you
[Music]
good morning everyone this is the animal
service center of the messiah valley
board of directors meeting
thursday february 25 2021 at 9 00 a.m
the meeting has been called to order at
06 a.m
the second item on the agenda is
changes to agenda and approval of agenda
let me um yes would you like to do roll
call
oh yes roll call please mr thacker thank
you okay
madam chair flores present
mr vice chair sanchez
he is excused today correct ma'am chair
oh yes he's definitely excused
okay board member ellen's
yes board member
trujillo
[Music]
no board member trujillo
board member gandra
[Music]
board member gandra
uh board member stevie yes
ex-officio member enriquez
president and ex-official member
quintero
present thank you madam chair we have
uh vice chair sanchez is excused and
board member trujillo
not present and
mayor pro tem oh thank you yes and
sorry board member gandera is also
not present
okay we shall proceed so we do have a
quorum
and the minutes did everyone have an
opportunity to review
um the minutes of
january 28 20 uh 1.
are there any did everyone have an
opportunity or do you need a couple of
minutes to review them at this time
does anyone need a few minutes
speaking or forever hold your peace
madam chair yes mr clint for the record
uh board member gandala just logged on
so she is present
oh wonderful okay
sorry i i had computer issues and had to
run to the office
so it's funny wow good thing you live
close by huh
near the office yeah well welcome i'm
glad you're here
mayor pro tem thank you madam chair
so so the only two people who are absent
are uh mayor through heel and
um
and commissioner sanchez
so um mayor pro tem did you have
an opportunity to read the minutes to
review the minutes
and get madam chair oh good so are there
any changes
i don't have none thank you yeah i don't
either does
so i i hear i don't see any hands up
let me scroll down um so there are no
uh changes to the minutes uh
i need a motion for approval please
so move gandara
thank you it's been moved by mayor pro
tem gandala and
seconded by councillor beta stewie
to approve the minutes um
hearing no objections any objections
hearing no objections i hereby um
the the the minutes are hereby approved
uh next like me to take roll on that
madam chair oh
berlin yes please thank you thank you
thank you mr thacker
madam chair flores yes board member
ellens
yes board member gondora yes
board member stewie yes
thank you motion passes wonderful
okay okay and next item
uh item four on the agenda reports
presentations
city and county aco reports
by uh mr thacker
not by me madam chair um
aco reports so is mary lou here today
i'm sorry i know but um
remember quintero has somebody there to
do it
oh someone's here to do uh ace uh aco
awards okay that's correct
um officer gwyneth kingsley is gonna
present
in place of miss ward um understand
that this is our first time sharing
files so give us a minute we're going to
go ahead and
and do what we have to do here and then
i'm going to step away and then officer
kingsley is going to be sitting where
i'm sitting right now
great thank you gene um
thank you genie and we'll we'll be
patient
okay you've got to be because we're both
low-tech
right all right can you
can you see the the powerpoint yes it's
beautiful
okay i'm going to change places with
officer kingsley
and she is going to take over from here
thank you
i'm just going to try and make it full
screen here
there you go okay you got it there it is
all right good morning everybody
i'm gwen kingsley um let's get right
into it essentially
um so this is going to be the report for
last month and
uh we had 291 reported strays
um of those reports we were able to pick
up 107
or 167 i'm sorry i guess i need to learn
how to read today
um 167 straight animals were picked up
um of those 31 of them were stray cats
and 136 of them were stray dogs
now not included in those numbers is
going to be 17
animals that were sick or injured
including three cats and 14 dogs
um and seven owner surrendered animals
which are all gonna be dogs
um this is gonna be the four year
comparison chart as you can see we are
way down from where we were last year um
we're about half what we were last year
with that 291
and 413 last year
on the strays
um this is also this is going to be the
uh
rto comparison chart so way down there
in the
bottom it's a tiny little piece it's 16
rtos for last month
um the reason for this drop is
likely because we're so short on
officers
so they're we just can't spread the
wealth and we had a
had a significant part of last month
where we were responding to emergencies
only so that's going to cut our rto
numbers down as well
um just let me know if i move too fast
or anything
because i'm kind of i feel like i'm
blowing through it but i may not be
um so not including
what we mentioned earlier were the
surrenders and the
sick and injured animals um
we also picked up seven neglect abuse or
cruelty animals
and we had seven animals
quarantined over at the ascmv
this is just a reminder of the geo
districts that we use
um i don't know if anybody is is new to
this or not
she did say that some people uh may be
new to our districts but this is just a
reminder of
where everybody is if you need a second
to look at it just let me know if not
i'll
keep going beyond it
all right so broken down by district it
looks like we've got
15 dogs that were picked up out of
district 1
which is going to be the far north part
of the county
district 2 has 14 cats and 10 dogs
that's going to be the doniana area more
so
um district 3 has six cats and 35 dogs
this is going to be more of a hot zone
for us
that's going to be the east mesa area
off of
70. district 4 is also hot zone for the
dogs
it's two for cats 35 dogs that's going
to be the mesquite
down all the way to la mesa district 5
is four cats 17 dogs that's going to be
bottle
um all the way down to anthony and then
district
six that six that's santa teresa area
that's uh three cats and
seven dogs and then district 7 is
chaparral
and that's going to be two cats and 17
dogs so
not super high numbers in those areas
our dispatch calls uh to date that we've
received
through central was 530
our self-initiated calls were 121.
um our assists are 20 was assisting
other officers and other agencies
um and then we had nine follow-ups that
we did
which makes our grand total of calls for
last month
680 calls for service
um these are going to be addressing our
seven owner released animals so we had
one that was
aggressive uh two were uh
were due to landlord issues the owner
possibly getting evicted due to having
the animals
uh two were because of the animals
uh one is the person
it themselves were too ill to take care
of the animal
and the last one is the animal was
pregnant and
the owner could not afford care for a
pregnant animal
these are our bike calls we've got uh 13
bytes exposure to humans
those account for the 17 the seven
quarantined animals at the ascm
so four of those were home quarantined
and two of them
were never located um
of those for home quarantine um that's
gonna be three that are
that were up to date on their
vaccinations and one
animal that was too young so that's
under 12 weeks of age
they cannot be vaccinated for rabies
in january we had three aco cases that
went to court
um out of three cases six charges
came from them we had three bench
warrants
one deferred sentence and two defendants
paid
their bench warrant fine um i believe
this is the end of her
presentation
do you guys have any questions or
anything for me
officer kingsley yes ma'am i'm checking
to see if anybody has questions and i
was on mute i'm sorry
okay no problem okay
it looks like there aren't any questions
i don't see any hands up
but i have one question for you officer
kingsley
yes first of all thank you very much and
secondly
um can you explain
what happened on the um i think the
deferred
the case is in court can you go back to
that slide and explain
something let me pull it up again
you pulled it from this one right team
now you cracked it off
i'm pulling it up i got it you guys see
it again
yes there it is thank you so um
what um
so there were um three acl cases went to
court
um and there were discharges okay so
there were three bench warrants
and so they did and they all showed up
to court
and one got a deferred sentence what is
that is that am i correct
so generally our bench warrants are
served when people do not come to court
those are failure to appear
warrants okay um more than likely the
deferred sentence had to have shown up
because
that's how they can get their deferred
sentence correct uh
these two defendants who paid their
bench warrant fines
um obviously they appeared as well
i see so what does it mean when they
have a deferred sentence do they
do they still have their pet do they
yes so so a deferred sentence
um the basic way the deferred sentence
works
is um the person is put on a
probation 30 days 60 days 90 days it
depends on what they
agree on through the courts and then
they
generally plea guilty or no contest when
they get a birth sentence and then after
that time
is over it's taken off of their record
if there is no uh further violations
while they're on that probation
okay and then if if there is a further
violation
i i'm presumably with the same pet
um is there what is the punishment you
know what is the cause
that's going to be a probation violation
and that would have to go through the
courts
see what they would how they would want
to handle that punishment
for the probation violation so what
happens to the doc
to the pet or what happens to the owner
in that event is there jail time is it
just a bigger fine
you know there's there's not jail time
unless we're talking something really
serious but
um no there's not joke oh okay
all right thank you very much officer
kingsley yes ma'am do you have any other
questions or anything for
i me see any hands up any
if any if anybody if i'm missing you for
some reason uh please speak up now
okay no further questions thank you
thank you very much
thank you be safe
okay let me get this
okay so we'll move on to um
mr jimenez officer he jimenez
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 uh before we
begin
i'd like to congratulate gwen good job
for your first time very good job
so let me share mine
so madam chair can you see my my screen
yes sir it's here all right
so my report will be for january 2021
for that month we impounded we responded
to 470 straight calls
of those 261 were goa meaning the
officer
did not make contact with that animal we
were able to apprehend
209 of those 173 were impounded
at the animal service center 101 were
dogs and 72 were cats
we were successful in field rtoing or
returning to their owner
36 of those animals and we were
unsuccessful
in returning six identified animals
and of those those six were included in
that 173
here is our reported straight calls for
a three-year comparison
and of course we start the the new year
and
thankfully we're lower than the previous
two years um
so at 470.
my next slide is the three-year field
rto comparison
we like i said in my previous slide we
had 36
successful filled rtos which puts us
right
you know right in our average you know
as historically as we go back
our average is anywhere between 28 to 36
so we're we're right in our average uh
2019 was an exceptionally high year
but of course that's also going that's
always going to be included in our
comparison when we do this one
reasons for um owners releasing animals
for last month we had zero and i believe
if we go back in
uh december we also had zero so these
have been exceptional months for us
um however i know already that for this
coming month for
when i do my report next month we've
already had a few
so the officers are doing their best to
keep the numbers
uh minimal at the service center and
only taking in healthy
or animals that pose a threat to the
community or to
the safety of anybody so thankfully
we've been at zero for the last couple
months
here is our reasons that we were unable
to field rto
one was because the chip information was
not updated
one was the chip was not registered and
four for no contact with the owner by
phone or at the residence
and here is my stream app let me
minimize this one
is my stream map visible man
it is okay it is so
these are our are the
strays that we were uh responded to for
the month of january
as like i've said in the previous months
the blue
indicate dogs the orange
indicate cats and the small little red
dots
like this one indicate other
and then that could be a squirrel a
rabbit anything other than a
dog or cat skunk hawk
anything else
so if there's any questions about the
stray map i can
zoom in to a specific area if anybody
has any
questions or concerns about the map
i don't see any questions for you i have
questions
oh oh and and uh
yes uh and i also see that uh counselor
beta stevie put her hand up but i don't
see your
there you are yes mayor pro go ahead
counselor bait this to me don't go right
ahead mate
you're pro tem um gino i
i wanted to um have you zoom in and the
eight eight zero zero one like the
mesquite
and the kilmer area we've seen an
increase in feral cats
are you showing that
[Music]
i am zooming in
takes a second for the map to catch up
but
come on
it gets a little convoluted because of
the addresses if you can see that um
it kind of overtakes the map with all
the addresses so
give me just a second so here is
if you can see my cursor this is the
mesquite street
and here is chestnut where you're
talking about a specific area now
mesquite and kilmer yeah well mesquite
historic district okay let me zoom out a
little bit because i think that
might help in the misty maybe the
mesquite street
i'm getting a lot a lot of calls
so come on
it's okay so here's mesquite street
and it doesn't look like we had very
many along mesquite street however
for a point of interest can you see my
cursor
this is one area where last month we did
pick up a few
now with this map i'm only pinpointing
last month so if we go back historically
and if i could change the dates for you
you will see that if one area is a hot
spot
um this month and i zoom back or i uh go
back
further dates you'll see that they'll be
maybe more added
impounds from that area
oh there he's zooming in thank you
so right now you see this address right
now we only had two
or last month and these are cats only
okay let me zoom out and see if we have
any more for this particular
for your district
and how you can tell and now everybody
has access to this map
um as a read only um so if you do what
i'm doing right here
and you zoom in and out you'll see that
it looks like a cluster
right here where my cursor is right so
now i can zoom
in on that address and you will see that
for
last month this particular address
had 10 impounds 10 cats impounded from
this particular address
i think ma'am this may be the one that
um
you and i received those emails about so
this this is that
that area of concern okay
got it thank you geno you're welcome
and gino what is happening so are you
picking them up and
taking them or and then is
once you're called or they trap them
you're picking them up and it's they're
taken to
animal services center and what is
happening
from that point uh madam chair mayor pro
tem
um so at this point we have suspended
our trap program because of covid
and on the request of the animal service
center to limit
the amount of impounds so these
individuals were that are trapping
uh cats are doing it with their own
traps
we will still pick up the animal because
if we don't it now
becomes a care maintenance issue we
can't just leave a trapped cat in there
forever without food or water
or shelter so we are obligated to still
pick them up
we will then uh impound them at the
service center
and then the disposition of that animal
is entirely up to
the asc staff
okay thank you gina you're welcome madam
chair
and thank you um thank you mayor poteman
thank you
officer jimenez you're welcome
council aveda stevie thank you and thank
you gino
um i just wanted to look a little bit
actually at the mesia park area it looks
like
we did have a few dog issues as well of
pop
up that seemed new i hadn't received any
emails about it but looking in um there
was
four in the area and if there was any
connections
or just random events
madam chair um counselor stewie
in your district you can see right here
we had one call
in the agave spanish trail area
four dogs and then if we zoom out a
little bit
and we go a little further north um
there's a few right here in the las
vegas mobile home community
okay and then one right here right at
the edge of the city and county
where uh maine and union
meet um and then the last one i believe
in this in the messiah park area
was for a skunk right here at the monso
munso street
so for dogs they are basically
um individual calls uh one of a kind
calls
it's very rare that we get the same call
over and over for dogs
unless it's able to escape us or elude
us
and then a couple hours later we get
another call from another citizen
and then multiple calls on that same dog
because we haven't been able to catch it
capture it okay thank you i appreciate
that
and thank you madam chair the one point
of interest ma'am for your district
is i know that this was a concern
and the corbett area and for last month
we caught two cats were still impounded
from this area bringing that total for
the year
uh to 25 from this one residence
wow okay
thank you um i was gonna ask
with it um i'm sure we're doing
education
um with this resident
or was this the one that they're not the
owners of the cats is it the neighbor
one of the neighbors that feeds that or
are they the
owner of the animals
madam chair counselor stewie yes these
this is the gentleman whose wife has
some pulmonary issues
but yet somebody in the neighborhood
continues to feed them
and they congregate on his property and
defecate
on his lawn which is uh making her
health conditions worse so that's why he
is trapping
these animals um
and now that i think the animals have
been attracted to the area it's
they're going to keep congregating for
that to to use
um do we have any and this has been my
concern with
uh community cats and others you know
with the house like this they're going
to keep
getting attracted to it because so many
cats have used it and sprayed it
and so if we have any cleanup or
assistance programs for this type of
thing i mean it's such a
it's a real health issue for for these
people
and they're trying their best to keep
their home safe um and this
this is a a situation that i think is
very concerning
and concerning when we come to community
cats
um and feral cats
absolutely yes ma'am um uh madam chair
counselor stevie um yes
and i think that's one of the things
that the officers when they go out to
impound
is to uh tell him to clean up as best
that he can
without aggravating the dirt to make it
worse for his wife
but yes i believe that he's doing the
best he can to deter these cats
but they have become accustomed to
that area for now once he gets some
deterrence and gets whatever
means to stop attracting them to his
property that may
help to keep them away and
um have we been able to identify the
person that is attracting the cats to
the area or
uh madam chair uh counselor stevie at
this time no
um we did have a lead if you would say
um it was a partial plate of somebody
leaving the area that was seen dumping
food
however because it was only a partial
plate we weren't able to
research and find out exactly who the
registered owner of that vehicle was
had we got a complete plate
then we could have gone and and talked
to
that person and see what
the issues were there and address it
accordingly
okay okay thank you you're welcome
thank you madam chair and thank you uh
councillor beta stewie uh
officer uh jimenez when you showed uh
councillor beta stevie
the map um uh that
in quest her district uh i know that the
um the districts where you are different
than our council districts is that
correct
yes right madam chair yes ma'am um
this this map was um at a request i
believe from
uh mayor pro chem gandara so we moved
together and at the time
it was we thought that the best option
for us was to label it
or map it a per council district
uh police districts are a little bit
different but not a lot
so to make it less confusing i think
council
districts work best yes
we have like police districts 6.2 6.1
which actually could be in council
district 5.
so this mapping is the best i believe
to avoid confusion well in terms of the
concerns that uh counselor amina stubby
brought up
um i saw that the map that that's in
blue
that's presumably her district yes
that's her district
um the northern uh just
the northern edge there is missouri
but her district actually goes all the
way up to we split
mine begins at the middle of hill rice
so it's
further north are there any and she has
concerns and i don't know
uh uh councillor beta stevie whether
you're receiving any calls from
your constituents in the area above
north of missouri
madam chair i have not um my
most of my uh concerns have been within
that corbett
area um have been i think the
the majority of the issues that i've um
received oh okay so that you have all
the information you need on that
and so the question i have for you um
officer jimenez is
uh so what what would happen to the i
would come the perp
the person the person who's leaving food
or otherwise attracting the cats to a
certain property
and then drives away so he's not doing
it on his old property or he or she
so what happens to that particular
individual if caught
madam chair if we were able to verify
through any kind of eyewitness testimony
or the officer
themselves witnessing the individual
dropping food
they could be cited in the court for
harboring
right now in the current ordinance it
prohibits harboring which is feeding
stray animals
so they would be cited under that
ordinance right now
and what is the penalty or the
consequence
the maximum penalty for any of our
citations
is 500 and or 90 days in jail
for each offense um typically i
it is rare that anybody gets the maximum
sentence um however if you plead not no
contest or are found guilty
or even if you get a deferment as
officer
kingsley said earlier uh you still would
have to pay court fees
which i believe right now are
established at 36 dollars per
uh offense um but after that
it's at the judge's discretion what the
fine and fee
if any is going to be okay because
a no contest doesn't necessarily admit
but doesn't necessarily deny
the the behavior or the whatever
the allegation so um so then it's up
at that point though it's up to the
judge to impose uh
a penalty of sorts she needs a
discretion for her to do that
okay and and madam chair sometimes
um the judges will
entertain a recommendation from the
officer
not that that is going to be the finer
fee
but they if the officer has a
recommendation
the judge will entertain that and of
course it's entirely up to him or her
right right great well thank you so much
officer jimenez it's been very
important and thank you uh mayor pro tem
gandala and councillor beta stewie for
your
excellent questions so if there are no
further questions for either officer
we'll
move on again thank you uh
officers kingsley and jimenez so the
next item on the agenda
is uh shelter stats act
and activities report an annual report
uh mr clint becker director
that's me thank you very much madam
chair
uh for those of you who are not speaking
would you please
would you please mute your audio if
you're not
speaking thank you
thank you madam chair do you have my uh
presentation on the screen
yes it's here thank you all right thank
you very much this is a report for
february no i'm sorry this is the report
for january
uh 2021. the current count of the animal
shelter
is 246 dogs 71 cats and one other for a
total of 318
and that puts us just a little under
what we were
in looks like in 2020
january intake again we are
we're still at this point in 2020 if you
remember we're still not
into it wasn't until april when we
started our intake limitations
for covid so we're still running high so
we're at 436
uh intake for 2021 674 for 2020.
we had three returns two dogs and one
cats
in january of 2021 two were landlord
issues
one was a behavior issue the landlord
issues
we don't know if it was because of a
specific breed or if they just don't
allow animals on that one so
but that's the reasons for those returns
so i love this slide because it gives us
some great information
um on not only just plain numbers but
also percentages
and i know that commissioner sanchez
loves these charts with all these
numbers on it so i wish she was here to
see this
but as you look at this as you can see
adoptions is a perfect example 298 in
2020 and you're thinking holy cow that's
amazing
and then we look at 2021 you're like oh
215 well we did less
but you have to remember the percentage
is where we're looking because that
number
is from our total intake or i'm sorry
our total outcome
in 2021 we hardly had it near the
animals that we did coming in in 2022
or i'm sorry in 2020 so in 2020 we may
have had a lot of adoptions but that's
because we had a lot of animals
to choose from so the percentage is what
we really want to focus on
so 215 was 49 of our entire
outcome in 2021 and that is awesome
almost half of our animals that came in
in january
i'm sorry over how almost half the
animals that
left our our outcomes in
january were adoptions reclaims were
almost 15 percent uh so higher again
in than 2020. 41 percent
were rescued again higher
than january of 2020 and then this is a
good one too euthanasias were lower
uh almost by a percent there uh from
14.8 down to 14
so that leaves us 89.4 percent
just barely squeaking under that live
release rate that we like to hit
of 90 i believe
and and i can be corrected if i'm wrong
but
this is the closest we've ever gotten to
having two months in a row of qualifying
for a no-kill facility
so that is awesome we are making
excellent progress
and going forward
euthanasia reasons for 2021 in january
again
that the feral cats are our number one
reason for euthanasia
um and then the next one comes down as
behavior or aggressive dog these are
dogs that
we've tried to do behavior with these
are dogs that
are hitting the front of the kennel when
you come by
and so these are guys that we don't feel
you know comfortable having them go out
into the public
i love when graphs start telling a story
right
so back in april 2020 is when we started
doing
the limitations for the visitors coming
in because of covid
and we can see that we're always
hovering around and then for submarines
in november
of 2020 it took a huge dive
as far as the number of animals coming
in and
i would like to think that's when i had
my ankle surgery so maybe people were
coming in
and i just wasn't here so they weren't
able to see me
um but we're still looking into that
because everything was low and i'm
looking back through the history the
impounds were low
people coming to the center was low
rescues were low so maybe it was just a
low month for everybody
with the long week of a holiday in there
with thanksgiving etc
it was when the governor put a a
lockdown
for us and is that that's what i was
going to ask next is is that the big was
that when we went
because we went forward and then we had
to jump backwards again
so it sounds like november might have
been the the backwards step that we did
yeah
so but we're working our way back up in
2021 back up to the
norm that we're hitting in the 500s
so january adoption appointments this
this came
from if you remember last month there
was a question of what's the actual
percentage
of um of these of these adoption
appointments one being captain two
are being adopted out of so in january
we had 162 total adoption appointments
that were scheduled
and only 78 of those were kept so
127. and then
106 of the 162
of original appointments finalized in
adoption so 66 percent
of that 162 was so
well over half about a third
mr clinton yes ma'am this is yvonne
um so you had 107 finalized adoptions
you said 106.
i think it's because it's 66 oh thank
you
i just want to make sure because every
number is very important
very very true thank you very much madam
chair so 107.
so 66 of these appointments that are
being made
are ending up in adoptions
[Music]
these are our website views website page
views and remember for those that
are new watching this i explain this
every month but a web page view
is not just original hit on the shelter
this
is the number of pages that are being
seen so somebody goes in
and they are looking at several animals
those are all going to be page hits
so if they look at five animals that's
five hits
for that if they go in and look at our
kitten resources and our adoptable
animals that's gonna be two hits
so again there was that lull in november
and then we hit our highest in in
december and then we're back down to
about our normal
in uh or should be the normal range
in january
our facebook views again holding steady
around that 25 to 2600 range
which is what we like to see we're going
to be starting doing some specials for
our adoptions coming this summer
springtime and summer
you know spring spring for a pet uh
that kind of thing are it's going to be
fun and we're excited for those specials
coming up
and that concludes these are our pets of
the week is smooches and penguin
both available for adoption so if you're
interested please contact us
at the center are there any questions on
the month of january before i begin
the annual
chairperson i i have a question for
clint
if you don't mind not at all of course
um back on february 16th all of the
members of the jpa panel received an
email from a citizen
who had been they're looking for a
companion dog for their current dog
and they went on the website and they
found this dog who was characterized as
happy
and good with other dogs and is shy and
beautiful and so they started to make
inquiries
and were very correctly told
by a member of the shelter that hey you
know you
you we're not going to recommend this
animal to you because he's noted to be
aggressive to other dogs
and he's killed a smaller dog and and i
think if we all read that and remember
it that her concern was
um about the transparency
i responded back to her basically saying
that i would bring this up just as an
issue with today's meeting
but that i did not think that this
happened very frequently at
all and and i and i don't think it does
um clint i know you've been you know you
lost some of your people who are key
in the adoption process i know it's
going to get better from here
um but what safeguards or what protocol
you had in place that that would prevent
this thing from happening you know if
we're going to talk about
a dog who's adoptable but yet should be
in a single pet home
we're warning about what that dog's
history is
i also don't think it should be right on
that adoption page
because that's going to scare people
away from even considering that dog
but you know how how can you rectify
this kind
of discrepant information from from
your advertisement on shelter love
versus the reality
yeah great question uh that whole
situation
was it was it was poorly handled as far
as the information that was given
it wasn't that we were saying this pet
isn't for you or
isn't up for adoption it was in the
second point of communication
that she had with the office individual
they stated it better by saying
this is the history that we have so the
history that we got from
animal control is that the animal was
rumored
to have killed another animal and that
the dog is out loose
and that was from the owner from owner
to the aco
to us so when somebody calls and says
they're interested in an animal
we give the history for for that person
and you're right we don't put it there
on the screen for adoptions because some
people may
like you said may not want to adopt it
just for that reason
another point is is that we try hard to
to get the accurate info and also to
recreate
that behavior and we never on this dog
we
never saw the recreation of that
behavior
it was kenneled with another dog smaller
than it
we also kindled it with another dog that
was larger than it
um and we couldn't we also went on a
walk
with with it with this dog and another
dog
side by side we could never recreate
that aggressive behavior
not saying that it didn't happen but
just saying we couldn't recreate it and
that's the information that should have
been shared because all that is in the
notes
of the animal so it shouldn't have been
said we don't recommend this animal be
be be adopted by you it should have been
said
this is the history of the animal we
have been unable to recreate it
we just want to let you know because if
that animal was truly aggressive in that
way
there it would not have been put up for
adoption
okay thank you yep thank you for
bringing it up i appreciate it
yes mr um excuse me
yes i see you
ultimately adopted by that couple
no i do not think no it was not oh no
it was adopted clint because the owner
not by that person
because there was a there was a letter
uh an email
from someone who said i can't remember
who
but um it sounded it was it sounded like
it was the same case where she said that
it turned out to be a very tender gentle
animal and that it had been
um it was misleading and um
i maybe i'm confusing emails because we
get a lot of those good emails and
saying that it's a great dog when they
get out of the shelter i
i'm sorry i don't know the answer to
that but i can find out and let you know
[Music]
yeah i i think it was i i thought when
uh when
genie started talking about his attorney
quintero started talking about this
um i thought that was the same case but
perhaps i'm confusing them as well
i mean or i'll look into it let you know
oh thank you thank you
yes uh mayor pro tem gandala
thank you madam chair um clint i was
noticing
sort of the the numbers um related to
the website um you know people inquiring
and the facebook what what are we doing
to try to
capture uh you know 40 000 plus
hits is a lot um it's not matching
the number of adoptions those kinds of
things right
or the number and and some of it is
coveted related i'm sure
but what are we doing related to a
campaign
to make it a little more um
well where we're generally um
trying to find out what people's
interests are if it's for
foster it's adopting i i know they're
looking at animals but
are you know how are we enticing people
right to to foster and adopt and i'm not
sure
i think those are great numbers and they
continue to rise
i think it's awesome but we also i think
need to think about
what our campaigns um
are looking like to to make sure that
people have interest and
and if it's just like they're perusing
you know i'm sure there's a lot of those
we've talked about
a survey right um i i know
and it's difficult that you know i've
had some interest in some animals
um and it's hard to
to to to really get an
understanding of those you know of what
this animal is about
that kind of thing with the pictures
that are there
that's very limited very limited in
terms of the kind of animal
that you're looking at and so um i don't
know if you're getting
calls related to those 40 000 hits it
would be nice to dig
in and then really understand um
how we can entice people encourage them
right there's
all sorts of opportunities right the
adoption foster um
being an advocate there's all these
advocacy groups
i i think we should really look at
um because those 40 000 are people that
are
that have some interest show some
interest
um but don't quite make it to
the adoption or fostering
or donating or you know there's like a
tremendous
volunteering you know i don't get that i
when i get in there and i'm looking a
lot because i'm you know i've been
looking for an animal
i'm looking a lot and i see sort of
so i'm part of those 40 plus thousand
hits right
and and that's the thing before you know
it because i was doing the same thing we
wanted to foster an animal
and so i was kind of going through the
website before i knew it i was 15
minutes
into going forward and looking back and
i was probably a good
200 of those as well and so that's
important to remember it's not 45 000
people
looking it's 45 5 000 view hits so i'm
sure people
have several i mean it takes a while to
find a dog that you're interested in or
a cat
that you're interested in defined so
that's a good majority of them as well
but i
understand what you're saying is is how
do we
how do we utilize people coming to the
site
and and looking at animals um how do we
utilize how do we get them to say
there's a lot here maybe it would be
worth my time to
volunteer or there's so many animals
here i wish i could donate
or donate something what does the center
need
so i think we probably could do a little
better of advertising
on the website when i say advertise i
mean
something pop up to say hey do you want
to help us out this is how you can help
us out here's our amazon wishlist
that we have here's our donate button
have you seen our donate button it's
right here
you know all those things are on our
website learn more about volunteer work
so i'll i've put on notes to to work
with
our web person at wilson binkley and see
if one we can't get some numbers of
where people are clicking
if if most of these numbers are coming
from
uh animals looking to adopt which i'm
assuming they are because that's the
only place people can
browse the number of animals or the type
of animals we have
right now or how many are
there to look at kitten resources you
know with feral cat issues
so i'll work with them and see if we
can't do that's good ideas thank you
yeah i i'd really like to see a little
more information on those animals
i know it's tough but you know i keep
seeing the same ones there
week after week after week right but
when you hit the hit on their picture
there's one picture maybe two there's no
video there's no
this is this is the kind of animal they
are i mean i
i get you're trying to entice people but
it i don't know
i just i i i always leave there feeling
like
i want more i want just a little more
information before i make that call or
before i put my name
on right that says you want you want to
adopt i mean there i'm not
and maybe people aren't quite there yet
so i i'm i'm getting
the feeling that they're maybe there's
lacking there
there's a lack of information i'll talk
to paul
our paul richardson our shelter
supervisor about it i'm sorry our kennel
supervisor i just gave her a promotion
technicians are supposed to be doing
videos and things of the animals i mean
we have a youtube page
that shows those we have animals that
have videos
interactions with other dogs um
on those so i know they're on there but
we'll see if we can increase that i know
it's been really hard because the the
shortens our staff right now not a lot
of free time as you see in those morning
updates
um a person calls in sick we have we
have great people that work with us
and um people are coming in on their
days off to help
so thank you that's going to be remedied
here in the next
couple weeks so we're excited for that
but thank you yeah
thank you so much madam chair and clint
and thank you mayor pro tem
gandharan thank you clint mr thacker for
your response i do want to say to mayor
pro tem gandara that
uh you're going in looking for another
marley it ain't gonna happen
it ain't gonna happen
i know he's one of a kind that gus that
came from the center
yes he did yes adorable
thank you very much um is that the end
of your report
it is for the for the month we report we
now have our annual report i'd like to
present
okay proceed
all right madam chair can you see the
presentation
yes thank you it's beautiful
so the 2020 report is
i'm not gonna lie it is awesome uh we
had an amazing
year when i look back where we are at in
january
and my frame of thinking was we've got
to make some changes
and and how are we going to do it and
they've got to be drastic changes
well covet forced us into those changes
right
um and that's if there is a good side of
a pandemic for the animal industry
that was it is it really forced a lot of
the young industry to do things that
they wanted to do
now in four or five years down the road
um so our intake statistics
uh 3 175 animals total from this
from the city of las cruces now remember
we are made up of
city illustrious the county of dorneana
and then all
the or the cities individual cities in
the
county area so
3175 our number one was
cats from the city 971 cats
and this is unrestrained from animal
control and so
830 for the dogs our next
highest one and this is what i want
everybody to notice
owner surrenders 361 dogs
came into the center from owner
surrendering
so this is one that we've really got to
got to work on
are why are animals being surrendered by
their owners
um what number of that 361 what ones
really wanted to keep their animals
but just couldn't and that's that's what
we're looking at
the resources we have we have a food
bank
that we work with with apa that we've
donated to and i know they help out a
ton on their side
we have uh the obedience training with
dona county humane society they're
willing to come in and do free
one session free so
this year we're going to be focusing on
what is that 361 see if we can't get it
done
that's pretty huge when it's the second
largest intake type
is owner surrenders and then the third
would be unrestrained from the public
and that means that somebody found a dog
running loose so they brought it into us
[Music]
now for the county 2964
from the county as you can see here
cats are way down uh county has
uh not as big as a cat issue coming in
from animal control
i'd like to congratulate the county on a
really cool number for your dog impounds
one two three four that's one i can
remember
but these are animal these are dogs
coming in from
animal control uh scene is loose so they
pick them up straight
or an individual call and say hey i have
i found this dog i need you to come and
get it again though
second highest impound reason owner
surrender
418.
we've got to figure out why
these are coming in and what we can do
to push them back
the center we're doing things that we're
doing
appointments instead of just coming in
and saying come anytime and give us your
pet
we have appointments set where people
have to come in and then we talk to them
and ask why are we doing this you know
we have a little questionnaire that they
fill out so we can get
more information from it and then
according that questionnaire if they say
well it goes to the bathroom in the
house all the time it's not potty
trained you say well
we can offer you some training or i
can't afford to feed
it okay would food help get you through
some rough times
and um sometimes they accept and we're
finding more often than not they don't
they those are kind of excuses of what
to do and then the hard conversation
starts
of well if you don't want if you don't
want the food then why are you really
turning it over
because we need to know that we need to
know are there issues are you just
feeling
bad because it attacks somebody or if it
if it kills another dog whatever reason
we need to know
what it is if you just don't want it you
know we need to know that that reason
too
but that's very alarming owner
surrenders second largest for the public
again or for the county again
unrestrained
from the public is the third
now i will tell you in 2019
um these numbers were
in fact i can tell you
all right so the total intake
owner surrender for dogs was 1268 and
that's counting city together
but it was it was just under strays in
the public at 1
314. so it has now gone from third place
up to second place owner surrenders has
and some of that may be decoded you know
some of that may be that people are home
[Music]
let's go to the next slide
so this is our total combined intake
6285.
again largest reason are dogs coming
from animal control
and cats and then there's that owner
surrender
and as you've read the 779 that's a lot
lower than the
1268 but that's because we had less
animals overall
coming in it's still worrisome at
the third or the second highest reason
for intake
so this is our comparison through 2009
uh steady trend downward i mean we hit a
plateau right here and that's why
in in january of 2020
even the managers were like we've got to
do something
together as plateau obviously it's not
working what we are
so covet hit we had to limit intake
only the animals that really needed to
come in the center
re-requested from the city and county to
be brought in
monthly intake as you can see in in the
report that's done
even though we've limited our numbers of
what's coming in
we still had the cycle of
here it's a little misleading because we
didn't start until april
but springtime and then the summer hit
and we go up
and now we're back into the november
december winter time
and it's going to plateau out here lower
and then spring and summer is going to
climb back up so
even though we were limiting it pounds
it still had that wave cycle
going through
again our largest impound our dogs
58 almost 59 of our entire intake was
dogs
and then cats was next at 39
little slivers over there is wildlife at
1.7
and then all the others are less than
one percent of our intake
all right so outcome outcome means
animals leaving the shelter this is a
quick breakdown of it
we rescued over 2 200 animals
or not over but 2 200 animals went to
rescue that's 35
and before we say oh man that's not very
many
i wanna i have the 2019 stats here
so transferred to rescue was 27.2
percent and we hit
35 this year that is just awesome
a way to go to our liz
and donnie did a whole bunch of work as
our rescue
coordinators fantastic adopted
is at 28.8 so almost 29
of our total outcomes were adoptions
and if you go by the full number that is
significantly lower
uh than last year but remember we have
to go by percentage of outcome
so last year was 27 so we went
up almost two percent
for our adoptions i euthanized
1026 and it was 16.3 percent in 2020
in 2019 18.2 so we dropped two percent
and that's good that's one that we want
lower
uh return to owner was at 13.3 percent
of our outcomes were returned
and that's up a whole percent last year
was 12.4
uh community cats stolen expired these
are all
i mean all of these have gone down which
is good
uh let's see
yeah so that's a quick picture of our
outcomes
uh so this is what i was talking about
adoptions in 2020 when you compare it to
the most we've ever done in our entire
history
in 2019 which is 2804 you're like holy
cow
what's the problem well percentage-wise
we're higher
much higher 35 so we're excited about
that
[Music]
this is a comparison for the
dogs and cats we always and it's an
animal
animal industry standard that dogs are
just easier we do more adoption
dog adoptions than cats the only place
i've seen
where the cats outnumber the dog
adoptions is
when it's a cat adoption only area
so that's the only time i've ever seen
it
but yeah well over half of our animals
were dogs going out
okay now this tells also the same story
look at just plain numbers
2018 was the first full year i was here
we did the most we've ever done 3557
and then we went down to 27.94 and then
but if we again look at it
percentage-wise
we did more percentage of our intake
left
in animal transfers than ever before
now our live release rate as you know
live release rate is the number or the
percentage of animals that left the
center alone
i'm sorry that left the center alive
uh we want this to be a 90 90
live release rate cause qualifies us as
a no killed
shelter or no kill center that is that
is my goal for the ascmd
is to be considered a nokia center so
you ask well why isn't the hundred
percent
well the reason is because we're always
going to have
those animals like i said before in the
monthly report where they're
not safe to release out to the public or
wolves that are
way too sick to be able to be
let out or it's more merciful to let
them be euthanized into this to
have them live so that 10 percent was
given as a buffer to animal shelters as
a way to account for them
uh let them be euthanized but still
obtaining
that no no kill philosophy which we are
and that 90 by the way was not made up
by me it was
kind of a national organizations all got
together and agreed that 90
is what i should be so 90 on our mark so
for dogs
in 2020 we made it our dogs are
considered
a no-kill facility for animals we could
say
for dogs i mean 91.4 percent that is uh
almost 10 from what we were in 2019
and then cats sadly they dropped we went
from 79 percent
uh in 2019 down to 73.8
um we contribute that mostly to
the feral cats coming in that we have to
euthanize
because there's no program right now um
the overall live release rate we went up
uh that three points i was the full
three points so
2019 was 80.9 which at that time was the
highest live release rate we've ever had
well this year
or last year we hit 83.6 percent it's
the highest live release rate we've ever
had
in the history of the animal service
center to see a valley i'm
very proud to be part of this journey
that we're having and we're continuing
to
make that higher again 90 percent our
live release rate
of note because i only bring this up
because our highest euthanasia reason
is feral cats if we did not
euthanize the feral cats we would be at
88.3
88 yeah 88.3 live release rate
clint is that a combination of both cats
and dogs
yes sir thank you
this does not include skunks that are
brought in we have to euthanize this
does not include
court order euthanasias that we have no
choice we have to euthanize them
this is dogs and cats
again our euthanasia breakdown and i
guess the only reason why i bring it up
is if the the feral cats 321 were
euthanized because of barrel the
majority of those
in a correctly ran trap meter return
program
uh they would be released back out and
so our live release rate would be
higher for that the next one
is medical issues all the way down 114
and you see the others
here's our euthanasia comparison again
that downward trend
is good but again you want to look at
the percentage yeah we euthanized last
in 2019 but our euthanasia percentage
is what you want to look at i believe it
was at 16.6 percent
in 2019 and we were down
[Music]
oh euthanized was 18.2 percent in 2019
and we're at 16
so even percentage-wise we even dropped
which is good clint yes sir
if the city adopts the
catch trap and release what do you think
that will do to your numbers
well it will significantly help because
um the county the county ordinance right
now
allows for our tractor to return
in those areas and so we release cats
back out
with those limitations and the majority
of the cats that brought in
from the county get released back out
the city however doesn't have ones
but we would be doing the same so you
know rough
it would improve significantly if that
passes
so reporting some of our public services
that we do uh
surgeries man they are rock stars i
still don't know how they do it back
there
they did 2451 surgeries in 2020
that is even with the shutdown that we
had
uh in april and may with the governor
when we first started
that we couldn't do any elective
surgeries veterinarians couldn't do any
elective surgeries and
spay and neuter was considered an
elective surgery so even with that shut
down for a while
uh we did 883 adoption animals
we did and what that is adoption animals
are animals that are
that are either already adopted like the
foster to adopt
program that we have and um
also animals that have were adopted and
we say well why don't you stay the night
let the animals stay the night and we'll
sterilize it the next day
and then shelter animals 853 these these
are animals that have not yet been
adopted but they're still in the shelter
and so we're sterilizing them prior to
being going through adoption
we did 494 return surgeries
and then for the public which are a
majority of those
it's not public public it's animals that
were adopted
were impounded at the center
and people redeemed their animals
and they said yeah i'd like to just have
you go ahead and sterilize them
so that we consider those public
sterilizations
and just know and most of those are done
because of state law
if it's in if it's impounded um twice in
a year
on that second impound you have to by
by state law you have to purchase a
sterilization
voucher whether you use it or not it's
totally up to you
but you have to purchase that voucher so
those people are saying yeah i'll
utilize that voucher let's get them
sterilized
uh here's the total number count as you
see april's when we enacted
the covet restrictions and we've been
pretty steady with the individuals
coming through
the center they're allowed to have two
at a time
and um so we
are those are great numbers if you ask
me of people coming in
facebook views again holding steady
that 24 2500 area for the majority
website views had that huge dip in
november where we weren't able to
we had the limitations stay at home
order
but we jump back up in december
now some of our other efforts that we're
doing we're still doing radio ads
you've probably heard our i think he's
captain
captain kitten i think on the radio
where he
he helps a person who's found some
kittens tells them just to leave him
alone
um so we have those we still have our
ads on facebook going of leave the
litter alone
pet of the week continues to go out
so holly wells is our representative
there
and we were just notified by the city
last week
that they would like one of our own to
do the presentation of pets of the week
so starting next week i believe we're
going to have holly's going to be
logging on to the city council meetings
and just doing
the pet of the week and then she can
sign off
so oddly enough she's excited about that
so i'll be able to talk with you guys
about and answer any questions that you
have for those
uh again they the pet of the week also
goes out to the newspapers
that choose to publish it and also
facebook
and online we are always doing whenever
needed
we're doing interviews with the
radio and also with the news we did our
drive through clinic
it was hugely successful and we're going
to be planning another one here shortly
for the springtime we'd like to do a
couple we did apply for a grant
to do at least four but we did not get
the grant
sadly um however we've been
in touch with other other grant places
that
our other grantees or grantors
um and they are interested in helping us
out too so
really excited to see if we can foster
that relationship
our volunteer program took a big hit as
far as just
hours being utilized we were not i made
the decision to severely limit the
number of
volunteers that were allowed here the
last couple months we were able to bring
people back in with some of the rules
being
like loosened regulations so
we still were able to have people at the
like our drive-through clinic was done
during covid cobid
so we had volunteers there and also
fosters our huge work to help us out
and all we do this is the financial side
uh basically it's telling us that the
fiscal year 2020
there's a little bit of difference in
the revenue budget because of covid
that we're seeing um but overall we're
doing really well
with our our budget this year
so there's a difference between calendar
year and fiscal year
but as of december or i should say
january 1st we're in the middle of the
fiscal year
and our finances are doing fairly well
because
of covet and the reduced number of
animals communities to the center
now the report is available in its
entirety
on our website under about people can go
there
and um and see the entirety
of the report so that's the end of my
slideshow
any questions
boy we have a oh yes
um counselor of a beta stewie thank you
uh madam chair uh clint this actually
isn't a question but just a comment uh
and a thank you to you and your staff um
for
really acting so well during what is a
very unique
time um and trying time for so many
and i know um it's always great to have
these goals
to keep moving forward but i think
you and your staff have done a wonderful
job of
working and adapting um to still try to
reach those goals
even um with all the challenges so thank
you
and i appreciate that um it's
again i i said it before i have
incredible people that i work with
we're always bobbing leaving to figure
out issues and problems
um you know paul richardson our kennel
supervisor was just in my office
yesterday
had a fantastic idea of incorporating
some transport drivers in with animal
caregivers and we're going to be working
on that because it's such a great idea
um so these ideas are always coming
especially with
the kova times i especially thank
bernice she won't accept the praise but
what she does and uh especially
preparing this report the annual report
it takes a long time to get these
numbers together and be able to present
graphs
so i appreciate her doing so i get the
easy job of talking to you and just
showing you the graph she has the hard
drive of making them so she did
if you go and read the entire report
each graph has a paragraph
in front of it explaining and she does a
fantastic job of writing she had to
rewrite all those from scratch
because so many of them changed through
the code i had to explain
huge waves and the numbers so did a
great job so we appreciate her too but
all my staff
are fabulous wouldn't change any of them
anyone else uh yes mayor pro tem gandara
thank you yeah ditto um
to what counselor bait this to be said
clan thank you so much
and your staff paul bernice
um you know there's some consistent
people that you've had
even even since i've been elected the
first time
so very appreciative of the work i know
how difficult
um the time has been
and you adopted and overcame and
just
continued to to provide um
great services and looking forward to
what the news center
ripe engine is going to like it will
really help in terms of
what our vision is for this board i
think in terms of
more spate and neuters adoptions um and
so i'm really excited to see to see that
and i
i hear a groundbreaking um virtual
groundbreaking maybe in the future here
did you know yes virtual groundbreaking
clint
yes it's it's been discussed so
yeah i'm excited really excited so thank
you madam
and thank you mayor pro tem
any other uh any other expressions of
gratitude or questions
for clint well then uh mr thacker i too
share the sentiments of
my colleagues um on this board and on
city council
mayor pro tem gandara and counselor
aveda stevie
and i joined them in thanking you
and it's amazing how uh
we've gone to uh a no-kill
shelter in so far as our doggies are
concerned
so clint my question uh regarding that
is um the cats are are below that 90
percent
we're above the 90 of their doggies so
um do we still qualify as a no show
no no it's for dogs and cats
oh okay so okay
wow um has that uh
uh pts number participate number gone
down with farrell's or has it gone up
i think i think you said it
it's right it's gone up uh considerably
um so we have to work on that
okay but uh overall thank you very much
to you and your staff
and i think that all of you work
beautifully and
um i really enjoy the comments that uh
paul and curtis put out when they make
their not all the time but i mean it's
not like
you know they're running a little uh
comedy show there
but there's a lot of uh humor and a lot
of uh humanity
actually in their reports so enjoy
well thank you very much thank you oh
miss gilbert
proceed yeah thank you chair flores i
just wanted to
say you know you asked if there were any
um additional comments or
messages or words of gratitude and
i would like to express gratitude on
behalf of the
animal welfare community to clint
uh i think some of you know i have been
involved over 30 years in animal welfare
here in las cruces and
i've always had an affiliation with the
shelter i've always
been involved in some capacity
and i want to say these are truly the
best of times and
thank you clint oh my gosh we
have come so far and uh it's
uh largely to your uh leadership
so thank you again and i think we have a
community that is really working hard
we've and of course that'll be in
in the uh coalition report coming up but
um because of the leadership and good
leadership
and um the just the progressive
practices
we are attracting more people and
therefore building
more resources so thank you
thank you oh yes throw out again the
rescues
are the ones that really made it
possible especially
the 91 percent by release rate for the
dogs
i mean that is huge the recipes are
coming out in numbers
i think what did i say 35 of our total
outcomes were rescues
that that is huge so thank you very much
for them
that's all great thank you again
uh mr thacker um
so we shall move on to our unless i'm
missing somebody's little blue hand here
no i don't see anybody's opening hands
okay so
um let's proceed to
[Music]
committee reports i have
no uh excuse me
ms uh finance
counselor beta stoovey do you have a
report this month
thank you we did meet um and
the only thing um i was going to say
that according to the
uh jpa it is our um
city assistant manager who
is the chair of that committee
and not myself but we did meet
um there was a fairly smooth meeting the
only thing that i have um
in my notes that to look at
we still needed to send out
uh billings for some of the smaller
communities um
and so that was one item that we had
picked um
to look into and i do have mr zeco
as well here for a report so i'll turn
it right over to him
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 financial
statements
as of january 31st 2021
so looking first at our statement of net
position
uh highlights from oh excuse me
highlights from all funds
uh in the general fund we see cash of
eight hundred and fifty three thousand
six hundred and eighty six dollars
receivables of ninety three thousand
four hundred and ninety one dollars
uh giving us total assets in the general
fund of nine hundred forty seven
thousand one hundred and seventy seven
dollars
uh we had liabilities of sixty four
thousand eight hundred and thirty one
and revenue collected in advance of
fifty five thousand five hundred and one
which gave us an unassigned fund balance
in the general fund of eight hundred
twenty six thousand eight hundred and
forty five dollars
looking at the capital projects fund we
had cash of 29
798 and a restricted fund balance of 29
798 in the capital assets fund we had
capital assets which were net of
accumulated depreciation
in the amount of one hundred ninety nine
thousand three hundred and fifty five
dollars
and an unassigned fund balance of one
hundred ninety nine thousand three
hundred and fifty five dollars
looking at our change in net position
for all funds
uh we see in the general fund total
revenues of two million
fifty eight thousand eight hundred and
ninety nine dollars
uh total expenses or expenditures of one
million
four hundred and three thousand eight
hundred and two dollars
for a positive net change to the fund
balance and general fund of six hundred
fifty five thousand
ninety seven dollars in the capital
projects fund and the capital assets
fund neither of those had revenue
but in the capital projects fund there
was a total expenditure of one thousand
seven hundred and sixty seven dollars
for a negative net change to the fund
balance of one thousand seven hundred
and sixty seven dollars
capital assets fund we did uh recognize
depreciation
of four thousand six hundred and thirty
four dollars
so again the net change in the capital
assets fund was a negative
twenty four thousand six hundred and
thirty four dollars
looking at our budget to actual the
total revenues of two million was
sixty point four percent of the budget
while our total expenditures
of one million four hundred and three
thousand was forty one point seven
percent of the budget
our budget parameter uh for january was
about 58.33
percent so our revenue was good being
quite above that
and our expenditures were also good
being below that amount
looking at revenues versus expenditures
uh
the graph for each month we see that our
revenues seem to have kind of
flatlined they're they're now more
constant they had started off
high and were were following that trend
but they seem to have
reached a level and our expenditures are
still
trending below our revenue which is good
looking at uh looking at expenditure
categories as
a percentage of total expenditures we
see that our personnel expenses are
make up 76 percent of our total
expenditures
uh while services are 15 supplies are
six percent insurance is two percent and
repairs and maintenance make up one
percent of our total expenditures
uh that will include my presentation
unless there are any questions
any questions by the board
mr sapple i i don't see anybody's little
blue hand up mr saffel thank you very
much
um can you please uh explain uh page
three uh regarding the capital assets
um they were
maybe i'm on the wrong page yeah capital
assets
you said there was a negative 24 634
but yet uh you just this the last slide
you
indicated that the expenses were
trending below revenue so that's good
so overall we're in good shape
financially
yeah yeah yeah that the negative uh on
page
three um yes uh in general we are
our expenses are generally below our
revenue
if you look specifically at that capital
asset fund
you'll see that that fund itself
actually generates no revenue
but the expense that we see in there um
because because that fund is reserved
for our capital assets
uh we have to recognize depreciation of
those assets
and it's recognized as an expense in
that fund so there is an expense in the
fund even though there's no revenue
so the change to the fund balance will
be negative but that is not
necessarily bad when it comes to the
rest of the financial standing
so mr sapple does that mean it's a
depreciation
of capital assets yes yes
okay so it's good for accounting
purposes to note where we are in that
regard
but it does not affect our overall
budget and revenue
right that is correct great thank you so
much mr saffle
any other questions great
thank you again mr safflow none for me
madam chair sorry i couldn't get to that
button quick enough
oh no it's okay so you don't have any
questions
or do you no i don't
that's what i thought thank you very
much uh
again uh mr sapple um
oh thank you um counselor beta stewie do
you have anything
more to add to your report um the only
thing i'd like to
check up on is that follow-up from our
conversation if we've been able to send
out the building
and the building for those smaller
communities that we talked about during
our
um finance meeting
[Music]
madam chair yes that is on bernice's
to-do list i made sure that
in our manager's meeting on tuesday that
i reminded her of the billing and she
doesn't know that
so it has gone out mr
i don't know if it's gone out or not
bernice can speak up if she'd like to
but it is on her to-do list she was
pretty busy getting the
the year-end numbers and everything put
together but it is there
yeah now at this time they had not gone
out yet but
by tomorrow before the end of the day
everything will
be caught up and sent out so
fantastic thank you
are you done um aveda stewie council
great thank you and thank you uh bernice
ms navarro
miss navarro uh for your fantastic
uh work it's it's unbelievable and um
yes thank you very much so um
the i
the next item on the agenda is
executive and there is no report from
the executive
uh committee uh facilities
mayor pro tem gandara do you have a repo
i do um gosh i don't know clint i have
all this right here
i actually you know tabbed it and
everything so that i
because normally i have issues finding
it
but it feels like it's a past animal
facilities
meeting but you'll tell me it um i think
we did talk about the window
window is fixed by art glass
all of them have been replaced now all
of them have been replaced yes
we talked about the washer and dryer um
they are arriving they said the end of
the first week in march so hopefully
next week
we'll get them in we also have plans at
our managers meeting we discussed
uh prepping that area the laundry room
area if you remember
from the tours it's it's those linoleum
squares that are down
and so they're they've chipped up there
i mean they're probably original from
the building
so our thought was doctor hadn't had a
good idea of
maybe having a day in between removal of
the old ones
and installing the new ones that we can
get in there we can chip off the rest of
them
and maybe polish it just get it a little
more conducive to clean laundry you know
right now if you drop a clean laundry
you feel like you have to put it back in
the dirty clothes
to get it washed and then we're also
talking about removing the staff
actually brought this up
to remove the there's cupboards up there
and to remove those
and just and also the countertop nobody
ever uses it it's just a place for stuff
to get dumped
so metal shelves on wheels
that we can pull out and scrub the whole
floor area if we need to
so we're working on getting getting that
done so that's an update um
thank you so much happens um in and
we meet the first week of every thursday
every first thursday of the of the month
and so a lot happens in four weeks for
sure
i know that clint talked about um the
facilities
a little more by they were in the
process of scrubbing all the people
floors
from top to bottom um
they're they're getting you know a lot
trying to make sure that all the dust
and
those kinds of things and maybe um
the residue and the dust and the grime
that collects
might be because of the maybe the
possible fluorine used i don't know
but the staff has done an excellent job
of really scrubbing it down and
making sure that it's clean um
to their specification um so that
that's good um in terms of the facility
still covet free
clint um it was really excited about
that we all
are of course because the safety and
well-being of our staff is
is super important especially when we
have people coming from the outside
right for appointments those kinds of
things
um we talked a lot about
um the the different positions that are
available um from the kennels to the
surgical tabs to the spay and neuter
coordinator
um all those positions
have been i think posted um
and as well as the coordinator positions
um
there it everybody's pretty hopeful as
you saw i think i
i forwarded the grap writer position
that's available
um and hopefully you you're getting some
good
um inquiries and will be able to
definitely hire soon and then the vet
position we've talked a lot about that
position
um and sort of the issues that have
transpired related to that
and having to go out and making sure
that they
they had the appropriate um salary that
kind of thing
i did speak to um so you know clint i
did speak to
man um city manager mr pealey
about sort of the delays and those kinds
of things and he was checking on that
because for sure we want in order for us
to
right to meet the vision we have we need
that vet position
right to be able to do the things that
we think are necessary
so i don't know if you have an update on
that client yet if you've heard any more
related to the vet position
i believe it was either monday or
tuesday we received word from
uh city human resources that the pay
grade has been established
oh good um and so but they just gave us
a number like he's like 26 pay grade 26
we didn't know what that meant
so we had to follow up so we can we can
present
a range of salary you know on the
uh recruitment so we're just waiting to
hear back from that
bernice is on that good good um
and then we talked a lot about the work
session i'm glad that
march 8 related to the ordinance that
the city has been working on at least a
couple of years
looking at um
from our task force you know breaking
out and doing
um a resolution on tnr before we
actually um do a the
the approvals of the full ordnance
because it's going to take some time
with the first read second read that
that kind of thing advertisement
but um we talked a lot about an
educational campaign
just because we're all concerned about
the the feral cats and
the sunset claws and what what it does
to the facility right and and we talked
a lot about live release rates and why
we don't meet that is
probably one of the reasons that yeah
that that sunset clause
um occurred and why we're not hitting
some of those
those markers so that's all i have to
report i don't know clint is there
anything else
we did talk i know about the news center
we always do
it's like a standing agenda item um i
did mention
um i i and just reminding folks people
that are new to this meeting and
watching virtually um you know the city
has a website that you could go in
a dashboard that you could see where the
animal the new animal services center is
um clint do you have any updates about
where we're at i know
i've just heard in passing from another
virtual
um groundbreaking event
for firehouse 3 that our staff was
working on a virtual event
for animal services center so yeah we're
not there
yet as far as a date we're still in
negotiations with the contractor
doing some value engineering but
we are but there is groundbreaking going
to happen
we know that and joe has been joel
richards are
um i don't know i'm sorry a public
relations person i think it is she's
she's doing a great job of getting
things and ideas
so i want to make it a memorable
memorable event
yeah it's going to be super exciting
okay no date yet
no date yet very cool but it's happening
so please i encourage
everybody to look at that website that
dashboard it really gives a lot
of information um about where each of
the
geo bond initiatives are in their
in their design construct that kind of
thing
so thanks madam chair clint for your
help thank you
thank you very much mayor pro tem
gandara for
all of your work on um
on this and a lot of other um related
issues to the
uh or items to the
to the to the center the um
access to all of that could be
the access to the website would be
las cruces lowercase las cruces dot
civic web dot net
and any and all information you need is
there if not if it's not there please
let us know so that we can let our
powers that be
i'll update all of that um
and thank you also again clint
and next is the
[Music]
cfpp presentation by gene
gilbert coalition for pets and people
yes thank you good morning
this is gene gilbert secretary um
coalition for pets and people
here's the list of organizations that
will be represented
in this month's report the coalition
alternates so
organizations that aren't featured here
will be in next
month's report and
board members were given stats with
information
on organizations programs and services
and those were sent in advance of the
meeting
okay next slide please the coalition's
work
for january and february included
attending
two task force meetings and
providing input and support for the
community cat
section of the city ordinance
in addition as allies of the shelter
we've
we participate in the monthly
conversation
sessions with clint
and we also promote the shelter through
social media
and express support for shelter services
and their rescue partners and and so on
um an example of this is we um
oh and also we assist community members
with pet issues that come up
and um either through direct action or
we try to find resources for people
an example of this recently is providing
some financial assistance
to a colony cat manager for a
sterilization of
feral cats okay next slide please
this is two hearts four paws they're
located in radium springs and
they provide care for about 40 dogs many
of them are
seniors and hard to place animals in
addition to operating their sanctuary
they advocate for straying homeless
animals
like the dog pictured here on the
left who was discovered abandoned near
dripping springs road
they two hearts for paws also helps
promote
resources for pets especially in their
underserved area and
here is a picture of a dog as
advertisement for a low-cost
vaccination clinic that was held in
hatch
just last month okay next slide please
action programs for animals adopted
19 animals in january
mandy who is pictured far left with her
new canine companion was adopted in
early february
after a successful sleepover she'd been
with apa
for three years and is a graduate of the
southern new mexico paws
prison dog training program apia
offers progressive programs including
doggy day outs where approved people can
take dogs
out of the apa center and take them
for walks and time uh socializing for a
portion of the of a
of a day dogs pictured on the right are
some of those
that could be
taken for doggy doggy day out time
next slide please
um enchanted pass animal rescue located
in
chaparral is a rescue partner of apa
and they accepted uh six felines
recently
uh into their foster and adoption
program
they've helped apa place many of their
rescues
uh apa uh by the way transferred over a
hundred animals to rescue
in 2020. pictured right are
some of apa's shy fair
shy and timid uh cats who could be
suitable or adaptable
as barn and barn or shop cats
as a progressive animal welfare
organization
utilizing all the programs of the no
kill equation
apa is continuously building resources
to help animals that have special
special
needs okay next slide please
broken promises southwest the two cats
pictured left were tnr'd recently by
broken promises along with three others
that made
the tnr complete for that particular
colony
mia pictured ryde is the last feline of
her colony to be
tnr and she required a specialized drop
trap to be caught broken promises
tnr'd 89 cats in 2020 and
my apologies that the number uh is
incorrect
on this caption here and they had an
intake of 122
felines with 116
surgeries their annual report is
included in the board members packets
in light of the city animal control
ordinance under review and in particular
the community cat
section broken promises board member joe
um miley was interviewed recently
by ktsm television which is
channel 9 about how to humanely reduce
community cat populations through trap
neuter and return okay next slide
please
broken promises southwest manages uh the
category at the pet mark the pit smart
store and here you see pictured echo
who had bad luck was displaced when
her first doctor passed away
and then a few months after that
the adoption didn't work with the second
family
and so broken promise is saying this
appears to be third time
is the charm here for echo and she's
found her forever home
uh broken promises adopted 45 cats
in 2020 and in addition to uh
their calorie and tnr work foster and
adoption work
they also operate a sanctuary and they
recently built these winter shelters
for community cats which were donated to
rescues into private individuals
okay next slide please
uh cats meow pictured our two bonded
senior cats who were adopted recently by
cats meow and they've been in foster
care a long time with them
and pictured bride is is is kitten preca
who
found who was found outside shivering in
the cold and
and she was adopted uh promptly by
cats cats meow in 2020 cats meow
facilitated the adoption of
approximately
which is a remarkable number 275
felines and they transported
about 50 cats and kittens to santa fe
humane society where those felines
quickly
found homes currently 45 to 50 cats and
kittens to reside at their
adoption center facility and
they in addition to the adoption and
foster work they
also assist with tnr of community cats
and they offer monthly feline spay
neuter mobile clinics
mostly for cats meow cats but if they
have
slots available they'll uh allow it for
members in the in uh within las
cruces and donate county
okay next slide please
cherish canines pictured uh here uh left
is
cherished canine director carla baker
with a dog who was a stray
in the desert for several weeks before
they could actually trap her
now she's living in lilton colorado and
was received by the new hope
cattle dogs rescue program when cherish
canines learned that the
cattle dog rescue was going to accept
loki
they uh asked if they'd be willing to
accept any others into their program and
found out they
were and so they were able to cherish
canines was able to facilitate the
rescue of three
healer australian mixes from our animal
shelter
and they were included in the 10 hour
transport
to colorado pictured left is loki who
was rescued in mexico by an american
veterinarian who does work there in
copper canyon known
uh their this organization is known as
compassion
copper canyon and they sterilize street
dogs they
uh either trap them or are able to catch
them and stare
have them sterilized and sometimes the
animals are in bad
shape and they will bring them back to
the states if they can
and they partner with u.s rescue groups
including
cherished canines who had a foster for
loki
and as you can see pictured there on the
sofa there and now
loki is mange free and she's at a
healthy weight of 30 pounds
and fully socialized and she's available
for adoption through cherished canines
next slide please max was a stray
running in traffic back in december when
cherished canines director
carla baker was the one who actually was
able to catch him
and tracking through a microchip that
led to a second owner who no longer
wanted max
and they were willing to release max to
cherish canines
and then max was adopted mid-january
as you can see pictured there and
pictured right it's
toby and luke who were temporarily
displaced when their owner died
and it didn't work out with the people
who adopted
toby and luke shortly thereafter
but so cherish k9 searched and went
through their
applications and they found the right
match with this wonderful family
pictured here who a young family who
will give
toby and luke a lot of attention and
they drove all the way from they drove
from out of town
they were so excited to adopt these two
okay next slide please
donate county humane society helps a lot
of people in our community and i know
clint uh mentioned some of the programs
in relationship
to his reports but um here
um i'll emphasize their animal relief uh
fund which lucy uh the dog pictured here
tore at her acl when she was a while out
on a walk with her owner
so it was in need of immediate attention
and fortunately qualified
for the rf fund which helps with medical
needs
and also helps our community a lot with
pet
retention dona ana county maine society
also offers vouchers with 25 off the
adoption fee of shelter
animals for people who adopt uh pets
from our
who are seniors who adopt uh pets at our
animal shelter and they'll offer an
additional twenty five dollars off if
that pet
is a senior uh donate county maine
society has been successful securing
grants for funding their programs
and they also do a variety of
fundraising like this virtual
valentine's yappy hour which they held
just a couple weeks ago
and next slide please
the humane society of southern new
mexico in addition to the pet helpline
work
um which uh uh and i say we
because i'm on the board of hss and m
we've assisted uh
cat colony managers in the county
with the transport of cats for
sterilization
um through and we also have
done a lot of return of pets through
microchip scanning we average anywhere
from
two to five animals a week that we help
return
through microchip scanning that
animals that come through our pet
helpline
and we have some projects in the work
right now i think you know i'm the
humane educator with hsnm and
we've been trying different things in
this um
covet situation because we can't go to
the i can't go to the classrooms and so
currently we're offering free craft kits
this is
the this is a january february craft
kit where the the hitch to getting the
free craft craft kit
is the children and families need to uh
view a very short
story video in this case just a three
minute video
and the story is a buddy unchained um
an award-winning story and then the kids
can receive a free
craft kit and so every month we're
changing the theme and
we're also doing some fundraising
projects like this all occasion
gift boxes here and embroidered shamrock
magnets these are things that we're
promoting on our
facebook page okay next slide please
um i yes here we go
okay hsn m will be assisting uh
barkhouse with their microchip
and vaccination event which is coming up
this
uh saturday
okay next slide and this will be the
last slide
february is have a heart for chain dog
chain dogs month and this is when school
children and you know just individuals
can send valentines if they'd like um
like say the one pictured here to
residences
that are identified by the national
organization
dogs deserve better there are residences
that have been
identified that have chain chain dogs
and it's an opportunity to give some
awareness and
hopes of convincing the owner to
change their ways with chain o and not
chain their animal and that's been part
of our work with the humane society of
southern new mexico with the story
buddy and chained in offering the free
craft kits i thought you guys would like
this comment that came
from a little boy named jordan who was
awarded
a craft kit after he and his family saw
the story
and his message says my name is jordan
i'm nine years old and i live in las
cruces new mexico
i love the story about buddy it reminds
me of my dog
we rescued him from the shelter here his
name is remy
and he came from about home he is happy
now and he is loved very much
well thank you very much for your time
and attention
to the community report and so if i
don't have anyone has any questions
or comments thank you
madam chair you're still on youtube
thank you for seeing my lip smoking i
something happened with my
um with my computer i don't know a zoom
did anybody else have that glitch
strange just came out of nowhere
okay thank you so much gene gilbert
for your fantastic presentation and all
your work
does anybody have any questions or
comments for
ms gilbert again thank you gene on
behalf of all of us
it's always heartwarming and sometimes
heart-wrenching
thank you for all your work uh next
we'll move on to
um items
uh two action items item five
uh action item five a
is election of officers
um clint were you
able to resolve or does anybody else on
the board know
uh whether we can um
[Music]
have an election in absentia of
in any particular candidate in this case
it would be
uh manny sanchez uh for chair
potentially does anybody know if we can
do that
in absentia well i talked to
mr sanchez commissioner sanchez i talked
to him yesterday
and i said well since you were you were
nominated
last meeting and you accepted that
nomination and that's on record
i said if somebody not if somebody
nominates you
this board meeting heard the jpa had to
be in february
then are you willing to accept it and he
said yes and i said well will you please
tell
uh the chair that so you told me earlier
that he did contact you
madam chair and that he would accept it
so
i guess i believe we're good to go if
somebody makes that motion so madam
chair
yes mr ellens commissioner allen's uh
it's the in the rotation
it is required that the chair be from
the county
and the christianity from the city
correct
i renominate commissioner sanchez's
chair
thank you for the nomination of
commissioner manny sanchez
for chair of
this board i second that i can second
that
[Music]
may we have a roll call on that mr
thacker we do them individually
roll call or do we can we do the whole
chair and vice chair together
probably individually huh yes
individually okay
individually yes motion for commissioner
sanchez to be the next chair of the
animal service center messiah valley
board directors
madam chair flores yes
board member ellens yes board member stu
a
yes board member gondra yes
thank you madam chair it passes
great uh and the next office
is uh vice chair and
as uh commissioner allen's pointed out
uh it's we uh the nominee has to be
where the position holder has to be
the city so are there any nominations
well actually
is it appropriate for me to nominate uh
tessa a counselor beta stewbe
yes i think
yes i was just saying yes i believe it
is appropriate for you to nominate
somebody
oh thank you is there a second
thank you clint ford
i second thank you thank you
it's been moved and seconded to have uh
to uh
uh oh
god um accept the nomination um
counselor aveda stevie to the position
uh
vice chair of this board
thank you about every call on that do
you accept
whether you accept or not okay
thank you for accepting uh counselor
beta stevie
may we have a roll call on that yes
madam chair motion on the floor is to
um for vice chair to be
i'm sorry board member abetta steve
so madam chair flores yes
board member ellens yes board member
beta stube
yes and board member gondola
yes thank you motion passes madam chair
okay are there other offices up at this
time
uh the other one is past president i
believe it can be anybody that was
has been uh or past chair
ex-officio and so that would be yvonne
concert florence
ex-official to be on this board
or to be what executive yeah it's on the
executive committee it's called past
president or past
chair oh executive pepsi
yes that would be me okay
yes thank you thank you and i believe
that's automatic you don't need to
be voted on i think i did two but i
everybody shaking their heads yeah i
agree yeah we all agree that we might
all be wrong
and we're okay with it so the next adam
here
madam chair the next is the exec or is
doing committees
so the executive committee is already
set with
the chair vice chair and the past chair
so the next ones we need to do are the
facility committee and the finance
committee
now in the ordinance or i'm sorry in the
bylaws
it states that the finance committee
and the facility committee have
ex-official members in them
the finance committee the chair has
historically been the ex-official member
of the city because the city handles all
the finances
for the asemb
so i have the chair down as
the ex-officio member enriquez
and then automatically per the bylaws
automatically that puts the next
official member
which is jeannie quintero that puts her
in the part member of the facility
committee
oh that puts her in utility so i guess
what we need to do
is to ask who's going to be the chair of
the facility committee
and then who's going to be members of
both committees
do those any of those have to be on a
rotational basis to have full
representation from the to comply with
the jpa
or i could just
um that
are there any uh self nominations
self nominations well i will self
unnominate
me for finance because i don't know
anything about numbers facilities
not finance no no facilities gene and
i'm a
well i i would prefer not to be
the head of that but i will be glad to
be a part of it
i'll be i'll continue to be chair that's
fine
okay so you're okay and then
uh jin quintero and then there's a third
person
that should be on that committee correct
the all committees have three persons
madam chair yes miss uh commissioner
allen's
i i volunteer to be on that training
on the facilities okay
thank you sir
i don't do numbers
so that leaves us with um
what member tokido trujillo
is not on one executive
facility so that just leaves her
so perhaps clint we need somebody
um on the finance committee we have
the the chair but who are the other two
uh members
did i miss that uh so one's gonna be
uh commissioner trujulio
oh trujillo okay trujillo yeah
and who's the other
well you
you're not well you're a past you're on
the executive committee for the past
chair
okay oh so you're you're there
board member ellen's is on the facility
warren bertragio is on finance
board member gandra is on the facility
board members stupid is vice president
and then both ex officio so we have
everybody so somebody
will have to if you want two or three
people in finance somebody's going to do
double duty
i'll be on that finance committee okay
so
um yeah put me down
okay so we have executive committee
chair is
um is is the chair of that committee
then vice president and past
chair the facility committee is chair
is board member gandra ex-official
member janine quintero
and commissioner ellens finance
committee
cher is ex-officio member enriquez
commissioner trujillo and
uh councillor yvonne
i'm sorry flores is
it's okay numbers welcome to my world
so it looks like we have everybody i
will send emails out so everybody knows
what they're on
um those on the facility meeting
um counselor or madam candidate do you
want to keep it just the first thursday
of every month
i do but can we move it to 9 30 yeah
okay so also to zoom in by
out for that one it's purely
self-serving
i need to get my yoga in that's just
fine
and then the first time i'll work with
eric and getting
a date on that i know that
he has a he has his um days fluctuating
a little bit so i'll get with him
then i'll get with commissioner uh
sanchez about a time for the chair
for the executive committee meeting
i believe that's it
great thank you we're all done now do we
have any public input
yes madam chair we have two public input
okay now do you have emails that you're
going to read
or great proceed
thank you uh this is
it says is it true that with the state
of covet that owners who want to
surrender the pets to the shelter
have to sign a form agreeing to
euthanize i
ask because i have seen more than one
facebook post saying that animal control
is advising owners of this
and if it is not true why are they
saying this
so i can only answer the part about the
shelter have to sign forms
is we are not there's we're not signing
if you're signing over an animal
it's not to euthanize an animal what
you're signing is
is that you're relinquishing all rights
to the animal animal
and we let you know that this the
disposition is ours
up to euthanasia if we deem that fit
but it's not an automatic euthanasia
order
um like somebody who's signing over
their animal for euthanasia with sign
this is totally different and this
person
um i she sent me this individually and i
responded to her so it looks like she
emailed both places
about animal control i i'm not going to
comment on what animal control is
advising or not
so that can be geno or
gene i can tell you from the county's
perspective that we do not
say that in fact we do our best to help
people find alternative placements other
than necessarily
taking them over to the shelter and and
we have been successful with that but
there's always some we can't
help and they go to the shelter but we
never advise and we are not a
fan of euthanasia coming from the county
uh we will do everything we can and and
still don't even recommend that as a
last resort coming from us
and i can't comment directly on that
because i don't know exactly what was
said but i can't say that in the past
that
that topic has been brought up um
we're not saying that the cat the animal
is going to be euthanized
we may say that the animal may be
euthanized
but again that is at the discretion of
the the center
um and that's at the finals that's the
last thing that anybody wants done um
so maybe interpretation there uh maybe
euthanasia was said and they believe
that that is the only option
thank you mr uh officer jimenez
uh mr thacker was that it
i thought you said there were two i have
one more madam chair and it's a full
page
so oh have patience with me as i read it
it says hello my name is foster
schneider i have a few concerns i'd like
to address in this forum
we are currently in the middle of a
coveted pandemic people are struggling
and las cruces is primarily low income
and or senior community in my opinion
this is a difficult time to be raising
the fees for adoption
at the shelter while i certainly
appreciate a no-kill shelter
and i understand their need for revenue
the flat fee of 50 to 75
seems to be reasonable people are home
more now
more pets could be adopted into loving
homes but they won't be
if fees are out of reach for the
majority of our community
the primary goal is to get the animals
out of the shelters
yes adopting from a rescue is awesome
and very needed
but not at the loss of an animal being
pulled from a shelter
if fees continue to rise at the shelter
people will go to the rescues first
the shelters are wonderful support
taking animals out of the shelter
but the object is to get them out of the
shelter as quickly as possible
i think what she meant to say there is
the rescues are a wonderful support
taking animals out of the shelter but i
don't want to place words in her mouth
but i think that's what she meant
we need to keep the kill rate down at
shelters
for the past several months the shelter
has been posting notices of animals and
lying to be euthanized
due to lack of space 150
fee for an unaltered animal could open
the door for animal breeding and selling
of puppies
i do not agree with this at all spay and
neuter should be a standard part of our
adoption process and included in the
adoption fee
you say the community is responsible for
the overcrowding in the shelters and i
agree with you
but then you can't put the
responsibility to do the right thing and
spay neuter their
own their animals on their own i fear
with this new rate hike and the perils
of covet in the economy
the shelter numbers will be worse our
community
our state our world is in a crisis right
now
people at home can bring animals into
loving environments
easing the strain on the shelters i
recently had an experience with my
with a stray dog running at night it had
been adopted many months prior from the
shelter
after we checked the chip info i was
told the owners had been told to bring
the dog in to be fixed but it never
happened
the owner did everything did eventually
bring the dog in
had it fixed and it was released back to
the owner without
question i see more irresponsible people
in this town than i do
truly responsible animal owners perhaps
rather than increasing rates
make it harder for people to adopt try
doing some incentives to encourage
seniors and fosters to adopt
if you have an active foster that wants
to adopt an animal
they have been caring for the fee would
be minimal animals have been proven to
be good for senior citizens
and now with so many families not being
able to be together
a senior having an animal could be such
a blessing a senior adopting a senior
animal
please push incentives to encourage
adoption but don't hike fees to
discourage it
just to address some of the things in
here she she states that a flat fee of
50 to 75
seems responsible if you adopt an animal
that's already sterilized
from our shelter then it would be
75 if you adopt an animal that's
already sterilized and has been longer
than three months
it'll be fifty dollars so we're right in
line it seems that the bigger
bigger issue is 150 um
and in here she says 150 for an
unaltered animal could open the door for
animal breeding
and selling the puppies i don't i don't
understand where
or how that comes to conclusion 150
includes sterilization
so there's obviously some misconceptions
um by or some non
there's a misunderstanding about what
we're doing here
um this was a big topic on facebook um
in one of the facebook groups it had
over 130 comments
and i was answering questions the best i
could it got to the point where it was
just ridiculous because nobody could
know
where anybody was saying stuff because
facebook just does
you know the long list of replies so
what i did is i immediately called a
meeting for tuesday night
we invited all rescues all fosters all
volunteers
to come and let's let's talk about this
instead of on a horrible platform like
facebook
um so a zoom invite was already sent out
so
7 p.m so we did it late enough where
dinner can be over with
if somebody from the east coast wants to
join it's nine o'clock there it's not
terribly late
and so we're able to to talk about this
and work through i think there's a lot
of misconceptions
about about the fee
especially the the unsterilized people
are thinking that we're gonna we're just
adopting out unsterilized animals and
they're never gonna get sterilized and
that's not true
remember the 150 includes the
sterilization
and when i talked to our doctor uh
yesterday
she stated it's been a long time since
an animal has left the shelter
adopted unsterilized usually they'll
stay a night or two
and she can fit him into the surgery
schedule
so that's encouraging to hear as well
and that's also why it's important we
can get this vet on board then we can
get those guys in even sooner so
that that's kind of my feedback on that
one i appreciate
um foster star or foster schneider's
remarks she is she does a lot for the
center
by fostering and getting the word out
and animals out so
i respect whenever she brings things up
as with any of the rescue community
and i just like to talk through them
before they get a huge
big deal like this got blown out to be
so
we'll talk but of note i mean we're
doing really well for adoptions we are
right in line with 2019 february we're
about 30 or 40 below
what it was in 2019 2020
we had an outstanding february it was
32 percent of all of our outcomes
uh were adoption so 270 adoptions and
right now in february from february 1st
to today
we're at 106 adoptions uh
so we're kind of right in the middle
there
great clint um how
uh oh gosh um
[Music]
oh um how many of those i i
i received several emails in that regard
as well i think we all
might have received all the same but uh
and so i'm glad you're addressing the
issue
because there is a lot of confusion and
um and so thank you for replying to this
gentleman
or excuse me this lady to foster snyder
and perhaps to others but is there any
weight because there
was a lot of um outrage and and um
there were a couple i don't know if you
received it too clint i didn't even
bother
uh i didn't bother and you know shame on
me maybe but
oh well um i didn't i might not afford
it to you
uh it was just almost obscene um you
know horrible language
uh you know just really
accusing us of being inhumane to say
nothing of this person's
um i mean and yet this person was being
very very rude very crude
and you know we all went wear leather
we're in the public eye
um and we're used to being criticized
for just about anything
you know you're damned if you do and
damned if you don't type a thing
um and um so i'm very glad that you
um read this letter and this email or
letter
and that you addressed it um is it
possible to have
psas or anything in the newspaper
on a repeated basis about adoptions
um i don't know if there's a public
service type of thing that the
you know our local news our bulletin or
the las cruces sun news would do
um i think uh a psa
on the radio would probably uh be uh
okay i mean it would it would you know
be something we could do for
free um but i i wonder do newspapers do
that to
to just really run that and just you
know just lay it out just the way you
did 175 if not neutered
you know uh 50 bucks if uh whatever uh
175 if i already knew it 150
i've not neutered and then and then you
and then explain
because i think you if i recall uh
there's a
um there's an option to neuter the same
day
that they adopt if they're not neutered
yet
um or they can come back with a voucher
that's issued
okay it's the same foster to adopt
program
where right right yeah it's not the
adoption is not finalized until the
sterilization happens
but we're really trying to get animals
out of that in fact i got an email that
we're around to about 20 to 25
animals are left in that program which
is phenomenal if you remember
the beginning of last year we were
around 180 animals
that were in that program so what the
whole purpose is
is to get out of that program we don't
because like i said 40
of the animals that go in never return
to get sterilized
so this is a hope that people will get
away from unsterilized animals
adopt the ones that are already
sterilized allowing that number
in the foster to adopt to go down which
is working
and once that program is empty and gone
then all those spots that were what
would be saved
we can now start introducing public
state spay and neuter we can do more
shelter animals
for that type of thing that's that's the
whole drive behind this
yes and and um but if we
could just keep uh putting it on our
public
radios you know maybe i don't know krwg
for that audience
uh on you know all the local stations
and uh regularly run and i i think
uh and something in the newspaper time
to time
you know the same thing just like i
don't know public notice or something
where we could just
let people know exactly what they would
be
and then people would be opting for the
for the lower amounts
you know to pay less um
because every you know all the emails
i've received say you know we're
a low income community people are not
going to pay 150 dollars
but and they're recommending and then
they're recommending the amounts that
should be there and
and they actually come out to about they
say maybe 50
so there's different ways that people
can adopt
um that's the funny thing is i totally
i'm sorry to interrupt you but i
totally agree i totally agree that we
the 150 dollars is a lot for this
community that's why we don't want you
to adopt them
right we want you to adopt a sterilized
animal right
so and that's the whole drive behind it
right and and i think when you lay it
out
you know just the numbers and the and i
think that what
wherefores will be or maybe they're not
self-explanatory
maybe it has to be broken down to
explain the rationale
and for the and it makes me happy
however in spite of the
crude and lewd language it was actually
lewd a language
used in that one email um and a lot of
concern
and criticism from other emails uh it
makes me happy that they care
enough so i mean that's good
i mean that's good i think going forward
what we'll do is
um jess williams is a former board
member past chair
uh worked for the county retired and he
works for the bulletin now i believe so
for a little while he's gonna retire
there too but i will reach out to him
see if we can't get something
in the picture yes and also jess
williams
yeah just williams yeah and then i also
have connections with some of the radios
so maybe i'll get on do some radio spots
we can talk i know that holly does our
pet of the week
with the radios and she talks about the
adoption price as well so
we'll start incorporating those things
and
see if we can we're not more and then
um and then holly can do it now now it's
not just
jennifer martinez for our council
meetings
um holly can do that too she can do a
quick
group and um and just get it out there
get it out there all the time just make
it a
regular um yeah just make it a a regular
announcement and educate our
[Music]
our people who our population who does
care about our
little critters thank you very much
you're welcome so um
next is the chair and board comments um
hello none for me madam chair
thank you okay because i couldn't see
and i don't have my bar
so i can't well okay so none from
and i i don't see anybody's hands up
but that doesn't mean they're not up
okay
so i don't see anybody's hand up and
oh there you go
i was muted um
ms gilbert um earlier complimented
clint on the program and i
totally agree with every thing that she
said
but as we look back
remember commissioner garrett is really
the one that
started to put this program in place
and um we owe a debt of gratitude
yes thank you so much uh commissioner
allens for that
um we miss gary we miss uh
garrett very much we miss billy um
so thank you mr ellens um
so any other uh board comments
i do have um a couple of requests
mr um mr uh thacker
um if we could
also um well maybe this is for mr uh
more like mr enriquez so
i should probably well anyway he might
be back on i don't know
but uh we really need to get that
information regarding the
animal ordnance um you know the changes
to
to the uh that are being
processed in process right now
yes madam proceed as um you
i know you weren't at the last task
force meeting
but we decided we worked a lot on the
resolution
and the heath of tnr for the ordinance
and it will come to our regular
excuse me our work session did i say the
eighth
yes you did marching so is that the
final
the final draft that will come to on to
us on march 8th
or working on it at the test no
that's the final draft that will come
march 8th
for for um common and and direction
um okay we have strategized to have
um clint and um
two task force members help with the
presentation
to really give a
a good introduction and
sort of discussion points
related to the most important
you know which is tnr um
and the reason as you know that we feel
this way is
you know it it will be at least a couple
of months to get that ordinance
um to where it you know presented a
council
with the first read second read making
comment we thought
that we could save a lot of lives and we
did this tnr
resolution first um because conceivably
you know it could be ready to go within
a week's time
and we can move back into what we're
doing but i do want to say that we were
really clear
that there needed to be a data right
evaluation component to that
where we're collecting data and
evaluating our process
um that there needs to be deterrence and
resources especially
if we're going to move in this direction
that's it thank you thank you and we'll
yeah i'll just yeah thank you very much
for the update on that and i
i just wanted to so we're the task force
is not meeting again the ordinance okay
so it's all done as done as it can be
and then
there might be some more um whatever
after that first uh work session
yes other counselors and maybe the
public and definitely the public
okay and um thank you and then i also
wanted to
share with you um uh jerry willis
wheelis who sits on our um the ordinance
uh task force she
had an incident where there was a coyote
that had been
apparently hit by a car that was
ailing and in horrible pain and
uh was told by the ace you know the
animal services center i did place a
call to clint so he's
um totally familiar with this this
happened about two weeks ago
and on a saturday morning and um
and uh this the ac the excuse me the
animal
shelter said um our services center said
that no
they they don't take care of coyotes
because it's wildlife
when she called the usda people they
said
uh oh excuse me they said nothing
because they're closed on weekends
so um i ultimately it was resolved
um and after you know she was uh
she was pac she was she was in tears
understandably
um and so i i would like to uh
propose to this board or to the powers
that be
that this crossover jurisdictional thing
be taken
care of and also find out if there's
alternative numbers
uh for the usda or in the event they're
not available
where there's wildlife on private
property or
you know someone's residence um
[Music]
uh what we can do um for the animal
and for the resident so i just wanted to
put that out there uh clint i don't know
where we go from there or mayor putin
gandara
but somehow if we could just come up at
least open the discussion with the usda
and because we we as a city have a
contract with them well
as well and it'd be good for the county
also to know so
anyway so that just want to put that up
you know has his hand up i
believe yes thank you yes yes gino
madam chair i was really um i was aware
of that situation that came up
um it was a coyote that got hit by a car
i believe it had two
broken front legs um initially the call
did go to usda wildlife services
recently signed a contract or mou
with the city through the police
department and they are to address
all wildlife issues within the city of
las cruces
initially or years past that mou
was only for predatory animals however
they changed it to include all
wildlife within the city of las cruces
that poses a threat
to the residents unfortunately
the dollar amount didn't go up
but their calls for services greatly did
because now they are
not only addressing coyotes or
addressing skunks raccoons
um all sorts of wildlife that are not
protected by
new mexico game and fish so even though
the dollar amount didn't go up
their calls for service actually did
um unfortunately for them
they only have one full-time
agent assigned to this district and that
is
basically the whole southwest section of
uh
honor of new mexico so they're
they're pretty um
their manpower is pretty low yeah so for
them to be able to respond to calls like
that
is going to take a long time and and
typically they work
monday through friday eight to five with
weekends and holidays off
so we assist in any way that we can
because of course
a call within the city we're going to
have a much quicker response time
we're going to have that handling
ability already training ability already
so we will assist and in this case an
aco was able to go over there and
impound the animal as far as i know i
don't know whether it was taken to the
service center
for euthanasia but i believe if an
animal
was presented to the center like that in
that state
the humane thing would have been to put
it down and i believe that they did
and i hope that they did i'm not sure
about the the final end of that call but
that's just a little background
information as far as um
usda wildlife services yeah but um
so thank you for that background
information and the follow-up uh
to that story to that incident but um
i i i maybe i misunderstood
ms wheelers but um i believe
she said that she did call animal didn't
i say that
i was reading for my notes anyway um i
believe she did call
uh you know the uh
our aco people or was it just the
animals
matter of sheriff i remember right you
told me on saturday morning that it was
dispatched that you called
and that no that she did that jerry call
no you mean yeah that she called she
called this fashion dispatch said that
they used to go to
wildlife right right yeah so yeah
but gino somehow is saying that on the
weekends
um the acos our city acos
jump in about in when there's a
critically injured animal
madam chair and that's correct um
all most of our calls for service go
through central dispatch
uh unless it's uh monday through friday
eight to five and they call directly to
our office here at the at the public
safety center
but that may be something that i can
clarify with central dispatch
that if it is a wildlife call and
um the wildlife services
are not available then we come in as a
secondary
um agency to assist oh
well then um uh officer jimenez
if what you're if i understood what you
just said you can take care of this
problematic situation by you're making a
phone call
yes ma'am i believe that i can get some
clarification with central dispatch
so that they know who the proper agency
is to call
great oh wonderful because it was really
i mean and there was nothing she could
do
i mean i mean she did say if i had a gun
i would kill
you know i would kill it it was it was
just to put that poor animal
out of its um out of its pain it was
just agonizing
and she was crying actually so um
yeah i um yeah it was quite distressing
so
that'll be very helpful for everyone
concerned because we are
you know we've we've talked about this
before
we have more and more encroachment
because there's more and more
development going up
out there and those poor little animals
you know
i mean it makes me so sad so um
so that's good to know geno i really
appreciate that so let us know
maybe you can send an email to to clint
he could send everything out to
the board you know bernice can let us
know
what the outcome was of that to be clear
and when we uh especially you know let
and then we'll maybe put a psa
or a newspaper article out uh for our
uh public to know that there is that uh
cross jurisdictional assistance
i really like that idea counselor flores
madam chair i think that's exxon idea
you can call me yvonne it's okay
well thank you thank you um
great thank you so much um
thank you so much everybody um
i want to thank all of you for being a
wonderful board
and my apologies for always stumbling
and believe me this is just my style
i i tend to just stumble through
everything in life and you know what
i've made it so far
kinda sorta but i want to thank all of
you it's been a pleasure uh serving as
your
um uh as your chair this past year
and um with that and thank all of you
thank you for your service madam chair
really appreciate it
oh thank you thank you
uh counselor um so with that um
if there are no further comments or
whatever i call for adjournment
or if there's no objection i hereby call
this meeting
i declare it adjourned no objections
therefore we
are now adjourned thank you thanks
everybody
bye-bye thank you okey-dokey