation of
the State Constitution that legislation
did pass
and was signed into law so now a citizen
who feels that they have had a had a
constitutional state constitutional
right violated can bring an action for
civil rights constitutional violation in
state court before this legislation was
passed the only remedy they would have
would be to bring a federal lawsuit for
a civil rights violation there there was
a cap on damages of two million dollars
per claimant for occurrence one of the
concerns that the local governments and
and the municipal league and the
association counties really discussed
was that if there was no cap on Damages
that this could really cause significant
financial damage to local governments
they did Pat include a two million cap
per claimant per occurrence that clap
cap also include includes attorney's
fees so a claimant can be awarded
attorney's fees but there is a hard cap
of two million dollars on per claim per
occurrence
um the one thing and there was a lot of
discussion on this it's not just limited
to law enforcement or correctional
officers which is where most of the
issues arise this actually applies to
any governmental actor so that includes
any uh local state employee
um and and to whatever extent it would
apply now under the um with under a
federal cause of action could also
include elected officials but they are
they must be um they are held harmless
so the local government themselves would
be the ones who would be on the hook so
you could not Sue an individual employee
for their actions and then have them
responsible for any um any damages it
has to be paid out paid by the local
government body
um the other piece we talked about
during that that session was Senegal 375
which was a part the proactive law
enforcement reform package that was
pushed by the New Mexico Municipal
League that did several things including
it changed the makeup and duties of the
Law Enforcement Academy board and it
took away certification and
decertification power from that board
and had them Focus solely on developing
and implementing training standards
across the state and it included
Provisions for new training requirements
that they would have for all law
enforcement officers and also for any
any other First Responders including
fire and EMS to deal with people who
were in crisis or dealing with with
mental health issues and also to deal
with First Responders who may be having
struggles with their own mental and
physical health because of job-related
incidents and also included a
peer-to-peer intervention aspect to it
it also added members with experience in
adult education and experience in
dealing with individuals in crisis to
that Academy board to try and
professionalize the training Statewide
um the other thing it did is it created
a new law enforcement certification
board with attorneys in law on both
sides of any issues so
um in criminal law DA's and public
defenders and civil those who practice
in the area of civil rights for
plaintiffs and also for defendants and
added other professionals on the
certification board the task of that
board would have been solely to deal
with certification issues are we in a
certifying officer if we receive if we
receive complaints on officers should
they be suspended or decertified
um
and it put that sold that was their only
function and focus was on certification
and decertification
so the and the other piece that that's
not in there is there's also creation of
a database so that if you had an officer
who had um complaints or sustained
investigations against them in their
department and they left that department
there would be a database that tracked
those issues that go with that officer
so you could try and address the deal
the issue of officers jumping from
Department Department before they get
disciplined and so you you deal with one
of the one of the main problems that you
see in a lot of these use of force
incidents of officers who leave one
department and then go to another
department and there's nothing to kind
of track that record
um the bill actually passed both houses
but it was amended on the final night of
the session in the house and they
removed most of the members of the Law
Enforcement Academy board and so the
governor vetoed the legislation because
of those changes
um that were made in the house and so uh
the municipal league is already working
during the interim to continue work on
that legislation and push it forward as
an ongoing effort for law enforcement
reform to give our local governments the
tools that they need so that you know we
can avoid those those causes of actions
hopefully that would occur because of
house before by by better training and
giving our our police our law
enforcement and fire
um First Responders the tools they need
to effectively deal with the citizens of
our
um in our state
the other legislation that we did
discuss during that that work session
there were several pieces that related
to law enforcement reform including
Senate Bill 227 and 192 by Senator Lopez
um and um and then also a deadly force
reporting Senate Bill 274 by Senator
Sadia Lopez that were introduced none of
those measures passed so the only
significant change at least at this
point that we have as related to um
law enforcement and also constitutional
violations is the passage and enactment
of house bill 4.
um so we did you did pass a resolution
in support of the legislation endorsed
by a coalition of sustainable
communities Community solar did pass and
was signed into law this year and I know
that that's been an ongoing effort and
we've supported that for several years
in the past
um Senate Bill 112 the sustainable
economy task force was also passed and
signed into law Senate Bill 83 the local
Choice energy act did not pass and so
that those were all some of the key
issues from the Coalition of sustainable
communities and we did track and support
that that legislation
uh the other just a few more pieces and
and then I'll stand for questions the
joint resolution to increase the
permanent to
um
allocate 1.25 from the Permanent Fund
for early childhood education did pass
that is not subject to Signature by the
governor and so once it passed then it
was then it will be put on the next
general election ballot in 2022 and it
will be up to the voters as to whether
or not um that allocation actually
occurs the only the significant change
was the original ask was for a one
percent
distribution that was increased to one
and a quarter percent
um the Elizabeth whitefeld end of life
options act excuse me what passing was
signed into law they did have
discussions on exempting Social Security
frame from income tax that did not pass
um nor did the local government tobacco
product sales ordinance that would have
given you the authority to enact
stricter regulations as it relates to
sale of tobacco and E-cigarettes that
did not pass
um the small loan percentage rate
legislation we there was a bill that
almost made it to the finish line
um it was was a compromise by some of
the parties involved but not all of them
it happened in the house to a Senate
bill
and um they they changed they allowed a
higher cap for certain loans and then
imposed the 36 percent for loans over I
believe eleven hundred dollars that did
not end up passing because they could
not agree between
um the house and the Senate as to what
which bill should fasten so that died
upon adjournment and public Banking Act
which we also supported failed to pass
the legislature so
um although the the amount of
legislation was down uh there were some
pretty significant uh efforts that that
made it to the finish line that folks
been working on for a very long time
um so now as it seems early since we're
only in May but we have to start looking
forward to the next session we'll start
next year January 18th for a 30-day
session the interim committees have
started to meet legislative finance
committee met started meeting actually
last month was in Las Cruces last week
and they're they're full into their
agenda the majority of the other interim
committees are having their
organizational meetings now and so
they'll start meeting in Earnest next
month in June so it's time that we start
thinking about and our plan for the
interim of how do we want to develop our
capital outlay and policy priorities
um during this interim and going into
the next session and some of the things
we did last year is we had individual
meetings with counselors to discuss
Capital priorities kind of in
legislative forecasts and and Outlook
and then also then began to have some
meetings with um with legislators to
start pushing those priorities
beforehand this year we could actually
start meeting with the legislators a
little earlier because we don't have an
election so we do know who we're going
to have in the next session as you'll
recall last year we had a lot of new
legislators that we weren't sure who was
actually going to be in office until
after the November election so we're in
kind of on a compressed timeline the
other thing as and as I was very courage
to hear the covet update and and what
things that are happening one of the
things that got put on the back burner
last year almost exclusively because of
covid was we had begun having
discussions with the administration
human services department and Department
of Health discuss Behavioral Health
Hospital in the southern part of the
state in Las Cruces and also to talk
about
how do we how do we better serve the
community in the southern part of the
state really need to be able to health
issues as the focus has shifted off
covid I think the time is right for us
to continue to try and have that
conversation so as we're going into the
to the next legislative session if
that's the direction we want to go that
we can we can start working on that now
rather than waiting until we get to Too
Close to the session
and I think that's my last one and so
I'm happy to have go now having me go
back may be a little tricky but I'll do
my best because I'm not technology very
good but I'm happy to stand for
questions
thanks Larry
uh let's see here we've got questions
from councilor well I don't know
councilor Flores was that from last
meeting you know you know how you like
to end up oh it's a new yeah yeah
because I just want to jump in there and
thank you
thank you thank you Mr Mayor and thank
you so much Larry
um
is there um
is it possible for you to or would you
please
um
send us copies of the bills that we
supported
um or not the ones that were somewhat
controversial
um
for example uh hb4 Civil Rights Act
um
can can we get that final the final
verbiage on that do you know if that's
ready
uh codification
yes I can I can send so I I just want to
make sure I send you the right thing
um rather than a reporter synopsis you
would like the legislation itself
okay and if if we wanna
and I don't want to overwhelm you
because they are all available those
that passed they are in a final version
that I can send you
um so if you want me to cover the ones
that I covered in in this I'm happy to
provide those bills some of them are
pretty significant so for instance
cannabis legalization is going to be
around 300 pages but I'll get them to
you I'm happy to do that that's fine
yeah that would be fine because
um there are certain things that I know
that we all
part of Oregon or a guest or whatever
and
um and many times uh what we think
passed or the the parts that we thought
pass didn't and in the end uh there's
legisl there the legislators are going
back and forth and they're they're
saying well look if you had this
language then we'll accept you know what
you want and so
um I just want to see the entire
language
as to what the codification is in its
final you know stage and
um and then
um
if uh yeah so I need to see that
especially the one uh the hb4
um and then as far as
um
the HB 49 what did you sit in on any of
that legislative stuff I mean you know
the goings-on you know when they're
deliberating
hang on if you give me just a second let
me pull up the bill so I'm not talking
on the wrong one what is HP 49 counselor
Flores the security tax on social
security oh
it seems like such a not right violation
of double taxation I mean Social
Security Is We I paid on it you know I
mean we all pay on it when it's being
taken out it's taken up you know off the
top and now New Mexico taxes at a lot of
other states don't
so mayor and councilor florist and and
I'll pull up the the analysis real quick
while I'm talking to you but the issue
that comes up particularly with that
bill
is that the legislators are in favor of
it conceptually
but it creates such a fiscal impact
because if they'd lose that Revenue
trying to find a replacement for it
and so that's usually where that breaks
down so they say they're in support of
it but it'll have a significant impact
on the state budget and so then it
typically fails and that's why I want to
pull up if you give me just a moment
um it that's what it is my concern is
that
my concern is that uh people who are on
Social Security have already paid for
that tax
and and it's not really an income person
I mean the state of New Mexico sees it
sees it as an income the IRS sees it as
an income does not see it as an excuse
me the IRS does not see it as an income
because the taxes were already paid on
that previously so it seems to me that
the legislators should really be working
with economic development in the state
of New Mexico to make sure that we're
not taxing uh people who are 65 and
older on Social Security and depending
on that income I mean it may not be a
lot of money to uh people are earning
you know 80 to 100
000 a year but it's a lot of money who
for people especially here in New Mexico
for crying out loud I mean here we are
you know the poorest state in the
country and we're taxing our elders I
mean that's
it just seems so immoral to me so
um
if you if you could you know uh next
time around that's definitely one of my
priorities and we passed a resolution
here uh you know in support of uh not
taxing uh so we definitely have to keep
an eye on that
and um
so uh Larry I don't mean to in any way
burden you but um on sb227 that was a
police misconduct that didn't pass and
but uh hb4 the Civil Rights act as it's
called Uh was passed
um did you say that the liability
extends to elected officials or is that
what is is that set forth strictly in
that statute now
uh mayor and counselor so so anyone
acting on behalf of the public entity it
would be subject to
so which includes City councils City
councilors Mayors
Municipal Municipal leaders and and I
would and mayor and counselor and I
would defer
um to miss Vega Brown for any
clarification but I don't believe that
unless
it does not count towards your vote so
if you vote on a a piece of legislation
or an ordinance it would be if you
violated or an alleged violation of
someone's constitutional rights in your
role as a city councilor but I do not
believe it it extends to legislation
itself okay that's why I'd like to see
that that particular sure legislation
and mayor and counselor Flores I'll tell
you I thank you for your giving me a
moment to pull it up but and the social
security income tax the issue that
always gets it is so in FY 22 the state
estimates they would lose 83 million
dollars if they remove the tax on social
security 87 million dollars in FY 23 and
by fy25 it escalates to almost 100
million dollars and 99 million dollar
negative fiscal impact for the state so
what happens is it's The Balancing Act
between if we're going to lose that tax
revenue where are we going to make it up
and if they they typically can't find a
place for that that's where that
legislation usually runs into problems
but you know thank you so much for
reporting uh Larry but I I just I I just
have to State it and restate it and say
it over and over again that that's 83
million dollars are taking out of a very
vulnerable group of people retired
people
in the poorest state in the country I
mean you would think that they're the
legislators who are so concerned about
this and or the powers that be
um would really get working on
developing our economy or bringing that
money somewhere else I think that when
the leg later meets I the feeling I get
is that they go on with their happy
lives and then 30 to 60 days out of
their lives they come they think you
know they address certain issues and in
between they don't do anything to make
sure that this sort of situation
uh you know doesn't go on anymore so
um I mean I'm very upset about that on
behalf of uh those of us who do receive
Social Security
um and I I can't imagine I I can't
imagine I I know that there are people
who live on those checks they depend on
those checks and 83 million dollars
that's a chunk of change taken out of a
vulnerable group of people thank you so
much Larry thank you Mr Mayor
thank you counselor and Jennifer Vega
Brown has raised her hand so she
probably is going to discuss uh the
questions you asked counselor Flores and
then I actually have a something I'd
like to add to that because
um I recall from some didn't happen
years ago so Jennifer
thank you mayor thank you Council
um I'm just to follow up on what Mr
Horan said I believe that house bill 4
does not apply to any vote that you may
make in an open meeting and it also does
not apply to anything you say in an open
meeting I'll have to look at the final
version of that but I think they're
that is the parameter
okay so let me let me share this with
you Jennifer this happened years and
years ago
when there was a gentleman's club that
wanted to come into Las Cruces
and the city council did not did not
want to allow it
so they denied it so then they appealed
and it came back that
um
the city was denying their civil rights
I mean they're they're right to have
this type of a business
so it was negotiated that if they were
that the city was to allow it but that
they had to they had to pick a
particular area that they could place it
and then that's how uh the area where
off of uh
17th Street or I don't know where where
FedEx is I don't know what the name of
that street is that's why you see and I
don't know if it's even completed that
gentlemen's club called the Bronx
that's why it was really regulated to
that area because
um of the potential of violating one's
civil rights so I'm thinking that that's
what they're referring to
when when if they wanted to sue council
members for violating their civil rights
because that
I I seem to recall specifically they
said if you don't allow that you're
violating their rights to to have this
and so that's when the federal judge
kind of negotiated with the city and
said listen you guys need to allow you
you guys pick a Zone and that's where if
that's where it's going to be that's
where it's going to be from this point
on but you can't keep saying no
and and
um
that that's that's what I recall that's
what I wanted to point out
and then I want to Circle back to Larry
uh forgive me for jumping ahead of uh
um counselor beta Steve but real quick
Larry because this is germane to the
discussion so when will uh shops be able
to start selling marijuana
mayor members of council that's that has
to be at least by April 1st 2022. when
those rules and regulations are adopted
there are several incremental
pieces that deal with rules for
licensing by January 1st and starting to
process some applications by September
1st but they'll start processing
applications for shops by January 1st of
2022. I did have a conversation with
Linda Trujillo who's the superintendent
of Regulation and Licensing she's a
former legislator from Santa Fe she she
is actually hoping to have those rules
and regulations in place prior to April
1st of next year but that is the hard
deadline
um for beginning of actual sales
okay and the reason why I ask is because
we and I don't know if ifo has a
particular date I mean that's still kind
of a ways away but I think we need to
have a work session on where the
particular because it allows us to have
the zoning much like
um
the gentleman's club that I was talking
about on the on the federal side I think
we need the council needs to discuss if
we're gonna have a particular type of
Zoning for
cannabis shops because
the information I'm getting obviously is
you know if you have you can it has to
be you know certain distance hopefully
from schools or churches or whatever but
also if you have it
um I know just from the the medical
marijuana that some of the businesses
that they had it there you know they it
was causing a lot of a lot of
grief for them because they could smell
it and the customers could smell it and
and so I think that's a that's something
there that we need to look at uh soon
to figure out if we're going to have any
particular zoning that we we want it to
be you know Act so that's what I wanted
to say and mayor and members of the
council and I know that wasn't a
question but to offer a little bit of
information and I'm happy to work
offline with uh Mr peely and staff so
superintendent I spoke with
superintendent Regulation and Licensing
also representative Martinez who was
prime one of the primary sponsors of the
legislation there's going to be some
presentations and work and work groups
they're making and they may actually be
some recordings of that so some panels
having some discussions
that are going to be available there's
also a lot of information available on
Regulation and Licensing website and
then also the municipal league is going
to has already started some of the work
on those zoning issues and they're also
anticipating a presentation at their
annual conference and so there's a lot
of a lot of folks are going to be
dealing with this
um same issue so I'm happy to to work
with staff and help kind of Corral some
of that so we can help
give you a presentation that's going to
be helpful to to address those questions
and concerns you may have
that sounds good looks like uh ikani uh
raised his hand uh ikani you wanted to
jump in about this issue yes hello mayor
uh and uh Larry it's great I appreciate
the information that has been shared
just to give uh mayor you and Council
and Steph a heads up we have a scrub
through uh the 100 plus pages of
legislation in House Bill 2 of the
legalization of cannabis we're meeting
with staff this week to begin our
discussions uh we're going to come to
you uh within the upcoming weeks to have
our recommendation to U.S Council so
that we can go to a work session or
wherever you would like to go with that
as well but just wanted to give you an
update where we are as as uh staff and
so if there's any other questions feel
free to reach out to myself or staff as
we'll be coming with recommendations and
then present that to you Council very
soon okay thank you thank you Connie and
you'll be able to bring some of your
experience because you came from some
California cities and you'll you'll be
able to maybe share with us what to
avoid that what might look
not a problem that turned out to be a
problem so for sure definitely and in
California just a a little difference
with what happens there it's an opt-in
um it's an opt-in state so if the state
approved it all the cities had to opt in
so there was a lot of pressure on
councils to either align with the state
or or not so here actually makes your
life a bit easier as Council you don't
have that pressure so
um but I definitely do have some best
practices that I'd love to share from
things that we've gathered Across the
Nation as well so thank you mayor
council
thanks ikani
uh let's see councilor beta stuby
thank you mayor and thank you Larry for
giving us the report
um I wanted to talk just briefly about
um the capital outlay
um and percentages I know now that we
have this new ability to kind of track
um who is able to fund items maybe
projects I'm hoping that we can start
storing this data for us and kind of
look at two ways fun to just see regular
Transit and that type of support but
secondly I am curious out of all the the
different entities in our region that
are asking for money how I guess well is
the city doing and what types of
percentages are we acquiring from this
Capital outlet that is being distributed
and to see if we can't track any Trends
with that
[Music]
um counselor and mayor and counselor
beta stuvet I have not tracked that but
it is possible that is something we can
track from what had been published
before
um but it's it's certainly something we
could look at
um just one of the difficulties you'll
get with with capital outlay and
percentages because it's a natural place
we want to go
is it also depends upon numbers of
legislators that that their requests are
split amongst a whole bunch of different
entities and how much money they're
getting and then who who is on the
Statewide Capital outlay list so for
instance
um most of most if not all of our
funding came from local funding from
legislators because we did not really
have one of those Regional Statewide
projects this year but for instance
let's say we do the hospital and we get
support from the administration and it's
a 15 million dollar project and you get
money from the state they're different
pots of money so when we're making that
comparison you just want to make sure
you're you're looking at kind of apples
to apples meaning what is what are each
legislator getting because this year it
was around two million dollars for a
senate member and just over a million
for a House member and so then we have
to look at what kind of areas and how
spread out our members are so it's just
it can give you somewhat of a comparison
it's definitely something we should
track but it's just be aware when you're
seeing that the those will be kind of
the limitations on that information no
that's fine I I appreciate that and I
think it's also important because we get
to see how effective are we at
communicating our needs to our
legislators and if we are finding that
we're seeing you know decreasing Trends
among certain individuals we can look to
see is it a communication issue is it
just
um an area that is not a priority for
them and we can work around most
effectively so that we can maximize what
we ask for and who we're asking of and
so I think that's one of the reasons
that it would be good to be able to have
that information
and then
secondly when looking uh
at hb4 is there going to be
or even the Cannabis one is there any
funding that is anticipated to come from
these decisions
um maybe mostly from Cannabis I guess
um to help with items that need to be
prepared such as training for officers
um or any other educational needs that
are necessary before this comes into
place or is that going to be left up to
the municipalities to work on
and find uh mayor and counselor beta
stuvet I'll start with house bill 4. um
there is nothing there is nothing in the
legislation including funding that
relates to
changes of training or best practices or
anything like that the only piece that
that was dealing with that was the
um Senate Bill 375 the municipal League
effort so the state is not giving us any
money
um to deal with with this what what I
will tell you about some of the
discussion related to house before is
they discussed as this is implemented
and we start seeing the impacts of it if
there are any adjustments that need to
be made in future sessions that that's
something they anticipate they may have
to do and also in the Cannabis
legalization there's not any direct
funding I'm coming to us to deal with
that
okay
okay thank you and I just think that's
something that we as a council have to
consider obviously as we come up one of
the items I do think is necessary for
all individuals when we're even talking
from electives board members those that
help on our committees is to make sure
that we are using those best practices
and maybe going over review for
um even just civil rights just to make
sure that everybody has the correct
training that they need
um and it extends beyond our public
service
and so thank you Larry and thank you
mayor thanks counselor May report them
thank you
um
thanks Larry I appreciate the the
information all very valuable as we as
we move through
um you know
honestly I I wanted to get sort of what
the process is going to look like for
the city and a timeline
um and it seems around cannabis I think
I know of at least a couple of cities
that are already talking amongst their
planning and zoning committee
um and so I wasn't sure where we were at
but I'd like to be as prepared as we can
so from ikani's
um feedback he said in the weeks to come
I didn't hear a specific day how much
time do you need to sit with staff and
really you know comb through everything
and start to come up with something
viable when can we expect this to come
to council
[Music]
ACM for the city uh we we can come I do
want to give our our staff some time
um just because I uh Steph was waiting
uh on on me this will be the first week
that we're meeting but I've been uh
taking the last few weeks just to scrub
through legislation if I had to give a
timetable on where we can we can come
back with a recommendation I would say
as soon as a month uh from now we can
come back
um to you hit the council seize fit for
our presentation and work session
um if that works for you and mayor Pro
tem gandada and Council and mayor uh
that's that's I'm just giving some ample
time not having circled around with
staff I think we could make something
work of recommendations that we could
take for zoning looking at the taxations
and how that would work with finance and
looking at different options and
alternatives now we want to make sure we
present to you that you could uh you
could give you could have some options
and alternatives to make a uh a decision
Boom for
thank you Connie I appreciate the sort
of drilling down a little further when
that when that time would be and then
knowing that I understand there's quite
a few
um departments that will need to weigh
in
um and and I'm glad to hear that you're
going to consider um Planning and Zoning
because I think that's important as well
um so I appreciate that
um thank you thank you Connie
um and then of course Larry my interest
is around the mental health hospital
um what are your thoughts in terms of
moving forward
um in relation to
um should we schedule a meeting with the
governor's office first or get this on
the agenda here related to the health
and human services and the New Mexico
Behavioral Health and what what are your
thoughts are around that because it
seems like we have to get a more
Regional approach and involve other
right other
um
legislators both are on the house and
the Senate side and I'm happy to help
spearhead
um you know a meeting if we need to
moving forward
uh thank you uh mayor and mayor Pro tem
so so where was left right as covet hit
is I had some initial discussions with
the governor's Health policy advisor and
the initial plan was and and I would
anticipate if and I just I presumed and
I apologize if that was out of turn that
we wanted to continue to keep this as a
priority and so I think that the plan
was to have an initial discussion
um that I I'll have Outreach with with
the governor's Health policy advisor and
there's a there was some folks from both
hsd and Department of Health that she
wanted to have that initial discussion
um and then we will come up with a a
strategy to come to you as the council
to convene those meetings with the city
and other interested in stakeholders but
I don't think that that necessarily
means we can't have discussion with
legislators as well I you know so if we
want to try and get on on an agenda for
for the Health and Human Services
committee during the interim to start
discussing the issue at some point
although I think it that's premature in
the legislative finance committee
because they're gonna have to look for
funding those are all things that can
start as soon as we begin having those
conversations I I just think fitting it
in with the the
since we have such a Dom Medicaid is
such a dominant payer and driver and
provider of services in New Mexico I
think having hsd involved initially is
really important and some of those folks
have taken a look at some of that work
with those initial discussions I had
with Miss wishner so what I would
suggest is I'll reach out to her again
to reignite the conversation now that
they can focus on other things and see
if we can get that moving early in this
interim it's not something we want to
wait on
um you know in the next week or so I
hope to have a meaningful conversation
with Miss wishner and then and then move
forward on on hsd Doh and then also
bringing bring in a meeting with those
necessary down here my idea last session
after last interim was that we if we
convene a meeting we actually convene it
maybe the city hosts it so we get the
folks down here so we can have them in
the community and so they can see what
we're what we want to talk about what
we're looking at right I I appreciate
that Larry that would be what my first
um what my
my first strategy would be is to have
them come down and just be familiar it
was good to see the finance committee
here and and
um experiencing Las Cruces and you know
the different the different eateries and
communities I think they get some you
know um a tour of the Jake Paul Taylor
Museum it so and I just heard nothing
but positive things and and
um staff really really put together a
nice
um swag bag for each of them and I think
they were very
um
they were grateful and so so to to know
that we've done a little bit of that
already is is helpful
um because you know they're a very
powerful committee they they decide you
know where a lot of this funding is
going to so
um doing that I think having a meeting
convening people over here to have the
conversations and then I'd like to just
add that been working on a behavioral
health district
um you know we have a very
um robust local Behavioral Health
collaborative that's just so much around
assessing and planning and programming
um kind of determining what their
priorities are so I see this something
that fits very nicely in that and
hopefully you know within the summer
that we'll have a little more of an idea
what this behavioral health district is
going to look up but of course it's with
all the municipalities and townships up
in down doniana County that will
participate
um it'll be first be an mou
um and and then we'll look to having it
later down the line of joint powers of
agreement but it brings people to the
table to talk very specifically about
all the issues that surround our
communities and and and you you'll get
to hear a lot of what that looks like
not only for law enforcement but staff
as well so just keep that in mind as
something you know moving forward
um and then
I I appreciate hearing from you around
Capitol outlay and the various
um projects that were that were funded
um and
um always appreciative of the staff
starting early right to understand where
our our priorities are I really like
that I really like that that process
um and so I would encourage
um those conversations and
um I I'd like to have a better
um process where we're involving our
legislators so many times you know
they're not aware per se until very late
in the in the season and right before
this Pro the legislative session starts
so those would be things that I think
are really important is having them
um kind of at the beginning in those
conversations understanding what our
thoughts are why we are you know prior
to Prior advertising certain things I
think would be really helpful it's
overwhelming and you're right we had a
lot of new count a lot of new
legislators
um but it's it's overwhelming with all
the other things that they're having to
having to you know deal with so if
there's a way
um I think there's two things that I
know the staff is way working on a
report in terms of because we hear
individually well where are you at with
the parking garage where are you at with
this and that and and so being able to
to update our legislators more regularly
in terms of where we're at in as it
relates to each of those projects I
think is going to be very important so
I'm looking to maybe six months I I
again I know a report is being worked on
um and I I I I'd like to share our
coveted response so many of them aren't
aware of the the the things we've done
to how help our citizenry related to the
covid to covid so those are two things
that I think really need to and will
continue
um to need to happen in terms of updates
especially as we determine how to use
the arpa money as well so Larry anything
you can do to help us
um
with our communication with them with
our legislators I think is is really
helpful because I I bet we each get
different legislators asking us you know
updates on well we gave a significant
amount of money but we haven't we
haven't heard too much and the other
thing is and lastly is the money that we
read
um
re-establish I guess related to the
cinema what are your thoughts around
that and what what do we need to do to
ensure
that that money is being used used
appropriately And Timely because I would
hate to ask for another
write another extension
uh thank you mayor and mayor Pro tem and
um just when you're talking about
Capital Outland reporting and
making that process better that's been
on ongoing process and even as you get
new legislators what worked in the past
is sometimes not what they're expecting
and so we really try and adapt
um the process we have
um to the legislators that are that are
currently serving but I will tell you Mr
peely and I met very shortly after the
session to kind of have some of those
discussions are there ways that we can
improve
that information and kind of an ongoing
list with legislators and
um we we've had some of those talks in
figuring out how it works best for the
city is a good idea because one of the
best things you can do to with the
legislator is say you know you gave us x
amount of money for for you know streets
or septic or whatever it is and this is
this is all the other money we brought
in to help with that project and this is
what we've done and this is when we
finished it and they really like ground
breakings and ribbon cuttings and so
those are all the kind of things that
that we continue to talk about and and
and councilor Bay to stuve talked a
little bit about it as well as is the
more we can align counsel your
priorities as a council with the
legislators priorities for spending the
better off we are because the more
they're going to want to fund our
projects but that can be difficult
sometimes because they may have
something completely different in mind
versus what you think is a city priority
so that's some kind of an ongoing
struggle and and with the Cinematic
infrastructure money I know that's been
a challenge we've had to get that
reallocated several times
um and and we have some legislators who
are really passionate about
um bringing More film projects to Las
Cruces and doniana County and so
um I
how we get it done I think we've Mr
peely started to have some of those
discussions with economic development in
the film office and so if we start
bringing as we start bringing more films
down here I I think it would be
you know one thing we might do is ask
that Film Community is what is going to
be beneficial to you that we can provide
as a public entity
and then use that funding to fit you
know kind of fit that need and
um and it's been reauthorized a couple
of times and Senator steinborn is one of
the primary drivers in it and really
wants to to get it spinning so I think
it's good for us if we can if we can
figure out the best way to do that
otherwise you know we don't want his
money sitting there or the money from
the legislator sitting there and and if
we need to find a different way to spend
it we should do that but I think that's
that's got to be an ongoing conversation
with what's going to fit for the
community down here that's going to be
of the most benefit is it a Sound Stage
is it you know is it education
programming is it is it you know
facilities for training of students
that's what we need to find out and it's
kind of been the ongoing challenge with
that money
camera those are those are all my
questions
I can help answer mayor Pro tem's
question about the Cinematic money
okay
um
the key here is having a manager for
this facility for the Sound Stage uh
that's what we've been lacking and what
uh film Las Cruces uh is going to do is
put together a package that we can
spread around to all the different
production companies that are in the
country and try to sell it so that uh
they
um would come and find out we would
Finance the facility and
um they would manage it uh that's where
the key is what happened in Albuquerque
is that Netflix came and they're
managing the studios there uh NBC
Universal did the same thing they're
they're managing that uh facility there
also so that's what we're lacking here
and that's what we're trying to sell is
a package that
um that we can give we're going to need
some help we're going to be asking for
for the state to have some leader type
money or some kind of Economic
Development money to add to it because
the facilities in order to be useful at
all it's going to be in the neighborhood
of 15 million dollars
um we just have less than four million
now to to put in there but we're going
to have to try to get some money either
private or from the state uh to finish
the
package to uh build this thing and one
of the places we're looking at is the
the Las Cruces uh Innovation and
Industrial Park uh there's a good
location there that we could sell so
that's where it's sitting right now and
uh come June now in the VRC uh the film
Las Cruces is scheduled to put on put
bring a presentation as to what they're
doing so I'm expecting that to be part
of it
there you go
thank you man okay thank you counselor
um was that it may Airport
you finished I'm finished thank you okay
thanks
uh councilor Vasquez
thank you mayor uh thank you Larry
I appreciate these updates and
um the work you put in during the
legislative session
um this year and I think I got more
frequent Updates this year than I have
in the past so I appreciate uh that
um I do
who have some continuing thoughts around
the process of of how we get our
priorities accomplished in Santa Fe and
I think we've maybe alluded to this in
the past Larry but I think in
conversations with the rest of my
colleagues there's a strong desire to
have better coordination I think with um
our representatives and and state
senators on legislative efforts
more important to the city and in the
past that has been a little bit
disjointed
um through no no really no one's fault
really I think just you know as
counselors we each have our different
priorities in addition to the city's
priorities and um and relationships and
uh and in the past have also attended
events like Las Cruces day and Santa Fe
uh which sometimes
um to decision makers and and other
elected officials in the state
um one of the things that has been
really effective for me and my other
line of work is to organize
um essentially what we would say you
know call clients to DC right and and so
um these are working on federal policy
obviously but uh getting uh meetings
scheduled with a group of community
leaders or Advocates or supporters of a
policy is really a key to getting
support for legislative efforts
um and I think something I would I won't
be here either I don't think but I hope
Council will still find it valuable to
have meetings um scheduled uh in advance
um or during the legislative session uh
and and for the city of Las Cruces to
have its own lobbying day
um I think that is going to be really
key to accomplishing the city's
priorities and so
um uh Larry not sure uh if that's
included or has been included in your
scope of work in the past
um or what you think about that idea uh
but I just think it would be invaluable
as
um more priorities pop up for
a firm or a consultant or a contractor
to just set up a day or two for City
councilors to meet with legislators on
their prior on their on their respective
priorities so
um Larry wondering what you think about
that strategy of something that might be
possible for the next legislative
session
uh thank you mayor and councilor Vasquez
that's absolutely spot on and that is
something we want to do and the way
we've done it in the past
and it because this year because of the
change in the logistics we didn't do it
but we've had traditionally we had a Las
Cruces legislative day where we actually
bring up food from Las Cruces and
whatever counselors are available and
staff come up and we do get those
individual meetings with legislators to
talk to them about particular priorities
We Get Much More
um a bang for our buck with that versus
Las Cruces days and Santa Fe and it's
focused on the city and it does have a
big impact when we have
City councilors and staff actually
travel to Santa Fe the legislators
noticed that the logistical challenge
you have it just depends on how long you
can spend there because of the dynamic
and the chaos of the legislative session
formal meetings are just tough to set up
but that's something that we can do in
the interim because when we're in the
interim period we can set up those
meetings once we've identified our
priorities and have those discussions
with legislators individually and you'll
get a lot more time and you'll get a lot
more Focus from them and they'll
remember that then when they come into
the session so I think it's a
combination of those things
um always
increased efforts once we know what our
priorities are here in Las Cruces before
they go up but it's always good at least
once to come up to Santa Fe and have
discussions with them it's just you know
I understand from the council
perspective you all have other things
that you're doing as well it's tough
because you have to take a couple days
out of your schedule but that's
invaluable
um coming up because well I'll always
say they see me every day during the
session and I can provide them
information and help liaison but when
they hear from you it's a different kind
of message and a different kind of
impact because
um you know that elected official to
elected official respect is just it
there is a dynamic there and they you
both have an appreciation of what it
means to run for office and to serve and
so it's important to to have those
meetings and discussions
thanks Larry and I um I appreciate you
thinking it's a good idea and
um certainly the different sessions 30
and 60 it's a different time um uh
allowances perhaps for Less
um but I know I went up just a couple of
weeks before the session ended to talk
cannabis with a couple of folks up there
and was able to get meetings
um you know after hours or after
legislative sessions
um because it was important to me to to
do that but
um again the council leave there as a
whole or with individuals uh uh meeting
with respective legislators just the
investment that we get in our community
from capital outlay is worthwhile for us
to go up there and and have those
meetings I've never been asked or been a
part of any organized effort besides Las
Cruces
to be part of those meetings so I'm not
sure if you're talking about a different
set of or different legislative day uh I
don't recall being uh part of that
effort and so I'm just thinking uh yes
as the session
um starts I I'm pretty sure our local
legislators here for the most part will
agree to meet with us they will make the
time to meet with us and so
um just hope that that's something that
we can
um we can plan out in this next
legislative session so that the uh that
those direct communication and that
direct as you mentioned uh communication
about priorities uh happens
uh in a way that's more organized and
targeted and that in particular
with those Capital outlays that we get
our priorities met um so thank you Larry
appreciate all your hard work and these
updates
um and I think we have one of the most
productive legislative sessions that
I've seen in a long time so these are
all good updates thank you
so so councilor Vasquez uh I think it's
been about two years
that we've done it the last time we did
it so you never went to Santa Fe when we
would take some Roberto's food up there
and have lunch with the legislators you
you've never gone to that
no just just Las Cruces day in Santa Fe
that's the only yeah I I think the last
time I can probably say was for sure was
um but you know it's possible it and
usually two or three council members
would go you know at will
um and we used to do it more regularly
before 2018. but um and I remember
Janice sending out you know messages to
everyone
sometimes we'd even rent the van years
before that too and I'll us all of us go
up there so it's good
okay and I think that was 2017 because I
do not recall
uh I was a counselor elected in late
2017 so I was here in 2018.
yeah we just we just did probably just
didn't invite you oh yeah yeah
I was Gil and I
well you left me ever the mayor was
right
no everybody gets equal opportunity here
I'm just messing I'm just messing with
the counselor I don't know maybe maybe
you need to start looking at your emails
I don't know
ha ha ha okay we'll figure it out but I
think it would be fun I think it's good
uh I think also with the when you get
out of that list of of reps who funded
certain projects Larry it may I I would
love to be able to send them a letter
and perhaps also with the counselor from
that District maybe sign on to that we
don't want to do the whole Council
because we don't want to run afoul of
the open meetings act but I think it'd
be nice little touch for um maybe the
council member from that district and
myself and we'll send them a letter
thanking them personally for for their
support
okay uh any anything else Council
Vasquez you're good you're done
okay
um councilor bin Como thank you mayor I
think that's a great idea I would love
to do that um thank you letter to
legislators
um yeah I have a couple thoughts and
just a couple questions
um I will also say that the only
obviously the only time I was able to
attend Las Cruces days was last year and
it was more celebratory than
lobbying in my opinion and I would
certainly like to see a more intentional
effort in terms of
um city councilors
um doing some meetings and lobbying with
legislators on behalf of our priorities
and our behalf of our constituents I'm
an organizer so I would love to continue
organizing groups of directly impacted
people by any particular legislation to
to go with to go with me or us
um but I would like to see uh like I
said a more intentional effort
um you know as we move forward I will
say that a big Silver Lining this this
year
um even though it's virtual I think
there was like 19
000 individual IDs that logged on to
zoom for any particular committee
meeting or
um
um yeah like people were participating
um people in rural New Mexico got to
participate in
um the the session whereas for perhaps
other times they wouldn't have been able
to don't get me wrong I think it was a
lot harder to get
a hold of legislators
um but people were able to participate
in the process virtually so I think that
was a very good thing that was a little
bit of a side note
um I will say that
um paid sick leave also passed uh with a
a pretty significant uh change which is
to be implemented in 2022 beginning July
2022 so I think it's important that we
do some education for workers and
businesses in terms of when that goes in
um next year I I wanted to ask
um Larry
um I know that you said the Connie's
name was put in to the task force when
are we expected to hear that final
list of task force members
uh mayor and counselor bin Como I don't
know when they're expecting that I would
uh it should be pretty soon because they
their first deadline is September 21st
so I'll reach out again to Regulation
and Licensing and see if they have a
timeline I just had a conversation with
her last week and got that paperwork
into her and who does that who will make
the ultimate decision
mayor and counselor Ben Cuomo uh I
believe ultimately it's going to be the
superintendent and Regulation and
Licensing who will make the decision she
may have some input but she's the one
who's who is tasked with with that and I
apologize if I may on your side note
what I've I've had conversations with
legislative leadership both in the House
and Senate although they anticipate
going back to in person of course they
they also are planning to have a
um a version or a a way to have zoom
participation or virtual participation
continue because they saw the same thing
that you did so that'll be something
that will also continue
for sure and if that's something we can
Lobby around that that I'd be interested
um but yeah I mean if there and I guess
I ask in terms of who will make the
final decision on the Cannabis task
force in the event that there was some
lobbying we could do if there was
legislators or whatnot but if you're
saying it's potentially the
superintendent of Licensing
um then that might not be an option
though I am very excited to have economy
on our team because I think the
legislator was really intentional about
equity and fairness in this new
legislation and legalizing cannabis and
I hope that Las Cruces that we can
Center that as well and keep ensuring
that we keep whatever zoning uh policies
we adopt that they're still fair and
Equitable
um and not uh restrictive and exclusive
um and that you know we're able to have
a thriving and safe
um industry here in Las Cruces
it was kind of a question but Linda
Trujillo will be the ultimate
um decider of Regulation licensing but
that does I would never say it doesn't
help to Lobby to try and get
um someone to make sure they're
considered and so happy to continue
those efforts I have had some
conversations but if we had legislators
who might want to put a a a little
whisper in her ear that would be um
that's a good idea and she was a former
House member so she only she actually
left
um last interim so so most of the
members that are serving in the house
were were her colleagues and now she's
at regulation licensing
that's very helpful Larry thank you I'm
glad I asked
question Larry what's your
s
um
regarding the uh policing oversight and
some of those bills that did not pass
that were being led by Senator
um Linda Lopez I'm curious if there's
conversations about those returning
changing that kind of conversation
so so mayor and counselor Ben Cuomo the
municipal League even as soon as it uh
the bill passer was changed they had
actually anticipated working on an
ongoing effort so the fact that it did
not pass this session actually doesn't
did not impact that effort at all and we
actually had some good conversations
with Senator Lopez during the session
because there what we saw happen is you
had a lot of law enforcement reform
bills and he started picking pieces of
of different ones and putting it into a
reform so what I would anticipate excuse
me
um one thing I think we'll get
even more active participation from the
governor's office and from the
administration on law enforcement reform
and hopefully buying an input into the
municipal League bill and I would
anticipate that we also get more
participation from the more Advocate
groups and I think what you're going to
see
is hopefully in this next 30-day session
you'll see a piece of legislation very
similar to what was in 375 as an initial
start and then you're going to see an
ongoing effort of legislation going
forward
um hopefully with participation of local
governments the state and Advocate
groups to come up with with kind of
comprehensive reform I think after what
happened with the Civil Rights
Commission and and starting to see
introduction of the legislation
everybody's understanding the need to
come come together to come up with some
reform that's going to work for all
parties so I think this is going to be
much as tax reform is although that
never really sees any significant
changes this will be one of those issues
we're going to continue to see and we'll
see legislation every year for several
years until we get to a place where some
changes are made
thanks Larry I really appreciate that uh
analysis
um and sort of something to for sure
look forward to and be involved in and
yes in terms of tax changes
um there was no increase to the
wealthiest New Mexicans which
um
I thought should have happened but there
was and tax reform did become a lot more
inclusive uh to include now I-10 filer
so people who might be undocumented who
have an itin number can now
um access the Working Families tax
credit and the low income comprehensive
tax rebate so there are some changes in
the in tax reform but
um I think definitely getting to a much
fairer place for sure thank you for your
work Larry I really appreciate it thank
you
um councilman Como and Larry I'm pretty
sure the state income tax went up a
little bit
went up about half a percent
um to Five Point something percent
yeah so I went up a little bit mirror
I'll have to double check I know it was
included in legislation I just not sure
whether or not that was enacted or not
but I'm happy to double check on that
for you yeah okay I'm pretty sure it did
yes thank you mayor um I actually just
wanted to address
um a bit of what counselor Vasquez was
um kind of requesting for the future and
to let my colleagues on the council know
a lot of the talks that I've had with Mr
peely have been centered around changing
um a little bit of the structure of what
we do as far as really leveraging Las
Cruces and showcasing
um the best of it and pairing it also
with our legislative priorities and
really making those intentional moments
with our legislators and anybody from
the governor's office that we can help
tie in with projects and so I've really
appreciated being able
um to kind of chat about that to
recognize that perhaps some of the
um and as a new counselor coming on uh
like counselor Ben Cuomo said we got
invited I believe it was I initially
thought it was the last Christmas days
but it was an event actually with our
Chamber of Commerce and that while very
um exciting um for a lot of people was
not perhaps the right venue for us to
leverage Las Cruces in the capacity that
we need to for policy and for that
funding and so really making sure that
we are staying focused on that and being
as inclusive as possible to all of our
legislators all around us and in our
neighboring communities because we know
that even us curses is able to serve
those communities in other ways too
often especially um with our you know
our SWAT teams and things like that and
so when we're asking for funding when
we're asking for stuff we need to be
inclusive and so it's just changing up a
few of those items and then being very
intentional about interims uh you know
advocating for them to be down south and
and showcasing that and so I'm really
happy to have done that so thank you
mayor thank you
um counselor sword just briefly Mr Mayor
thank you uh uh yes I'm all in favor of
us as a as a city government on Council
uh to spend a day at least uh up and out
after the legislative session like we
used to and don't forget Robertos uh he
was a big hit up there everybody liked
his uh enchiladas etc etc etc so I if
he's willing to do it
um we should always invite him to
provide provide lunch for the
legislators
um and and there as as Larry and all
said
um uh lobbying the uh
various uh legislators that we we have
up there
um meetings with them of course would be
great
so yeah I'm just putting a pitch into to
go back to those days again uh when we
used to do that okay that's that's all I
wanted to say mayor thank you
thanks counselor
yeah Larry I'm still trying to check I
know it advanced in the set in the
Senate to 6.5 from 5.9 and I can't find
if the governor signed the uh the
increase in the tax rate so it was 5.9
percent went to six point five percent
but I'm pretty sure it will it passed
but I'm not too sure
I'll verify for you mayor and and let
you know for sure
okay as usual thank you for this uh
recap um you do a fantastic job for us
here at the city
um you're you're really invaluable so we
can't thank you enough for all the hard
work that you do I know you enjoy it as
well so that's probably good so um thank
you mayor there's nothing further uh
thanks again and we're going to move on
to the next item thank you thank you
Larry
okay so next we're gonna go to the
police department update and I believe
who's going to be kicking that off is
that going to be you chief
if you're here
good afternoon everybody
afternoon
I'll try to share my screen here
good afternoon Chief good afternoon
everyone
having issues sharing my screen
did they make you a host uh Chief if not
I think um might be difficult I don't
know if
I don't believe I'm a host man I don't
know I don't know um Barbara or Adrian
can you uh
someone either make the chief a hoe so
he can share or
or Amber
uh mayor this is Barbara DeLeon actually
um Chief you're you're you don't have
the option to share
I have a share screen but it's not oh
looks like I I just got it okay thank
you okay good thanks
okay can everybody see the screen yes
sir we got it
all right thank you all for allowing us
the opportunity to provide an update
from the Las Cruces Police Department uh
today's presentation is going to be on
2020 uh year uh the year of 2020 and
2021 uh year to date through April uh
assisting with the presentation I have
deputy chief Paul Brock deputy chief
Kiri Danes Lieutenant Jeremy story
Lieutenant Rob Gutierrez and Lieutenant
um Joey wheeler from Community uh
engagement
so we'll begin with the presentation
we'll begin with our mission our mission
has been and always will continue to be
to provide Community focused Public
Safety and law enforcement Services as
you all know everything we do is driven
by a community needs and and their input
we'd like to take this opportunity to
thank the Las Cruces Community for the
great relationship that we do share with
them and I'd also like to point out that
they have been supporting us through a
very difficult 2020 and beginning of
2021 they've continued to ride us
through uh emails and and uh social
media as well as come by and and bring
food things of that nature we have a
large outpouring of support during
Police Week a couple of weeks ago so
we'd like to uh express our our thank
you for for a great relationship that we
do share with with our community
2020 and 2021 had many many challenges
for the Las Cruces Police Department as
you all know with the pandemic there was
local the national protests in regards
to police reform there was a rise in
both property and violent crime uh
several critical incidents that we had
to deal with and we had an increase
obviously in uh in officer assaults as
well uh this year we started off uh with
uh with a large increase in which we had
a couple of officers that were actually
hurt as uh as a result of being run over
and we had an officer that was shot so
those are those are some very uh
a very uh hard things to deal with as a
police department but I do I do want to
point out that our our core values of
Pride professionalism respect Integrity
dedication and Excellence we're in full
display during uh the entire uh 2020 and
2021 challenges I couldn't be prouder of
our department and our civilian staff uh
and and officers the way they responded
uh when I point out that uh they've
showed up they've been dedicated uh the
entire pandemic we did not uh relent on
our services we continue to provide uh
uninterrupted Services throughout the
entire uh 2020 and and currently so
again I want to just take the
opportunity to
tell our our officers in a stability
step and I'm very very proud of of them
and their uh their efforts
as I uh as I was appointed uh chief of
police we had a uh a meeting with our
Command Staff and uh identified three
areas uh to uh to focus on to continue
improving on our relationship uh with
our community uh in addition to uh crime
reduction efforts we also wanted to
focus in on our accountability our
transparency and our community
engagement uh several of these things we
have already discussed through our
community mitigation meetings that we've
been having uh over the last few months
accountability we wanted to improve on
obviously uh holding ourselves
accountable when there is misconduct and
policy violations things of that nature
but we also want to uh stay on the
Forefront and make sure that our
policies are constantly under uh review
and revision making sure that uh we're
doing right by our training keeping up
to date on best practices when it comes
to training as well as providing or
modifying policies as case law and and
things of that nature come uh come up
our transparency we wanted to continue
to improve on our transparency we've
instituted several processes to improve
uh on our transparency we've had
approximately 600 or had approximately
600 public requests uh from uh from the
Department in uh in 2020 we've we've put
processes in place to make sure that
we're processing these requests as fast
as possible and making sure that we're
allowing
um allowing as many uh community members
to come in and and request things of
that nature we even offer them uh
without without the requests but we've
also done a lot of work on our
transparency page still a work in
progress but it's come uh uh light years
from where it was uh same time a year
ago our community engagement uh efforts
we continue to uh engage our community
uh both through uh uh services and uh
events although events were stymied a
little bit because of the pandemic we
still were able to put together a few uh
a few events but we also want to include
the community in our training uh not
just attending but also allowing for
um for community members to come in and
put classes on for our officers these
are three uh areas of of Interest as we
move on through this uh presentation uh
we'll be pointing out uh different uh
initiatives and different processes that
we put in place uh specifically with
these three uh topics in mind
I'll go on to our 2020 uh
uh year-end uh violent crimes or our
violent crime uh report out this is what
we reported out to the FBI at the end of
2020. I do need to point out that uh
some of these uh cases are still being
investigated so the total number might
go up or down a little bit there's a
there's a small variance in there
approximately 20 to 10 percent variance
as investigations bear out the numbers
could change uh we did uh we uh ended up
with a 13 increase in violent crime uh
driven as you can see by aggravated
assaults our aggravated assaults are uh
are very uh are very difficult to
investigate and uh find uh find the
perpetrators in most cases approximately
34 or 35 percent of those aggravated
assaults were domestic related uh so uh
it was uh it was Again part of a
domestic disturbance and approximately
20 sent this was through 2020 as well as
current year about 20 percent of our
victims do not want to pursue charges
which makes it very difficult on us as
far as uh as far as prosecutions are
concerned
our five-year trend for for violent
crime
uh continues to uh go up uh which is
significant uh I want to point out right
now that the difference between 16 uh
2016 and 2017 uh the the difference is
that we we used to do a Uniform Crime
reporting through the FBI which was
higher art uh had a hierarchies type
system 2018 and 19 to 20 have uh numbers
uh which is the neighbors uh the
neighbor system which reports out uh all
all crimes that occurred in each
individual incident uh quick uh quick
way to describe that is if uh in 2017 if
there was a burglary that occurred uh
inside a home and a vehicle was stolen
only the only the burglary was reported
out at the end of the year to the FBI uh
with the neighbor system the burglary
and the auto theft are reported out uh
so you can see that 546 number about 20
percent of those uh involved in another
crime uh such as a robbery burglary uh
uh uh an auto theft things of that
nature but it had a aggravated assault
uh component to it
oh
that's that's the the big increase in uh
in uh our Biden crime is aggravated
assaults
property crimes through 2020 we uh we
put together many uh projects to try to
mitigate a lot of the uh thought of the
property crime that we are having
especially at the beginning of the
pandemic uh the burglaries as you can
see there uh uh drove a large portion of
our increase a large portion of the
burglaries were uh non-residential
burglaries which included burglaries uh
to uh commercial uh to buildings as well
as storage facilities a huge uh increase
as well is in vehicle thefts we continue
to see a large portion of our property
crime uh being vehicle thefts as we move
on through the presentation I will point
out some of the strategies that we are
currently employing to mitigate some of
these uh property crimes uh which
continue to be on the rise
I'll go to our five-year trend on
property crimes
as you can see we have a significant
increase from 2019 through 2020. the
2016 and 2017 uh downward Trend towards
2019 I can tell you that there was a
large shoplifting uh uh issue within Las
Cruces approximately 30 percent of the
numbers for both 16 and 17 uh had to do
with shoplifting we teamed up with Las
Cruces retail Asset Protection
Association uh and uh had paid great
dividends we were able to reduce a lot
of the shoplifting incidents uh because
of that uh Coalition but I brought the
numbers down in 2018 2019 uh 2020 as as
stated before we had a lot of burglaries
because of uh businesses being closed
people weren't going into their
businesses uh and uh you know bad guys
Crooks were taking advantage of it and
breaking into res uh commercial uh
facilities and we often wouldn't and
find out about it till a couple of days
later when they did go in and check on
their bit of their buildings so
um we did have some projects that were
able to reduce a lot of those burglaries
uh and I should also point out that we
did have uh quite a few Auto burglaries
people were taking uh taking advantages
as you all know uh Otto birdies or
crimes of opportunity but we did have a
few rings uh younger uh individuals that
were going around at night and hitting
uh local areas residences and just going
around uh checking for open doors on any
given night we could have 16 to 17 uh
Auto burglaries in a given an area in a
given area although we can we can say
that it was the same set of crooks each
one of those Auto burglaries is is an
individual burglary so we have to report
them out as such and that was a
significant increase again on our
property crime
as we move into 2021 these numbers are
from January 1st through April 30th
again uh we've seen a huge increase in
our aggravated assaults 43 increase uh
the numbers bear out pretty much uh
consistently with 2020 and 2021 where
approximately 34 percent of those
aggravated assaults are domestic related
our robberies we've seen act two actual
uh two of the 26 robberies actually
occurred uh within a business where
somebody went in and and held up the the
clerk uh or the business uh owner uh the
other the other robberies actually occur
have occurred in parking lots businesses
uh taking uh purses by force or threat
of force uh things of that nature we
have seen a significant increase again
in parking lots uh in local retailers as
well as hotels we've been able to make a
few arrests on those those aspects and
we appear to have decreased them a
little bit we had a we are trending
Upward at the beginning of the year uh
and uh have since kind of flattened out
so uh we're hoping that our our efforts
with our street crimes unit and Intel
and the detectives that work uh this
section have been able to come up with
uh some strategies to mitigate the
robberies
property crimes we decided to break it
down a little bit uh so we could see
exactly and and show you exactly where
the actual property crimes were uh were
occurring uh as as in the other slides
uh the residential burglary commercial
burglary non-resburg breaking and
entering and auto burglary are all
combined as we report out to FBI but we
wanted to break those out a little bit
so you could see exactly where and what
type of property crime is actually
occurring the auto burglaries as I
mentioned earlier have been uh pretty
much crimes of opportunity we've had
several nights where there was uh you
know 10 to 20 Auto burglaries in the
same area which really drives up that
number
um but uh there are some
projects that we've worked that Deputy
Chiefs will be discussing here in a
little bit that have been able to
identify some of these subjects and and
uh and we have been making some arrests
on those Auto burglaries our commercial
burglary and non-residential burglary we
wanted to separate that out uh 2020 uh
when we were talking about
non-residential burglaries it uh it was
kind of assumed that uh if it was a
non-residential burglary it was actually
the burglary of a business
um which uh it does it's not necessarily
true our non-residential burglaries uh
the 45 increase is uh storage facilities
uh or have a storage Nexus to it we have
had several commercial uh Burger
burglaries that are actually Smash and
grabs they go and break the window and
go in and grab a couple items and then
leave uh before uh before we're able to
arrive but uh the majority of our uh
non-residential burglaries are uh on on
storage facilities
foreign
Service uh in 2020 uh had a huge
increase from the year before 2019 we
had a approximately 143
000 calls for service 2020 saw 168 000
calls for service uh we are getting uh
uh inundated at the beginning of covid
with a lot of mask type talls which may
have contributed uh to the the large
increase but we uh we we were able to uh
through our uh proactive efforts bring
uh bring those calls down uh just to
make sure that uh our our officers and
our resources are available for for uh
for priority calls but uh that is a
significant increase when you're looking
at over 20
000 uh calls for service increase from
year to year uh thus far year to date
um this year we had uh 55 or we have 55
000 uh calls for service
our uh incident reports from those calls
for service right now uh through 2021 is
47 300 reports uh those are reports when
they they call and we actually have uh
some evidence or things of that nature
that we can actually do a report on
um so our incident reports continue to
increase as they did in 2020. our online
reports are also increasing and
hopefully will continue to increase
because we're using uh this as a way of
mitigating the uh the shortness of our
staff which we're currently experiencing
I have deputy chief Danes on board that
can talk about a little bit about the
online reports and efforts that she's
putting forth to uh to increase the uh
increase them
residents
[Music]
Keith did you want me to discuss that
now or wait till we go to Saturday we're
gonna bring it up right now okay uh
hello Council and and uh everyone
um trying to move my video feed around
I'm sorry DC Danes is is there any way
you can talk closer to the mic you sound
a little bit muffled
yes sir let me turn up my
how is that how long a little bit better
okay
I try to get a new camera and everything
for this and of course technology is
what it is Sir
[Music]
so we are hanging around counselor
Flores too much I can't really
how did you know sir how did you know we
were hanging out
so uh what we want to do is a lot of the
reports that we take for Citizens and
and I know every report is important but
many of them are just being made for
insurance purposes or they just want it
documented but it may it may not have a
criminal Nexus to it or there is no
suspect you know for example we've been
getting a lot of the um
yeah unemployment you know people are
having their their identities uh people
are filing for unemployment and stuff
like that we do follow all those up but
it's not necessarily something that an
officer needs to be right there or a
lost cell phone
so we're trying to increase the
availability of doing that online
especially
um uh you know a younger generation they
kind of prefer that and obviously
um for the older folks like me that are
a little more technology impaired
um we will still respond or take a
report over the phone and we're working
on some stuff in the future
um where uh even if people want to come
into the station we'll have some report
portals there so some computers we'll
have some staff they can walk them
through it that doesn't necessarily have
to be an officer I'm hoping for the
future it also sounds good but it's also
very
um expensive but we're looking at maybe
even again to to make sure that we're
getting to everybody every demographic
area
um you know everybody's using a cell
phone now hopefully in the future we'll
be able to develop an app so you can go
straight to our online reporting
something of that nature that's still in
the works but we are updating our online
reporting so for example unfortunately I
hope no one ever has to go through this
but if you're a victim of let's say an
auto burglary
and something was stolen out of your
vehicle or out of your home for a
residential burglary that had a serial
number but you know we all don't walk
around with oh hey I've got my serial
numbers right here on my phone so um a
lot of times they'll call and say I want
to make a supplemental report an officer
of course will take it but that's
something that hey I have a screenshot I
have the the serial number for my TV or
what have you you can just do that
online it automatically gets entered and
we're working on a lot of those things
being funneled directly via email
directly to our criminal investigations
division so it doesn't have to go
through a patrol officer that gets
approved to go through to get sent over
so we're trying to streamline those
processes so for online reporting for
the folks it works for and and we're
trying to make it as user friendly as
possible uh we will streamline that
process but of course
um you know if someone needs to speak to
a police officer maybe you know um
uh it's it's beyond their technical
capabilities or they actually have a
question we'll always uh you know be
able to take a phone call or or respond
in person although depending on our call
volume and our priority calls we don't
want folks to have to wait so this is an
alternative so they can just hey I'm
thinking about it I'm here at dinner
waiting for my chilies to come in I'll
do my supplemental report or something
like that so we're going to be offering
a lot more reports online as well and um
later on if you have more questions
about it I'll I'll be happy to address
this
thank you DC Danes I appreciate that
some uh some information before we move
on uh with the presentation that might
you might find uh useful and helpful as
you're discussing things with your
constituents and your and your uh in
your meetings motor motor vehicle thefts
uh we we broke them down by district and
uh districts uh two three and four uh
are at 26 24 and 23 of the the entire
volume uh that's that's uh that's the
bulk pretty much so what we're we're
looking at uh doing is is educating uh
through through uh our Pio as well but
we could use your assistance in letting
these uh uh constituents know that uh
you know don't leave your vehicles
unlocked don't leave your keys where
somebody can find them
um things things of that nature are
non-residential burglaries against
storage sheds and storage uh areas are
large increases there there are District
3 4 and 5 with the twenty percent thirty
three percent and nineteen percent of
the total volume of burglaries that are
occurring there uh we have some other
percentages that we can break down for
you if you'd like uh a little later on
but uh those are those are areas where
we definitely could use your help uh in
getting the word out uh that there is a
uh an increase in property crime and
thank you for uh for doing that for us
hey chief let me just share something
with you in the public uh I you know I
have a storage right outside my office
here and in um I guess I'm in District
three and I would be broken into about
every you know I don't know three months
six months so and I don't have really
anything you know that anyone really
wants other than there's just you know
some garden hoses
um whatever uh shovel so I decided I
started leaving a one-inch Gap a one one
and a half inch Gap and sometimes I'd
even leave a light so they want to look
inside and you know what knock on wood
it's been over a year and no one's
messed with it so you know sometimes
when it's closed and it's and it's
locked people think oh there's all this
great stuff you know they go in there
and then you know they're they're mad
and they probably just take whatever but
if it's if if the residents don't have
anything that's really you know
something that they can't uh get rid of
I mean I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend
they keep it in there but I mean their
garden stuff things that work on the
yard or you know things of that nature
um I I took that that initiative and so
far like I said watch me tonight get
broken into but I haven't in the last
year and leaving that little Gap and um
and anyways I just thought I'd share
that with you that's a good point a
little bit of diligence goes a long way
and if you could point out there's
nothing in here to steal uh they won't
go in there and they won't break uh
break your door down uh but uh you know
any anything helps but appreciate that
uh now we're gonna move into our uh
strategies and I'll turn it over to uh
deputy chief uh Brock and deputy chief
Danes that are going to discuss uh some
of the strategies that we're putting
forward uh to mitigate again some of
this uh crying that uh that's on the
race
this problem
good afternoon mayor city council Paul
Brock Deputy Chief of operations as
Chief Dominguez mentioned I'm going to
talk a little bit about some of the
strategies that uh not all of them but
I'll cover a few that we use here in
operations at the police department to
address uh crime Trends here in the city
hey D.C Brock I don't know if you're
don't want us to see you but you're
there you are
is that better Mr Mayor yes perfect okay
I apologize for that
um
in regards to the strategies I think
it's important to note that uh most of
the stuff we do in operations is based
upon evidence-based policing or
intelligence gathering here at the
police department we have a intelligence
unit in section uh comprised of both
sworn and non-sworn that uh read through
police reports they read through shift
notes that are put out after every
Patrol shift
um
they analyze crime crime Trends the
areas times the crimes are occurring
also the types of crimes and then they
share this back with everyone in
operations the patrol sheriff Street
crimes unit the traffic section
we use that information to basically
um focus our uh strategies and our
initiatives on uh specific areas times
of crimes in order to uh better
allocate our resources in other words
we're not just going out and uh blindly
patrolling the city we accomplished this
by uh several different things some of
the ones that I'll mention here are
directed patrols on patrol shifts will
identify specific
areas whether it's in Patrol beats or
other parts of the city the times and
days of occurrence and then pass this
information along to the patrol ships
supervision on the patrol shifts will
then
um direct
officers to the specific areas at
specific times
we also use a
um
we have projects both short-term and
long term where we've identified certain
uh parts of the city that
um the crime seems to be higher than
other places and sometimes these uh uh
can be addressed with short-term uh
projects sometimes it takes longer
depending on the types of crimes that
are occurring there and they may take a
long-term project when we have a
long-term project uh our community
policing unit also gets involved we come
in we speak with residents in addition
to to allocating resources and looking
at the crime Trends police reports and
information that comes in but we speak
with the residents and the public and
find out as much intelligence as we can
and then come up with a game plan uh a
lot of it is uh
um additional resources to the area but
then again we have limited resources uh
here at the police department so we try
to put the best use to our resources
that we can in operations
um
we try to do as much proactive policing
as we can we also work with our
detective Division and receive
intelligence and information gathering
from them a lot of that information
comes from
persons that have been arrested for
certain crimes and during the interview
they may pass on additional information
to the detectives that we can then
use to direct our resources or forecast
crimes that may occur in the future
um we've had other projects to address
the burglary we started a burglary
detail
um during nighttime hours to
specifically address Auto burglaries and
uh commercial burglaries
um we've also uh had burglary details in
neighborhoods where a lot of the auto
burglaries were occurring and tried to
forecast that the best we could and try
to allocate our resources to those areas
I also mentioned that it's hard for us
to measure how much
our projects provided deterrent to Crime
because when a crime doesn't occur
because of police presence in the area
of course we want to see the reduction
in crime but we don't really have a way
to measure how much crime we prevent by
just merely being present in certain uh
parts of the cities or neighborhoods so
that I think that's also important to
know
we do saturation Patrols
um
uh replace extra officers on patrol
shifts depending on dates and times of
crimes and then again we send them to
certain areas
um we also work with our law enforcement
Partners both the state police the
sheriff's department
our federal Partners the FBI and the U.S
Marshals and we also work with probation
and parole to try to accomplish our
our goal of reducing crime in operations
by uh the best allocation and use of our
resources are limited resources that we
do have so
from
if I left anything out I would encourage
DC Dames if she would like to chime in
but I I think that kind of gives you an
overview of the type of strategies we
use here in operations at the police
department
counsel for the record
um also a lot of things that we also
have been trying to do is
um
we've been pushing to see something say
something so if people uh you know
sometimes if you live in in certain
areas of town well they're going to know
that I said something so we want to make
it available they let everybody know
that you can make an anonymous
um report we get actually get a lot of
those and we um we do check on the
validity of them and we do follow up
um the committee and Retail Partnerships
that we've been able to have that Chief
Dominguez alluded to earlier with a
retail asset protection and we've also
partnered with
um the local hospitality and tourism
areas uh specifically hotels uh and
things of that nature because
um a lot of times
um those are being used uh as as for
Nexus for criminal activity
um not by any fault of the hotels but
you know you can rent a hotel and then
they'll
um maybe that's where the the stolen
property will be gathered or we see a
rise in um Auto auto thefts in general
just even coming from out of state it's
very transitory so we've worked with um
our hotel partners
and you know they advise us hey these
vehicles are suspicious or you know I've
seen this kind of activity and we're
able to share information uh that way as
well so that that's been very helpful
and
um with our proximity to El Paso uh
um a lot of this stuff
um it goes across state lines of many of
the uh Auto thefts are going uh to El
Paso and into Juarez so we're working
with the El Paso Police Department to
look at Trends and try to forecast as
well
um we do know there are a lot of chop
shops um Parts
um obviously uh are more worth more than
the vehicle itself and so we're working
with our other partners once it goes
across state lines we can look at some
federal issues which helps us and um the
FBI has a lot more resources so we work
with them
um in that nature so we we do a lot in
just sharing a lot of information
debriefing on the folks we do arrest
um and and seeing what's going on and
and uh working with if there's a drug
Nexus a lot of times
um the thefts are being
property crime and the vehicle thefts
are being taken and traded for drugs or
used to traffic drugs so we work with
our Metro narcotics agency to see what's
being used how it's being used and so we
can do that as well so the biggest thing
is trying to share information and
forecast which is is very hard but with
our limited resources we're trying to
deploy them the best way we can
appropriately
and then um doing as much follow-up as
possible
um like did it work did crime go down or
or did it did we move it
um and then try to address it that way
as well so and that is where our
community policing officers come in
because
um they'll come in after a project and
then um the residents will tell us hey
this was great or they don't know what
this is still happening then we can
reevaluate what's going on so we're
trying a lot of different things and
there's some things that this trade
craft we really can't tell you all about
I'm just kidding but um but uh we'll do
those things and so uh we're really
working with what we have and getting
the community to report and you'd really
be surprised what the community does
report to us and um we take it and and
use it we have to verify it all
obviously but uh we appreciate all uh
the ring camera footage that we get
things of that nature we're working on
um uh being able to make it easier for
committee committee members to share
that with us as well so uh that's just a
little bit of what we're working on and
um you know if that idea comes up and we
try it
um we'll we'll take we'll take it and
run with it if it doesn't then we know
while we gave that the good college
trial let's move on to something
um that's a little more effective for us
so I've got something else to add I
don't know if you keep track of this but
several years ago I I you know I see
various uh uh tapes or or videos and and
there was a discussion with a top-notch
uh Auto burglar all right
and um for any of you you may or may not
even be aware of that I I use the club
on my on my on my vehicle
and um and they asked him about that and
he goes I can I can break through the
club in 20 or 25 seconds he says but it
slows me down
he says you wouldn't believe how many
cars
leave their keys in in the ignition he
says so he says so I'm not going to
waste my time you know 20 seconds or 25
seconds to an auto burglar is a lot of
time that's what he said and so to me I
know that they can break through the
club
even though there's a thousand dollar uh
award if they if if your vehicle gets
stolen you can apply it towards your
insurance
but do you all keep track of how many
vehicles that were stolen have keys in
the car I I've seen statistics now not
just recently but a few years back that
it was as high as almost
40 or 40 percent or so of the cars that
were stolen this because they left the
keys in the car unlocked which is hard
to believe
but do you all have any of those
statistics
mayor uh thus far this year 11 of uh all
of our Auto thefts had uh uh were stolen
because that key was keys were in the
vehicle so that that's a high percentage
right there uh just on on vehicle thefts
that's that's pretty incredible um you
know what I'm going to let counselor
sort
um he has a question so counselor sore
do you have a question
actually actually mayor I have a point
to make
um
that uh if we all had electric vehicles
those steps would go way down because
you can't steal an electric vehicle
because people will leave their keys in
a car like that you can't it won't can't
be done so
another benefit of an EV
okay that's true and and they're getting
to the point where they'll know exactly
where that car is at so
yeah it's it's a lot easier through
Insurance a little cheaper
okay uh please continue
uh so uh one of the other strategies we
had our Community Partnership go out and
they were doing Flyers they were going
door to door and actually putting some
uh you know brochures in there to see
see something say something uh kudos to
councilor Vasquez through one of our
mitigation meetings he uh he actually
requested banners uh to be placed uh
strategically throughout the city and
we've we've done so and we've received
uh we've actually received calls uh due
to those those banners being up and
people mentioning them so uh kudos to to
councilor Vasquez for that
um now we're gonna change gears a little
bit we're going to move into internal
affairs
uh we had uh we have uh Lieutenant
Robert Gutierrez that is the newly
minted Internal Affairs Lieutenant many
of you remember uh Lieutenant Rebecca
Kinney uh who retired uh late last year
Lieutenant Gutierrez uh once he became a
lieutenant was uh was selected to run
our Internal Affairs uh he's done a
great job with his team he's added uh
positions and and uh I want to go and
let him run run us through the next
couple of slides and and introduce the
staff to us if you will
thank you Chief mayor city council Rob
Gutierrez Lieutenant of internal affairs
uh thank you I've been in this position
since December of 2020 so just to take
you back where I'm at I had the honor
and
honor and uh privilege to grow this
department a little bit since I've been
here the internal affairs Department uh
I have a sergeant Sean Mullins he's the
internal affairs Sergeant I have
detective Israel Rodriguez and detective
Eric cook they are the internal affairs
investigators
also we have the research and
development section
a newly created position was the
compliance Sergeant which is filled by
Sergeant Vincent shad and he oversees
the r d Department research and
development and Rob Benavides is our r d
specialist
um basically the new physician that was
created in the r d is the compliance
Sergeant he oversees the general odors
otherwise known as uh policies uh his
duties in that are to scrutinize and
amend as needed to stay consistent with
state and local laws uh this allows us
to be transparent and have a lot more
accountability in this area r d is also
responsible for the Department's ongoing
accreditation with the New Mexico
Municipal League accreditation
we'd like to remain a professional unit
and be accredited and recognized as such
by the New Mexico Municipal League
uh transparency we have a publication
and Revision in the general orders
manner excuse me manual that are
published on our transparency page uh
the compliance Sergeant oversees that
and revises it and changes it as
necessary
our early intervention system uh which
is a really cool system is an
accountability tool that's separate from
our disciplinary system
uh in which it works with our wellness
program we hold ourselves accountable by
identifying potential problematic
patterns and adjusting our needs to them
as well as the community's needs so not
just letting the community know what
we're doing but being transparent about
it and having a higher standard of
accountability
on that now changing slides we get into
our Internal Affairs complaint
comparisons
uh let me explain what our complaint
types are first of all excuse me
now our e1c ones or those complaints
that are formal investigations of an
allegation of misconduct of a serious
nature or they could be non-serious but
it's related to a non-performance of
Duty now our E1 c2s are those complaints
that are non-serious in nature and the
subject elects not to pursue a formal
investigation in other words the
complainant says you know what I want to
give you some information I want the
supervisor to be notified of this
officer but it's for information
purposes only
now our e1c3 allegations are those of
non-serious nature where the subject is
unable to articulate a bona fide
complaint uh they want to complain about
an officer or complain about a situation
but they really don't have a complaint
there's no facts or no general order
violations
now our IIs or our internal
investigations these are the formal
internal investigations which are
initiated due to allegations of
misconduct and or policy violations now
these violations can occur on or off
duty
so
with those explanations now our our
complaints are trending downward as
they're shown by the graph here out of
168 156 calls only 68 complaints were
generated
so this is a demonstration of our
transparency and high level of
accountability as Chief Dominguez
explained in the earlier slides
so continue on to the next slide
now I took over in December of 2020 this
right here is our complaint
investigations and our carryovers so we
started with a backlog of cases due to
the covid pandemic but through a lot of
hard work and our diligent efforts our
team has managed to bring our caseload
down to a manageable number
okay now we distributed uh minor
complaints uh basically the c3s to our
shift supervisors uh which allowed us to
close out some of these cases
um not necessarily close out but come to
a solution either finding something
wrong with a policy or basically uh
detecting a pattern of uh you know
potential misconduct and therefore
preventing further allegations on it
now this allowed us to be a little bit
more transparency in a in our and
accountable to our line officers you
know once everybody knows what's
occurring they know what to look for you
know you see something you say something
it goes along with the LCPD cares and it
goes along with our transparency and so
forth now in 2019 we carried over eight
cases which seems reasonable our goal is
zero or to have less than ten but then
going into 2020 uh in 2021 we carried
over 34 cases okay this once again the
goal is to carry over zero but due to a
bunch of uh covet pandemic restrictions
uh this delayed our investigations and
postponed several investigations
so once again this year hopefully we
carry over zero and we finish our
investigations and the trend continues
downward
uh with this in mind I'll turn it back
over to Chief Dominguez
thank you lieutenant
did you have a question mayor no I was
just going to say thanks
thank you sir
uh he's uh he's quite uh modest he he
took over and there was a backlog of
internal investigations uh many of which
had to be uh forwarded or uh extended uh
between him his staff he was able to
devise a plan to quickly get us into a
point where we're uh running uh back to
normal he took a large chunk of those
investigations and quickly uh work them
through the system to get us caught up
uh kudos to him especially being you in
the position he's done an excellent job
there and actually I do have one quick
question I guess
um if we so uh Lieutenant do if you go
back to those claim those uh complaints
right there internal complaints is it
fair to say that some of those are
police officers who witnessed something
with one of their colleagues and and
submit them yes sir yes sir quite a bit
of them are internal
okay that's all I want to know thanks
and we'll move on to uh LCPD Personnel
but uh mayor to your point uh I just
received a text message from our Intel
uh section Sergeant Sergeant Miranda
Baker French she scolded me for pulling
up pointing out the wrong uh percentage
it's actually 31 of the vehicles that
have been stolen had the had the keys
left in there so to your point that's
even higher so uh 31 yeah I mean
I mean I mean it's almost like they
deserve it if they leave their keys in
the car I mean come on I mean this well
I'm sorry I'm sorry but I mean come on
did they just forget or they they don't
want to
I don't know okay I take that back I'm
sorry
it uh it leads to our frustration as
well when we take a burglary report and
they say yeah you know I just had my
iBook stolen from my vehicle I left that
in there overnight uh just completely
exposed you know that's a thousand
dollar computer they're just leaving
their uh Easy Pickins and then on top of
that there's a lot of uh weapons guns
that are stolen out of vehicles which
are left in there so that's super
frustration yeah Carrie uh and I'm sorry
I keep jumping in here but I mean I'm
trying to provide a little bit so Carrie
uh uh uh a towel if you have something
valuable just cover it you know again
circling back to that that professional
burglar or robber you know he says that
I mean they look in there look in the
car if they don't see anything valuable
they just move on
um
so I mean if they need to keep it in
there I understand they may have some
equipment that they want to be hauling
back and forth uh just carry a couple
towels and um preferably if you could
get the color of the towel to blend with
the color of your of your seat
so that as they're looking it kind of
throws them on
good point every little bit helps
so we'll move on to our Personnel uh
currently our uh we have a 202
authorized uh officers strength uh uh
I'm currently we're at 150 uh and
actually that's actually gone down a
couple of a couple of uh officers since
I I put this power point together so
we're actually at about 148 uh to add
some perspective there we're typically
uh with our 202 authorized strengths
we're typically in the 185 to 190 and we
usually have some Cadets in the academy
once Academy graduates we get very close
or or surpass the 202 by one or two and
then through attrition uh they uh we go
back down and but we operate uh
comfortably within the 185 to 190 range
with 150 we are definitely uh low
staffed and it definitely is it's
affecting our proactive uh police
strategy as well as our officer morale
they're really getting tasked with a lot
of mandated overtime to make sure that
we stay at minimum Staffing and continue
to to uh answer the culture service DC
Brock uh um to his credit has been able
to maintain the the our Target of less
than three minutes for a priority one
and and less than eight minutes for a
priority two call which is uh property
theft and actually we we just went over
uh that eight minute Mark by uh by a few
seconds we're at about 8 15 8 20 uh
response time for
um for those priority two calls but uh
it's getting uh it's getting more
difficult as as uh as we're we're
continuing to to lose officers and and
having issues uh attracting them uh I
have on board a Lieutenant's story uh
who's going to discuss a few of the the
recruitment uh things that he's put into
together with with his Personnel to try
to uh make uh LCPD a little bit more
attractive to prospective officers uh
Lieutenant story Chief before we get
that to the tenant story uh councilor
beta Stewie had her hand up did you want
to say something counselor about
all right thank you mayor um thank you
Chief but my question
um involves uh to attract officers so I
think I should pause and wait to hear
from Lieutenant's story
thanks
good afternoon everyone mayor council
Lieutenant Jeremy Story the training
Lieutenant
um we're we're trying several different
things and we've actually had a lot of
success with some of the campaigns that
we're trying
um we're finding ourselves kind of in in
difficult Waters which is the case for
most agencies throughout this state and
Nationwide
um some of the things we're doing we're
doing a kbia campaign it's it's not
necessarily the TV station but they they
run in um
an advertising part of that organization
so that's typically who we've used
um this is the most successful campaign
currently that we have that we've ever
had and we're actually in the top three
campaigns of all time for kvia
but we also don't always see the
applications
um that we would expect from that so we
have that campaign that's on the numbers
are great
um it's successful but it's not
successful in the point that we're not
getting the applications that we'd like
um we've had several recruiting events
last year was difficult with covet and
going into this recruiting cycle we're
two months in of the application period
of a total three-month period so two out
of three months
um they're starting to open back up so
now we have recruiting events where
recruiters can go to
um they're at Fort Bliss almost every
week they've gone to every University
and Community College in this area to
include UTEP and uh um El Paso Community
College dacc NMSU
Holloman Air Force Base so they branched
out and done a great job of trying to
reach these people
um
along with just traditional advertising
of course banners posters which which
can go a long way and they tend to be
cheap advertising
we uh
if you look at the views of the
applications that we have so on our
application page for the city for police
cadet we're currently at 7 790 views
um but only 324 applications so we're
getting the views we're just not giving
the applications there's a number of
factors right now it seems to be that
there's a a smaller pool of qualified
applicants than ever that want to become
police officers and so it's very
competitive for agencies they're going
to look if they want to stay in this
area they're going to look at El Paso
the sheriff's department
um and all the other larger agencies
they're going to compare benefits pay
rates things like that and so
um or an emphasis for for the chief and
in US is to try to make our agency as
competitive and as attractive as
possible to those qualified applicants
and so that's become the focus now of
working to increase our attractiveness
to that smaller qualified applicants
um again laterals uh laterals is another
thing we can do which means officers
that are already certified that come
over to our agency so not they don't
have to go through an actual Academy but
same thing with laterals we want to
attract qualified laterals not laterals
that have a problem uh problem
problematic history at other agencies
and so just apply to other people to
hire them so in order to attract
qualified laterals we have to do the
same thing we have to make ourselves
attractive so and that is definitely one
of the easiest ways to deal with
staffing issues to get those qualified
laterals to come over
thank you lieutenant story and and to
his point we we live in a beautiful city
we we have a large University we we're
close to a very large city uh in the
nation close to a lot of things so
um demographically we active but to
Lieutenant story's point we we uh lag
behind in compensation packages uh with
uh Mr uh peely's uh
um backing and support we're currently
working on improving that uh we we have
a few uh meetings coming up very shortly
where we should be able to come up with
uh with a better benefit package uh to
include compensation to attract those uh
um those uh students and and uh
potential officers that are going
elsewhere for these large uh
um these large bonus paying departments
uh for example there's Hobbs uh police
department is paying thirty thousand
dollars uh for a qualified officer and
that's that's a lot of money to be
throwing around but we'd have we have
people that would rather go live in
Hobbs where uh there's a large uh
shortage or there's a shortage of
housing the cost of living is higher
over there but they'd rather go over
there because the compensation package
is a little better but we're working on
things to make it more attractive to to
come here to Las Cruces like I said this
is a beautiful city a beautiful
Community we have the university here
and all these other uh things that would
attract people if we can just be
competitive uh with uh with our hiring
packets
talk about her you wanted to say
something about the hiring
um counselor yes uh thank you mayor and
thank you Chief um Lieutenant story as
well
um just and I'm absolutely sure I'm that
you've already thought of these items
but looking since the market is so
competitive right now for this
profession but looking at even adjusting
things like shifts schedules that uh
allow for perhaps even like longer
breaks in between time
um so people can really reset and
rejuven it before they have to come back
to work and then I I do recognize and
believe that you know we want to attract
the best and brightest and that does
come with a cost and so that's something
that I I fully recognize and value is
something that I think we need to
probably have a conversation about
um as well of making sure that we're
staying very competitive especially if
we are looking to attract individuals
with special skill sets
um with our advertising are we also
working with Workforce Solutions at all
um and some of their uh you know they
just mentioned that they were going to
have a
um kind of a a job fair and with
veterans and other items and so I'm not
sure if we're partnering with that
so we we have uh in the past and we
we've worked with um several different
veteran groups the the military
transition programs are good for us
um I I can't say in the past when we've
had those job fairs we get Bureau very
little return
um and applications for applicants that
actually make it into the academy
um that's just been the what we've seen
in the past but it's definitely uh an
option because at this point I mean I'm
willing to try anything that's going to
help us improve our success I think it's
worth the show
thank you and I have to say I was
probably at least two views I went on
and looked at all the applications and
everything today just to see what's
going on um with that
um and chief I'm wondering are we able
to partner with
um even like sheriff's office or other
places uh in case we are
um having issues with making sure that
we are fully staffed are we able to have
those types of conversations
mayor councilor Beethoven yes we
actually have memos of understanding and
and uh we joint Powers agreements things
of that nature so where we we kind of
cover each other so if we were to run to
a situation where we did not have enough
officers and stuff we definitely would
team up uh with the Sheriff's Office and
State Police uh as well as other local
agencies to make sure that we're
providing our community which is all of
us in in doniana County uh the services
that they deserve so we we do have plans
in place
okay fantastic and just for my
edification
um when those happen
um the process for for us as counselors
to be able to uh know
um and make sure we can uh really talk
to our community members and
constituents to reassure them about all
that
um I assume that you'll just be speaking
with city manager pili and then we'll be
informed of those types of changes
[Music]
that's correct we he would know and and
he would share the information if we do
reduce Services if uh in any in any way
shape or form uh you would you would
know before we we did anything
okay thank you thank you mayor thank you
lieutenant and thank you chief
so let me let me throw something out
here uh lieutenant and chief
so I think one of the
I would think because I seem to recall
this several years ago
okay so we we start
um
the new officers at about 18 19 an hour
give or take in that ballpark I think or
the academy 20 an hour
so I I estimate so that's 3 200 a month
you take out the taxes then you take out
the pera and all the the all the um
benefit
their take-home pays anywhere from 900
to a thousand a pay period and that's
that's a challenge so so what I was
thinking and I think a lot of council
members I know counselor sorgs and his
district he's getting a lot and and
and I see the emails but I'm wondering
if and they still have the take-home car
policy and I'm wondering if we if the
city is allowed to rent houses in these
high areas and and then for the new uh
officers they get free housing for the
first I don't know two years or
something so until they you know until
they get increased in salary but they
get free housing uh they'll have their
car parked there and I'm telling you I
know if even if you know the car being
parked there is going to slow traffic
down they don't know if their if the
officer happened to just be bending over
doing something picking something up and
and you know have something going
um I don't even know if we're allowed to
do that but I don't see why we couldn't
look into that if that's something that
you think might help with recruiting I
mean because if you can give them Free
Housing I mean that's six seven hundred
eight hundred a month and they don't
have to worry about
and um
that that's a
you know and then plus it helps with the
neighborhood I mean sure they're going
to probably have a lot of neighbors you
know knocking on their door from time to
time but hey I mean if you have a
strategically placed throughout the city
why not
mayor to to your point we we've uh I I
don't think I've ever thought of that
but we would definitely look into it but
to your point there is a apartment
complexes things of that nature that
that do give uh discounts to officers
because they want them living there and
be able to park the car there uh just
just for the presence so uh we'll
definitely look into we'll write it down
uh it's one of the things that we're
looking into anything anything at this
point would work uh or hopefully would
work to get uh some officers into our uh
staff
yeah they need to make sure they Park
their car in the driveway uh so it looks
like they're ready to get the the
Speeders so I'm telling you I know it
works um
you know years ago when when my dad had
an old uh squad car you know there that
he bought from the city long time ago
I'm telling you he kept the traffic at
Bay on on Farney and after he got rid of
it
Barney just started getting really busy
I mean I was slowed down I'd be heading
I'd be heading to my parents house I'd
still see that car and I was oh it's my
dad's car you know it just not that I
was speeding a lot but I mean I was
probably going a few miles over but you
know but still nonetheless it it's
thought it it's a deterrent having that
that police car there in any block any
Street helps
uh so we have a question from Council
Flores
thank you mayor and thank you uh Chief
Dominguez and uh Lieutenant's story
um so I think it was you lieutenant
story who was saying that
it is Lieutenant right
yes ma'am yes thank you that you're
trying to make it attractive to a to a
pool of applicants and you also
mentioned making it attractive for
laterals uh for lateral transfers
and
um what do you mean by make it
attractive
mayor council Flores
what I mean is right now both lateral
officers or commission officers and
people who want to become an officer so
perspective Cadets that pool of people
that are qualified that want to do this
profession is a lot smaller than it used
to be so for perspective when I started
or when I went to the academy 2007 when
I look back at the records we had over a
thousand applications we had about 45
people who passed everything in the top
25 started the academy
so you had approximately 20 25 people
who passed everything that still didn't
make it in the academy that's not the
case anymore
so we do not have that pool of people
who pass things and don't make it in the
academy out of a out of the Thousand
applications or 800 applications the
average uh percentage that makes it into
the academy is about uh anywhere from
2.5 to 3 percent of that number
so if we use round numbers let's say
um right now if we were at 300
applications and it's at three percent
that's nine people out of every 300
applications that just pass everything
that are Baseline qualified I'm not
talking about that Ernesto the the top
of the the line applicants that's just
people that can pass everything that's
in the process
so when we look at how many people are
left in that pool that are qualified
that that are intelligent that have
emotional intelligence that are
dedicated to their Community or to the
community they decide to move to
they're going to look at every agency
that's hiring which is everybody and
they're going to say this agency pays
this rate an hour and they give a hiring
incentive or hiring bonus and they're uh
this is what they pay in insurance and
they have this incentive
um like something like that mayor said
those little things do matter when they
look at it and they say they have all
these incentives I think I'm going to go
with this agency and what what it is for
that individual person that actually
sells them on it it's going to be
different for different people but the
more incentives we have and the more
competitive we are with pay and benefits
the easier it is to draw from that pool
that's just the bottom line okay so um
the mayor mentioned that the hourly pay
is 18 to 19 and did the arithmetic on
that
um
so do you advertise it that way or do
you
um advertise it in terms of a package in
terms of retirement benefits in terms of
even a union because you have a union or
you know police officers have a union
um
I mean do you advertise all the
incentives that um really that add up to
a lot more than uh thirty two hundred
dollars a month uh do you advertise that
way
mayor council Flores we do we when we uh
do our recruiting whether it's um uh
pamphlets or something on the website if
you look at that we put everything that
we offer because there's a lot of things
we offer that other departments don't
whether it's specialty positions or
teams that are available here we put
everything on there But ultimately
they're going to look at most people are
going to look at numbers and they're
going to look at pay rates benefits
salaries or bonuses
um things like that that's the first
things they're going to look at and then
they'll look at all the the kind of the
ancillary benefits that are there but we
put everything out there
and ancillary uh benefits are ones that
they opt for or that they actually come
with the package
benefits turn out to be somewhat
expensive like if an employee opts for a
certain coverage you know Insurance
health insurance for the family the
person and the family
turns out to be more expensive even
though it looks good on paper uh it
turns out to be a little bit more
expensive so I hope I'm making myself
clear
uh but to me
just being a regular
employee most of my life
um
I wanted to look at the whole package
not just what I was going to get paid
but what it would add up to with all you
know with insurance coverage uh you know
the you know retirement benefits you
know
whatever
Etc so
why
so you say you're advertising it that
way so have you figured out why there's
such a low recruitment or a low um
excuse me
such a small pool of applicants
can you attribute it to me
mayor council floors there's obviously a
number of factors that can are
contributing to that and some of those
things are outside of our hands in the
department some of those things are
outside of your hands um even as counsel
but what I say is that with that reduced
pool
they're they're looking at numbers so if
our if we pay less per hour than an
agency that's in the same city or that's
uh 40 miles away and
um you know they offer a bonus or they
have those things they look at those
numbers and they're going to pick the
one that's higher many people are so
those are the things that are difficult
for us
well
so so I I think I'm asking questions
that I may be rhetorical uh or maybe
bothersome or
you know for you or
but
it seems to me that if
um if they can find something that's 40
miles away or some other you know
another another community in New Mexico
um if it was competitive I mean I I mean
Las Cruces is like the second largest
city in the state so one would think
that there would be the resources or the
financial resources to
um have a higher police force and have
an excellent pool of applicants
and um
and of course this is getting into
budgeting and all that and this is
something I asked at last week's meeting
or just a previous meeting a week or two
ago
about
um unfilled positions you have 52
unfilled positions and my understanding
explanation is that uh those those
particular positions can't be redefined
the unfilled positions have to remain
that way and it just seems kind of crazy
that
um there are a number quite a number
over over two dozen no four dozen yeah
um
yeah quite a few uh positions that
aren't filled the the you know vacancies
so
is there any working that around to
maybe use that money to increase uh
salaries I'm just trying to figure out
if if uh yeah I'm just trying to figure
out what what it is what is going on why
why do we have that vacancy when we do
have a need
mayor uh counselor Flores I I think I
can answer so as far as recruiting
um officers for example a first-year
officer in Santa Fe makes 22 dollars an
hour I want to go down this list
Albuquerque
2127 Rio Rancho 20 an hour uh Hobbs pays
26 dollars an hour uh the sheriff's
department 1830 uh El Paso uh police
department pays 22.21 Farmington 23.75
San Juan County 2213. these are all uh
agencies that are competing right now uh
with us to hire these uh these officers
uh we just uh improved our approved our
pay rates to move up to 1883 an hour but
that still leaves us uh way uh towards
the bottom uh at that with that right
with that rate we're we leap probably
one other department so we we are
working on a compensation package
that'll be way more attractive than we
currently offer once we do that we'll be
able to attract uh attract more people
like like you just pointed out this is a
beautiful city people want to live in
Las Cruces but to be a police officer in
Las Cruces
um versus El Paso for example they can
go down the road over there make almost
three dollars more an hour and commute
and and it's worth their while to do
that so we need to compete with with
that
um with that issue first and foremost to
be able to to attract but uh we're not
the only agency that's hurting right now
other agencies including federal
agencies are all hurting typically
um uh federal agencies do not hire out
of out of PDs but they are recruiting
currently uh at a very aggressive rate I
have uh friends of mine that work for
the FBI and they're currently getting
bombarded with background checks of
officers that are wanting to go to the
federal ranks things of that nature so
it's it's a challenge for sure but we
need to continue working on it and and
to add a little bit more perspective as
to how we got so far behind our last
academy uh we had our Academy 49 uh we
had uh 10 graduate that Academy and by
the time they made it through the field
training program and everything we had
four officers uh typically our academies
are 25 officers to 30 officers so covid
really really affected the way we are
able to train that Academy and then the
academy 48 that was right before that uh
we were only to get we're only able to
get uh 10 officers from that Academy so
uh that's that's led to uh our deficit
thus far yeah back in uh I think it was
2018 it could have been 2019 but 2018
there were a lot of graduates I went to
that graduation at donana County uh
excuse me donana Community College and
uh it was and it was jam-packed I mean
it was just families just you know just
packed in there very proud
um so so it sounds like you're
attributing it to covid covet is a
factor covet is a factor for so many
things these days you know your hair
screwed up oh it's coded I you know I've
gained 20 pounds oh it's covered yeah my
car broke down I can't fix it oh it's
coded so um
but you're saying it is covet is
necessarily a factor as well Academy 49
which was last uh last Academy that we
put through was definitely affected by
uh the pandemic as the the academy
lasted forever uh we had to do
everything virtually of some of their
physical stuff that they had to uh be
able to do where it was it was uh very
very tricky trying to get that academy
uh to graduate and we had people in the
academy that quit because they were so
frustrated with the way things were were
happening not just with us but just
Nationwide with academies as well and
then you uh also said Chief Dominguez or
maybe it was a Lieutenant's story who
said that housing was a factor as well
housing is getting pretty expensive and
and hard to find
so
yeah mayor councilor Florida said that
was uh they that was a point to make
when they go to Hobbs Hobbs has a
housing uh shortage or they did during
uh uh uh last couple of years uh but
they would rather go over there and live
uh in an RVs believe it or not and uh
and make good money uh then then come
here because we don't pay that much
we've lost several officers yet because
of that well do you think that the
salaries can go up chief
I mean
uh mayor uh councilor Florida absolutely
uh like I said we're working on a plan
uh we should have something uh on paper
very very soon uh by the end of this
week we we should be meeting with uh
with Mr PD to discuss uh uh options that
we have as well as Joe Richards from HR
you know when I when I think of police
officers I think of them
um all of you uh putting your life on
the line every time you step out of your
house
and
um and with all due respect to the
powers that be that decide what people
should be paid
um the the going you know what the
hourly rate is is with all due respect
uh dismal
and uh and I'm I hope that you're able
to uh find a way to really attract a a
police force that uh you know
complements our community and so when
you're advertising do you show how
beautiful Las Cruces is and
how nice people are around here and all
that sort of stuff I mean you know maybe
you should use a Visitor's Bureau so
they can help you put a beautiful
pamphlet together or something to really
sell the city as well
yeah
thank you Mr Mayor and thank you Chief
Dominguez and Lieutenant story I
appreciate your announcer it looks like
DC Brock has his hand up he wants to see
a comment or two
thank you Mr Mayor uh Council just to
kind of add to what uh Lieutenant
historian Chief Dominguez we're talking
about another issue we've seen here at
the police department is there's there's
been several uh changes in Para in
regards to retirement so retention here
at the police department has also been
an issue because a lot of uh current
officers are retiring
um as soon as they can or before or
right at their 20-year Mark there's a
change in retiree health care that
becomes effective in July of this year
and the increases is quite a substantial
amount uh just individual you're going
from like 230 to 600 something a month
for employee health care so if a current
employee is eligible to retire they're
choosing to retire
um you know before July in other words
they would have to retire in June
in order to avoid the cost of the
retiree Health Care retiree health care
for a family is is over a thousand
dollars a month so that's another thing
that's uh affected us here at the police
department is retention so thank you I
just wanted to add that in
thank you
wow that's uh that's pretty incredible
thank you DC prox but Council photos I
just wanted to share a couple things
that I'm aware of so let's just take the
the two cities Farmington and Hobbs so
Hobbs I mean we we have a lot in
reserves in our money but Hobbs has
almost 60 million in reserves so they
have a they're you know they obviously
they have a lot of money that they get
from the the oil and gas industry so
they can they can do this and they they
know they can raise the the ante
Farmington is a is a is a city that's
struggling but there they know how
important police is and so they're
willing to to go even I didn't realize
we were still in the 18s I was hoping
that we were at least 19 but I guess
we're not that's why I just use the
example of twenty dollars an hour but
that's how that's the challenge and I
think it's imperative that we do our
best to look at at um and
increasing whatever well that's the
reason why I like the housing and let me
tell you twofold one because you know it
it acts as a it also acts as a deterrent
in my opinion for Speeders you know and
and you know we get a lot you get you
all get a lot of emails because you know
they copy me when they send things to
you that's one thing and two
yes it's nice to increase the salary but
then the city has to pay extra on FICA
you got to pay extra on on on
Pera whereas if we provide housing
that's just a flat cost but that's still
a that's still a great benefit if we
provide seven eight hundred dollars of
housing I mean we provide them the and I
say this in strategic locations you know
I see a lot of it being in District five
district three District Four you know
it's it's literally all over District
Six you know and but those that are you
know that have a lot of
um referrals for for Speeders that's
just my opinion so
okay we've got counselor Vasquez and
mayor Pro tems Council Vasquez
thank you thank you mayor uh thank you
Chief
um uh Lieutenant Deputy Chief and others
uh who have
I appreciate this conversation and
um appreciate all obviously all the work
um of the department through uh what has
been a very tough time for uh everybody
in Las Cruces
including folks who uh perhaps have uh
committed um you know these types of
crime out of desperation
um
when
um lots of people in our community are
suffering um I think it's good to
recognize that as a community as a whole
uh last year was really hard
um uh just have a a thought on the on
the recruiting piece in general
um you know I see an opportunity here
and what is a challenge uh and I and I
do get that and I you know uh I'm not
sure how long some of these other
smaller cities are going to be able to
be competitive
um especially during the boom and bus
years of the oil and gas industry uh
Hobbs may be able to pay a lot of money
now they may not be able to pay as much
in five years or ten years depending on
how that industry
um is doing and I think Las Cruces still
is one of the most desirable places to
live
um while money does matter I know to a
lot of folks um uh quality of life and
the community
um I think that we have here is really a
great asset but the I think the
opportunity here
um and something that I could support
um is uh you know tying pay increases or
bonuses to our community policing
outcomes that we want to see in the city
um some of the most successful officers
at least that I have seen that um have
uh that that folks have sang their
praises to me
um are some of our community police
officers uh that our community has
gotten to know really well and that
people in my district in particular have
gotten to know really well and have
built that trust with our community
members
um and who are uh who are well known and
engage in activities even outside their
duties in strict law enforcement right
but their Community leaders or their
Community officers their peace officers
they are
um involved uh in a greater degree
um
I think the places that they Patrol in
the in the the people that they interact
with and so
um you know there could be uh
potentially uh a list or a different
um set of activities that a that an
officer could do to fulfill uh that
community policing role uh that might
Merit the bonus or the increase right
attending public meetings
um visiting schools
um uh how many interactions they they
may have with a Community member in a in
a manner that's not for law enforcement
sequences
um all of those measures uh you know I
could see uh being part of the
attraction of becoming an integrated
member of a community in addition to a
law enforcement officer
um that I would say would help us meet
our goals as a city right as a as as one
that I think wants to uh really increase
its community policing and its
relationship building uh with local law
enforcement and that would Merit um a
pay raise or a bonus every time uh these
certain benchmarks are met
um that way it's a mutual uh help right
it helps both our community helps
accomplish what the council I think
wants to see and then gives officers an
incentive
um to come to a community uh where where
they will be valued and respected for
this type of work and get get pay
increases get bonuses get
um reach benchmarks um so that's just
the thought
um of how maybe we could build a a bonus
structure an increase in salary
um or a progressive tier of uh increased
pay as community policing
um uh benchmarks are met and I I
understand not every officer perhaps
gets into the police force um to
necessarily have uh that type of uh
perhaps relationship with our community
um everyone has different personalities
I get that uh but I'm just thinking
about I think after two years of uh this
lead diversion program that we tried to
Pilot here under former Chief Gallagher
and chief Gallagher saying that only one
officer had
part of that program after two years
um uh to me just seemed like why are we
doing this right if there's only one
officer that's that's doing this so
maybe maybe you know if you uh enroll in
a program like lead or participate in
those other types of activities
um
I mean our goals and folks get on some
extra pay out of it so I would love to
see that kind of structure right that
helps meet some mutual goals
um and that and I think it also reflects
some of what our community is asked for
in terms of
um uh you know a
police officers who are more embedded in
into the community and
um I know that work's been ongoing but
again I see it as an opportunity to
increase that so just some thoughts for
mine thank you Chief thank you mayor
we are adding incentives to the the
package that we're going to be
presenting to uh Mr peely uh but uh we
we that's one of one of the areas that
we missed but we're definitely going to
add it uh you know we're also you know
uh Spanish speaking uh uh shift
differential things of that nature that
you pay you pay and get a little you get
a little bit extra get that incentive
when you do work specialty units so
that's one of the things that all that
and I thank you for that for adding that
he you know I'm gonna if I made Chief uh
kind of um
follow on follow through with counselor
vasquez's uh comment you know I have to
tell you that's pretty interesting
counselor Vasquez so I'm gonna I I
seriously I don't know Chief Dominguez
or DC
um Danes if you're still online or DC
Brock or Lieutenant story if you've ever
seen a map of the city broken down into
uh political precincts
so there's roughly about 150 precincts
in the city give or take so I think what
councilor Vasquez is talking about I'm
just guessing please correct me if I'm
if I'm wrong counselor is it let's say
you had
um of the 150 officers because that
probably includes yourself and your
lieutenants and your captains so let's
say you have 75 that are actually out in
Patrol
um maybe they're a sign like a little
area much like a little Precinct of a of
a in a political map
and they're if they can bring Crime down
in their little area
by involving themselves with the public
with that little area you know reaching
out doing what they need to and then of
course they still Patrol the city like
they like they do but that's their area
and if they do a little bit extra things
you know reach out to those little
members of the of that community of that
that little Precinct
then if they can bring that part down
then they get a bonus is that what
you're talking about counselor Vasquez
yeah I I think to some degree I
absolutely
um and I think the measure shouldn't
just be bringing crime down but I think
just those touch points right I remember
in in college uh I think in several of
my classes you know if I was in an arts
class I would get extra credit if I went
to a play and
back the little report that said hey I
attended a play and it you know and uh
teacher appreciated that because it
added to the experience of of learning
about that subject uh with you know and
wasn't a great attached to it but
um yes I mean that that's that's a good
idea in terms of the precinct piece and
um the more they can show that they
could they are embedded in in their
community in one way or another again
participating in after school kids
events or
um you know a whole bunch of Outreach
opportunities that that you can do
um you know where it would say you
participate in a minimum number in this
area or per year and you qualify towards
a a specific bonus
um I I absolutely okay so basically a
performance like a performance uh yeah
like let's take my mayor's top teens we
have uh for them to get a scholarship
they have to do two or three community
events you know that whether they help
cook some pancakes they help clean up
the uh beautify Las Cruces I see her
again that that was you know
interesting I mean something to be
thrown out there Chief uh so and you got
councilor Vasquez support there so Eck
uh it could be that could mean Millions
uh we could give uh for incentives
but but it may it may pay very well
because that could that could
inadvertently bring Crime down you know
if they feel that comfort that be able
to call up their their local officer who
takes care of that area hey you know
Council you know officer Floyd is hey
this is what's happening okay you know
when they build that trust it's all
about relationships so I think and but
but they still they still are patrolling
like they have to like they normally do
but then that's their that's their
that's their area I like that I have to
admit that stuff
anything else Council Vasquez
you're good okay uh mayor Pro Tem
yes thank you thank you Chief
um DC some Danes Brock
um
um story and others I've appreciated
um hearing from each of your
um departments and this area of
Recruitment and Retention is really
important to me last week I said I'd
like to propose a resolution to increase
the pay
um I felt you were a bit surprised there
Chief you you gave a little bit of
I what I felt was
um
shade if you will and I I want to be
really clear that I want to do what we
can to
um
increase that increase that pay so there
were a number of things and one was the
increase in Pay of the police officers
it can include Cadets if you will and
whatever we have to do to negotiate with
um the union and I think I think I'm I'm
for that
um but I I wanna I I and I I really
appreciate the incentives and in looking
at your recruitment efforts online
um and and just keeping track of it you
know with the bonuses
um
looking at increasing the hour during
the hours
the the hours per
pay I guess during the academy and then
once upon graduation and then after you
complete a year it's 20 to 38 so all
those amounts that you shared with us
chief of the various
um cities are those just specific to
Cadets
uh mayor mayor Putin that's correct
specific to Cadets and first year
officer pay after that uh the bargaining
uh the the Union contract takes over for
the for the pay scales
yeah that I guess that would be
important to see how we compare right
for each one of those so
um Cadet pay
um then when you complete it what that
looks like and then after a year would
be would be have because after a year
there are 22 something right but it
still doesn't compare
um highly I guess to the others or over
that we're paying even more than any of
these other cities so I really like the
idea of the incentives I think the
Housing Opportunity a stipend for
housing would be an excellent an
excellent and and I know that in talking
with ifo and I'll be real clear I had a
conversation with evil last week you
know about about Recruitment and
Retention and I also think that of all
the data that I've seen
um similarly is that we have to also
improve our training right and offer
sort of the best training that we can
and different and more training right
instead of how long I think some of
those trainings what I hear from other
agencies is they get very
um consistent training at various levels
and so those things are in are of
interest to me I wanted us to recruit
the best and the brightest and
um and be comparable to other to other
cities so one of the other things and I
can appreciate conservascus is community
policing and incentivizing that in terms
of performance but I I also feel like we
have to be really clear about what are
the root causes to many of these
um crimes right from the safest city in
in the in New Mexico to now the third
most violent
um
um silly I think it's a perfect storm
and it's one that I'm really encouraging
our our colleagues here to really to
really look at what that what that looks
like there's so many things that were
that were um behind the curve on as it
relates to substance abuse addiction
um treatment facilities
um and so you know I call it this
perfect storm although you know Chief
you gave a lot of data to us and you
gave us dates and whatnot when you talk
about the reporting that goes to the
federal government is that what are the
time frames is it their their fiscal
year which is September
to um
August if you will or is that our fiscal
year mayor mayor Pro tem that's actually
January through December so that's when
we report out to the FBI we're talking
calendar year calendar year calendar
year so the those those
um the information that you've reported
from 2020 to 21 we still have a ways to
go right and some of those marks are
pretty close
um even from last year and the year
hasn't completed we haven't completed
the year yet
America that's correct direction
yes yes okay so when you talk about the
the violence right mostly a lot of
domestic disturbances Chief can you tell
us via like a GIS like a map where most
of those violent crimes are concentrated
you did give a bit about some of the
other ones right like like where the
um
let me go back to my notes sorry
I've taken a ton of notes so let me let
me go back to it but you did give you
know certain things are happening more
so in District two three four that kind
of thing I'm assuming that you have that
information for a violent crime
uh mayor mayor Putin I actually have
aggravated assaults which is the the
primary uh contributing factor for the
violence and if you're ready I can give
you those numbers right now by District
this is uh responsible for has 16 of the
total volume District 2 23 percent
District 3 has 25 percent District 4 has
27 percent District Five has six percent
and District Six has three percent
of the total volume of aggravated
assaults
yeah thanks chief for that that's really
important because when I hear you say a
lot of those aggravated assaults so I
think about what are we doing right what
are we doing to help combat that are we
are we um
trying to address it with you know our
our community providers
um and and then that so many of them
choose not to re to report and or
um move through through charges if you
will so that makes it really difficult
so I'm really interested in that
component and what your thoughts are
related to strategies and solutions
because all I see is that just getting
you know increasing with all the other
things and then I think about
um less police officers you're having to
pull to from different areas to ensure
you have the coverage and then I'm
interested in what happens in the court
system and I'm hearing there's a huge
back back log of court of court court
cases
um and so when you don't as counselor
Vasquez I think alluded to someone that
that lead program when you're only
having one officer refer to it well
there's a lot of reason why that's
that's not happening right sometimes
cases don't fit into the criteria
sometimes you're going to have to
address right just educating law
enforcement and others about the
programming there's so much in there and
so but if our system isn't working as a
whole and we have these holes and gaps
that becomes really concerning to me so
I know I said a lot there Chief I just
want to make sure that we're on the I
want to make sure that we're supporting
you and you're giving us a lot of
information but I want to make sure
there's an ask in there
and I'm not sure that there's an Ask yet
so I I want to be very clear that I'm
supportive I was a bit taken aback last
Monday and I'll be real honest with you
that I was feeling I was saying yeah I
want to do this and you were throwing
everything that you could to like not
you know agree that or think like is she
really mean what she said kind of thing
and I do so I want to be very clear that
I'm supportive of you and all your staff
that are listening because I think
they're they are listening that I'm
supportive of whatever it's going to
take to ensure you have the resources
necessary
mayor mayor Pro Temp first of all if I
gave you that impression my apologies I
fully Embrace anybody's support to help
us better our department and better our
financial standing with our officers and
pay and things of that nature so if I
gave you that impression I apologies I I
fully embrace your your uh coming
forward last week and and wanting to to
support our department and support our
officers and increase the pace so uh
again my my apologies there's there's
some uh things that we're continuing we
should have some of our uh presentation
to go uh go through but uh we definitely
are asking for your support specifically
when you're talking to your constituents
on how to reduce crime uh things uh that
we can do to together uh by uh through
Community engagement and and being able
to work together through projects and
things of that nature uh some of the
things that we're kind of going through
through the rest of this presentation
will kind of point that out
Chief and you know I
we had a situation in the Mesquite
historic district and we quickly pivoted
and
um you know organized a meeting that
you'll be at I hope in some of your the
officers
um on Wednesday
um and so I'm I'm all for
um coordinating with you I I just want
to make sure that as your three values
you know in terms of building trust but
those three specific is about you know
just engaging community and and customer
service and I I know that I've had
several emails related related to that
right in terms of how we're addressing
Community
um moving forward so
um I I just want to make sure that that
we're on top of that that if there's
anything that I can do to help and and
just so you know
um I I'd like to continue to have those
Public Safety meetings and really get to
the bottom of how our public is is is
relating to law enforcement and
um and and I think that
I can um have a die cut in this right
thought about completely
um supporting you but also making sure
that we're all held accountable
including law enforcement and and and
um you know I
I just want to I just want to say that
out loud I think I'm getting a ton of
emails and complaints about just how
we're addressing the public and I'm I'm
sure it's because you are down and and
and not have the necessary coverage and
I get it I was an administrator I
understand when you when you're required
to
um
go out and investigate things within
certain time frames and such and you
don't have what you what you need I I
completely under understand that so
whatever I can do to help to ensure that
the Public's safe
um
um I I'm here I'm here to to listen and
and and support you and whatever I can
um mayor that's really all I just wanted
to say I'm I'm all for
um
raising those rates so that people feel
um
that that that they can stay in this
beautiful city and work in this
beautiful city rather than go hundreds
of miles away to work
um I think there's just a lot of work
that we can do in terms of in terms of
incentivizing but I think we need to do
it very quickly
um and so I'm glad to hear that by the
end of the week Chief Dominguez
wants to you know get with you for Mr
pili to determine what that what that
looks like and I think
counselor Flores and conservate this do
be alluded to well if if we're down will
you reach out to the Sheriff's
Department State Police other other
officers to make sure that we don't get
to the point where it becomes emergent
um and it's a scary place to be because
we see all this data right and you're
telling us not so very good things about
what's happening in in certain districts
um and and and so I'm I'm very worried
and and I think at other meetings I felt
like we needed to sell an alarm and we
need to do what we can to to protect our
citizenry and to give the necessary
resources to you Chief so please I hope
that that in this presentation that
there's an ass and that you're real
clear with us what that needs to be
moving forward
smear
thank you mayor bro Tim I appreciate
that uh councilor sorg and then
councilman Cuomo
thank you Mr Mayor thank you Chief
Dominguez and the whole staff Carrie
daines and all uh deputy chief
um just a quick question and a comment
um
when uh Cadet is uh
uh graduates from the um
training the the cadet school and
becomes a full-fledged officer
um if if he has a bachelor's degree does
he have any different pay than somebody
say that just has a high school diploma
um mayor counselor store not currently
but it is one of the incentives that
we're looking at putting forth uh see if
it uh if we can get some more cool
I think together we'll definitely help
yeah I yeah I I think that's important
that we do have
recognized the uh extra education that a
police officer has I think that makes a
better officer of course I think we all
agree on that uh and then I just wanted
to comment on the fact that I did a
little ride along a week or two ago and
uh for about three hours with officer
um hmm
I tried to look up his name I I just
totally forgot about it uh you know who
he is Chief uh and I just commented
again officer Palos
Carlos yes that's it
um anyway I really enjoyed it uh we had
excellent conversation he uh gave me a
lot of good information and how he
police uh what he does and and and what
the police department does uh but he did
make a comment that uh he's been doing
community policing I believe he calls it
and something he said he really enjoyed
he get out on his bicycle and he meets
people Etc but now because of the
shortage he can't do that anymore is
that right I mean explain that a little
bit if you could to us
mayor mayor
we do uh we we want we have a Community
Partnership uh program and we want to
increase the Community Partnership
program uh but right now uh all uh
operations anybody in a uniform has to
be available to you to answer culture
Service uh because of the uh of the
shortage we are having to consolidate a
couple of sections until we can get back
up to uh full strength or uh what's
comfortable strength for us so uh he's
still uh part of a Community Partnership
program that's still doing uh some
proactive work but uh to uh to this
point and to your point we have to uh
limit some of that proactive uh release
work of quality yeah okay I understand
completely and it just it's good to know
uh what the situation is and how
important it is that we get a good
police full police uh Department fully
staffed yeah it's fully staffed that's
the word okay that's all I had Mr Mayor
thank you
thanks counselor uh councilor bin Como
thanks mayor um thank you so much Chief
and all of your staff for the
presentation today
um and I apologize I had to leave for a
second something came up and I had to
respond to it so I'm I'm glad that this
conversation isn't over yet
um I did have a couple questions Chief
in terms of
so since we're on this conversation
about Personnel I
I guess when I hear that there's you
know intentional recruitment efforts
from like Fort Bliss or other military
bases to me that raises some flags and
I'm just curious if you could talk me
through that in terms of you know I
think folks who are in the military have
significantly different job in my
opinion than police officers what does
that training look like then for
um some shifting of
mentality
um if I if I understand you correctly
why are we recruiting from the
militaries is that would that be no not
no not necessarily I mean I think it's I
think you'll want to recruit wherever
you can at this point right I'm just
really curious because I see that job a
significantly different than uh police
officer's job
uh Mary concert we are you're correct uh
the primary reason that we go for a
military personnel is because they're
ending their tour Duty for for example
they're at four years and uh some of
them don't have any career plans after
that so that's a big pool that we can uh
select from and try to attract them into
police work uh to your point there's
many Moss throughout the military some
uh administrative some uh being
mechanics there's a bunch of different
uh uh Moses or careers within the uh the
military so when we when we bring them
in uh to be police officers we train
them to be police officers but we try to
use their experiences that they've had
in the military and the discipline that
they have uh coming from the military to
our advantage
yeah absolutely and then I saw
Lieutenant's story go off me I don't
know if you wanted to you kind of
stories
we obviously don't just focus there but
what we see is that a lot of times is
the generalization we we look for people
with some life experience so if we get a
19 20 year old kid
um you know sometimes we get a really
good officer sometimes we don't so
someone who's done four years in the
military whether it's as a mechanic as
uh you know someone that operates radar
whatever the job is they generally have
some discipline they uh know how to have
structure they generally can make some
decisions under stress which is probably
the most important thing as a police
officer but we also look for people that
have degrees or college experience
because that's that's life experience so
we're looking for people preferably from
all walks of life that have some life
experience that's going to build
discipline that's going to show
um a pattern of good decisions
throughout their life I mean we can also
look back through a background and see a
longer history of
um good decisions on both those groups
both college and Military yeah
absolutely I think
I think really important quite
to ask because immediately it just felt
like there could be some issues there
but if um but I appreciate you
um just sort of naming that
um Chief in terms of the data you showed
particularly around violent crime what's
the
um
gosh I don't even know how to ask this
in terms of the number of reports that
you have and then how many have been
like completed right like where you've
caught the person where you've caught
the perpetrator does does that question
make sense
yeah yes it does so mayor cancer bank so
what you're asking for is like outside
solvency rate that kind of thing how
many yes so we're at about 40 of crimes
that were reported and solved uh
currently uh we want to obviously
improve on that but a lot of it has to
do with people not sharing information
with us we have several calls uh uh for
example 20 20 of uh of our aggravated
assaults the victim actually knew the
suspect but does not want to pursue any
charges or provide any information
um for for a very variety of reasons so
uh that's uh that that affects our
solvency rate but we differ we
definitely like to be in the 80 percent
uh of of solved crimes
and that's all crimes Chief or do you
feel like there's different rates for
different kinds of crimes well there's
different rates for for different crimes
but on an average we're about at 40
percent for for uh violent crime and
property crime as well property is
difficult because there's certain
there's not always a suspect that's no
okay thank you and then if Lieutenant
Gutierrez I just was really quickly just
curious about
um
for these internal
um Affairs investigations are these
investigations that our new auditor will
be reviewing and looking into
the new auditor will be uh reviewing and
looking into anything that it was closed
uh after May 1st
um I couldn't tell you exactly when
these will be closed or if they've
already been closed
okay and then um again we'll Council
will be able to receive information on
that yes ma'am okay okay thank you those
are all my questions
okay thank you uh counselor I think
that's it
so you want to finish your presentation
uh mayor yes sir no we're going to move
into training and uh since uh Lieutenant
story is up we're gonna have them walk
through US walk us through the the
training portion of this uh presentation
okay
oh good afternoon good mayor council so
I tried to break training down into uh
kind of simple categories it's fairly
nuanced but we have our basic Academy
which is our Cadets our basic training
we have
um in-service training which is
mandatory training essentially for all
officers and we have Advanced Training
as far as our basic Academy the state
requirement is 677 hours that's the
minimum that we have to do as a
satellite Academy the current Academy is
at one thousand dollars
um 1081 hours which I believe is the
highest amount in the state of any of
the nine satellite academies
there's two ways we can exceed the 677
hours so we can take a category that's
required by state if there's a minimum
number of hours so for instance domestic
violence is 20 hours minimum and then we
can just add hours and do additional
things on top of that so these are just
examples of how we would do that so
domestic violence is 20 hours we do 32
hours a lot of that is scenario-based
training that we add on top of it
um same thing with use of force
defensive tactics
CIT communication skills you see that's
40 hours is required by the state and we
do at least 68 hours or 64 hours a lot
of that is scenario Based training as
well
um the other way so that's one way you
can increase hours the other way is we
actually add we add our own topics or we
add our own classes that are not
required at all by the state and a large
number of the the difference in hours
between the 677 and the 1081 is from us
doing that so just as examples
um categories that we add that are not
required or mandated by the state would
be very impartial policing for eight
hours scenario-based law application
community policing Verbal Judo the CIT
scenarios I talked about dealing with
the hard of hearing Autism Awareness
response to active shooter
um use of force scenario-based
discussion duty to intervene low light
search techniques less lethal Narcan and
then we do a lot of reality-based
training to include deadly force
decision making CIT de-escalation and
ethical decision making that's all um
scenario Based training and that's not
an all-inclusive list but that's just to
give you guys some of the more important
topics that we expand on
um for in-service training so that's
basic that's the academy brand service
training these these categories right
here are all in addition to what's
required by the state so the New Mexico
Administrative Code requires that we do
a whole list of training and that's
every officer every Department in the
state so I didn't even list those if you
guys want me to read them out I can but
these are what we do in addition to
those requirements this is for 2021 now
2020 because of covet and everything we
were we did not get nearly as much
accomplished we did the minimum we did
what was required so because of the the
lack of in-person training we really are
pushing hard in 2021 to to get all this
in um and make sure that the officers
are caught back up and we're continuing
to progress in training so realistic
de-escalation is already completed other
than people on Military and FMLA
everyone's already been through that
interactions with person with mental
illness the state requires two hours we
do a four hour class this time because
we paired it with de-escalation which
goes hand in hand it's really many of
the same Concepts that are just um
they're worded differently so they help
reinforce them they're just seeing it
from a slightly different angle that
included the virtual reality empathy
training all officers went through that
that's part of the axon contract which
is uh uh for those I've tried to show it
to anybody that's come by the academy
that's from other organizations because
I think it's cool for them to see what's
out there and it's just it opens up a
whole nother realm of training for us I
think for the future right now those
three scenarios that are included are
schizophrenia suicidal ideations and
autism
in addition to that everybody went
through Autism Awareness we partnered
with hearts for autism for that course
um and uh that was successful and I'm
very proud of that course I think it's a
good example of how we can work with the
community
um to train officers and it'd be
beneficial to both both parties
um very impartial policing is is
upcoming we have our commanding
community meeting I mean a class this
this week and then we will start the
rest of the department that's we have
all of our trainers all of our Command
Staff will be trained and the rest of
the department will complete that
um due to the intervene is already
accredited that curriculum is written
and that will be completed by the end of
the year and then real reality-based
trained scenarios we intend to do at a
minimum twice a year and this includes
anything this is um this the spring
scenarios were the duty to intervene a
scenario the de-escalation scenario and
then we do one that's just
on the streets so things that we're
seeing that are a pattern we try to
address some with scenario-based
training so we're allowing officers to
make better decisions under stress and
if they don't then we can work on it in
training instead of in real life
so that's in-service plan for this year
um and then Advanced Training for 2021
the 2020 report is out on the
transparency page we still got a lot
done but because of covet it's it's not
what I would want it to be but so far
year to date for 2021 there's over 25
Advanced courses that we've either
hosted
um sent officers to or conducted
ourselves and there's a wide range of
topics that from instructor training
classes that we write in a credit
classes that we send officers to
um things that we host where we bring in
a training company or an organization to
run a training and then of course you
still have webinars and online training
as well
okay so that's a very quick synopsis of
those three categories within any of
these Advanced Training there's a whole
bunch of different breakdowns
um even within in service there is but I
try to give you the biggest picture of
the different categories we deal with
for training
thank you lieutenant story
um as he pointed out there's there's
many many training courses that we put
on and we a lot of this training that we
put on is mandated uh so when we mandate
training obviously we have to pull
officers off the street to be able to
attend this training so it's just
another another obstacle that we have to
continue to work through
um we've we've done well uh DC brought
to his credit has done uh really good on
allocation uh and continues to do so but
uh we will continue to
Cutting Edge with it uh Lieutenant's
story has done an outstanding job uh
chasing down best practices and and uh
best uh best of the best type of courses
so
um you know we we continue to try to
stay above it
I'm going to move on to officer Wellness
now uh our officer Wellness is huge
especially right now we uh we we had uh
I want to say a work session or Council
a meeting a few uh months ago which
talked about Wellness interviews and
making sure that officers are are having
the opportunity to discuss uh any issues
that they might have with a psychologist
psychiatrist uh and and making it
mandatory uh well we we actually put it
together and our psychiatrist uh as well
as our EAP uh with Bernie have done
Wellness interviews with uh close to 90
95 percent of our officers already
including including myself in Command
Staff so we've gone through this and
it's it's been a really positive
experience for our officers uh to go
through and given the opportunity that
they wouldn't normally seek out for
themselves and I'd like to thank uh city
council for for championing that and and
bringing it to our attention and and we
we put it at the Forefront after that
meeting and made sure that we got it
done uh so we uh uh we're we're moving
uh in the right direction as far as our
officers uh are concerned our cortical
app let me let me let me just jump over
that because uh Lieutenant's story will
talk about that but we've uh looked at
different ways of physical wellness as
well as mental Wellness as well we've
updated our weight rooms um here
specifically we had a
1995 built weight room uh we've been
able to update a lot of the equipment so
officers can go in there and uh
de-stress by uh you know running or
lifting weights things of that nature we
currently are in the process of having
our PT instructors put training uh
workouts and regimen that would fit uh
within a time frame that officers would
use uh during lunch uh or lunch an
extended lunch hour which uh discuss it
which uh goes to the fitness time
incentive once we get to uh
comfortable operating uh uh employees or
Staffing levels we will be implementing
some Fitness time incentives uh to aware
of officers want to take advantage of an
extra two or three hours
uh to work out on time on uh PD time uh
they they would be afforded that
opportunity uh again just to help them
with their with their with their
physical wellness but uh in doing so
they'll be able to de-stress uh and
things of that nature uh our cortical
Shield Wellness app I'm gonna let
Lieutenant's story discuss that and our
critical incident debriefing and then
I'm gonna turn it over to uh DC uh Danes
who will be discussing the satellite
offices that we were we've been putting
together uh as a request from uh
Consular beta Stewie
to the story
mayor council for the cortical Shield
off I think it's been mentioned before
but this is an app now we've had
probably for about eight months
um and it's an officer Wellness app so
basically this company they put together
an app that's specific to the department
and it has some general information so
they can go in there and they can look
at information on uh alcohol abuse or
PTSD or a number of things so they look
at all they have information that's just
generalized information but there's also
um a part where they can get help right
now so if they're struggling with
something that connects them with
either a hotline
um or there's actually a direct link to
therapists or counselors or mental
health providers that are within
monsters
that would like to work with First
Responders there's a ton of stuff that's
on it I'm probably not doing it justice
in a short period of time but it's a
good resource for officers to always
have on their phone it's completely
Anonymous
um so it's something that we try to
encourage officers to go into we put the
City calendar all the pay period City
holidays are on there we're trying to
encourage them to open it up
occasionally and just be reminded that
there's resources there to deal with the
number of issues that they probably have
going on in their life Financial there's
Financial Wellness on there physical
wellness there's a bunch of workout
programs like yoga and meditation stuff
so it's a good resource it's one of many
things that's part of the wellness
program but it's a good resource
the critical incident debriefing
um heart Department I feel like has done
a good job in this area however we're
continuing to move forward
um
so there's two parts to this there's
group critical interest rate briefing
and there's individual we do both
there's a support the effectiveness of
both
um and depending on which study you look
at one may be more effective than the
other so I think it's important that we
continue to do both
um when we have some of these critical
incidents so obviously we had an officer
that was that was shot that was a
significant critical incident we
generally do a critical incident stress
debrief
um both here in-house for the department
and other agencies that are involved and
dispatch usually does a separate one
that officers are involved with
um so that there's two opportunities to
get together and talk about some issues
that may be going on in their lives
related to that incident and then
officers that are involved also doing
individual uh debriefing with a
psychologist from the Department prior
to going back on duty
DC games you want to cover the satellite
office that you're working on yes uh
mayor council uh WG things for the
record
um thank you again
uh officer Wellness
um obviously we've seen uh ABC dance
DC Dance can you speak up a little bit
louder or I don't know if she did the
first time having a little trouble
hearing you
is this better sir
um a little bit better okay
I hate technology
um so I'm not yelling at you I'm just
trying to speak up okay
um
you know Wellness is is so important
um with the stress that officers are
going through especially not just on
duty but with covid you know they're
having to deal with covet at home too
you know the kids aren't kids are home
and things of that nature and then we're
seeing the uptake in officer assaults
there's been an uptake in officer
suicide so we really really want to
stress to our officers that they need to
take a little more time uh for
themselves just as we all do I I think
covet has really taught us that um we
all need to take a little time to look
at what's important to us so we've been
um working on some satellite offices
where the officers can go call in a
report maybe decompress but it's not
here at the police department because
you you need to be able to get away and
we have a lot of officers that um go
home for lunch and that's great but we
have actually is to uh the mayor's point
we have a lot of officers that work in
El Paso and commute so we want to give
them a safe place to kind of decompress
and relax
um you know whether it's get on their
Kindle for five or two minutes you know
um
you know maybe even you know do some own
meditation but someplace that's safe but
not the police department so we've been
looking at some City facilities I'd like
to thank Ms Gallagher for helping me out
um to help me Identify some facilities
so
um we're still going to have to do some
access issues with teas and stuff we're
working through that with facilities but
it's a safe place that they can go
decompress
you know just take a little bit of time
and then go back out because
um you know you can go to a very high
stress call unfortunately you know if
there's a very um
stressful or sad event you know
someone's been injured or hurt whether
it's the public or one of our own
sometimes you just want to go be by
yourself for a little bit and just
decompress so we're working on those
satellite offices but two of them are
actually City facilities so
um that also gives those facilities a
little more access at night they'll see
an off like to the marriage Point again
you see an officer's car there so that's
nice too so be when working um
uh with uh senior uh some of the senior
centers um the sage Cafe and the East
Side Center uh and also we have some
Community stakeholders that have been
willing to
um offer their facilities is where like
some of the hospitals and such so we're
working on that um again
um you know we want to also want to make
sure the access is is is tracked and and
accessible uh and then so but it gives
them someplace else to go other than
just the PD because sometimes you just
want to get away for five or ten minutes
and it's not your unit
you know it's it's not the PE so that's
what we're working on
excuse me and so we're looking forward
to that just working through some
logistical access issues but I'm looking
forward to reporting that hopefully uh
later on in the year
pardon me
uh thank you Marin Council
thank you DC Danes and just pointing out
those satellite offices
in the past one per District uh we
whatever reason they they went away
they're an apartment a complex they had
a building for us and and they they we
went away from that satellite office uh
structure but uh speaking with concert
beta stubi uh she brought it up uh
thought it was a great idea we we
implemented some of the ideas we
remember having that discussion with her
that they couldn't you could go to a
domestic call uh you have a gory
accident and you have another call uh
where you have to take a child out of
your house and that's the first half of
your shift you have to be able to go
somewhere and get right back in your
mind and to your credit uh Consular
basube thank you for bringing that up
and making it up uh priority of course
Chief can you take a few questions looks
like there's three three council members
that have questions up absolutely okay
so we got account okay with counselor
sword mayor Pro tem and then counselor
beta Studio
thank you Miss mayor I just simply
wanted Chief Dominguez you mentioned a
couple of officers that have gotten
um injured in the last year I think I
remember one being shot out there on
Interstate 10. how are they doing uh are
they getting uh
well
uh mayor counselor we had three officers
we've had several officers get her but
significant uh injuries due to the being
run over and being shot officer Herrera
uh was uh run over in an incident that
happened in 1900 North Solano he's uh
recovering from his injuries he's uh
currently back at the station on night
Duty status so that's great uh he's he's
still amongst amongst us and and and and
doing better and recovering officer uh
Soto who was run over at the Sonic on
North Main uh still uh doing some uh
rehab and we should be coming back uh
approximately three weeks after I talked
with him a couple of days ago but his uh
his recovery is is coming along and then
Officer De La Garza who was shot on I-10
uh he's doing well uh he's coming back
he's still on light duty status still
hasn't cleared uh the medical
um the medical procedures and stuff that
he's going through but he was is on our
last council meeting receiving an award
from from the mayor so but he is on
light duty medicine and uh
okay well just just send them all of
them our best wishes to return to normal
thank you for remembering I appreciate
it you bet that's all Mr Mayor thank you
thanks counselor uh mayor Pro Tem
thank you
um
yeah of course
this this is
using
in terms of the wellness interview Chief
I think you said 90 or Lieutenant story
90 to 95 of the of the of your officers
have done some sort of interview with
Bernie yes
mayor mayor Pro tem that's correct and
with our psychiatrics
mayor I'm sorry I'm hearing a lot of
feedback from your from your office
um say the name of the psychiatrist
again Chief we have Dr Pete devasto
who's our psychiatrist and then uh
Bernie McCants with EAP both of them
have they've been Superstars about doing
this and getting this taken care of for
us uh but they've really gone above and
beyond to help us out
and and then the cardiac goat Shield app
um how do you know that those are being
used or are they effective is there like
a some sort of evaluation of sorts that
is conducted by the officers to really
have to just get an understanding that
they their um that they're being used
and effective
so uh counselor uh our mayor mayor Pro
tem um there really isn't a way because
part of the selling point of the app is
that it's completely Anonymous so they
do not store data and there's no way for
them to even access
um how many people are using it
um I think what it's meant to be is a
piece of the puzzle so if we try to
depend on that to be the thing that's
officer Wellness then we're missing the
point of the app the app is just
supposed to be one resource they have
um in a larger Wellness Plan where it's
encouraged officer Wellness isn't as a
priority
um it's not meant just to be a by itself
Standalone thing so I think it just
means sorry Lieutenant's story I'm not
suggesting that it should be a
standalone I'm I'm pretty aware of
Wellness programs I've put them together
myself and in my administrative days but
their cortico is only one app of
hundreds and thousands of apps that
might that that are available I want to
know that that that our officers are
getting the best app if it's not and I
don't want them telling me who you are
and but anonymously you can still get
information about whether this is an
effective app or we need to go to a
different app so I'm hearing you say
that there isn't one that you don't do
anything to determine whether the
effectiveness of the apps
um mayor mayor president yeah I'm not
I'm not suggesting that first of all I
just was trying to reiterate that the
way the app is right now is that there
is no way to to really pull that data so
the there's two ways we could do it is
to number one we encourage officers to
use it by keeping it posted constantly
keep it in the Forefront of their mind
there's posters
um posted in all the briefing rooms and
the the you know where the detectives
are
um Administrative Office where the chief
is because we want it always in front of
them and to remind them that it's there
we also put things like the City
calendar so if they want to remember
when the pay period ends or which
holidays are City holidays they can go
to the app and they're all marked so
those are things we do to encourage it I
guess the only other thing we can do to
really track how people feel about it is
to survey and I think that's definitely
an option if we can do an anonymous
survey with employees to see how they
feel about it now that it's been six to
eight months of it being out there and
that might be a way to do it where we
keep
um we're not tracking who's using it
necessarily but we're seeing um as a
whole whether it's effective or not
yeah I appreciate that like I like I
said I know there's many many apps and I
just want to make sure that it's the
right one for your law enforcement
officers and that they're getting what
they need out of it and if they're not
we need to know right some way and that
that's not the right thing and might
pivot to get something different so
maybe I would recommend
um tuna pili that we contract with
somebody some outfit outside of the
police department to
to possibly provide an evaluation of the
wellness program to just make sure that
everybody is an asking anonymous
questions
questions that could lead us to ensure
that we're as effective as we can
because I know this is really important
I know with the data that I'm reading
about suicide rates
um
amongst our officers I'm not per se our
LCPD officers but officers in general to
include mental mental health issues
substance abuse addiction those things
are are really unfortunately very common
so I want to make sure that whatever
we've developed or you all have
developed that it's it's sound it's
effective and if it's not that we pivot
to making sure that we're offering
um you know the best because you all are
doing
significant work in the in the public
you see some really
um as Chief says gory things and it's
really hard to be able to debrief and
then be on vert you know the next 10
8 to 10 hours and so I'm very sensitive
to that
I'm I know you know my my
expertise and just trying to do a lot of
work around mental health and
reducing the stigma and and I know this
isn't easy it's not easy to talk about
your mental health
um especially as in the helping
profession so thank you lieutenant story
thank you mayor
thank you counselor beta stuby
thank you mayor and thank you Chief and
uh deputy chief James
um for for moving forward with the
satellite offices
um when I really appreciated being able
to do the ride-alongs it's one of the
first things I requested
um as in a new counselor last year and
um after my ride I basically had five
sets of items that I wanted to work on
and this was one and so
um I thought it was especially important
when we had swing shifts in the the
evening shifts
um there's not a lot of places that they
can go before they have to transition
back to that's the kind of civilian life
and making sure that we we have those
places to help with that and so I just
really appreciate you
um working on these and I am excited to
see how best I can support
[Music]
okay thank you thank you for that
suggestion I I like that it's uh sounds
like it's it's a really really
beneficial
counselor Ben Como
thanks mayor
um yeah I'm really glad we're talking
about this if this is part of your
presentation you know I look at look I
know that my perspective on policing is
um
difficult to understand for many I think
Chief I'm excited to talk to you in a
couple weeks for your staff for many of
my colleagues on the council even but my
empathy doesn't have limits right I
actually think officer Wellness or the
wellness of Public Safety officers to
include police and fire is incredibly
important really anybody I IFA always
says it's the biggest asset we have at
the city is our staff
um and so I think this is incredibly
important I am curious about some of
these Wellness programs or the are they
similar to fire well uh the fire
department's Wellness programs and and
is there coordination that happens
between the two uh the two departments
mayor councilman Como this this is our
Wellness uh program uh but we've
plagiarized from wherever we can find
anything that we can put uh and and be
able to implement we we look at All In
All Wellness programs we've looked at
fires and they have a really robust
wellness program as well uh but uh we we
can steal anything from them we
definitely do
great yeah I mean I think that good to
hear I think if there's stuff working
that's where there's no need to reinvent
the wheel right and I do hope that
there's
um that there's ownership chief of this
right that there that there's a buy-in
around some of this and that people are
officers aren't being
um aren't feeling like they're being
forced to do something like this that
there's that there's a sense of buying
as to why this is important
Marion counselor Ben Como to your point
there's uh and and to Mayor Pro tems
Point uh do we know it's working do we
know they're using it we try not to ask
because if they want to go anonymously
uh they they have every right to do but
I can tell you that they've come to me a
few officers specifically about the yoga
programs in there and they were they
were kind of laughing about it how they
thought oh yoga and then they tried it
and uh they got a really good workout so
I know some officers are reaching out
and looking at the different programs
that are within that cortical app
thanks Chief I appreciate that thanks
mayor the counselor Ben Como Mr Mayor
um can I add something on really quick
[Music]
uh I'm sorry I didn't mean to write but
also I also want to give kudos out to
Parks and Rec because they sponsor a lot
of City Wellness and our officers do
take uh part in that especially like the
basketball tournaments the volleyball
tournaments uh and uh you know we hope
to keep beating fire just kidding Keith
Smith but um so we also work together
you know within the city of what we have
and then
um I know the officers uh we're also
looking at different things when we look
at Fitness we have a lot of officers
that like to Bicycle I DC Brock I blows
me away on all the trails uh it's
because I have really short legs I can't
keep up with him but um so we're looking
at all those things like Chief said with
yoga
um uh the bicycling you know um I like
to run there's other officers that you
know like to work out or
um you know play more organized sports
like soccer baseball those things so all
that's coming together so please don't
feel it's all just stuck in the weight
room
um you know I like picking up heavy
things and putting it out as much as
everybody else but we try to really
Target it to what every officer is
because every officer is unique so we
take advantage of what the city provides
as well
um what we're coming up with and
listening to the officers and getting
their feedback of hey what about this
sounds great you know so I want you know
that we're always thinking out of the
box for that it's not just
um
Planet Fitness per se
okay sounds good uh you want to continue
on with your program or with your
presentation chief we'll do we're
getting close to the end but uh there's
still there's still a little bit to go
uh so we've we've talked about the the
three areas of uh a focus for us
accountability Community engagement
transparency so uh we've put a few
initiatives together uh since the
beginning of the year of those of you
that have sent in on on the uh Community
mitigation meetings have heard a few of
these things uh that we've looked
forward to doing but we're very very
close into getting uh actually getting
it done and and uh to uh to show
everybody knows uh mayor uh mayor Pro
tem and councilor Vasquez are part of
those mitigation meetings and they've
they've actually had a lot of input into
some of these initiatives that we're
putting together uh the LCPD cares
campaign uh encompasses everything that
we do everything including crime
mitigation
um I was asked the other day what does
LCPD cares stand for in in my answer was
it it stands for the week care for the
community they were thinking it was an
acronym cares is not an acronym and it
was just it's a sincere uh feeling that
we have for our community that we live
in that we belong to and that we're part
of uh that's that's what LCPD cares and
everything that we do uh Community
engagement wise crime wise falls into
that category uh we're going on over
some of the community engagement uh
portion of of what we do as well uh here
in a couple of slides but I just wanted
to point that out that you've probably
seen that LCPD cares in a couple of
different locations already we have we
have banners we have uh stickers uh
Lieutenant Weedle is running uh crazy
with this program and I I'm glad she is
because we need to put it out there that
we do care and we do want to make this
place safe and make it a great Community
to live in uh and we take a lot of
responsibility to make sure that that
happens uh our compliance Sergeant we we
thought it important enough to put uh a
focus on on our accountability to make
sure that we're not just saying that
we're doing it but putting one person in
there just make sure that everything
that we're touching uh especially I a
wise policy wise training wise is
looking over everything that we do to
make sure that we are in compliance with
uh federal state and local laws that
we're using best practices and training
and uh and making sure that our ia uh
um investigations are being covered and
making sure uh in in essence that's
that's our own uh internal auditor we
want to make sure that we're we're
compliant to ourselves and to our
community uh before we even get audited
so that was one of the things that we
wanted to put together our community
Advocates uh which uh were this close uh
mayor Pro tem of actually getting it out
there I know you heard about this the
community Navigators which we kind of
model this after uh in Minneapolis the
community Advocates we should be very
close to posting a couple of positions
which will actually be social workers
that will be going out there very
similar to victims Advocates but their
Community Advocates uh oftentimes we go
to calls we have critical incidents we
have unintended uh victims that that
were affected uh because of whatever it
is that was going on in the street uh
something happens to a juvenile juvenile
suicide somebody brought that up earlier
um oftentimes our victims assistants go
out there and our victims Advocates go
out and assist the family and the
victims of of said suicide but everybody
on that street knew that kid everybody
on that street had a friend or knew the
family and our community Advocates are
going to go out there and feel the gaps
they'll be able to go out there and make
contact attack with with the entire
neighborhood not just the house where it
actually occurred uh same thing with uh
with the critical incidents things of
that nature but our community Advocates
will also have uh they'll have uniforms
LCPD cares and they'll be uh uh true
represent uh a true represent uh a true
representative of our department as well
as Liaisons they'll be able to go into
the underserved communities where they
we need a softer approach uh to
somebody's uh conservaska's about about
that up a long time ago in one of our
mitigation meetings we need a softer
approach to be able to go in there and
reach these uh domestic victims uh that
won't come to us because they're afraid
but a community Advocates would be able
to serve as uh as a Midway Point into
getting them the police services or
restraining orders things of that nature
that we can help them with without
actually calling the police because uh
there's mistrust or or their fear
retaliation things of that nature so
that's what our community Advocates will
be doing our customer service software
this is something that we very uh
excited about we just finished the
procurement product the procurement
process we're putting it together uh
should be up hopefully within a month
they said three to six weeks I'm going
to push them for three weeks our
customer service software uh it's
actually an app that goes out uh anybody
with a smartphone that calls for
services from the Las Cruces Police
Department will receive a survey to get
feedback from our customers the people
that are calling for our services how
tiny was our service did we expect did
you get everything that you expected
when you called there will be several
server it's a survey that we'll be
sending out to uh every one of our
customers that has a smartphone so out
of 168 000 calls for service that's a
lot of surveys that we will be getting
uh almost instantly they'll be able to
provide information to us uh the company
will on a monthly basis to where we have
graphs so we can adjust our services we
can adjust the way our resource
allocation things of that nature uh it
also has a it has three modules one's
the patrol module which actually goes
out and requests gets that information
but it also goes into a detective or
investigation module so after the crime
occurred they received the officers on
on their cell phone they'll get a text
message gives them the case number this
is what the officer closed the colloid
is a burglary this is the elements of
the crime of burglary this is who was
assigned the case
and then it goes over to the uh
investigative unit the detective gets it
every time the detective does anything
with that case they get an update the
victim gets an update on their phone uh
it's it's a win-win for us it's a way to
improve our service
um uh tremendously
excuse me I talk too much and talk
myself into a coffee here
but uh we it's great uh we still haven't
named it yet but again it's going to be
implemented here in the next couple of
weeks
our virtual reality training uh which uh
Lieutenant story covered in depth
already and our updated transparency
page if you haven't been on it in a
while
I invite you to look at our transparency
page when uh when we first started uh
mayor Pro tem looked at it and and she
found issues with it and if she found
this she's with it I guarantee you every
one of our citizens phones issue with it
found issues with it uh tour point and
to mayor's point we jumped all over it
and we started getting it better we got
it a lot of information on there to
include our policies our IA reports
we've also added our survey uh the the
last survey that we did and we will be
putting out another survey that hasn't
gone away we'll still do our yearly
survey just because we have this
community customer service software we
still will be uh doing the yearly survey
as well
so those are some of the initiatives
that we continue to work on and we we
have many more but they're still kind of
in the infancy stage but as we move
forward with this LCPD cares campaign we
want our community to know that we are
taking this seriously we want to make
sure that if they feel comfortable with
us in in our efforts
excuse me it's a perfect time to move
into our LCPD cares uh campaign I'm
going to have a lieutenant Joy wheeler
and DC Danes cover up cover uh the
community engagement portion of this
presentation
good afternoon mayor
good afternoon mayor City councilors I'm
still getting feedback
how about now
seems better Joy
okay well good afternoon once again it's
lieutenant
I'm still getting some feedback
we're just talking technology
all right let's try this how does
everybody hear me now
[Music]
great all right good afternoon mayor
City councilors I'm happy to be here to
talk about our LCPD carriers initiative
um first off I just want to thank you
um it's great hearing the discussions
that we are having
um it's really great to just bring it to
the Forefront as far as what's occurring
within our Las Cruces community and how
what we're doing to address those needs
um I get the privilege to share what we
are doing as far as the community
engagement portion
and speaking back to what the chief was
addressing
um how did we come up with that whole
LCPD cares it was just that if you refer
back to our mission statement it's that
we're Community focused Public Safety
and law enforcement services to area
residents businesses and visitors so
they can live and thrive in a safe
peaceful environment when you really sum
that up what is it it's saying LCPD care
and that cares is all-encompassing in
other words it's covering everyone in
this community whether it's the
five-year-old that is your child or
whether it's the stakeholders and the
business owners it's everyone involved
um and so I was asked to go over some of
the community engagement projects that
we are doing
um first and foremost though I would
like to say that when it comes to my
section in particular which is the
community engagement the community
outreach
um
you're privileged enough to work in
these engagement areas however we
realize that ultimately we want every
officer
um to be those Community policies
and so for us it's saying okay we are
giving the privilege to do this however
we still want everybody to have that
mindset of you are a community policing
officer and it's taking a bigger picture
of mentality
um so let's get right into it we'll
we're going to go over again some
Community engagement activities that are
we're involved in and this is both
activities that happened on an annual
basis but then also recent activities
that we've been a part of that first one
there is the neighborhood watch meetings
uh this is where officer Aaron Klim
coach I'm sure several counselors are
familiar with him um he is in charge of
this and it's community-based groups
that are organized to facilitate
um residential safety awareness and
communication uh pretty much it's
organizing the groups and those
neighborhoods to come together and again
when you have that campaign and see
something say something making sure that
they're talking to one another and then
on top of that getting with us as a
section to say hey this is what I saw
this is what's going on
um when we first started our initiatives
as far as creating these groups we
started with seven neighborhood watches
uh we're currently up to 23. uh the next
initiative there is that National Night
Out which it again occurs nationally
around the nation it's a free fun event
for families hosted by law enforcement
agencies Nationwide and it's there to
promote safe communities in positive
interactions it's usually always held
the first Tuesday in August obviously in
2020 we did not hold it however we are
excited as long as things keep
continuing as far as covid-19 is
concerned in the right direction
the next bullet that you'll see there is
that youth leadership camp
um this is a collaboration that we've
joined into and again part of that
community policing is identifying
stakeholders within your area so this is
what we've done where we've collaborated
with New Mexico State University
Foundation and our Las Cruces public
schools to be able to put on summer
camps for our youth specifically 12
years of age to 15 years of age during
the summer time what they do is they
work specifically with their school
resource officers but then other
um
stakeholders as well for instance this
year we were able to reach out to the
National Guard and they're going to be
willing to come in and provide some
services
the next one um we have coffee with a
cop this is something that probably
everybody is familiar with what we've
discovered is this is a great way
um to be a catalyst into other events
and other opportunities and
relationships within the community I
know DC Danes wanted to particularly
address this one
hello thank you
um
I guess we're going to use uh Lieutenant
wait till this computer
um so coffee with a cop uh we made some
connections uh when I was still the
lieutenant of community outreach with
our local uh Southwest New Mexico
Islamic Center made some great
connections there and through that
they've been reaching out to us and I
was able to attend one of the Ramadan uh
celebrations and so that was very nice
we've been able to
um make them feel like they're supported
by LCPD we've worked with them for some
of their security issues and things of
that nature and also with our coffee
with a cop we've been able to reach out
with our senior services specifically
that Lieutenant wait till I can go over
but
um those little things just having a cup
of coffee with somewhere has developed
into hey can you guys come over here and
do this can we all do to do that and
it's just over you know a cup of coffee
so and it worked out really well because
we've been able to try to use
um local restaurants and local coffee
houses not that we don't like
um our chains we love them to death but
we've also really worked hard in trying
to keep it local so
exactly just similar to what DC James
was saying a lot of times these events
um although a simple sounding murder is
just having a cup of coffee what it
leads into is again identifying more
stakeholders and more resources and
again having that collaboration as far
as discovering what issues are in that
neighborhood or what are some problems
that are occurring and again how we can
address those issues
um I know we've had a great time even
going into assisted living facilities uh
yeah and so it's been very beneficial
um moving on to the next bullet we have
the safety presentation uh this entails
quite a wide variety of safety
presentations
um officers can be asked to go into
daycares pre-ks elementary schools
middle schools high schools and even
colleges in reference
officers have given anything from a
safety presentation to pre-ks in
reference to hey what do street signs
mean like what does a stop sign mean
um to all the way up to
um college and having discussions in
reference to restorative justice
um and so again
branching out into the community give
those safety presentations but then also
putting a face on your officers and who
are the officers in your area
that next bullet down is the mobile
operation Commandments
so this event is specific to the areas
in the city where we are having area
constituents reaching out and saying hey
we need police presence here or we're
saying okay I think that it would be
good to host here in order to address
certain issues or certain
um try to do these at least four for a
year obviously with 2020 and covet
concerns
to a lot of these Community engagements
did not occur but with things going the
direction that we're going
we are optimistic that we're going to be
able to bring all these
um that next bullet the schools
presentations again they go back into
the safety the anti-bullying the drug
education
um again it can be anywhere from even
things like peer pressure or it can be
teachers reaching out to us and saying
hey do you have a like an officer that
could address an issue in reference
next slide please
okay so the next one the Special
Olympics torch run again this is an
annual event where the law enforcement
officers
um get together to assist Special
Olympics in the torture
um we participated in it annually it
generates awareness for the sports and
the athletic competitions for the
special Olympians and it also helps
helps generates resources for the
continuation of their events and it's
important to note that this one is
recognized not only nationally but
worldwide where you literally have law
enforcement officers
program
next one doubt is the Golden Shield
program and so this one's really cool
because this one came about as a result
of one of our coach officers
um getting with some of our elderly
population and discovering you know what
here I am in reference to a weeds
violation but it's very obvious that
it's going to be hard for this
individual to address this and so what
this does is we partnered with senior
programs to help seniors in our
community with light yard maintenance
the program is designed to assist
seniors that live in the residence
currently reside there and Confused help
with their yard whether that's old
um initially the program was used to be
in lieu of a citation
but we're hoping to develop it more so
that we can use it as an again a way of
bringing stakeholders within our
community to not only address the coast
violations but possibly other community
concerns
the next one there is we have the El
Paseo cleanup now this one was really
cool because what happened is we had a
lot of business owners from the El Paseo
Corridor reaching out to us in reference
um they were talking about how they
wanted to improve their structures but
they were worried about safety concerns
they were worried about criminal damage
property
so community outreach officers assistant
by reaching out to those business and
property owners and willing to say okay
what can we do to help out as far as
creating a better environment for you so
it initially started with working a lot
with our homeless population and
um
it's interesting because sometimes I
have a hard time calling them homeless
um I I think of one incident in
particular where I was
um working and the
beautiful lady that I was one of my
witnesses that I was working with
um how we would normally address her as
homeless she looked at me and she said
please do not refer to me as homeless I
am a nomad I choose to be an urban
dweller and so I for this slide yes I am
saying homeless but just realize that
like some of these individuals are
choosing this and they choose Maybe
maybe referred to as something different
such as a nomad
um so for this one in particular project
um we again worked with that Urban
dweller population group in order to
provide potential services to them and
also to educate them that hey guess what
this is the business's owner's property
and they're trying to again like
establish a cleanup in reference to
their business so then what we were able
to do is be able to work with staff and
volunteers for NMSU city streets Parks
and Rec keep Las Cruces beautiful and
several different businesses within the
corridor to get trash picked up to get
the graffitiated and again to hand out
those choirs or in reference to those
local services this obviously is one of
those projects that doesn't just end
it's going to be an ongoing project that
we address for potentially a year
on the next one we have there
um was our burn leg cleanup project so
this project was started after concerns
came in um staying with the park was no
longer quote a family park
um officers were discovering that there
was legitimate concerns around littering
graffiti and mood apps
the Flyers again were handed out to our
Urban Jeweler community of emphasis on
providing services to them and of
providing them a place to go
um trash was picked up and there was
over 60 volunteers that assisted
many of whom talked about stories of
fern Lake and had really sentimental
value associated with that whole firm
again this is going to be another one of
those projects that doesn't just stop
and is ongoing to the street
um the community outreach group had a
package set
now this one in particular started in
November of 2020.
um what we noticed is again around
Thanksgiving November what are people
doing they're going on Amazon they're
ordering gifts it's that whole Christmas
shopping
um and so what we noticed is that as we
got closer to Christmas is that there
was an increase that's regarding
packages our community outreach officers
reached out to UPS and FedEx and we
discovered it was actually a lot worse
than anticipated we discovered through
UPS and FedEx that there were several
times where packages were taken that it
wasn't reported
it was reported as a missing or not
delivered package
that's for us community outreach created
a whole project surrounding this where
it was working hand in hand with UPS
FedEx there was surveillance there was
undercover work there was us you know
dressing up as UPS drivers
um
ultimately we ended up
identifying individuals that were
involved
um it led to several different felony
charges
um
you were asked to keep this project
active and to continue it throughout the
year
so again that's a good example of when
it comes to that Community releasing
officer
how different than potentially a patrol
officer where we're having to go to
9-1-1 call and go to another 911
call when it comes to those community
policing officers were able to take a
situation like this and invest in it
thoroughly where we can do the follow-up
and actually then have the results
um the next one after that was the
student welfare project so this one
particularly happened when all of the
schools were still virtual and the
students were not actually
before school resource officers
identified that a lot of the schools
were having concerns and reference to
students and a lot of the students that
weren't logging into their classes they
hadn't heard them they tried calling
several times but they didn't know where
they were and so what our school
resources officers did in this situation
is they reached out to their schools and
said okay
give us the people that you are the most
concerned about and we're gonna go see
how that students do the officers did
that and what happened is whatever they
discovered they followed up on with that
students
next slide please
please okay the next one we have is the
storage unit theft project
um again this was put on by our
community
um police and officers and it was after
nursing an increase in the storage unit
test this ties into again what Chief
Dominguez already addressed mom in
response to that non-residential area
then that non-residential like
burglaries and so what we were
discovering is that a lot of the storage
units were being broken into
um community policing officers worked
with multiple ships and detectives
um as a result they were able to
identify individuals involved charges
worthwhile
um even some of those charges were with
the FBI
um due to firearm accountancy and a lot
of property was returned to its own
uh the next one is our what I again
entitled are Urban dweller project and
this one is in reference to our homeless
Community like I said a lot of times I
like to refer to it more so as the urban
dweller project uh this is going to be
ongoing where we work mostly with
Community of Hope to get the services of
those that want the services
um we've assisted in getting housing to
several of the urban Jewelers that want
the housing in Las Cruces
um when we encounter somebody in need of
that on the streets we do offer it but
that's just it
um they're choosing not to obviously
it's having to respect them and possibly
making their other options
in most cases we'll give them a brochure
and a list of resources
inappropriate we can give them a ride to
the council and then get that connection
going on in the community of Hope
um to come and assist
um several times they've responded
um the community
uh and like literally like giving like
okay what do they need like is it like
clothing is it personal hygiene items
right here
um again what's great about the
Community of Hope is if they are in a
place where they're asking for services
they can then provide and actually
refer to assist them in getting those
so it's like sort of trying to be the
catalyst
starts like a progression of helping
them
um this goes hand in hand and with that
next bullet point in reference to the
safety station
um even Las Cruces New Mexico does get
extremely cold in the wintertime so the
safety stations came about in our
community outreach group as a part of
having a blanket handing out
um different hygiene items to those
vulnerable population groups that are
still outside during those bad weather
situations
uh a couple down with that we have the
food distribution board
um that also goes hand in hand with the
urban deller project and a safe
where it's just that we've been able to
work with and collaborate with local
restaurants who want to distribute food
we have about food
um I did skip the one Caesar of Chavez
reading project
um this was a recent project put on by
one of our community policing officers
where the school reached out to us and
said hey we'd really like to like
introduce our students to these officers
um would you be willing to read through
them through it through a zoom so that
we can assist not only the in-person
students but also be online soon
so that's what we did we had a whole
week where officers were reading from
Elementary School pre-k all the way up
to fifth grade books
another one that we've consistently done
though is the ghost Garden
where that event encourages making our
communities safer and and more richly
connected by repurposing the Firearms
into garden tools and into kitchens
the next one we have there is the park
vandalism projects where it was working
with volunteers from people
and then for that final bullet point
that we have there it's important to
note that in 2020 we were asked to do a
lot of the math demanding and it was
just that it was proactively educating
citizens about our Public Health order
and asking for voluntary
so this is just
sample in a sample I do truly mean like
a sample of the events and things that
we have going on
um I like to think of community outreach
as having multiple tiers
um where it is like the community
engagement and it's making connections
and it's proactively through those
relationships but then it's also doing
things like the extensive follow-up and
addressing the time
and looking at what is affecting a
person's quality of life and how we can
make
it I believe next slide but I think
that's it
thanks lieutenant and and one thing
and one thing Chief I don't know if you
are aware or lieutenant or whoever's on
the call on that first one the storage
unit theft if if the person who had
their I'm sorry stand by we're having
technical difficulties again
yeah
or you muted yourself
can you all hear me
I can hear you oh okay okay I I was just
going to see on that first one
um the the storage unit theft I I think
it's fair
information you can give out because if
the if the person who had the you the
item stolen if they have a homeowner's
policy or a renter's policy even they
don't have a specific policy for that
unit their their coverage will will
extend to that so you may want to just
say hey you know you may want to check
with your insurance for even then
they're going to say well I don't have
it on this on the storage unit but
you'll find that most likely it will be
covered so that's just another uh carrot
you can give them when when they're you
know because they're obviously upset
that they have stuff stolen so that was
good that's really good really good
information you presented
Easter and yes I totally agree yes any
kind of homeowners insurance usually
does
good information
was there anything else on the community
engagement
Chief I think you're muted oh
still muted chief
still muted
share offices if you need to
I don't know
I guess that means the program's over
so he he remember tell me about
other hitters
can you hear me all right sorry
uh thank you LT and thank you mayor uh
just have about 20 more slides to go
just kidding
I just wanted to uh take this
opportunity uh to thank uh city council
to thank City Administration City staff
uh we cannot do this job it's a very
difficult job at times we cannot do this
without the support of all of all of our
partners and I want to thank the city of
Las Cruces for their uh their support
that they've shown to all of us uh
through some different very difficult
times they've really really stepped up
and uh we just want uh through this
presentation to point out that we do uh
obviously care and that we are doing
everything that we can to build the
trust within our community and thank you
again all uh mayor Pro tem I know you
asked for an Ask there's gonna there's
gonna be a mask a financial ask but we
still kind of working on it a little bit
if you give us a little bit of time uh
we'll we'll be coming forward uh with
with that ask again thank you for your
support
mayor Pro tem did you have a you had
your hand up I did mayor thank you
um Chief I appreciate that I wanted to
ask a question about the police auditor
and who is the department that works
more closely with them is that our
internal affairs
mayor mayor Pro tem that's correct
and Sergeant Shad that will be primary
contacts okay cool and then my next
question is and I had brought this up
um in terms of what the contract says
very specifically
um when we will start
um I guess seeking out cases and it
isn't until well may sometime whenever
the contract starts and I'm wondering
I'd like to I'd like to propose again as
I did before that we have a significant
amount of time that we were without an
auditor so there were cases that have
already been completed
um that we alter the contract to include
those cases and make sure that Mr
Michael Hayes case is a part of that
um
of that case or the the review if you
will I know that cancer Vasquez and
others thought it was important right
and that was to identify Trends and
those things in it it's going to be a
while if we're if we're just starting
May 2021 on and so
um I like to suggest especially after
hearing the backlog and and how how
um
how well I has worked towards decreasing
that backlog
um to uh to I don't think it's zero but
I I don't think it's 300 plus cases
either so mayor and I know Jennifer's on
the line still how difficult would it be
to convince Council to look at that year
and a half to two years that we didn't
have an auditor and use some of those
that those cases to include Michael
Hayes moving forward
you know mayor Pro tem I think basically
they would have to know what additional
cases would be needed then they would
the the oir would want to probably give
a price as to how much it would cost to
include it and then staff can probably
send it up for an amendment to their to
their contract I would think that that's
how it would work
I I agree mayor so how
was that I think Michael Hayes can
excuse me I think Michael Hayes can
doesn't have to I think that can be
included in in the current uh contract
now because he never he never got his um
his opportunity from the last one so you
know his his shouldn't be that hard that
difficult
right but it's in the past you know in
in that it's PA it's um in the previous
years and not a part of the of the
contract ongoing and so again
um I I would like to Advocate that
Council agreed to amend that contract to
include not it's not just Michael Hayes
but so many others that can really
provide a lot of insight in terms of
Trends and and what
um
what's happening because there's cases
that have already been completed and so
that would be the only other thing that
I wanted to say about about that that I
I hadn't yet okay and Jennifer has her
hand up so uh Jennifer
thank you mayor and Council
um
I think that we've discussed this before
I'm going back further than May the
number of reports was could be cost
prohibitive I'm not really sure there
were a lot of reports that would have to
be reviewed I wouldn't want to I'd have
to talk to our city auditor
um Viola Viola about it because
um if we just extract one particular
investigation that might not give us a
clear picture of an entire set so I know
that because of the number the May 1st
date was determined but we might be able
to go a little bit further back than
that I'll talk to Viola and and chief
Dominguez but it was it was a lot of
work and it would take away from the
incoming work that the auditor will be
doing they only have a certain number of
Staff in a certain number of hours to
devote to the things that will be coming
in so I don't want to detract from that
but we can discuss it I think that it
was determined that May 1st was a
reasonable point but we can certainly
revisit that
oh
okay thanks Jennifer
thanks mayor thank you Jennifer I'd like
it to be Revisited and and at least have
a solid conversation about it because I
know that in my discussions with Mr
Hayes
um and I won't speak for you mayor but
at least in my discussions it was really
important that it'd be looked at and he
felt the case generally
um was not dealt with well
from the coast perspective and it it it
it was a case that
um
that had been handled by a previous
um Chief and I I thought it important to
bring it up today
okay well I appreciate that
okay so I think that pretty much
concludes your presentation their Chief
and uh I I can tell you it was very
thorough and very impressive and I'm
glad to hear some of the ideas that
you're going to try to implement to help
tackle some of the areas that can be it
could be useful to try to reduce as well
as congratulations on some of the errors
that are already reduced you know a lot
of times it doesn't seem like but I
think today was very evident to support
the city council uh gives to the Las
Cruces Police Department each one of
your men and women
um
yeah deserve so much gratitude from from
each one of us and um that's a very
thankless a tough job
um and you know we don't I wish we could
pay more but I think you heard from the
mayor Pro tem and a few others uh looks
like they're opening willing to open up
the wallet or the the purse or the
checkbook you know so you take advantage
of it here and let's let's see what we
can do okay
thank you sir
okay well if there's nothing further I
think that that pretty much concludes it
is that right Evo
Rory Connie
or Eric that's correct mayor
thank you all right well
um then I'm gonna need a motion and a
second to adjourn and then
um I still have to do the agenda setting
meeting
some move by Flores
made by councilor Florida second by
counselor beta stuvi Christine will you
take the vote please
this is on the motion to adjourn the
work session
counselor a beta Stevie yes
counselor Vasquez
oh he had he had to leave he's absent
okay
councilman Como yes
counselor sorg
counselor Flores
yes
counselor gandana yes
mayor yes
okay we're adjourned at 607 pm and then
um whenever you're ready Christine for
the agenda setting meeting just let me
know
see y'all later
okay I'm all set okay so this is the
agenda setting meeting for the June 7
2021 city council meeting number one
non-consent one non-consent two
non-consent
two non-consents three non-consent
renon consent or non-consent
for non-consents five non-consent five
non-consent six non-consent six
non-consent seven consent
seven consents and eight non-consent
non-consent
thank you have a good night thanks all
right you too bye-bye