you
[Music]
thank you and good morning um to the
animal service center of the mesa valley
board of directors meeting
it is 9 01 a.m i
am tessa aveda stewie city councilor i
will be cheering today
um for commissioner manny sanchez
right now if we can do our call to order
to determine
quorum
and clint if i could have you take the
role
yes ma'am vice chair we have uh mr chair
flores
manny emmanuel sanchez
i know he is absent madam chair vice
chair
uh vice chairman stewart here past
president yvonne flores
here um board member
cassandra gandra here
uh board member
lynn ellins
[Music]
he did contact me um madam vice chair
and said that he was going to be absent
today
okay thank you
a board member
i believe diana julio
is absent
and
believe that's all for the
[Music]
we do have um commissioner mario tokyo
who is connecting right now oh great
welcome commissioner
and then we have experience
ex-official member eric enriquez and i
don't see him on yet
an ex-official member jeannie quintero
present and she is present
so we do have core thank you clint
next up item number two we have changes
to the agenda
and approval of the agenda if there are
no
changes to the agenda then i will
entertain a motion for approval
a motion to accept the chair to accept
the
um i'm sorry the agenda as stated okay
uh vice chair eventually stewie yes ask
president yvonne flores
yes
board member diana
i am staying because i wasn't at this um
meeting
it's for the minutes or for the agenda
this is not the agenda
okay yes i'm sorry oh thank you
and board member gandera yes
okay motion does pass thank you
item number three is our meeting
maintenance i believe
the minutes were sent to board members
if you have a chance to look through
um if there are any changes or questions
please feel free
to ask those if not i'll entertain a
motion to approve the meeting minutes
for february 25th 2021.
so moved by floris
we have a motion do we have a second
i'm second thank you
uh have a motion in a second may i
please
have the role yes ma'am
we have a motion on the board for the
minutes for the
february 25th meeting um
vice chairman yes president yvonne
flores
yes board member diana trujillo
yes i mean abstain i'm sorry abstain
i'm trying to with another meeting here
sorry
that's all right and board member
cassandra gondor
yes thank you motion passes
thank you clint next up item number four
is our reports and presentations
the first part we have is from the
coalition of the people
and for people and pets and i believe
gene
you are on okay
good morning everyone
um here's the list of organizations that
are represented in this
month's report and as you know we
alternate
so organizations that aren't featured
this month
will be in next month's report
statistics with information on the
organization's programs and services
are provided as they're available and we
gave those in advance of the meeting
for the board members packets
thank you next slide please
the coalition's work includes serving as
allies of the animals
center and supporting area animal
welfare organizations with their mission
this list shows some of the meetings
that we've attended
and where we've played a role doing
outreach work and networking online is
where a lot of our time is spent
including maintaining our facebook
thank you next slide please
pictured here is one of the mom dogs
with
excuse me with pups who went on
the air transport by barkhouse and dona
ana county government center
to helen woodward animal center near
san diego where the majority of the 49
animals have already been placed
pictured top right is
julian havor who's the chief pilot of
the owner
and owner of pet rescue pilots
and who did the transport and pictured
below
in the group photo kelly barker is
second from the right
she's the director of barkhouse and
pictured also as the pod and
others who were involved in the loading
and the pre-transport
work thank you next slide please
pictured is another hmong dog with pups
who were part of a very large ground
transport where bark house uh used a
shuttle bus
that they borrowed from i'm almost home
rescue to take dogs to brighter days
dog rescue in boulder colorado
gideon pictured right was pulled from
our animal center
and hosted by macia pet resort
for boarding until the transport
and before we move to the next slide i'd
like to ask
jeannie quintetto if she has anything
she'd like to add
regarding the county's work and
partnership
with uh bark house one thing i
understand is there's
the end of the month excuse me go ahead
yeah um
we're gonna save those items for public
comment if it's
in relation to the issue with uh
barkhouse and the county we're going to
save that for
um those types of comments for public
comment oh okay
all right i just didn't know if she had
any news items that what wouldn't be
public comment comment but okay
next slide please
i'm almost home is based in el paso and
serves that
area as well as las cruces
their director diane avery works closely
with many fosters
and groups here in las cruces and
pictured right is a dog who was
abandoned by
the river in the south valley without
her puppies
a good samaritan discovered her and
fed her and eventually got her to i'm
almost home
animal rescue where she's in foster care
in addition to abandonment cases like
this
i'm almost home has really been
overwhelmed with requests
to take puppies and they're always in
need of
more fosters okay next slide please
the dog park is located at 4 30
north near moses south of mirsha
cities and parks do a power washing on a
regular basis while the
dog park members maintain
the park with a monthly wash down and
cleanups on the right you see
a couple of dogs enjoying playtime
during an ice spring weather and this
picture was taken recently at the park
in addition to the services mentioned
provided by dog parkers
they advocate for animals in need like
this dog pictured
on the right who was in the news he was
discovered near the river
in urgent need with a container stuck to
his head
okay next slide please
pictured as carla baker who is director
of cherished canines with pretzel
uh it's the same dog that was pictured
in the previous slide with a container
stuck to his head
this photo is from a newspaper article
that covered the rescue story
and it involved messiah valley search
and rescue
county animal control and animal
advocates and private citizens who were
all
trying to help this dog pretzel who's
currently in foster care with
cherished canines an interesting note is
that the container stuck to the dog's
head
was at first believed to be a pretzel
jar
but it actually was determined that it
was a dog
food dispenser part
randy meyer and d dougal are the animal
advocates who maintain
the pet network and
send email notices to the large
distribution
in in efforts to help animals like
pretzel and like the dog who is
who is pictured right a dog found in
chaparral
okay next slide please
new mexico forever homes animal rescue
is based in alamogordo and assists
animals in southern new mexico
their transport numbers for january and
february were 129
animals and that includes seven dogs
from our animal center
pictured right is a border collie who
was one of the seven
dogs in their rescue
transport from our shelter and picture
it left
is a recent appeal by forever homes
animal rescue
for funding for medication for the cost
for heartworm positive dogs i know
they've helped our
animal center a lot with that in these
animals who are in their care
with rescues that are affiliated with
them and that
includes stunning bottom right who was
rescued from our animal center
next slide please
safe haven um animal sanctuary here the
photo on the
right you see chrissy the dog giving
kisses was adopted recently
from safe haven and joined sunday a
terrier mix who was also adopted from
safe haven and that was a couple of
years ago
chrissy of course was adopted uh very
recently as most of you know
safe haven is located about 10 miles
east of town on a three acre property
that includes
cattery and dog kennels and they house
up to 45 dogs and 35
cats and of course they're a no kill
limited admission
uh shelter sanctuary their sanctuary
has quarantine units for animals
receiving medical treatment
and they have a play exercise area and
dog park for their
dogs on their property their
adoption visits are tuesday through
sunday by appointment
pictured is a valentine display at
safe haven's thrift store which is
located on el paseo
and the store is open thursday through
saturday from 10
to 4 p.m safe haven also operates
a online thrift store on ebay
and they are celebrating their 25th
anniversary they were founded in 1996.
okay please next slide
snap and dona county are collaborating
to help pets in need with spay neuter
vouchers
and emergency medical care through the
animal relief fund
with a forty thousand dollar grant which
was received
from petsmart they were awarded this by
petsmart
in february the grant enables them to
make
affordable vet care more accessible to
dona ana county residents
whether it's for emergency medical care
spaying and neutering services or
preventative care
snap and docs programs will work in
tandem
to help ensure pets receive essential
care
snap is issued uh 410 spain and
neuter vouchers for january the 1st
through march 11th of this year
and of course a breakdown of those
numbers with their stats is supplied
by snap and is in board members packets
before we move to the next slide i just
wanted to point out that when i put the
slide together and of course i
sent it in advance of the meeting i had
received
the donated county humane societies
newsletter
about the 40 000 grant so i didn't have
an opportunity
to update this slide by adding
uh doc's logo and their information
and of course in the box where it says
participating veterinarians
those are the ones that apply for the
spay neuter vouchers
through stamp okay
thank you and next slide please
cruises cool cats is a new 501
c 3 cat organization here in town
and selena cardosa who's pictured far
left
is the director of the organization
pictured our feline stormy and delilah
delilah who were recently adopted by
cruz's cool cats
and are their first two adoptions for
the organization
since they founded with their 501c3
uh chris's cult cats lists about 30 cats
available for adoption on their website
and their mission is to improve the
quality of life for homeless cats and
kittens
by medically treating socializing and
providing nurturing foster
foster homes and environments until they
are
able to place in forever homes
and additionally part of their mission
is to educate the community
about the importance of spaying and
neutering okay thank you and the next
slide is the last slide
um march is adopted rescue
guinea pig month and we bring attention
to this
because we know that the animal services
has small mammals
including rabbits and ferrets available
for adoption and of course we always
encourage the coalition
always encourages people if they're in
that position to adopt an
animal to adopt it from the animal
center or from one of the rescue
organizations here in town
so i want to thank you for your
attention and then ask
if anyone has any questions and i do
have a couple
myself but i'll take i'll stand for
questions now or
comments from anyone oh thank you for
your attention
thank you gene um i'll entertain um any
questions from the board
uh uh with regards to this report
and if you have you can raise your hand
okay um and gina i know
that uh you said you had questions uh
but um it sounds like that would be um
does it have to relate to your review no
it is it is not public
no and and it's true i do not i probably
am not
i know i have to leave at 11 o'clock but
i will try to stay
i will stay as long as i can but i do
have to leave the house here at 11 and
hopefully i'll still be here for public
input
now
then yes um
does it have to do with your report it
has it has very much to do with the
report yes it does
no i no it does not no it does not i
wanted to ask
glenn about small mammals um you know um
i wonder uh uh when i was looking
at the pages you know for the animals i
did see dogs and cats how about the
small mammals are they listed somewhere
and what kinds of small mammals
does the shelter typically have
currently right now we don't have any
small mammals
we have some for adoption available
they should be in the other category on
the website but i'll look into that and
make sure that they are listed
up for adoption when we do have them
so you uh
you don't have any small mammals now but
you do you do sometimes have them or
not very much i know the shelter used to
have rabbits
yeah we still get them like you said
guinea big rabbits um things like that
but we don't currently have anything up
for adoption
of small mammals okay
and then the other question i had and
and this is to the
uh animal services board is
uh i understand that a resolution is
going to be written concerning the
community cat
portion of the ordinance and is there
any time
on that do you know when that's
when that might happen
um gene i don't well
i'll defer to you yeah i can actually
talk a little bit about that
um i've been in communication with um
assistant city manager eric enriquez and
he can come out if you'd like
but the resolution is still in the legal
process we had a great discussion
with city council about it i believe it
was a positive
outcome for that we had there was a
great discussion
and we distinguished that there is a
feral cat issue or problem
in las cruces and gino showed that very
well with his maps that he has of all
the
of the cats being picked up and so i
believe the city council recognized that
we needed to do something
because what we're doing now isn't
working and so that is still in the
legal process
and as soon as it's done in legal then
it will go to
the city council for another discussion
and hopefully approval and what that
will do
is that will allow us
and other groups to start the the motors
running
it doesn't give us the permissions to
actually do it the tnr
but it gives us the ability to
start gathering up supplies start you
know bulking up our education material
start the trainings to do those things
so we're excited for that to go through
thank you i also see that um mr enriquez
uh you have your camera on did you want
anything else i just wanted to add um
thank you
absolutely correct robert caballo
cabello
in the legal department is finalizing
the resolution after all the comments
and everything
uh getting that ready we should see it
in the second week of april
thank you all right thank you thank you
and gene for a note
with our council uh discussion that we
had uh i do want to thank uh
geno and athena um both of our
presenters
uh that was really able to uh give us a
well-rounded looking perspective
on the ordinance proposed
and really encompassing um all the
different elements that need to come
into place
for this to be successful um so knowing
that it's just not one item but there
are a lot of pieces that need to come
together
and so that we can start out strong and
then recognizing that
it does take time to see the full
results of this type of
mess thank you thank you
okay any questions thank you
um next up we will go to item number b
with
our city and county uh aco reports uh
maryland would you like to start
sure i'll go ahead and start let me
share my screen
can everybody see my screen not yet
how about now no no
[Music]
that's let me try this again
here we go can we see it now
unfortunately not
still not
i'm on i'm on a screen share
and it is not showing it
you would have um is the other screen
still
up no it is not dominic can you
offer some assistance there we go okay
you got it
now okay good there we go
[Music]
all right good morning everyone my name
is mary lou ward i'm the supervisor for
animal control and coast for dona county
and today i'm going to go ahead and
report for
our february statistics for
our department um going into
february statistics um
we'll start with our reported stray
animals
for the month of february we had 276
reported strays
out of those 276 reported strays we
picked up 159
of the stray animals breaking that down
a little bit further there was
45 straight cats that were picked up and
stray dogs that were picked up in
addition to those
we had 31 sick or injured animals
that we um we picked up
five of those were cats and 26 of those
were dogs
we also had 18 owners surrender animals
one cat this time and 17 dogs and we'll
go into
further detail as to why those were
owner surrendered here in just a bit
[Music]
so looking at our comparison chart for
four-year comparison
um for reported strays if you can go
back
like i said 276 for the month of
february that was reported strays
but if you wanted to compare it back to
the years prior
or the months prior you can do that and
see what those reported
strays were
going into our four-year return to owner
in the field
chart we returned 25 animals in the
field in february
and if you look back at the years prior
you can see
how the numbers compare just to give you
a
a history if you look at february
compared to last year
or the year before before that you could
see that that's a lot lower in regards
to those numbers
of course we have to take in
consideration our covet issue
um the amount of officers that we have
out in the field
and those types of
how to go things parts because
i believe we have somebody off you if
everybody could just
do a check and make sure that if you're
uh presenting that you're on you thank
you
go ahead maryville so look looking at
additional animals that were picked up
um we did mention on our surrenders
um we had one cat this time we had the
the 17 dogs
the sick or injured animals those are
what i mentioned earlier
we also had five animals that were
picked up on a welfare hold
nothing for our cruelty animals this
time and then
in addition the seven quarantines for
the shelter
looking at our geo districts i decided
to go ahead and leave this in there and
i think it's a good idea to leave it in
on all the reports because it does give
you
something to refer back to each time
it's color coded
and so our next slide will show our
statistics for each district
but if you have to go back to refer to
it
it's something you can go back back and
forth to
so if if you look into our district 1
and you're not sure what district 1 is
you can go back to the slide so
it gives an explanation as to what those
geo districts are
and if you're a commissioner then you
can go back and look at that and you can
also see what your district is as
regards to whether you're sharing that
district
with someone else or not
so district one we picked up zero cats
and one dog
so we picked up a total of one out of
district one so
that's really good for whoever the
commissioners in that district
so that would be sanchez district 2
was 28 cats 12 dogs which gave us a
total of 40.
district 3 were three cat our four cats
and 30 dogs
which gave us 34 district 4 were four
cats and 38 dogs which was 34
district 5 5 1 cat and 12 dogs
district 6 3 cats and district 7
five cats and 21 dogs and i added the
totals at the bottom of each district
and i thought that was important to do
because it gave us
a way to look at our hot spots so
it's a very easy tool to look at and say
okay where's our hot spot this month
well
we can look at that and say district
four and if we needed to go back and say
where's district four we could go back
to the previous slide
and see what geo districts that's in
of course district four and district two
are really close
those were our hot spots for february
um going into our added added um
statistics we did 716
dispatch calls for the month
109 self-initiated calls that means an
officer is driving by and they saw
a violation they observed something 21
assists calls maybe they assisted
another agency
another officer or someone and 14
follow-up calls which that gave us
860 calls for the month and then i'm
giving you your year-to-date totals at
the bottom
and then here's our reason for owner
release um
we had eight dogs that were too
aggressive
one the owner couldn't afford the dog
anymore and then
this is of course our cat the animal
sprain and they
will not sterilize it they refused um
one of them the person was just too sick
they couldn't keep their animal anymore
and this one really bothered me when i
saw these statistics
they gave up the mom and her six puppies
because she just kept having puppies and
they refused to sterilize her
so that was an owner release right there
so those were the reasons for the owner
releases
so looking at our bike calls we had 14
exposures to humans one rabies
submission
and out of the exposure to humans we had
two of those that were current on their
rabies vaccinations
we had seven that went to the animal
services center we did two home
quarantines
four of those other animals were gone on
arrival
and then one that rabies submission that
came back
negative
[Music]
and then our court cases were um
february
we had three cases that went to court in
february out of the
three cases there were four charges um
and the outcome of those four charges
were
one of them had a hundred dollar fine
with 30 day unsupervised probation and
that was for pet license requirements
and restraint requirements another one
they got a bench warrant for animal
cruelty
and another one got a bench warrant for
animal restraint requirements
and then these are the snap statistical
monthly reports that they sent to us and
i didn't add these last month because i
hadn't received them from snap yet
so but they did send them to me this
month so this is what they had given us
for this month we had nine dogs neutered
and ten dogs spayed
three cats neutered and six cats spayed
which gave us a total of 28
and a year to date of 370.
and then this next slide just gives you
your year-to-date totals
which great gave us a grand total of 370
of course that was been altered
226 vaccinations and 233
microchips and with that i'll answer any
questions
thank you mary lou um if there are any
questions please feel free to use that
raised hand function
[Music]
did you call on me yes i did thank you
thank you very much officer um mary lou
uh officer ward uh for your presentation
i just have a question about the bench
warrants
once they're issued um are they actively
pursued the uh persons of
uh against whom these were um uh issues
or what happens
does is there any follow-up activity
on the bench warrant it's gonna be like
with any bench warrant that's issued by
magistrate court they are pursued
um and they're taking um with all
with all content like any warrant
so yes they are they're they're not
going to
somebody's house to look for that
individual but if there's a traffic stop
or anything and that person's ran like
any warrant then yes they will be
picked up i see
thank you thank you thank you madam
chair thank you
thank you councillor next up we have
commissioner mario tokyo
yes ma'am mary lou that case with the
dog and the seven pups that um
the owner gave um to the county
the dog um was this in chaperone by any
chance
um i don't have the app that information
i can get that for you though
okay just wanted to make sure that it
was that owner
because there was a lot of um calls from
chaparral
uh regarding an owner with with a dog
and
certain several pups and the way they
were
treated and neglected and it might have
been i'm not sure but i could get that
for you
okay all right thank you thank you for
all you do thank you
thank you are there any further
questions
seeing none and then we'll move on to
our report from gino
good morning madam chair members of the
board my name is gino jimenez i'm the
animal control supervisor
for the city of las cruces and i will
begin
my report is everybody able to see my
report
yes we are very good
so for the month of february and it
should say
february 2020 i will make that change i
apologize for that
we reported or responded to 415
reported strays of those 225 or goa
meaning
that the officer did not have contact
with that animal
um we were able to capture 190 of those
straight
of those 84 were dogs and 75 were cats
we were successful and field rtowing 31
animals back to their owner in the field
and we were
unsuccessful in field rtoing seven of
those
so that gave us a total of 36
identifiable animals
so here is our three-year comparison for
our reported stray calls as you can see
that
this year or for february of this year
we're a little lower
than the previous two years so
if if we look at the reports from last
year as well um
that trend that downward trend seems to
be
where we're headed and and that's kind
of good for us we want to keep those
stray dogs
straight calls down that means that
people are being more responsible
here is our three-year field rto
comparison
a little lower than the months the years
passed
but still within that 30 uh average
and madame tariff i'm going a little too
fast please let me know and i'll slow
down
thank you i think we're good so far okay
so here is our reasons for owner
releasing animals
uh two were turned into the animal
service center because they were acting
aggressively towards the family
four were sick dogs two dogs that bit
the owner and the owner decided to
relinquish them and one was finally a
cat
that was acting aggressive towards the
owner the officers are doing their best
to keep the numbers uh
crossing that threshold at the animal
service center to only own or relinquish
animals that are sick or injured or that
pose a threat to the family or to the
public
so last month we had zero this month we
jumped up a little bit to nine so you
know
we're doing what we can
our next slide is the reasons that we
were unable to fill
rto uh for for no contact
by phone or at the residence one for one
chip not being registered
one for the owner was unable to meet the
aco
so that he could give them their pet
back
and one finally was a chip from georgia
and the
um the phone number was not an operable
phone
maybe a disconnected phone number
my next slide is the the stray map so
let me go to that
can everybody see my slide on my slot my
screen
um we are not able to see that stream
app okay
let me try a new there we go
yes we can see it now there we go okay
very good
so for those that don't know this is i
keep a data
of all the stray calls that come into
city of las cruces the blue dots
represent dogs
the orange dots represent cats
and the red dots represent anything
other than a dog in the cat
so this map is available on the clc
webpage
so anybody can go to this map it's a
read only
however you can do just what i'm doing
right here
zooming in on a particular dot
and then you click on the dot and it
will give you the
information as to what the call involved
and gino if you don't mind while you
have that
map up if there are any questions from
members of the board
about this specific
page please raise your hand
and counselor flores your hand is still
raised i'm not sure if you have another
[Music]
i'm so sorry i forgot to take it down
i'll do it right now
that's right and uh commissioner as well
your hand was previously raised
i do have a question but i don't know go
right ahead
and then we'll have mayor protem up next
hello
still unreal sorry um i do have a
question what happens with
um with dogs that are aggressive
and and they're turned in by the owner
what do you do with those dogs with
those aggressive
dogs um commissioner
those dogs become at the
at the leisure of the animal service
center so whatever disposition they
choose
is entirely up to them they can adopt
foster um
transport out of state or ultimately and
we
said uh euthanize if need be but that
would be a question better
suited for clint to answer oh okay
i was just wondering what they did with
those aggressive dogs
because they're hard you know um to
change their ways right some of them i
think
i don't know thank you you're welcome
thank you uh mr pro tem
thank you madam vice chair um thank you
geno i do have a specific question
having to do with the dog bite and the
mesquite historic district
i think you both received the email
related to the incident and i wasn't
sure
if anything if you had
had um found out who um
you know the owner was um i have
throughout the time
in my two terms have heard about loose
dogs
um especially smaller dogs um
you know we do get some of that um
input if folks are are are willing to
report so wanted to see
if if you um
if you have received any information and
sort of and really to plea with the
public to please report these
you know restrain your animals be
positive
and responsible pet owners um you know
this individual got bit um and
under undergoing rabies shots those
kinds of things
um and and um it seems to be
a big problem in that area
i'm madam chair of mayor pro tem gundam
i zoomed in on your district and you're
in that particular mesquite district
that we were talking about
so if you look at the blue dots that
represents the
stray dog calls that we responded to
last month
so there really is not
a hot spot within the city to say that
one area
has more activity than any other
um if i were to it would take a minute
and it would kind of confuse a lot
but if i were to able to take this map
out zoom out
and then show just simply stray dogs
since the time that we started
collecting this data
the whole city would be covered in blue
there's not
a one particular district that is more
prevalent
to stray dogs than any other
in this particular case that you're
talking about um
we did make contact with the resident of
the um
home where the dog came from however
that
resident stated that that dog did not
belong to them
so basically we have a stray dog
that bit somebody the officers are
making their daily patrols in that area
attempting to locate that dog so that we
can
ensure that it does not have rabies
the victim in this case through the
direction of her physician decided to
start the rabies inoculations at an
early state
and that is entirely up to the victim
and their doctor
their physician we're not going to stand
in the way and say no don't
that is absolutely up to the victim and
their their doctor
um but that is the that is why we do a
10-day quarantine so let's say for
example
in this case um hypothetically if we
were to capture the dog
the very same day that is why we kept
we um quarantine and isolate that dog
for the 10 days
because rabies is going to manifest
within that 10-day
observation period so if
that dog becomes rabbit or shows signs
of rabies
um we will contact the victim
and then they can go back to their
physician and they between that
in that conversation they can determine
whether
uh the doctor is going to recommend the
rabies series or not
um which i would say yeah that
by all means let's do that human life is
you know so valuable um
but after the 10 days if the dog
does not show or the animal it could be
a cat as well
does not show any signs or symptoms of
rabies
and the owner is known then that animal
can be returned back to the owner
and the victim has a little bit of
relief knowing
that the animal survived that 10-day
quarantine period
should something happen afterwards where
the victim
of the bite becomes ill or
maybe has a delayed reaction
that way we will know where that dog
resides now and if something needs a
follow-up
we know that this dog was returned to
this address
to this individual and we can do a
follow-up there
um thank you i'm sorry go ahead
go ahead sorry i was
i was done thank you geno for that i
really appreciate it i know i hadn't
replied yet um back but i wanted to get
some information and
took an opportunity here but also to
just remind the public
how important it is you know um to be a
responsible pet owner and not have your
dogs
running at large or your cats those are
important things and
especially when folks are walking or
running and
you know exercise those kinds of things
especially
during covet i just want to remind
you know the public about that so thank
you gino thank you madam vice chair
thank you and gino i do have one
question for you regarding this math
um so with district 2 it did look like
there was a little
a bit of a yellow dot around university
it seemed a little bigger than the
others
um and so i just wanted to check in on
that
absolutely right near um
the monte vista looks like
there it is
right here here it is yes
yes you can see that there was a lot of
activity right here
on nz drive for last month
let me zoom out a little bit so we can
get
um this area uh let me zoom out a little
bit because this area right here is
undeveloped
can you see my cursor yes we can yeah
because this area right here is
undeveloped there's a lot
of of um foliage
and from what we understand this is an
area where somebody may be
uh tnr'ing uh cats
so that's why these these six or these
eight
were trapped very quickly over the last
month
okay that that report has not been
confirmed but that's what
the uh residents are telling us we have
not confirmed that though
um and might that on wisconsin here
um right in that middle of that empty
space there seems to be another
um is it thought that it's the same
person
that so the animals are in the same area
like that or perhaps is that a different
event and or situation it's hard for us
to determine that right now because all
we're getting
is reports from the residents that
somebody may be tearing t and r
in this area again we haven't confirmed
it
um a lot of times it's hard for us to
confirm because
by the time we get out there to
investigate it's already done the
person's gone
um very difficult to do with the
manpower that i have so
okay thank you i appreciate that you're
welcome
[Music]
are there any well and i'll say it looks
like right near
monte vista we had a bit of a cluster as
well
crap
or perhaps it was older items when you
scrolled in
they were in yellow but it looked like
it might have been further questions
regarding this slide
okay thank you gino you mean proceed on
uh madam chair members of the board that
was my final slide it kind of goes out
of order but i am
available for any questions over my
entire slide if there are any
thank you um are there any other
questions
seeing none thank you very much gino and
mary lou for those presentations
we appreciate all the data that you've
been collecting
next up we'll move on to item number c
which is
shelter statistics and activities and
we'll have clint up
thank you very much madam chair i
appreciate this opportunity to share
with you
the director's report for march 25th
uh just a reminder this is for the
previous month's
numbers information so
and can you see the full report manager
yes we can great current animal count at
the center is 309
that's 271 dogs 38 cats zero other
and the other is um what gene was
talking about
so it looks like in 2020 we had two
others
at that time but right now we currently
have zero others and others as anything
other than
dogs and cats
i do know right now that we have two
bearded dragons
but they're not they're still under
stray hold and they're not available for
adoption yet
so that's why they're not listed as
available there
so our intake in 2021 444
in february that is a fantastic low
number
we had 289 dogs come in 148 cats
and then those seven others in this
month last month of february
you can see it's a far cry from the 473
dogs
that came in last time so we appreciate
animal control
both city and county doing their best to
limit the animals that are coming in
and that's going to get more and more
urgent or important as we
continue later in the year we see that
upscale
every single year of animals come in
during the summertime months so we need
to keep that as low as possible we did
have some returns some
rather high returns in february
2021 five dogs and four cats
miss or it's all across the board for
the reasons why
behavior issues for the dogs we we don't
have the capability right now but we're
looking into
having why or what behavior issues it
was we don't know if it's pie training
issues or so forth so we're looking to
and then cat owners as you can see there
allergies life changes
and can't afford so on these just so you
know we
always um offer um the
uh training that we have available we
partnered with we have
the food banks that we offer um and
it just comes down to sometimes people
just don't want their animal
and they'll use this as a reason and
sometimes that's exactly what it is we
like on the behavior issues we always
try to replicate those issues if we can
you know they're food aggressive they're
doing this and sometimes they just don't
exist
so we have to take what we're given from
the individual
the reason why and then we try to
replicate it into the shelter it's
really hard because
our shelter obviously or the center is
obviously not
their home there's a lot of different
things going on
but
all right 2021 versus 2020. so our
adoptions
uh 26 versus that 41
if you remember february was really last
year the start of the covet
urgency on uh pandemic
and so there was a big rush to get
animals out of the center
uh so 41 of our animals that came in
were adopted
uh in in 2020 now that's a far cry from
the 26 percent still great
26 is really good so we continue to see
how our numbers are going to be
comparing to last year but it really is
all over the board when we compare to
early last year because of the coveted
push for
for the next three months really it's
going to be
up and down we had 74 animals reclaimed
that's 16 percent
rescued 214 that's 48 percent of the
animals that came into the center were
sent out to rescues
in february so thank you very much big
kudos to the
team here especially elizabeth sealy
who is our only rescue coordinator right
now
and we're filling that spot here shortly
but we appreciate all our hard work and
the volunteers have done an
incredible job um
helping elizabeth out for that and we
appreciate her doing so
community cats was at 9.7 percent uh
euthanasia
rate was 74 animals were euthanized in
february
at 16.7 percent and then our livelihood
live release rate 86.5
uh for that so um this actually the dogs
i know
for three months in a row if if bernie's
correct me if i'm wrong has been over 90
percent for dogs
a live release rate so we're still doing
incredibly well for our dogs
and this kind of shows why i can't say
that for the cats uh
there are euthanasia reasons the number
one reason why we euthanize
above all the others for all animals is
feral cats
we continue to have a high number for
that and we hope to reduce that number
coming up
with the incorporation of a trap dude
returning program in the city
if that passes
our total visitors at the center uh
still holding strong that 400 mark
down slightly from january
i still really like this slide it's very
interesting 117 appointments were made
in february
88.9 so 89 of those appointments
were kept and then of that
um 57 or i'm sorry 56 so 47 or 48
percent
of those actually ended in adoptions
so almost half
so our total weight weight website page
views took a big dip
uh in february at 38 900.
um we and and that's for down from the
445 that you see there in january of 21.
we did specials everything i think we're
just running into a little bit of the
um pandemic fatigue you know there's not
quite a push as there once was
to get animals out from the public
so that's probably our part that we can
start improving those
we're doing more and more we have you
know our spring us out
project going on right now for this
month so we hope to see that web page
views go up
our facebook views however continue to
improve
the second highest that we've ever had
so
we know that we're doing good getting
the information out to people
and hopefully that that will transform
this month into
more adoptions and more information
and pj and reilly are pets of the week
for that
so i can stand for any questions
thank you clint if you have any
questions please feel free to raise
your hand
and genie i see you're
raising your hand literally because i
don't have that icon
on my screen i just have one real quick
question for clint
i know you only had five returns on
adopted dogs being returned
back to the shelter do you have any data
on how much time elapsed between the
adoption
and the return and and do you think that
would be
important i guess
when you're looking at trying to resolve
the problem of the adopter
well we do have a policy that anything
after three weeks is actually considered
considered a owner's surrender um
so it has to be within that three week
period for it to be a return
so so we're talking about less than a
month between the adoption
and it said five were for or four were
for behavioral issues on the part of
dogs
um is there any resolution out there
that was offered and they were not
willing to do
um like with a trainer or anything that
was
and i'm sure there was a lot of stuff
offered
yeah we have a lot of study information
we have on
web information you know all that is um
open to them but we also have one free
session with the dog trainer
and um they these and these individuals
either had it in the past it didn't
resolve
or they just didn't want to do it
that's what i'm saying some people um
will
say anything to justify you know kind of
the guilt or
what they're doing to surrender an
animal um and then like i
also said we try to replicate that
behavior here in the center
and sometimes we just can't some i mean
people say that aggression
and we cannot at all replicate that
aggression at all
doesn't mean it didn't happen it just
means we couldn't replicate it
thank you uh jeanne any other questions
no that was it thank you clint okay
thank you um clint i
do have a kind of a question
and perhaps a comment um and then we'll
get to uh
councillor flores as well um when
are you doing any promos i know that
we're coming around easter
and bunnies and i know uh
i don't know if we're doing any sort of
information on
um about lifelong pets not just cute
cute uh accessories for the holiday
season
yeah it seems august around august
september we always get rabbits in and
that's because the newness is worn off
and the kids are tired of cleaning up
after the rabbits
so we we don't have any messages
specifically for
rabbits um it's a good idea maybe an
interview or something a radio spot pet
of the week when we go in we can talk
about
i'm having those animals for a long time
another one is chicks too
chicks are very popular a lot of the
livestock feed stores
do their chick days so it's definitely a
great idea that we can pass on to
those individuals doing those reports
thank you and i saw a genius raise your
hand during that
go right ahead
yes i'd like to say that
i'd like to say that the humane society
is doing that right now
uh humane society of southern new mexico
excuse me
we um have we are offering free
craft kits to children and families who
read the story called the it's a story
video
called the forgotten rabbit and it is
told by a humane educator in west
seneca new york and it's been very
popular
i think we've already maybe heard from
10 children and 10 families already so
the
uh the criteria is they they view the
video which runs about five minutes and
it's a story of a rabbit
who you know was gotten for easter and
you know that whole scenario
but the rabbit finds a good home of
course and um
they send their reaction to the story
and that's how they qualify for the
kid so and that's what we're able to do
now during this cover time
thank you wonderful thank you so much i
appreciate that
and um a comment that perhaps
as we are going
we're kind of entering a new phase uh
during this pandemic
and for a lot of people i think there's
perhaps the
light at the end of the tunnel of
getting out and going places again and
things like that
um and so in just my opinion i wouldn't
be surprised to see
um some adoption slow down as people are
re-evaluating the time and care that
they might
give a an animal if thinking that they
might be able to go out and
you know participate in different ways
in the world again
yeah we're keeping a close eye also on
you know we increased in february
our adoption prices so that is not out
of our minds we're keeping a close eye
on that and seeing if that has
anything to do with the two but so far
we
they said the ones that are being
adopted people are not batting an
eye at all on the increase for that
so great um bernice you
raised your hand um yeah i just wanted
to just
um make a comment on that because we
actually the prices didn't raise
until the first of march so those
weren't included in february
so all right thank you bernice thank you
that's right it was in the february
meeting that we talked about it and it
went march first
that's correct correct great and we have
councillor flores
[Music]
i thank you madame um vice chair
so clint um would you please explain
to me um that the prince ginny
quintero asked about the adoption and
and you made the distinction that
three-week uh
there's a three-week period where
if the pet is returned then it's not
considered an adoption or a return
or anything it just kind of voids that
out and then the follow-up question to
that
is after three weeks it becomes a
surrender
and what significance does a surrender
have
in comparison with an rto
what do you do with that stat with that
data
okay let's let me let me tackle the
first part
and to clarify so as i said that i got a
text from one of our
office front staff manager and she said
she reminded me that we changed it from
it's
three weeks to not have any
repercussions because it used to be if
you returned an animal
and if you didn't have a good reason for
returning it then you would not be able
to adopt out another animal
but we've changed that to say that if
you return it within the three weeks
then there's no repercussions
for that but if you do it after three
months
then it's called considered an owner
surrender
now the difference between the two is
owner surrender means
that you you own the animal it's yours
and you're surrendering it and it costs
money to surrender it just you have
to um i believe we do that 25
same price as the as the city in the
county to do field
surrenders so
that's the difference between the two
for that one
is for the adoption you can return it
and if you want to you
we could point you towards another
animal maybe one that we know
maybe a previous owner surrender that
you know what's potty trained
um we can you know help you out with
that and there's no additional charge
for that within that three week period
right oh i see yes very well
and well does that affect your do you
use that information
just to track how things are done or
does it affect
maybe your grant writing or your
efficacy
performance or anything like that
honestly it can skew the numbers just a
little bit because we count it as an
adoption when it leaves originally and
then it's counted as a return and if it
gets adopted again it's counted as
another adoption
because it comes in and rotates through
so
i mean like i said the nine that we had
in february that was a really high
number
we we usually have one or two a month
but nine was a lot
so also we go back and look at why would
they return are we having an issue
with um these individual animals
did we look at the individual animals
and see what their history was
that was adopted and also we consider
the breed or i'm sorry the size of the
animal too
because everybody wants a nice cute
little small dog or
cat but they have our little ones
have been known to kind of be little
little stinkers sometimes right
so we look and see is the owner who's
adopting are they prepared for that type
of animal that they are adopting
um so it's just a big kind of
everything come together where we we try
to look at these numbers and what
are they trying to tell us stories so
the answer long answer
to your short answer to your question
would be yes we look at the data
okay and then do you all like uh does
your staff sit
do you sit or do you sit and discuss
these um
these different uh issues or
ways of matching pets to people
that's a good question we haven't had a
sit down like with
staff staff managers mention it in our
managers meeting we have once a week
especially now with these nine i want to
talk about those
a staff meeting we have we always have
staff meeting
the monday after this meeting so
things come up we can discuss it and
this for sure is going to be one of them
that we can talk about
thank you that was a great question
thank you clint and thank you for all
your work
thank you madam chair thank you
counselor
next up we'll move on to our committee
reports and first up we have our finance
report
with mr enriquez
i'm sorry madam chair the finance report
i believe is josh
on so that uh john can share the
financial
financial reports thank you thank you
yes good morning madam chair members of
the board my name is josh saffel and
on behalf of the finance department of
the city of las cruces i'd like to
present the
unaudited financials as of february 28
21 uh so to get started uh hopefully
everyone can see the screen
yes we can good thank you
uh we are looking at uh first off the
statement of net positions
excuse me statement of net positions uh
we she we see
in the general fund cash of hundred and
ten thousand eight hundred and seventy
one dollars
receivables of a hundred and eighty two
thousand one hundred and twenty eight
dollars
giving us total assets of nine hundred
ninety two thousand
nine hundred and ninety nine dollars we
also reported in the general fund
liabilities of sixty four thousand four
hundred and thirty two dollars
and revenue collected in advance of
fifty five thousand five hundred and one
dollars
this left us in the general fund and
unassigned fund balance of eight hundred
seventy three thousand sixty six dollars
looking at our capital projects fund we
see cash of twenty nine thousand seven
hundred and ninety eight dollars
and a restricted fund balance of twenty
nine thousand seven hundred and ninety
eight dollars
the capital assets fund here we see our
capital assets
net of all accumulated depreciation in
the amount of 195
836 dollars and an unassigned fund
balance of 195
836 dollars
our change in net position for all funds
looking at the general fund we see total
revenues of two million
two hundred ninety one thousand eighty
nine dollars
and total expenditures of one million
five hundred eighty nine thousand seven
hundred and seventy one dollars
so this left us with a positive change
to fund balance
of seven hundred and one thousand three
hundred and eighteen dollars in the
general fund
in the capital projects fund there was
no revenue and there was expenditures of
one thousand seven hundred and sixty
seven dollars
so this uh negatively impacted the
uh fund balance and capital projects
fund of one thousand seven hundred and
sixty seven dollars
in the capital assets fund there was no
revenue but we did recognize
twenty eight thousand one hundred and
fifty three dollars worth of
depreciation expense
and so that impacted the fund balance
in the capital assets fund a negative
twenty eight thousand
one hundred and fifty three dollars
moving on to our budget to actual change
in net position our total revenue
of two million two hundred and ninety
one thousand made up sixty seven point
two percent of the budget
our total expenditures of one million
five hundred and eighty nine thousand
made up thirty seven point one percent
of the expenditures budget
our budget parameter for the month of
february was 66.67
so we can see that our revenues are
still above that but they are getting
closer and closer to being in line with
it
um and our total expenditures are
actually quite well under that
and there were no areas of expense that
were above the parameter
looking at revenues and expenditures we
see this graph we can see the revenue in
green and the expenditure in orange
we see that for the most part the
revenue has been above expenditure for
the majority of the year in each month
as a note for the for the board members
in the packet you received hopefully
financial statements
this information is actually detailed on
page eight of the financial statements
and it gives a summary of each cost
category in each revenue category
and the detailed amounts of each of
those for the month that make up the
numbers that go into this graph
in case anybody would like to see the
detail
looking at percent of total expenditures
again our expenses for year to date
are 1 million five hundred eighty nine
thousand seven hundred and seventy one
dollars
of those expenses seventy six percent
was in personnel fifteen percent
in services six percent in supplies
two percent in insurance and one percent
in repairs and maintenance
and that will complete uh my
presentation
and i stand for any questions
thank you josh um
uh councillor flores i see your hand up
and you're still on new counselor for
lettuce
thank you madam chair and thank you uh
mr sapple
so um josh as you already know
um when it comes to accounting i'm uh
you know i'm a so i always ask a
lot of questions and
so on page three um
on your losses uh let's see let me get
rid of this
okay yeah uh paige can you go to page
three please josh
okay so um your losses
aren't correct so the capital projects
fund 7441
is in parenthesis the bottom line is
that a loss
because it's in parenthesis yes um
primarily what that's showing is as i
said there was no revenue
um and so the overall impact to fund
balance is that the expenditures
are going to negatively impact or be a
loss to the fund balance yes
oh i see and
[Music]
why was it a loss it was projected and
not used or
it was projected and it was exhausted
uh well the capital projects fund was
set up in order to
um take care of of the building
renovations and stuff that were done
and so all of that money was put into it
initially so it
generated revenue what we have remaining
if you look at
this slide here we see in the capital
projects fund that there's a fund
balance of
and 29 eight dollars that's basically
i'm sorry
um that's basically what we have
remaining to finish spinning off on that
project
and so what we'll see is there won't be
any more revenue coming in on the
project
but we should still be expending until
we make that fund balance zero
so it will appear as a loss but we're
trying to spin down that fund balance to
zero
you see that's where you lose me it's
like you accountants i mean you guys are
just have a different brain that part of
my brain doesn't exist
i used to say it doesn't work it just
doesn't exist i mean i
you know keep my checkbook balance okay
and
you know stuff like that but this is
really amazing to me and the same thing
is explained for the capital assets fund
of 9440
right okay
then um it's money then that
um shows up somewhere else and then can
be
like in the previous pages you showed
there was uh
ample amount of i'm gonna say abundant
but there was sufficient money
in the uh page yes yes um
again looking at page two this is the
the balance sheet accounts
and you can see that the fund balances
um
in capital projects we have twenty nine
thousand seven hundred and ninety eight
dollars
that basically means we have twenty nine
thousand dollars left to spend in that
fund
no more money is going to come into the
pond so that's our balance right
but we want to spin that down to zero so
we will see expenditures coming in
that will reduce that until we get to
zero and then there will be no more
expenditures out of that fund
in the in the capital assets fund that's
where we're keeping track of basically
um anything that we own that's
considered capital so anything that's
over five thousand dollars
um trucks vehicles large pieces of
equipment things like that
are uh recorded in this fund as you can
see they're
considered as capital assets but because
they're capital
they're depreciated they have a useful
life and and each year
um they're depreciating until they reach
zero um and so we
we see that balance in there of 195 000
but that depreciation that we have to
take will decrease that
until it finally reaches zero okay
we do have clint i think to also offer
some commentary
thank you josh actually no i wasn't i i
wanted to ask josh
another question regarding that so i'll
wait
explained thank you thank you
you may proceed at kemp's lettuce
i i i was just thanking um uh josh for
his explanations and that was the
uh ex yeah several explanations i think
we
beat that one so thank you madam chair
and thank you josh
thank you thank you thanks there uh
clint
josh my question is on the capital
project funds that 29
798 is that limited
to what we can spend it on are the
restrictions for that have to do
with the new part of the center and is
that money
really available for me to do it or is
that imagination money
yeah um
technically it should be real money um
what we're
what we're looking at here is it is
restricted everything that was put into
that fund was specifically for the
purpose of
of that construction project um i
believe the majority of that and i could
be wrong
no way yeah i am wrong um some of that i
think is still for the cat room
just just a little bit of still for the
cat room and then other was
and and some of it was also put in place
there
um probably i think at the end of last
fiscal year
towards the project um specifically i'd
have to look into what you can and can't
spend it on
but overall if it's in that fund i do
believe it needs
on that project okay josie just jumped
on maybe she can help us
yes we have josie good morning madam
chair
members of the board jose mourinho saw
that 29
798 clint 28 000 of it is for the cat
room
1798 is you could use it for
anything in the building um and you do
want to spend out that 29
798 down to zero so you do have that 29
and it's not um monopoly
it's not monopoly money so yes you could
use it
so could i use it to purchase say
stainless steel kennels for the
new addition area to be used in our our
medical room
yes you could yes okay just uh
just remember wherever your budget's at
if you need to move it somewhere else
that's fine but
anything within uh that fund for
the building itself okay great thank you
i was under the impression that money
was done with the cat room money so
um that we purchased those those
shelvings with so it's good to hear that
we still have
some in there so thank you yeah i
believe bernice knows about the
cat room and the invoice so i'm not sure
if it's been paid yet or not
but um i i believe she did mention that
she did buy some shelving it just may
not have been um
actually paid yet okay
thank you and um during that time we did
have mayor pro tem's hand go up i think
you wanted to make a comment on that as
well
that was exactly what i said make sure
that the invoices are all paid out
before you start saying you want to buy
this that and
thank you josie for that thank you
thank you clint uh any other questions
you know vice chair thank you thank you
then we and if there's any other
questions
for uh josh or any member of the
finance committee please feel free to
raise your hand now
thank you josh and thank you mr enriquez
for your presentation uh moving on then
uh our next item
is the executive uh meeting we did not
meet this next
uh this last month but commissioner
sanchez and i
uh do plan meeting early within the next
week or so
thank you and number three is our
facilities and we do have
a mayor pro tem as chair thank you
yes we did meet and um clint had a
ton of information and i'm sure it has
all changed because it's at the
end of the month but um we spoke about
the laundry
area um about
um taking out the shelving correct
and finding um mold and
whatnot they're stripping the floors
finishing up with the concrete product
when done
um they're they're checking on a new
washer and dryer
i want to say it's in now i thought i
saw an email
not yet please yeah we had a little
incident with
who was going to take it to surplus
and if surplus was going to accept it so
we needed to get the correct paperwork
done
excuse me so we the answer is no it's
not in yet
but we did get the paperwork done we do
know who is going to take it to surplus
so hopefully next week we'll have those
delivered i think bernice actually
talked to the individual
supplying that so maybe she can supply a
date
um he is supposed to be calling me back
it was scheduled before but because of
the disposition of it we got that
resolved
um he was telling me maybe today or
tomorrow but i haven't gotten a phone
call
back from him yet so it's within a
couple of days here i'm sure
i'll get it and the room is all prepped
um
the linoleum stuff that was down has all
been
brought up it was actually really really
easy to come up so you had
we're lucky we didn't have more issues
there with water getting up underneath
it
i just said there was mold found because
we removed the
cabinetry that was in there and
so there was some moisture that was
getting and rightly so right it's a
washroom so there's going to be moisture
in there
but they were taken out and now we have
stainless steel shelving in there
that's going to be a lot better and it's
on wheels so if we need to take it out
and spray it down scrub out
we have that capability yesterday
uh thank you thank you madam chair so
clint how did you get rid of the mold
was it spread how did because mold tends
to come back
yeah what we did is the mold was
actually on the actual
um cabinets not on the wall
so the tree and everything was thrown
away
yeah that's the only way you can get rid
of it even if you spray it with
you know 100 powerful bleach you know
chlorine
so that's that's why you're so happy
that you have the stainless steel
shelving now
yeah i'm happy thank you thank you
so then um we talked about the shipping
container
um the shed we had a company
and for the life of me i don't remember
the name of the company but they had oh
a contractor that was working for for
dutch brothers
do some volunteer work um to
to basically um tear that down we're
super grateful
to to them for their help um and
it was like a the kennel workers and
others
team effort to help um you know
organize and and and make that effort so
um
let's see purpose of shed um
so the the what the shipping container
is going to be
used for is um storing
food and um
other items um that that
clint has which would be super helpful
to the facility
um let's see
we talked about
putting some art on that shipping
container and there was gonna be some
work
with locating an artist i think i've
seen those
um facebook accounts um requesting
artists
um to look into um
you know to apply so that the staff can
pick the best one
so that the art will be put on that
shipping container um yeah and just
really quick i'm sorry we are still
looking for applicants for that we've
only we've got a very limited amount so
we want to have more
uh to choose from the ascmv is is
purchasing the paint and the supplies
that the artist will need
to do it um and it could be anything
like if a
high school art department wants to do a
project you know they just
they submit some drawings or some ideas
some thoughts
uh and we'll provide all of it so the
due date for that is
i believe april 2nd and they just need
to email it to me
cfacker at las cruces
dot org their ideas and thoughts so
and we'd love to have those
yes uh cancer
thank you madam chair so uh
clint and and uh uh gandara
uh so is this part of
are you working in conjunction with uh
the the art board on this
not at all no this is just something
that we would like just somebody from
the public to come and do it's going to
be on the employee side
and maybe on the the fence is in the way
on the public side
it's just a way to decorate a tan canvas
is what we're looking for
i didn't want to go anything and trouble
the arts department with it
because i know that could be a large
project can be delayed for a while if we
go that route
yeah so they're i'm just wondering there
isn't any conflict there at all
i i don't mean would there be a conflict
well you know i'm just i'm just
wondering i'm just
i'm just asking um
well i'm just asking is there a
potential conflict because the city art
board
is the one that pretty much does some of
that stuff but i guess if they don't do
all of the um they don't do all of the i
know they're doing the
the um i think there's going to be some
sort of a sculpture there
there's going to be some new center yeah
the new center the yeah the one well
yeah then you yeah
yeah i see it because it's just around
okay
that was my question you didn't have to
run it by anybody i guess that's my
question
so okay clint has spoken and cassandra
gandara has spoken and
we're on okay so just let us know we can
go out you know
help counselor flotus i
i do think that you're probably alluding
to a very good idea which the art
board has probably a list of artists
that could if you're struggling with the
artists
to partner with them you know in giving
you a list i
also would mention the downtown
partnership is doing
artisan residence and really
that particular program has taken off
and so
you know you might want to reach out to
jennifer
from the downtown partnership at well as
well because they
are all they've also done um
you know the windows um for a christmas
down in the door
and they partnered with quite a few
artists
as well so oh the
other um two other items is
um clint received a 2020 recent grant
from the carol petrie foundation um
and um
um now is that in the tune of 20
000 or 150 000 or both
in the last fiscal year we received one
from the carol petrie foundation
and then they emailed me and um just
about a month ago
and invited me to apply for a 150
000 grant that is going to be its
general support so basically whatever we
wanted
um so i'm working on that um grant
application
right now well not right now but
it's currently currently being worked
out yeah yeah and so some of the
the 50 000 would be for equipment you're
looking at maybe an x-ray
um um x-ray machine
um but with that will require right
to to just to make sure that it's secure
that that there's there there will have
to be a wall
um to protect everybody and so i'm super
excited about that opportunity
um that clint cut it just sort of it
fell on his lap i think it's a real
testament to the work that they
are doing that they're like calling
clinton say please
apply for this um and it looks really
hopeful
so um i i'm appreciative
um to the carol petrie foundation out of
santa fe
um and then at that point
um um earlier in the week their
population
animal population was 348 animals
at that point 28 animals were getting
ready to make
a trip and
to colorado springs i believe
and um
we spoke about um sterilization events
and wanting to to to um
to do a little more um and you know
covet has really
put a damper on that but i also feel
with this extra funding
clint will be able to get all the
equipment that will
that necessary right to be able to do
some
some amazing um events
related to microchipping vaccines that
kind of thing
and that's all i have madame vice chair
any questions
thank you um counselor flores your hand
is up
do you have any further questions
no thank you um and thank you for the
report uh
mayor pro tem next up we have item
number five it's our action item and we
have
resolution 2021-03
an adjustment to the fy 21 budget
revisions
and i see mr blanchard good afternoon
matt
not not good afternoon good morning
madam chair
members of the board
can everyone see my screen we can thank
you
okay this is a resolution to adjust the
revenue of the animal service center
due to the covid um 19
revenues have revenues have been coming
in much lower than
um then we had
budgeted so we're just trying to kind of
cut so we are just trying to kind of
clean that up and
trying to end and bring them more in
line with the
budget parameter we are going to
decrease the
pet licenses object by twenty thousand
dollars
vaccinations by twenty thousand
microchips by
twenty thousand on-site adoptions by
eight thousand
and the spay and neuter income by
12 000.
so and that's it so here
are your board options and i will stand
for forum
questions are there any questions
please feel free to use that raise hand
function and so we can get those
answered
seeing none i'll entertain a motion
thank you there's been a motion in a
second clint may please call the roll
this mountain chair we have vice chair
of victor stewie
yes that's president yvonne flores
yes board member
gandala yes and board member to heal
yes thank you madam chair passes
thank you and thank you mr blanchard
next up we have
item number six and it's our discussion
item it's
the ascm v new adoption center
construction update
and i do believe we have some guests
from the city to give us those updates
and i see mr trevino
is um is dominique still on
[Music]
yes sir i'm here dominique i think we
need to have arturo gonzalez i think we
need to have him
um be made a presenter because i think
he's been doing presenting
i'll do it right now
i don't know tony is that correct thank
you we have six attendees it looks like
they're getting moved over right now
i see mr trevino is with us and our tour
yes good morning everybody i apologize i
had somebody walking to
office as soon as it switched over so
i'm going to share my screen again out
of the chair
uh members of the board i'm tony trevino
the deputy director of public works
[Music]
and
okay
can you see my screen now not yet
how about now now we thank you
awesome uh again we're here
today to present just an update on the
geo bomb project for the new animal
service center
of the sierra valley project from the
geo bond
let me see here
just a little bit of background the geo
bond was approved by
voters back in august
of 2018 which totaled the amount of 35.6
million question two of that geo bond
was for a new animal service center of
9.8 million
um back in january of this year
we had a sac review
of some of the potential bidders of the
construction
and the highest rent contractor was
chosen back in january
included in the animal service center is
the dog parks the two dog parks the two
acre dog parks as part of the project
however want to make it clear that the
funding for this
is coming out of question one the park
improvements and dog parks then sports
field question
of the geo bond which had a total of
16.9 million so that funding is kept
separate
from the actual animal service center
um just a project status up on top you
can see
a gantt chart of the uh of our current
status
uh you can see here we're um march
of the quarter one we're in the
negotiation process
as well as waiting for a past electric
to relocate an overhead
power line that cuts through the site in
an east-west direction
and follow along the
northern and western boundaries so we're
waiting on that prior to beginning
construction
uh we have negotiated and value
engineered the project which i'll get
into a little bit further
but um right now the contract is in
legal
and hopefully that gets approved as soon
as possible
so we can present to city council and
get this contract approved
um we're trying to push as fast as
possible
because the materials right now the cost
of materials is just skyrocketing so
we're trying to get this process as soon
as possible so
i'm working on that below is the
original
budget um of the project that we had set
aside
unfortunately now since we don't have a
contract executed we really can divulge
the final cost of the negotiated cost or
the
original bid from the contractor since
it's not public information yet but
i can get into a little more uh detail
of what we had to do so this is just the
original budget when we first started
the project
here's an elevation view uh just give
you
um an idea with
some of the value engineering we had to
do we had to change some aspects of it
some elevations had to change and some
other things so
right now the architect is working on
those as part of the contract they had
they're required to redesign as
necessary to make the project within
budget so
this is just from the first version of
the design
so some of the height of the building is
going to change
as well as over here on the very right
side of the slide there's two bays going
into the sally port
one of the stuff that we had to do is
dominate one of the bays and just have
one enclosed sally port entrance
on the east side um i'll show that a
little bit later but
this is one of the in the future
if that's kind of wanted to be expanded
there will be no obstructions there to
kind of eventually add that second sally
port in the future so
here is a general site plan of the area
you can see
baton memorial uh going in kind of a
southwest to northeast direction how the
main building sits
here in the middle um and the existing
building the kind of dark hashed area is
the landscaped area so it kind of
probably stands out a little bit more
than the building and some of the dog
pod
dog pods um but it's just kind of a
generalized area of how the site's going
to look
um and uh comparison
it's for actually in its relation to
riconado boulevard and baton
and the new dog park on the north west
side of the
property here is a floor plan
just to share with everybody of how this
is going to be laid out
here you can see the lobby the reception
area and
the restroom is kind of what was
worked out and kind of collaborated with
clint and his team of how this should be
done so
this is uh the square footage that was
requested and again the square footage
due to our bio engineering has not been
affected except for the sally port area
that's going to be just one base except
for two so this is going to stay the
same
uh just some renderings again um
one thing on the bottom that's missing
is just the solar panels that's going to
be over some of the dog pods in that
main shade area so that's just not
showing these red rooms but
kind of give you guys um give the board
and everybody a
general idea of what it's going to look
like
but um yes to get into the biggest
um kind of item that
we want to share with you all is the
value engineering what value engineering
is looking at
the design the initial design and
finding out
how we can reduce the cost and negotiate
with the contractor but keep the same
aesthetics to the building the same
concept
the same use and be able to provide the
leisure department their programmatic uh
direction they want to go with so
just to give some ideas here um
the uh there is 33 line items by line
items i mean whether it's
um the baseboard whether it's flooring
the ceiling the roofing
but there's 33 line items that were
substituted
for example we at first we had a
residence floor we switched that to a
silk concrete
there was aluminum baseboards and now we
charge that to the
rubber cove base there's light fixtures
uh cabinets
and some and some cmu from the cinder
blocks to the metal studs in the main
area
not necessarily changing the uh
floor space and everything but just
changing the building uh
material the total cost of this
reduction was about 557
920 is what we're able to reduce off
this project from that
and i again i want to give credit to
staff to kind of looking at these
options and making sure
the the um
the main uh programs and the main kind
of the requests of these department are
still being met
the questions from the jewel bond area
is still being met but this is just some
of the materials to accomplish the same
uh idea so those are the substitutions
here there is and i guess this is a big
one where we had to delete some of the
items
from the project again i want to mention
that the overall question of the geo
bond is being met
um there's just some of the other stuff
to uh
that um sorry i just got a teaser
message that
throw me off a little bit but um
these are some of the deletions that
were that we had discussed with clint
uh the contractor and the architects of
what
are some of the options that can be
deleted and not necessarily deleted
entirely but just
with this phase in this project it won't
be included there's
opportunities to include this uh in the
future or as
during construction if money is found to
get this included with the project
some of this is this smt cleaning system
a metal soffit for dog pods a race
planter at the entryway
this is what i mentioned earlier for the
elevation of the building to be lowered
to six feet to match the west wing
um what would this help do also
just kind of if you remember the
renderings there is a huge difference in
elevation from the main entrance way
to the side wings but
because that what an effect from that is
also the heating and cooling for that
area too
changes a lot so reducing the overall
cubic feet inside of building
with this we're able to reduce some of
the structural elements of it as well as
the heating and cooling so this had a
big
impact on the cost the laundry and linen
shelving
and again like i mentioned reduce the
sally port to a 16-footer
and the dog candles in cages that are
outside we're still building the dog
pods the shades
the solar panels just at this
point right now we are not able to
include the actual candles
as part of the project
um so as a result of what i just
mentioned
um staff um the architect for the city
sridevi and the heart with the help of
arthur
clinton was involved in the contractor
were able to reduce this cost
from about for about 1.2 million 1.178
735 we're able to negotiate in value
engineering this project
to get it within budget um
with not only that um
working with the staff some of the
budget just to kind of
be uh transparent with everyone on the
board
we had to move some monies from our
budget for materials testing
additional surveys utilities the ff
e the fixtures furnishings and equipment
and a portion of the contingency to make
this
negotiation work and be coming to an
agreement with the contractor to move
forward
so with these adjustments these
revisions and kind of collaborating with
the entire team
the contract isn't now an execution i
believe it's an illegal you want to get
their approval will be going to city
council for their approval
so that in a nutshell is where we're at
uh this has been one of our biggest
focuses in public works to get this
project going
um and i i
i know presenting this with these
reductions and everything sounds kind of
tough but it was just our bad timing or
with the market right now we're
doing it but staff has made has done an
exceptional job to get these projects
going so we can meet our deadline of
being constructed and completed by fy22
the end of afri-22 these geo
projects have to be completed so i
commend them on
that but with that being said i cannot
go into discussion answer any questions
that thank you
um mr trivia i'd like to start out with
uh clint
thank you madam vice chair we had again
this was
uh quite the project it was not um it
it i made the comment during the
conversation
that it was hard to see
something that we all wanted to see
happen and then have it
brought down and you know have these
things eliminated but we had to make
this work so we at the center
was was had to make a lot of sacrifices
for that
if we didn't want other things gone
there was a lot of discussion of what to
take out
i tried and tried and fought really hard
to keep the
cleaning system the smt cleaning system
in but if it was a matter of
getting rid of a dog pod versus having
the cleaning system
i would much rather have that dog pod so
it was a constant give and take
but i wanted to point out really quick
that a lot of the things are going to be
left
you know stubbed out it's called in
other words all everything there
so and the cleaning equipment is just
that that
it'll be stubbed out so if we the next
fiscal year we have some money
we can purchase it have it installed
same thing
with other items there too so and we're
grateful that
um the contractor is able to work with
us on some of those items and tony
in the public works department as well
so that's what i have to say
thank you clint i have a geno and then
mayor pro tem
thank you madam chair and i don't know
if this question should go to mr trevino
or clint
but um why was the sally port reduced
from four base to two
uh madam chair um
what remember jimenez um it was reduced
from
two base to one the
and the again the reason for that is
just to value engineering get
and get the project within budget
and this is quite a factor i think what
jano means by four is we could fit
four trucks in it at one time
um and it was reduced down to fit two
and it was strictly for
like i said just for value engineering
we had to afford
the building you know fit it in to the
cost
um what is going to be tony remind me
on the side of if you can the side
of that a sally poor is it going to be a
brick wall
or is it going to be a fenced in area
allowing us to expand
queen at this time we had some parkings
there i don't know if you can see my
slides still up
yeah um we had the selling porch we had
some parking there on the side
um so
those can if we do eventually move that
over and construct that
um we can move the parking lots over or
i can go ahead
and work with the architect and just put
the parking spaces in that landscape
right here where it's shown and leave
that vacant area so if you want to
expand for that
um additional day later you definitely
can and that might be the better option
okay so a follow-up question so on your
screen right there
if you look at where the sally port was
originally proposed
those parking spots then would be for
where animal control is going to
impound the animals that is a service
yard and clinton can you help
yeah the the actual impound is still
going to happen inside
the sally port um those
parking spots there those are for clean
outs
they'll have a drain there and spray out
the trucks
thank you yes sir thank you
um mayor pro tem yeah number
yeah um can you move to slide eight
[Music]
thanks um clint and tony public works
really appreciate
um you know i i know
i know that we had a vision and
disappointing
right to to see some of these items but
i
i understand the reasoning
i just want to be sure that
you know moving from the renaissance
floor to the silk concrete the aluminum
base to the rubber base
as you know we've done a lot of work on
that building
where on the building where the laundry
area
is finding mold those kinds of things
and i just
the issues with heating and cooling and
and i know everybody wants this
beautiful building and we probably won't
have to worry about it for maybe a
decade
five six seven eight years but are all
these changes
conducive to ensuring
that it will stand up to the water
um you know the spraying that needs to
happen to clean
um just the where the natural wear and
tear
daily um those kinds of things
gino or excuse me tony or clint
all right protein quinn thacker i i can
tell you that there's
it's not just going to be sheetrock
we're going to put up
the panels that are waterproof they go
over the sheetrock
you're going to have rubber bases that
are connected to it and the floor
all these there are precautions to be
taken
also the dog pods are not sheetrock
um they are cinderblock we kept those
as to stand the test of time and also
the environment they're gonna be in
so the only changes was the whole
building the back of house
where there's not going to be very much
spraying
water and things but we did still use
that precaution
still going to have the stainless steel
corner guards we're still going to have
that waterproof option so they really
did
i mean we had a dream and now we're
making it a reality
while building in the middle of covid is
the best way i can explain it
one thing tony did not go into that we
need to talk about the reason why we
called this to order
was that ff e and
i can let him talk about that a little
bit more i think is important
to bring to the board because that was a
purpose of this discussion
the fix feature fixtures
yeah okay what
well if you remember the email that was
sent out to the board
it was discussing that and
yeah this is the slide so the ff and e
it was
in order for this project to move
forward
we had to find those savings wherever we
could yeah
so the savings found in the f ffe
of the features furniture and equipment
it was requested that animal
service center pay for the ffe
so all of the equipment all the
furniture and also the kennel equipment
so the kennels inside the dog pods would
be done all said
and done it was i believe with the new
mexico tax
it was 705 000 that needs to be
found in order to complete that
our portion the centers portion of it
that's over two years so it doesn't all
have to be done now
but that is something that we need to
discuss of
uh you know the city and the county and
and also my budget so
[Music]
tony did i give that enough description
properly no
clinton you didn't just want to
relay that it wasn't taken out
on purpose but in order for us to get
this contract
executed before prices go any higher we
eliminate more square footage
we had to move that money um let me kind
of go back
and kind of to the original budget and
you can see
where we kind of had all this money set
aside in the original budget
so when i mentioned earlier the budget
had to be moved with some of these
miscellaneous costs from our survey the
ffa and equipment
and the contingencies we had to we
didn't eliminate it
we had to move a large portion of each
one of those into the final
cost for the project the base bit to get
this project going before we lose
um anymore and just within a week trying
to
process the contract the price has
already gone up
i think 20 to 30 000 on still
just within the week since we negotiated
to we're trying to execute the contract
so
we had to send out some letters of
intent to the suppliers to try and
solidify some of these costs but we're
working as hard as you can
just to get this going but this is what
clinton was mentioning where we had to
move the money
from what we set aside for the fixtures
for an interesting equipment
just to get the project started um again
by like i mentioned we met we moved some
of it we didn't move everything
so as we get further along in the
project and there's no um unforeseen
circumstances
we do have the contingency that can be
used for some of the items that we had
to remove
um so for the ff and the or the candles
we can use some of that money later on
as we move forward however just sit
aside for now
in case something comes up near
construction that we need to have it
have it there but um based on
the uh exercise of value engineering the
consultant
looking at the plans and staff also i
we're really comfortable moving forward
and hopefully not using any of that we
can utilize that for some of the
equipment as you get for a long
construction sure
tony i appreciate that so with that i
have a few comments um
so this f and e and equipment i i think
that's just very
um it's not specific so
i would appreciate that we talk about
this
because pay it now or pay it later i
mean it's gonna come out of the county
and city
um anyway and so i
i it would have be helpful to be more
specific about what
that entails pricing those kinds of
things so that
the and and maybe it needs to be
discussed in executive and finance
um committees and then brought to the
board
um later but that would that
for me would be super helpful more
specifics on what that
what that truly uh is and if you
feel at that point that there needs to
be a lot
a more robust conversation with the
board i think that
that is going to be that's going to be
helpful
um to me anyway i don't know how others
on my colleagues feel on the board
and then um tony in terms of the
contingency
i you know we just had a a
a council work session related to
procurement and that was changed so what
is it 10
or did did it move from ten to five i'm
trying to remember we got a lot it was
late in the
day so what what what is it and and what
is the total amount that's set aside
so i i believe with the um
the proposal for that new uh
the increment code was uh max of 20
contingency that we needed contingency
is required but a max of 20
for vertical construction okay um here
we're at five
and we drop down to about almost two
percent
on this project we still have it but
based on the exercises that we went
through for this value engineering
these plans have gone through uh picked
through
yeah fought through kicked around so
we're really confident moving forward
without having any major
adjustments okay okay that's that's cool
i i
i really appreciate you going um going
over it very specific and then last um
tony the construction right wood you
know all the supplies and stuff has just
gone astronomically
high what why is that um
is it coveted is it because we're
getting our product coming in
um from internationally coming in
what what is it i think there's some
covet i think the
prices of field going up i think there's
a number shortage coming out for
the u.s out of canada celebrations i
think there's so many factors hitting
all at once
um i really can't say but usually just
to give put in perspective usually we
had about a three percent
increase in um fluctuation every year
the past three months has been almost 24
yeah
wow something that um i don't know
it's one of those things we have a
timeline to get it built by
fy 2022. we wait see if it comes down or
we wait and prices go up it's just one
of those things that we
don't have the option to wait because we
do have a timeline for the
voters that this has to get done by the
end of fy 2022
okay yeah thanks tony um i really
appreciate it
it's good to to know these things and
sort of
i'm glad you come in and have the
discussion so
so once it gets to legal and it back to
are you anticipating hearing this in
april um to city council
yes i'm hoping april we can be in front
of city council for this okay
okay good that's good to know and then
groundbreaking happening
shortly thereafter yes ma'am
all right all right this is exciting um
and then
i i wanted to see and how
we are um working with the county
obviously this is coming out of the
cities um you know the citizens of
the city of las cruces thank you voters
for the the approval but how are we
communicating
um with the county in relation to um
the costs and and moving forward
have those discussions happened and if
not i i would
recommend that we have a specific
um maybe a dual
a dual meeting um with the two entities
to have this conversation moving forward
i'll defer to clint on that one
oh man
uh it sounds good no i think it
definitely needs to have a discussion
it's
it's multifaceted right the city's
paying for it
um but the city has already put money in
from public works like tony said they've
they've thrown some money in so what's
the county going to do
um it definitely needs to have a
one-on-one discussion you're absolutely
right so we can get that
organized so are you requesting it
as a dual meeting with eric
i see mr enriquez is on can we
can we do that soon
mr enriquez
[Music]
yes uh madam chair uh mayor pro tem yeah
that's something that we can explore
uh this is again a city project the geo
bond obligation
so um being that there's a jpa
there is a little bit of uh
gray area there as far as costs being
shared and things of that nature for the
for the animal service center itself but
yeah those discussions will have to
take place and we can look at getting
some kind of joint meeting on that
that's good thank you mr rodriguez thank
you madam vice chair
thank you next up we have um councillor
flores
thank you madam chair and and thank you
for all your questions
uh mayor pro tem gandara
[Music]
i too was thinking about the procurement
code and with prices going up
um it's they're going to cap at 20
percent that contingency fund
uh it shouldn't be more than about it
shouldn't be
uh 20 percent above the contra the
contract
price um but my question
mr trevino is um i think i believe
that the treaty you know the that treaty
that replaces nafta
you know canada mexico and the u.s
um and it's not called nafta but
essentially it's very similar um and you
you were saying what pumps me to say
that is that you said that
uh some of that wood lumber whatever
building materials are coming from
canada so is it possible uh with that
treaty and then also
um i i know we have this
2022 deadline to me but
um is there any and maybe
maybe you you you aren't privy to the
exact language of the contract or even
if you were maybe
not free to speak to this but
um it'd be great to raise the issue as
to whether those prices would come down
as a result of that new treaty and you
know with
with canada and um
and also with it seems like well maybe
i'm
you know looking uh you know life
through rose-colored glasses but i
would like to believe or do see that
there is a light at the end of the
tunnel regarding
cobit and um
and prices have skyrocketed because of
covid
is there anything in the contract that
will um
[Music]
possibly bring down the cost of
materials and therefore
adjust the final price tag
mr trevino um
make sure that i got understand your
question you're saying if we have
if you order the material now and if
prices come down if they'll adjust
the cost of the material on the contract
correct um that is something we can
definitely discuss with the vendors and
the suppliers
because we do reach out and they don't
have any um
it's hard for them to forecast what's
gonna happen on their side of the
materials and building side also
so we had we have asked them and all
they can say is they can't guarantee the
price for more than
a couple days which they should be able
to give to the price for 30 days
up to 60 they they can't guarantee the
price for just a couple days anymore it
just fluctuates so there's just so many
unforeseen stuff that it's
hard to uh look at that but that is
something we can definitely ask
during construction if stuff hasn't been
ordered yet or what on the procurement
process that we can kind of keep an eye
on
um so we can definitely keep an eye on
that
that would be great uh tony because um
you know because i i agree with uh uh
mayor pro tem gandala in so far as um
you know some of the things that were
whittling away
and and some of them can some of these
things can be put in later
but um you know like replacing
aluminum with rubber and aluminum is
going to have a longer life
rubber tends to dry out and crack
eventually
and so i i you know i and part of it is
like
being pennywise and uh pound foolish
approach and believe me i totally
understand and respect all your hard
work
it has nothing to do with that but in so
far as
really looking at ways to um make sure
we have
all that um the aesthetic part
maybe you know the the uh you know the
the
height where it was supposed to be up
higher it's going to come down lower
um and and you know that that to me
is i think an aesthetic and
architectural aesthetic aspect and an
architect might
you know might argue no it's really
essential for the function
um but you know like oh having only one
bay instead of two bays
and um and those sorts of
cuts i i just don't want to see it so
that
i you know i would just love to see a
contract that's
because if we're going to have a
contract the way i see it it's the two
parties and if you have
one party saying okay we need that
contingency fund
uh clause then they were sure that
they're guaranteed
their prices it looks like we should
have
a uh you know there should be some
reciprocity
in so far as prices and
what we're paying and understanding that
if in fact these prices are due to cobid
and all the problems that
you know has given you know trade has
been affected by that
um anyway but thank you tony uh for
looking into that and um and bringing it
up with legal or the powers that be
and hopefully um yeah
yeah so thank you again tony and thank
you clint
thank you madam chair thank you thank
you
and thank you tony i know um as
we heard about the changes necessary for
the project
you know there is some concern making
sure that um
as councilor flores said we are not um
limiting something that will
cost us more greatly in the long run you
know that's always a consideration
um but knowing that the the system just
across the board
is so volatile right now and changing so
dramatically from the cost of steel
to lumber i spent half an afternoon
looking at
why uh lumber was uh so expensive in
canada
and just those types of things and and
recognizing that this is happening
um not just isolated to las cruces but
with these types of industries and
construction and so it's something
i'm just a byproduct of the environment
that we're in right now
um but i do have it marked down to make
sure
as well that we're communicating with
our chair um
about uh those extra meetings at mayor
pro tem
um and talking with the county and
looking at those types of things so that
we're exploring it and making sure we're
doing it efficiently and
within a timely manner as well so thank
you
are there any further questions um or
discussion on this project please feel
free to raise your hand
okay thank you very much uh tony
and your team uh for joining us here
today moving on
we are having item number seven which is
public input
and i will open it up to clint
[Music]
thank you madam chair clint thacker we
have one
point of public input that was sent to
me
estates i watched the dona ana county
board of commissioners meeting yesterday
as i had emailed them my public input
regarding the 185 thousand dollars sole
source contract to barkhouse one of the
public input email
that was read in the meeting made
reference to a dog that was allegedly
pulled by bark house
but was later returned due to a
complication i think the email was sent
by the rescue that saved the dog by
pulling her the same day
and taking her to the vet i didn't quite
catch the name of the person or the
rescue to send
in the email a friend of mine sent me
this post this morning it was posted on
from the heart rescue facebook page she
thinks this is the same dog was
discussed at yesterday's meeting
and it sounds like it is uh so then they
posted two questions one are you able to
confirm what really happened with this
dog named biscuit
and two if barkhouse did in fact return
or leave biscuit at the shelter even
after being told that there was no
surgical staff that day
will they continue to pull or continue
to have pulling privileges at the
shelter thank you for your time
so if i can answer number one that
the dog they are referencing in the
facebook
link they provided is yes that that was
biscuit
and then two um the question of the bark
house did in fact
will they continue pulling privileges we
have a rescue agreement
and at this time barkhouse has not
signed that rescue agreement
so as soon as they do sign then we can
have discussions with them about that
um that's all i'd say
you're on mute thank you thank you
um and second i know that uh
gene you had a question i see right
well i have public input if that's if
it's
appropriate now yes ma'am thank you
yes and it is related to the contract
that is um under consideration right now
with the county with bark house
and just a second here i'm trying to
pull up my um
notes
uh the the comments that i've
seen and been receiving from animal
advocates
is that um some members of animal groups
were offended
by some of the general or what they
considered were sweeping comments by
commissioners at the meeting on tuesday
i believe it was that
they felt that commissioners were saying
that groups
um don't do the same don't don't do the
the work the rescue work like barkhouse
does
or some of the programs and then the
other thing that
i'm hearing a lot from is that
groups were angered that this was not an
rfp rfp process
and i don't know if anyone can respond
to that or not
right now or if uh you're just accepting
comments without
without respond if there is a member
from the county that would like to
respond in that please feel free
to do so now
well i can respond in brief i mean
technically this isn't exactly a jpa
issue
but i could go into how this process all
started
very briefly um that there had been a
proposal
for four different four different
activities combined under one plan
and at that time we looked around and
did
investigation as well as our finance
department
did an initial investigation as to what
other
groups what other organizations what
other whatever single person
can is currently having a plan to do
four of these these projects
under one operational plan
and we were unable to find any
so we went ahead and and announced it
on the county website as a sole source
proposal and during that time and of
course the rules are clearly posted on
the sole source of application is that
parties would have 30 days to counter
propose
to to object to to make comments uh
to to lend any input to the process
and at that point um no one did at the
end of the 30-day period actually it
lasted a little bit longer
so the matter was brought before the
commission this past tuesday
to talk about um would you approve
as a sole source uh
organization and and the commission
voted yes they would and
and for it was an anonymous vote but the
thing
is that there was a lot of people i
think who felt
slighted or left out we we could not
with all the wonderful people out there
doing
rescue and doing projects nobody came
forward
and said well i can do all four or i'm
doing all four
or here's my proposal and because we
didn't hear any objection like that we
were able to proceed with the sole
source
that doesn't mean right now that a
contract is in place it is not in place
yet
there could be modifications and we
could possibly offer
different things to other groups in the
future it was almost impossible to name
every good work that's being done out
there although we tried to
and i think a lot of people tried to
talk and bring in
um we answered to some negative comments
that were submitted as public input
which are people's right to do so
and there was also an equal number of
people who
submitted public input in support of the
sole source awarding
um you know it for all these people who
are out there doing
things and doing these good things and
making some good progress and we
see that every month in the jpa
gene that that you present every month
that's almost impossible just to do a
shout out to everybody who's doing all
of these things
but the thing that really made the sole
source justification approval was
that nobody is doing all four components
which is the um the microchipping
the spay and neuter aspect the rescue by
relocation
and a last litter program that deals
with pre and postnatal care
for pregnant dogs and at the end of that
particular period of care
which is about eight weeks that the
female the mother
is spayed at that point and either
return to the owner
who want them back or the dog is um
taken care of and placed in a home and
there is an active fostering program
that's going on as well
and i and i really don't want to say too
much more because
as i said that the contract terms have
not yet been generated and there is no
formal contract
in place but we are moving toward that
and and from my perspective i think i
just want to recognize everyone who's
doing those great things out there
and unfortunately we it was not the time
or place to call everybody out by name
although we did but i just want to say
that i think from clint's perspective
meaning you i i just accidentally muted
myself
um from and to repeat from the shelter's
perspective from county from city
that we i think we are all in great
appreciation for all the wonderful work
that's happening out there
and we hope to be able to work with
everyone and all come together
to to make really great things happen
for the city and for donaiana county
thank you gene for the response um
and gene
i do have one more uh question if i can
ask it please to jeannie
uh and is that is that uh the um
uh you said it was announced on uh the
dona ana county government
website looking for sole source was
there anything
um written or addressed
in any other oh how do i want to put it
was there any other form of announcement
or
notification about this because and the
reason i ask that is because
i'm hearing from groups like action
programs for animal is one of them
that they were not aware of any
uh inquiry from the county for
uh soul source
okay and and again i i think that this
isn't the proper forum to talk about how
this was particularly
announced um but i can't assure you that
all
process was done in compliance with
ordnance and with procurement
law thank you um gene
uh for other animal groups perhaps
um later and this is just a
recommendation for since this is a
county issue
if there needs to be any sort of
training on where to look or items
um for these types of items that might
be something to consider
um but like uh miss contano
that is something that with the county
so it might just be a little bit of
education and training
so thank you thank you thank you i feel
like my questions were answered
thank you thank you and thank you miss
cantero
um at this time is there was there any
other public comment
no amount of vice chair that was the
only one received okay
thank you very much we'll move on to
item number eight which is chair and
board comments
i just want to take a moment uh to say
thank you for everyone for allowing me
to chair today
sticking with me is my first time while
commissioner sanchez is gone so thank
you
and i'll move on if you have any public
comments please feel free to raise your
hand
seeing none we'll
move on and i'll entertain a motion to
adjourn
so move kanter second by flores
thank you it's been moved and seconded
please clint me you called the roll
uh vice chair
yes past president flores
yes board member gondola
yes board member trujillo
yes it's unanimous we're done
thank you all very much we are adjourned
it is 11 23.
have a great evening
you