[Music]
one day July 13 2020s proximately 1:00
p.m. so before we began if you please
join me in the Pledge of Allegiance
please and now we're gonna have our pet
of the week James my communications
officer
I'm Jennifer with the city's
Communications Office and I'm going to
introduce you to Olivia are you able to
see Olivia yes perfect
okay she's almost two years old she is
energetic she's affectionate and she has
lots of love to give Olivia is perfect
for any active family you can like
poolside and soak up the vitamin D and
Olivia will also be with you if you're
interested in going jogging or you want
to just hang out with her during the
summer she is a perfect pet if you are
interested animal service center hours
of operation are Monday through Friday
noon to 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday and
Sunday noon to 5:00 p.m. again you will
be asked to call ahead and make an
appointment that number is three eight
two zero zero one eight and right now
all of the off-site adoption events are
canceled until further notice that is
again because of the limitations at the
animal service center you're interested
in adopting the cost is $25 you can go
to ASC MB org slash adoptions to see all
the animals that are available if
there's any time to talk to you about
summer weather and pets this week would
be the week so we're having temperatures
anywhere from 105 and I think up to 107
I saw this week
never leave pets outside for long
periods of time make sure you provide
water and shade to keep them from
resting on concrete groom them regularly
exercise when it's cooler and provide
cool or frozen treats and the
Communications Office wants to provide
tips for kovat 19 and we do have a
dashboard that you can link to from our
website on the bottom you can see Kovac
19 Los Cruces comm and there you can
link to the dashboard and so what you
going to find there is when you when you
go to that website along the left hand
side there's a blue bar and I am going
to circle that so you can see exactly
where you need to click to get some of
this information you'll see an
interactive map with data from the
Department of Health that's case by case
by case and county and zip code and you
can see the total number of deaths the
total tests performed throughout the
state hospitalizations other kinds of
information that you might be interested
in finding and there's also down from
John Hopkins University and other tips
that will help you to stay healthy thank
you Mary thank you and Adrian counselor
Florida's has texted me that she doesn't
have audio so I don't know if that's
something with her computer or if that's
something that you your team could look
at I'd appreciate that
okay so we have three items on the
agenda the first one is economic
development they'll be local wealth I
know was advertised as walls so I don't
know if we got a lot of interest from
our home builders and contractors but
the actual title should be building
local wealth and that's something there
that a while back councillor Vasquez had
made a comment how he wanted to he liked
the fact that we were adding jobs in our
community but that he wanted to see
about how local wealth creation could
come about and so if you recall a couple
months ago we had a flash assessment by
a community economics laboratory out of
Albuquerque and also with movida and
then we heard the difference about what
they call economic-based jobs where
salaries are paid for by money from
outside the region and then what they
call service center jobs salaries
derived from the local exchange of goods
and services and so this is kind of
following the concerns or the comments
that counsel Vasquez had and so we're
fortunate to have with us today is
Michael Shuman an economist attorney and
leader in the development of local
strong economies he's performed economic
development analysis for States local
governments and businesses throughout
North America and he's the author of
among
many other books one called the local
economy solution and local dollars local
cents how to shift your money from Wall
Street to Main Street
so also joining mr. Schumann and we have
some guests the CEO of the Greater Los
crew steamer comers Debbie more the CEO
of Las Cruces green Chamber of Commerce
and a future state senator Gary Hamburg
Kerry Hamblin my friend and economic
mentor and MSU professor emeritus of
economics dr. Jim peach former Las
Cruces city councilor and Mayor Pro Tem
America
Sharon Thomas or dr. Sharon Thomas and
so with that mr. Schumann I appreciate
you being with us here today and I'm
going to turn it over to you thank you
very much mayor for that kind
introduction and I am going to put up
some slides right now that hopefully
people will be able to see just give me
a second there we go
and can everyone see the right title of
this rebooting a Los Cruces economy post
kovat a new approach to economic
development and this is definitely a
presentation about how to build wealth
not how to build walls in fact walls are
contrary to what we're trying to achieve
even though local economic development
should first and foremost focus on local
business as I understand it you received
a fairly conventional presentation about
how economic development works not so
long ago and I decided to start what I
want to share with you by pulling out
one of the main slides from that that
you you heard about the economic base
theory and as was explained in the
introduction the conventional story of
economic development is that there are
some jobs some businesses that bring in
outside money and outside money is what
drives the economy because money that is
spent on local stuff is simply
recirculating and not building any new
wealth and the additional part of that
story is that services are part of the
local recirculation of money and
manufacturing the production of goods is
the good stuff that's the stuff that
builds builds wealth and there's one
other piece of this theory that is
pretty integral and that is that if you
believe that manufacturing that exports
is the key to economic development
you're going to spend a lot of your time
in economic development trying to
attract outside manufacturers so for
much of economic development attracting
companies through incentives which are
often expensive and counterproductive is
what people do
now what I want to suggest is that all
of the elements of this story actually
are not true they've all been pretty
widely disproven there is a myth about
new money there's a myth about base jobs
and there's a myth about the efficacy of
corporate attraction let's talk first
about the myth of new money so again the
argument is is that when you sell a
dollar of stuff to the outside world
that is bringing new money to the
community and that in fact when you are
just doing something internal to your
economy no new dollars are coming in but
what is ignored in this analysis is that
employing of fact you're constantly
importing stuff as well and every local
transaction actually substitutes for an
import which means you're gaining a
dollar from a local sale so what's the
difference between a dollar gained from
a local sale because you're not
importing a dollar of stuff and a dollar
earned from exports and the answer is
there is no difference whatsoever and
this is a widely accepted understanding
by economists across the political
spectrum consequently one of the
important things that people need to do
when thinking about economic development
is not just focus on your strengths but
focus on your weaknesses and one of the
things that I've done for about 50
jurisdictions around the country
including Santa Fe County is a leakage
analysis this particular analysis which
I was part of a team that did two years
ago called pollinating prosperity we
basically analyzed what would be the
consequences if the residents of Santa
Fe County shifted 10% of their spending
from nominees yes oh
from non-local goods to local goods and
services and we calculated that this 10%
shift would create 4,600 new jobs paying
two hundred and fourteen million dollars
and generate thirty five million dollars
in new state and local taxes a further
part of the myth of base businesses is
the belief that manufacturing jobs are
special because they pay higher wages
but as you can see by the most recent
Department of Labor average wages from
June 2020 manufacturing and service jobs
are pretty close in what their pay is in
a weekly basis and there are plenty of
services professional services financial
services and information services that
pay significantly more than
manufacturing so the theory is wrong and
in fact you can gain more wealth with
properly chosen properly structured
service jobs the final myth is about
corporate attraction and this woman here
is named Anne Markuson she's a professor
at the University of Minnesota she put
out one of the best books evaluating
corporate attraction she had a team of
about two dozen people some of them
support corporate attraction some of
them were skeptical and her conclusion
from all of the research they put
together in this study is that incentive
competition is on the rise it is costly
generally inefficient and often
ineffective for winning regions now
clearly it's always ineffective for
losing regions but the question the
thing that I would change and Anne's
conclusion is the often because when you
look at the opportunity costs of
corporate attraction there it's almost
always ineffective and we could see from
the most recent escapades of Amazon
trying to find its h2 cube headquarters
which nearly 300 commute
across the United States bid for the
privilege of having the world's
wealthiest corporation build a plant
there and many jurisdictions were
offering hundreds of thousands of
dollars per job and what none of the
jurisdictions paid attention to is what
they could get from local jobs that were
significantly cheaper the guy on the
right of this picture is an economic
developer in Appalachian West Virginia
named Luce Stein and I interviewed
Bluestein a few years ago and discovered
that he was producing jobs in
Appalachian West Virginia
300 to 500 per year for not several
hundred thousand dollars per job but for
about five hundred dollars per job and
how did he do this well he asked people
who were looking to start businesses to
come to meetings and he introduced them
to bankers and he improved their
business plans and he also worked with
existing businesses and asked them
something that the existing economic
development agency in West Virginia was
not asking which is how can we help and
often by asking the simplest questions
to figure out how to help existing local
businesses and entrepreneurs you can
perform economic development more
effectively and more inexpensively and
the lessons for lose 16 really have led
me to three alternative rules for local
prosperity the first is that we need to
maximize the percentage of jobs in
locally owned business the second is is
that we maximize the local diversity so
someone is not on mute
and then the third is to create an
entrepreneurial ecosystem so let me talk
briefly about each of these rule one
maximizing local ownership this is a
study that was done in British Columbia
in 2013
comparing the impact of $1 spent on
independent restaurants and retailers
versus chain restaurants and retailers
and what it found is that a dollar spent
in independent and restaurants and
retailers led to about 47 cents
recirculating in the British Columbian
economy whereas a dollar spent in a
chain restaurant and retailer was about
18 cents so roughly speaking every time
a British Columbian resident mindfully
spends a dollar at a locally owned
restaurant or retailer the province
enjoys two and a half times the job
effects two and a half times the income
and wealth effects two and a half times
the tax collections two and a half times
the charitable contributions it's not a
small bit of difference and there have
been about two dozen of these studies
done over the last 20 years
comparing either to businesses or to
industries one locally owned one not and
they have all shown that the locally
owned entities generate two to four
times the jobs and other economic
development impacts the reason is is
that the local business because of its
relationships spends more of its money
locally but you the councillors ask if
you go back not this the slide before
last yes I happy-happy do this I wasn't
sure what the format was yep great okay
go ahead actually one more oh one more
okay there yeah thank you
yeah I even took a picture of that too
okay and hopefully you've all received
copies of the slides via PDF okay about
the slide know the background noise was
happening so I didn't totally catch what
you are saying and on this one okay
okay well I'm gonna go through each of
these again more methodically
all right so let's get back to here and
this is a study from the Harvard
Business Review in the summer of 2010
it's a regression analysis of
communities across the United States and
what it shows is that in those
communities with the highest density of
locally owned business there is the
highest per capita job growth rate but
not just that but this study from the
Federal Reserve of Atlanta in August of
2013 did a regression analysis of
counties across the United States and
found that in those counties with the
highest density of locally owned
business there is the highest per capita
income growth rate so in other words if
you want to reduce poverty raise social
equality local businesses are your best
ticket for doing so so the second rule
says that there's a real advantage to
diversifying your economy and this
really goes against the grain of a lot
of traditional economic development that
says find one or two strengths build on
those and import everything else this by
the way is a slide from a study that I
helped a group in France put together
for the island of Mauritius
called local as beautiful where we
proposed a whole series of activities to
help diversify the Mauritius economy but
I want to give you an example of import
substitution and diversification of an
economy in a very specific example from
Ann Arbor Michigan so Ann Arbor Michigan
is a university town and this is the
story of a delicatessen they're called
Zingerman's very successful in its first
ten years but they had a problem which
is they knew they had to grow or they
were going to lose their best managers
so their option was they could become a
chain like safe Schlotzsky's
deli or they could try to enact some
other strategy so they decided you know
what we don't want to grow wide because
we don't want to be in airplanes all the
time and we're afraid about losing
quality control so they said we are
gonna try to grow deep so they looked
systematically at things coming into the
deli and out of the deli and decided
they were gonna build new businesses
around it so for example they serve
sandwiches on bread so they created a
bake house they serve coffees so they
created a coffee roasting company they
serve ice cream and cheese so they
created a Creamery and then looking at
things coming out of the deli they had
good food so they created another
sit-down restaurant called the Roadhouse
they had great cakes so they created a
mail-order cake business they had great
customer service so they created a
training entity called Zane train
so in all Zingerman's is now about a
dozen independently owned businesses
that Co licensed the brand and
collectively they are responsible for
600 jobs in Ann Arbor that generate you
know sixty sixty-five million dollars
per year and I want to point out that
this in miniature is what economic
development should look like it doesn't
have to start with an exotic high-tech
entity room high manufacturing entity
although in a way Zingerman's does do
manufacturing with its cakes and it also
has a candy manufacturer that we haven't
talked about but more significantly what
Zingerman's has done is that it has
substituted things on the input side and
then it has engaged in in value adding
on the output side and has done this
first and foremost around local markets
knowing that ultimately through their
mail-order catalog in through
Zain train they reach regional and
national markets as well and this
approach to economic development that
emphasizes diversification and
self-reliance is certainly smarter in an
era of kovat we all know that resilience
is where communities are going to
receive great payoff and those
communities that worked hard over the
last ten years to localize more of their
food system have done better
during this pandemic rule number three
is to create an entrepreneurial
ecosystem and what I mean by an
entrepreneurial ecosystem is being
attentive to what I call six P's of an
entrepreneurial ecosystem planning
people partners purse purchasing and
policymaking and planning means
identifying leaks in your economy all
the places where people living in your
community are unnecessarily buying
outside goods and services and then
identifying what businesses can plug
those leaks people how do you nurture a
new generation of entrepreneurs that can
lead these leak plugging businesses
partners how do we get businesses to
collaborate together so they're more
effective as a team than they would be
on their own purchasing how can you
spearhead by local or think local first
campaigns and policymaking how do you
create a level playing field for your
local businesses I want to give you just
a quick example of what what a policy
initiative from you in Las Cruces might
look like in each of these categories
and I am mindful that the stress of
kovat means that your tax dollars are
diminished and the necessity of coming
up with low-cost stimulus solutions is
essential so in terms of a planning
initiative I would say do a leakage
analysis really understand where the
money is leaving the economy and come up
with a sophisticated analysis like santa
fe county did about how to plug those
leaks with new or expanded businesses
people ders talked about creating and
expanding incubators in Las Cruces I
would encourage you to look at models of
incubators that are self-financing this
guy here is named Michael Looney lives
he runs an incubator in Seattle called
fledge when he is done incubating his
businesses he takes a 5% ownership stake
in the company and people have the
opportunity to buy back that ownership
stake through a royalty agreement on
sales but in this way he earns back the
money that pays for the next round of
incubation and honestly this is the way
almost all economic development programs
should be structured if you're giving
benefits to businesses and they do in
fact benefit they should pay back so
that others can follow them partners
partners again is local businesses
working together that are more effective
as a team not so far from Hugh in Tucson
Arizona there is an organization called
Tucson originals a group of about 50
local food businesses in Tucson the
collectively buy foodstuffs kitchen
equipment and dishes and buying these
things in bulk together brings down
their input costs and makes them all
more competitive purchasing so this guy
here is a premier in a Canadian province
of New Brunswick and I put his picture
here because he has been extremely
innovative in shape reshaping the
procurement patterns of New Brunswick
and we can talk more about this in Q&A
but the basic argument I would make is
that the more you can
Precure public goods and services from
local vendors and do so in a
cost-effective way the more stimulus
you're gonna get in your economy and
there are ways of treating your
procurement system that are completely
legal but also increase the probability
of local businesses being selected that
you might consider the last thing that I
want to mention has around purse for
capital initiatives there is a robust
and expanding movement in the country
around local reinvestment people moving
their money from Wall Street to Main
Street you could model this by moving
your city's banking into local banks and
credit unions as the cities of Tucson
and Phoenix have done you can educate
people in your community how to engage
in crowdfunding that is how to help
businesses go to national crowdfunding
sites and how to help local investors
find those businesses you might list all
the companies in your jurisdiction that
are looking for capital and put that
list on your website so that people in
the community looking to put money into
local businesses might do so and you
might even create as New Brunswick has
and as the state of Michigan is now
considering doing a local investment tax
credit for every dollar of people's
taxation if they've invest if they've
spent a dollar on a local investment
they might get say 25 30 40 cents off
their taxes in New Brunswick this has
been an extremely effective way of
mobilizing the population to put
millions of dollars into local
businesses the last point that I will
just make before we open it up to
questions and answers is that this stuff
requires focus and there may be some of
you that are thinking well you
these are neat ideas but let's do the
traditional attraction stuff and this
and what my counter-argument is is you
don't have the resources and you don't
have the time and every dollar you spend
chasing an outside company and likely
losing the chase is a dollar that's
unavailable for these low-cost
initiatives and every hour of a civil
servants time that is spent in this
ludicrous outside attraction game is an
hour that's unavailable for nurturing
local businesses that already have made
a commitment to your community long term
so let me stop there and open it up for
discussion Thank You mr. Sherman let's
see if we have well let's start off with
councilor ruscus since he's the impetus
for why we did this councilor Buster's
Thank You mayor Thank You mr. Shimon
really appreciate your presentation it's
so much confirmation bias for me
included in your presentation so thank
you the reason I say that is you know
I've been I've been talking for a long
time I think about the power of wealth
building opportunities in our local
community being just as important as
bringing economic base dollars into our
community because in particular for the
families here that could benefit from
better high-paying jobs the argument in
terms of bringing new economic dollars
to help support those jobs versus
redistributing existing wealth in our
community so that we have folks that are
in lower tiers of the economy that
actually have better opportunities that
that helps everybody because then
they're able to buy a house and they're
able to you know get the credit to
purchase other goods perhaps start their
own business and so it's a it's very
much a social justice issue in addition
to an economic building issue when it
comes to building local wealth and so so
it seems like there's some wonderful
opportunities here to do that part of I
guess the formula of how I see this
working out is breaking down the
barriers for the entry to business
owners
and so that's one of the things that I
struggle with in terms of what levers
can we pull on the policy and the things
to really revamp what our local
entrepreneurial community looks like and
so if you go to a place like the farmers
market here in Las Cruces on a Saturday
or a Wednesday or even the flea market
Big Daddies flea market you see all
these aspiring entrepreneurs who are
reselling goods who are you know
creating things in their home whether
it's jewelry who are selling services
some selling produce all these wonderful
local things that people from the
outside of town come to buy right
because they want to get that local
flavor
there's so much opportunity I think
within that group of entrepreneurs to
actually get brick-and-mortar locations
or you know to expand somehow their
reach or their potential to grow their
business how do we do that well we have
tried to look at things like like our
existing zoning regulations and our
zoning code you know there's certain
things that prevent us from developing
infill opportunities in our city for
example like a shipping container coffee
house right that potentially is a lot
cheaper than leasing some expensive you
know locale and a brand new shopping
center but if we don't have the adequate
parking spaces if we don't have the
adequate zoning requirements to open an
established business that way we're not
able to provide that opportunity I think
about residential housing as well as
doubling as a small business right maybe
within a certain district so that people
who are actually already paying a lease
paying a mortgage can turn you know a
studio of theirs into an actual retail
walk-in you know art gallery or bike
shop or shoe repair business currently
we can't do that with our existing
zoning code so I'm wondering if you have
any ideas in terms of what are some
low-hanging fruit in terms of policy
ideas or initiatives that helps break
down those barriers to local business
ownership that contributes to that
entrepreneurial culture that that I
think we really need here yeah so those
are all really
good suggestions that you've made
already an identifying the zoning code I
so the last last big study that I just
finished for a community is Riverside
California which has about three hundred
thousand people and I'm I'd be happy to
share with you a bunch of the
recommendations that I have in there
because they they too were struggling
around entry of people into
entrepreneurship one of is so I'll just
mention you know say two or two of the
issues besides owning that I think are
real so one is capital and I think you
know through some of the things that I
mentioned if you make it cheaper and
easier for people to do crowdfunding and
to find local investors in their
business and you list those businesses
on the city's website and you educate
the population and incentivize the
population to invest in those businesses
boy will that make a huge difference and
then the second thing is the costs of
Licensing and sometimes it's owning a
fees III don't know exactly what people
would face in Las Cruces but this was
really big and Riverside and one of the
ideas we came up with was to develop a
fund that was run by the city but in
fact would have money that was given
invested by residents and and that's
certainly something that's possible that
a city can do and use that money as a
way of fronting the fees for businesses
that meet certain criteria so maybe you
require that they have a business plan
maybe they're run by you know people of
color or women to try to raise social
equity
but whatever it is you cover those costs
upfront so that the business is
responsible for it later on if they
succeed and I think getting business
past that initial hump could be very
helpful in getting things moving Thank
You mr. Sherman that's super helpful I
do just want to ask one more question
before passing it off to my colleagues
and follow up with some thoughts later
but one particular example that comes to
mind in terms of developing maybe a
pilot you know local business growth
policy is we have the redevelopment of
an area in the city that's you know that
has a lot of commercial vacancies and
has over the last several years and it's
been hard to fill because you know once
a building goes into disrepair others
follow and businesses leave and it
becomes all of a sudden not not a very
attractive place for a businessperson
and that's the hell Paseo corridor in
which we've now added the South Solano
area to in terms of the planning but
thinking about what type of overlay we
could include that will promote the
growth of small business in addition to
you know a redevelopment designation
whatever we end up doing there but you
talked about incentives and chasing the
big companies and you know where we have
another situation where we're talking
about something similar with a large
developer but locally in terms of
incentives you know thinking about
something like waving a business owners
property taxes for the first two years
if they choose to relocate or open
within this district or something we did
downtown which was provide I think it
was 20 up to $20,000 grants for the
renovation of their businesses their
facades or their if they choose to
locate downtown I think that was fairly
successful from my understanding so
thinking about some of those things that
you incentivize local business with do
you have any ideas or best practices or
things that you've seen as to how you
help you know incentivize local
businesses and as does that work yeah I
think it definitely works and you know
what you might decide is what is the
amount of tax break that your city can
afford in the name of economic
development and then
allow a competition maybe it's an RFP
and you basically invite all kinds of
businesses local and outside businesses
and say look tell me the number of
quality jobs that you can provide and
what's the lowest price tag for it and
you start with the cheapest ones and
work your way up until you've you know
filled your money and I guarantee you
that if you do that rationale process
99% of your allocations will be on local
businesses that meet your goals
excellent Thank You mr. Shipman Thank
You mayor Thank You councillor Telstra
sword Thank You mr. mayor and thank you
mr. shilling for that presentation and
welcome to Los versus here even if it's
a distant zoom yeah as you went through
all these different points I kept
picking out one or two or three as you
went along yeah and I what kind of doing
that already but there's a lot of stuff
you said that we aren't and but overall
when you look at all of this could you
characterize it as being called what we
what some place is called economic
gardening yeah economic gardening is is
a specific movement of communities that
are emphasizing the nurturing of local
business the one thing that economic
gardening focused on that I might not
affiliate with so that means I'm sort of
80 percent and align it with them is
they were very much after the idea of
gazelles that there exist businesses
would say 10 to 20 employees early-stage
that have spectacular growth and you
should really focus on those businesses
I'm so I'm not so sold on the gazelle
theory and I feel like identifying
gazelles in advance is very risky and
dangerous business but I do think that
you know broadly
spoke
sing your resources and intention on the
entrepreneurs who've already made a
commitment to your community is a great
starting place I see I I don't know if
the rest of the council knows this we've
been talking about this for 10 years
I was first introduced by former city
councillor and Mayor Pro Tem Sharon
Thomas and I was hoping we would
continue with that and continue now in
the future doing some of the things
there's many other things yes you're
suggesting you can do so very good thank
you
Thank You Mara Thank You councillor and
I think today's business environment I
think we're gonna have to actually put a
lot more emphasis on economic gardening
to keep those that are currently here
keep them viable help them out the best
we can we've got the Mayor Pro Tem
Vandana Thank You mayor Thank You mr.
chairman um I appreciate the comments
and questions of my fellow councillors
it's really Gabe those were sort of all
the things I want to say but with just
an emphasis a couple of years ago Dell
came and helped sponsor the wheat
conference and they did these small sort
of the name is escaping me at this point
but we're groups of us would sit with a
question and then determine okay what is
that going to look like in the all in
economic development and the group that
I was in happen to win the exercise if
you will and so we've been getting a
little bit of technical assistance from
dwell in it the the thing we were
promoting and that I'm most interested
in is it's a women's accelerator program
using a time banking model and dr.
Martinez has sat in on a few of our
presentations more specifically about
nine months ago a New Mexico State
University with the
the folks there that specifically
address economic development and so
since then I've brought a groups of
people together to sort of talk about
what you would see this how would we
envision and more specifically women who
are in poverty who are struggling
already but have this amazing work ethic
and anytime they find themselves right
needing a certain amount of money
they're doing the you know their hobbies
right and so how can we focus our time
and attention on them to sort of help
them sort of sprout the idea but I think
it's very overwhelming to many of them
because they're struggling right some of
them are have trauma they they're near
homeless their kids are in a childcare
setting right be it if they weren't they
would be basically on the streets if you
will so I guess my struggle and my
frustration is is that we have some very
amazing business partners and like the
chambers that are active and involved
and then we have our Economic
Development and I hear most often that
we're duplicating efforts right and how
can we sort of identify those folks that
we can move the needle a bit and I know
comes from Bencomo has essentially
pushed us and said listen our poverty
rate is 24% what can we do to assist
folks and getting you know having a more
viable job housing if you will so any
suggestions around a fairly new economic
development department that's getting
themselves up and running and has great
relationships right with our chambers
but I often more often hear that we're
doing some duplication and honestly I
feel government is the the safety net
those are the one we should
worried about those folks that are
struggling and I just feel like this
accelerator program isn't as a really
awesome idea but to try to bring that to
fruition as is it's been difficult so if
you have any feedback on that I'd
appreciate it you know a couple things
first I would mention that I've been a
lot of my current work is with Native
American reservations primarily in
Oregon and Montana courtesy of the
Northwest area foundation and you know
exactly the challenge that you laid out
how do you work with primarily women and
in you know working with very
rudimentary skills and bring them into
the market it's a big challenge and I
think you know part of that challenge is
understanding that economic development
is not like the next Microsoft it could
be but it doesn't have to be the next
major soft economic development is
getting people who are not gainfully
engaged in the economy engaged and I
think simple things that can be done
include you know organizing retirees who
could be really good mentors for these
people putting people together in peer
support groups so that they're
developing their businesses together and
strategizing together thinking about
some of the capital issues that I
mentioned maybe helping these businesses
with marketing joint marketing efforts
and joint procurement efforts a joint
marketing could be done through by local
campaigns joint procurement we talked
about with something like the the the
Tucson originals group so the other
thing too asked us about reducing
duplication and when I work with
communities one of the first things that
I do is just gather as much information
as I can from everybody
what's going on in economic development
and you quickly then identify where the
holes where there were there some things
happening but there could be more where
there's a lot happening and you don't
want to duplicate so it sounds like
maybe you need you know to compile a
little bit of that information to really
see exactly where your resources need to
be focused Thank You mr. Sherman those
are those are helpful I think some of my
own frustration is being I'm a doer in a
policy level right that's different so
we're waiting for folks on the ground to
sort of move these these things and so
for me this is has been really helpful
presentation thank you I thank you Mary
hmm thank you John star beta Scooby
Thank You Mara and Thank You mr. moon
for this great presentation
I could have quite a few questions
regarding incentives and most of those
were answered with councilor Vasquez so
I appreciate that there is one thing
I've wanted to touch upon but I think
perhaps I could use help of staff as
well I know that we we give money to an
entity Nevada that helps attract
businesses now they're designed I think
to attract those outside agencies
manufacturing and everything do we
currently do anything that is comparable
with this local side then do we give any
money in the same way
dr. Martinez
good afternoon mayor and city council
Thank You mr. ashumen for the
presentation consider m8s to be we are
currently sitting motion in having
pieces to what you're just reference to
we are partnering with Arrowhead Center
to run a couple of
cohorts of business accelerators
focusing on local businesses just the
ones that were described before we're
gonna be doing 30 total local businesses
and that focuses on how they can pivot
in this current situation to find new
markets to finding ways to distribute
and get their goods and services to new
to new audiences so that's that's the
first one we're also as you know we're
working on the las cruces economic
recovery board and one of the areas that
we are looking at is how do we approach
this recovery
through an inclusive framework how I'm
curious to hear what mr. Schumann may
have to say about that and if you have
any experience on the topic we're
actually looking for a speaker for a
next meeting and how do we continue to
do that also with the technical
assistance program that we're launching
that also fills in some gaps in
financial access but also in being ready
to not only have a loan but also being
able to repay it but in a formal way
such as we do with Nevada we do not so
that something to be considered and I'm
very interested in further hearing their
questions and answers on this topic
thank you very much well yes I mean I I
think that there's a lot of stuff you
could do to help get your priorities
right and one of the things is that you
shouldn't be guessing at what the
efficacy of the money give to various
kinds of initiatives is you should set a
very clear framework of for any
recipient whether it's a incubator or a
course where it is Nevada
and say okay here's the amount of money
now tell us what you did with these
kinds of jobs and these kinds of
businesses and let's really see how it's
doing let's compare it every year and
adjust the priorities accordingly
I think one of the problems in economic
development is that because they're so
little follow-up and so little data
collection we don't often know where the
priorities belong and where we're
getting the greatest efficacy I do think
I mean my hunch is partially through
research that I've done that you will
get more bang for your buck
the more you localize those spending
expect more localized the focus of the
of your activities and even the Vita
could be encouraged as an established
economic development organization with
lots of expertise start shifting more
and more of its work to local business
development IIIi would just you know
encourage being really creative around
that thank you I really appreciate it I
think that Thank You mayor hmm thank you
at council Bencomo Thank You mayor and
thank you so much mr. Schumann that was
that that presentation really has my
brain on fire I'm thinking about all of
these sort of possibilities much like
councilor ruscus I'm like oh yeah okay
I'm not crazy I also think these things
and you're confirming a lot of that so
that's really good as count as mayor
pro-tem gun that I said though I
consistently am thinking about our 24
percent poverty rate right because to me
it's not just a number those are
families those are people those are
children and I often I can't help but
think about you know economic inequality
the income gap that very clearly exists
here in our communities as well and and
and to me I think often economic
development gets looked at very narrowly
to me really at the end of the day
economic development is about
being a lot quality of life of low and
in low to moderate income individuals
and families and often I think you're
sort of the second speaker that we have
that we've had in the last couple months
regarding economic development
particularly as it relates to the
pandemic and all of that and something
that I keep feeling like it's missing
from this conversation is about workers
and the very the huge inequities that
exist for workers and are in all kinds
of sectors right now I think kovat has
really exposed a lot of that how little
workers how little protections workers
have how little I mean a conversation
we've had a very tough intense
conversation here locally regarding
minimum wage and who and who frankly
deserves living wages but I think this
whole pandemic has really exposed this
idea of health care and basically even
all of these things ran denied so I I
just to say I guess I feel like often
not the conversation about workers is
missing I don't know what you would have
to say in regards to that so I I totally
agree with you and and when I'm not
running around doing these kinds of
talks I teach a course at a Business
School in New York called sustaining
your mission and one of the things that
I teach my students to do is how to
perform for themselves and other
businesses they work with what are
called B Corp assessment so be Corpse B
stands for beneficial and it's a whole
system for looking comprehensively
at the social performance of the
business and that includes its workers
community governance of the environment
customers and I think that this really
is about economic development I mean
people you know again there's there's
been this like weird bifurcation in the
field where people who care about
society do community too
to knows who you know eat their meat and
potatoes and one of attract businesses
that's economic development but it's all
one in the same thing and what I would
argue is many of the forms of high
social performance actually have strong
economic development impact so if you
pay your workers more
well that pumps up the local economic
multiplier if your business is buying
more local goods and services that too
also is increasing the local economic
multiplier if you're engaging in energy
or water efficiency with your business
well that's preserving your resources
for tourism so we could do this all day
but the point is is that social progress
and economic progress can and should be
one in the same and one thing I think
your city could do is actually identify
and reward all of those businesses in
Las Cruces that are using any form of
social metrics so there's other ones
besides the B Corp metric and you know
congratulate them and encourage other
businesses to follow and if they do I
think there will be lots of economic
benefits that flow from that that's so
good to hear I would love to get more
information from you on these social
metrics I think that that would be
critical moving forward yeah I'd be
happy I've done two studies for local
foundations here so I'm talking to you
today from Maryland and about using this
sort of B Corp strategy in Baltimore and
be happy to share those studies were
there something else that I thought was
really interesting was and I can't
remember if he said nurture cultivate
but you were talking about nurturing and
cultivating entrepreneurs so I would
also love to hear some of the best
strategies you've seen around the
country and how to do that that's really
personal to me my parents my parents are
immigrants and they five years ago they
they became small business owners they
owned a little Mexican grocery store and
my my dad didn't even finish the sixth
grade before he was work
and he is he has one of the most keen
entrepreneurial spirits I have ever seen
and I just wonder how many other people
are like that in our communities that
just haven't had the support that push
access to capital access to information
they just don't know the right people
right and so how do we best help
identify and support those type of
individuals I think particularly folks
who come from lower income families
folks women people of color that don't
often have access to not even just
capital but just information yes and and
to elaborate a point that I made earlier
if your economic development activities
like so many communities is focusing on
we're gonna find the best and the
brightest entrepreneurs like the ten
people who we can rely on are gonna
build this next Microsoft and we're
gonna throw resources to them you know
tax breaks and free land and good
incubators well you're gonna get people
who are successful and then split your
town and you're not going to get
anything positive out of it at all if
instead you focus on those people who
you most want to pull up and who are the
entrepreneurs among women and Latinos
and other people of color that we can
empower that is what you will see that's
the kind of business you will nurture so
where you prioritize your effort is
where entrepreneurship will flourish
it's not the other way around yeah thank
you I love that I think what you pay
attention to growth right um I think
doesn't have any questions I really am I
love this conversation I think I'm
actually not one other piece you and one
of your answers to concentrate the
studio were talking about data
collection and that's actually a
conversation we also had with Mabhida
and I add our last sort of economic
development conversation regarding just
exactly what does it mean to collect
data and then
how do we use it really best yeah and I
think and it's a long-term issue I mean
if I could wave my magic wand in ten
years you will have some way of
communicating with every local business
in your jurisdiction be able to survey
them on a quarterly basis and get quick
hits on how they are doing as a business
figure out what their needs are compile
them direct your economic development
activities so forth you know there's
little bits and pieces that are I'm sure
you're doing like that now the chamber
does some of that Nevada does some of
that but it needs to be done more
comprehensively and it needs to be done
also with those entrepreneurs who you
mentioned or who are not necessarily
plugged into the established business
community so it's an it's a good
challenge to set in front of you yeah
absolutely thank you so much Thank You
councillor we have a councillor Vasquez
again I believe and then councillor
sword Thank You mayor
thank you tell my colleagues I think
this is a great very productive
conversation to have here and really
hope that lead system concrete action on
behalf of us as policymakers but also
our economic development department and
our city administration to move some of
these ideas forward also looking forward
to hearing from mr. Jim peach who knows
our local expert as well here on ER our
economy as well as others who are on
this call one quick question so a few
years back I had this just idea concept
of getting of creating a Small Business
Resource Centre in City Hall
you know the idea would have been to
have a welcoming place for a potential
small business owner or an existing
entrepreneur to come in and get the
information that they needed from the
city whether it was permitting whether
it was incentives whether it was zoning
right any of those questions that
somebody might have that's not
experienced or that
maybe just needs a question answered or
perhaps that they can get pointed in the
right direction whether it's so a local
Chamber of Commerce or Choi small
business development group they have to
have that be front and center in the
lobby of City Hall as a way to just you
know bug be business friendly but
provide real resources that encourages
entrepreneurship because you feel like
your city is supporting you
unfortunately that didn't come to
fruition
it was kind of a hybrid concept at the
time the city manager created that was
served more the purpose of like just
sealing deals with folks in a
comfortable room that's not intimidating
but really didn't meet the intent of
what I thought that that resource should
have been and so I guess the question is
in terms of how do you have you've seen
other cities do similar things in terms
of creating like a welcoming business
center again not duplicating the
resources of other small business
development center I wanted people to
staff it but how have you seen other
cities create those kind of efforts and
does that help in terms of creating that
culture that you're talking about yes I
have and Riverside California is a good
example of a city that I don't know how
long ago was probably five or six years
ago that they created a so-called
one-stop shop and that was very
effective in you know putting zoning
licensing land use planning a bunch of a
bunch of departments that effect a
business all in one spot so a person
could just knock on a bunch of doors and
do the appointments all in one sitting
and if there were any contradictions you
could bring people together and
negotiate that through so I think I
think that's important but what I would
also say is that Riverside has
recognized that the one-stop shop in and
of itself only solve some problems so I
mentioned one of the other problems
which is the fees and yet there's a need
for a new system to
use those fees upfront for businesses
the second problem is I think it goes
goes back to the the previous
Councilwoman and that is that I think
early-stage entrepreneurs who are women
and less experienced people of color who
are entrepreneurs they may be afraid
they may be intimidated by this whole
process and how do you reduce that
intimidation and I think what's
important is that you develop a kind of
a tiger team in the city that you know
say one person adopts a couple of
different businesses and when problems
come up that person becomes a contact
point to sort of hold their hand and
work them through it so but you know
lots lots of things that can be done
here thank you
mr. Sherman I appreciate that I have a
few other questions the next one is so
one of the things I did early on was
kind of take a survey of some vacant
property or some underutilized property
in my district that I thought would be
ripe for things like you know like a
small business courtyard or something
similar where you could create these you
know very low-cost locales where people
could sell you know food or goods or
even other places that have been
abandoned or you know manufacturing
areas that just are being underutilized
and so one of the thoughts I've always
had is what what could the city be doing
in terms of land acquisition or property
acquisition we're doing some of that now
but really they're kind of one-off
projects that come as an opportunity
that are very obvious in terms of what
we could do with a big piece of land in
a very desirable commercial district but
not so much looking at infill and like
looking at those little spots where we
could revitalize communities by setting
up small business type of centers so how
how have you seen cities roll you know
in terms of that land acquisition and
the property acquisition piece to
facilitate business development as
as a landlord essentially right so so I
you know I've seen a lot of different
things out there the county where I live
Montgomery County and Maryland we
recently changed the zoning regs to
allow people to put auxilary dwelling
internets on their property and base you
know they could but some some cases tiny
houses on their property and so as was
identified or earlier on zoning is a
great obstacle if it's not fought
through what the implications are and
changing some zoning to allow more more
tiny homes more community land Trust's
I think could be really interesting and
that can be done commercially as well
I've become a real fan of community land
Trust's in the last year and for those
of you who are unfamiliar with it I mean
a Community Land Trust is basically a
nonprofit that holds land and then there
are housing or commercial projects that
are put on there but by holding the land
in a kind of a non-profit trust you
bring down the price of people buying a
house because they're only buying the
house not the underlying land
you also can keep that house permanently
affordable and a great example of the
Community Land Trust was started by
Burlington Vermont by that unknown mayor
Bernie Sanders back in the 1980s and I
mean they they basically did a $200,000
municipal bond issue use that bond to
buy some properties put it in a
non-profit and start this land trust and
the Land Trust now has about 2,000
households that are living in various
parcels of land that they've acquired
over the years and some of it some of
the land also is commercial property and
the overall enterprise that they've
grown there is
I think more than a hundred million
dollars of assets so I mean something
like that could be started I think that
one of the one of the fallouts of kovat
is that people are going to need less
commercial space there's going to be a
lot more people working at home but a
lot more people are going to be thrown
out of their rental situation so the
affordability housing crisis is going to
get a lot worse so that's why I would
put something like a Community Land
Trust front and center of something
you'd think about you may be calling on
you soon someday if I may carry Hamblin
CEO of the New Mexico of the Las Cruces
green Chamber of Commerce had a couple
thoughts she wanted to talk to you about
as well as councillor Florida's who
finally we've been trying to get on also
so if you don't mind Kerry can you jump
in well thank you honorable mayor and
council I appreciate the opportunity to
be able to be part of this even though
we are distant I still love the
opportunity of being connected through
zoom and being able to see your faces
mr. Schumann as mayor mishima mentioned
I'm the CEO and president of the Las
Cruces green Chamber of Commerce and we
started about 10 years ago when our
community received an Olive Garden in
town and through our local papers sound
off column which was where people could
call anonymously and let them know weird
opinions the whole town went nuts we
finally have an Olive Garden yay we're
finally a real City and we have three
locally owned Italian food restaurants
that were like what about us and so we
had a board of directors of local
business owners who said we need to help
equal or level the playing field for
locally owned businesses and that's why
we were started and so we talked about
the triple bottom line which I know
you're familiar with we talked about
sustainable communities we talked about
keeping money in our community and
supporting local jobs but when I first
came on to the green chamber in 2012
there was a
kind of this misconception about what we
were doing because as a green chamber
people thought that it was that you had
to be a renewable energy business or
recycling business in order to be a
member of the green chamber and so when
I came on board I was really determined
to help reframe that narrative to talk
about when you support a local business
you reduce your carbon footprint you
keep money in the community supporting
local businesses put less strain on the
infrastructure then do new corporate
businesses or big chains and really
teaching people to think local first and
it took about four or five years to
really help kind of change that mindset
in the community where we're talking
about locally owned businesses and and
so I'm really grateful that we were part
of that but one of the things that I
that I think is really important to
recognize here is that we have a number
of organizations here that are doing
many of the things that you're talking
about we have you know the Arrowhead
Center which focuses on entrepreneurship
West which focuses on women and people
of color and helping those small
businesses the Small Business
Development Center helping small
businesses Movida really working on
getting outside businesses and bringing
that money and then there are the
chambers and my counterpart Debbie Moore
is also here on the call you know when
when Debbie first came on you know she
was really helping also kind of change
the narrative for the greater Las Cruces
Chamber is it had a different one prior
to her service but what we all we all
agree with and we work together I think
very well is recognizing that we may
have different roads our overall goal is
to make sure that our business community
thrives but the roads that we take to
get there are different and so with the
green chamber we have a lot of
nonprofits that are members of the green
chamber because as you know local
businesses give back to local nonprofits
350 percent more than do national chains
and so there is that in that likely
partnership but I think what you know is
really important to recognize is that
you know we do have some systems to
collect data the Las Cruces green
Chamber of Commerce has the sustainable
business recognition program where we
ask businesses to self-identify and
self-report what they do to reduce reuse
and recycle but also to report how much
money they spend at
other local businesses we also have the
triple bottom line certification program
that we work in partnership with u
Mexico family first that really
determines what family-friendly
businesses there are and when a business
gets that certification and they go
through our sustainable business
recognition program we do the triple
bottom line certification so we do have
those systems in place which is really
wonderful to be able to do but also we
do have our think local first initiative
our directory features all of our local
business members but we also use that as
an opportunity to talk about the
importance of locally owned businesses
and you know there are several several
folks here on the call who participated
in our construction compadres eco madres
program where it was really yeah
counselor gondola she is a almost a
champion taco eater and a hamburger
eater but it was really the only way of
creating more awareness about businesses
that were impacted by local construction
that we had within the last couple of
years and so you know it's it's
wonderful to be able to have those
partnerships I think where you know the
city can really be helpful and I know
this is not news is that to make it
easier for businesses to operate make it
easier for them to get inspections have
one inspector assigned for each job make
it easier for their permits to get
acquired you know because that's where
we're finding and Debbie I'd love for
you to chime in if you'd like is is
where businesses are having hardship
because we do have these several
agencies here that we refer to each
other if we cannot provide that service
and and I'm really grateful for that
partnership because I wasn't always the
case and the fact that we've got so many
different agencies working together to
help our businesses I think is
especially now during kovat is going to
be really really important for us to do
and where the the city can come into
play is to help make that process easier
for them yeah I agree with that and and
one thing I would just add is I think
there is a role for figuring out maybe
an independent panel of local businesses
that produces a policy wish
list as a way of reducing the burdens
increasing the harmony with these
various systems the city has in place
for licensing and zoning and so forth
and you know formalizing that and and
putting that forward could be it could
be quite useful absolutely to be more
did you have anything you wanted add mr.
mayor I would just say ditto and I think
to the to you mr. Mann the councillors
that I agree anything we can do with
carry anything we can do to help
businesses navigate the system
internally at the city is a positive
thing because in my previous cities I've
worked in mr. Schumann one thing I knew
is that con ta the and we have a
constant here at the city of Las Cruces
that's a powerful tool someone that
could work and walk them through the
process because an entrepreneur is so
excited over just trying to get business
sometimes they get overwhelmed by it all
but I will say I think now is the time
or that ever well Carrie and I here
we're in the trenches day in and day out
with our businesses that are trying to
navigate they're trying to find out what
their new normal is have a define that
how we mode you know move through this
together of a community you know I
always say the businesses care wouldn't
be safe businesses they want to pay for
their employees they also want to be
safe for the shoppers and it's all of us
together and I think now is the time
it's a pivotal time in our economy it's
maybe not going to be an easy process
but thank you for your presentations
I've ordered your books that are reading
them over the weekend and have you been
in this chamber industry for 30 years
you're echoing many of my thoughts that
the small business is the one that helps
the nonprofit's are the ones that
sponsor the soccer teams and the
baseball team and there's a one's
everyone goes to when they need some
assistance and that's a powerful tool
and sometimes I feel like the small
business is not particularly that las
cruces but generally speaking or
sometimes overlooked but they're the
ones that are there we need to connect
our passion with us
businesses and and actually just connect
those dots and I think we have collected
dots we may not know what whether
they're dots or they're squares right
now but kovat is bringing us into I
think the reality of caring for one
another
caring for community stronger and at the
end of all of this I think our business
community our community as a whole is
gonna be stronger so thank you thank you
mr. mayor
Thank You Telstra FLOTUS you've been
wanted to say something can you you hear
us we can't hear you
can you hear me let me just hang up with
a phone if I hang up on the phone oh
you're not you're talking don't you see
I can you all hear me I can hear you yes
okay well so far okay something very
good here is happening so I missed out
on most of mr. Schumann's presentation
and I have to leave my phone on
otherwise I'll disconnect and type in
the meeting don't don't ask me how it
work or it doesn't work but it's a mess
mr. Schumann thank you so much for your
presentation I missed most of it but I
did learn a lot from the questions my
colleagues a fellow councillors asking
and I was particularly we just took that
away I was particularly intrigued by the
one question that was asked fun that you
didn't talk about community communal
communal land trust deed land trust yet
Community Land Trust
so do you know I this is this is the
first I've heard of it and perhaps other
people who are participating are guilt
that wasn't my dog barking that was a
needy so now I'm working off with two
phones and I heard that dog I don't know
who it was it wasn't eating so do you
know of any communities that are doing
this mr. mayor and councillors soared
and maybe mr. Dahl ahem I guess I'm
thinking of the people have been the
longest with the city has anything like
this ever been attempted here in the
city and if not how do we go about it
because this is very exciting to me it
seems that the the Community Land Trust
could be owned by the the nonprofit's
and of course then their interest would
be to just own the land so that homes
could be built there and then people who
ordinarily would be able because I was
just reading an article this morning
that the median the median price for a
home here is about a hundred and ninety
thousand dollars and I just can't
imagine where we have overall any one of
the highest poverty well we do I think
it's a forest state in the country and
then I guess our local I
I think it's higher than the 20
something percent that someone mentioned
all that being said though I don't think
that people especially with kovat aren't
going to be able to buy homes and we do
have a housing shortage core affordable
and I'm not talking about affordable oh
it's affordable for so when I retiring
and to come here and buy a $200,000
house I mean I think people would be
very lucky to be able to afford maybe a
mortgage for about 75 or $100,000 maybe
less I don't know exactly I don't have
the data but do you have anywhere we can
go with this take this to our say work
with Cary Hamlin and which would there
be more work with our nonprofits
we'll put yes go ahead mr. mayor
counselor I was just gonna say the one
Community Land Trust I'm aware of is in
Albuquerque it's called the sawmill
district and this Perth this way if this
covert 19 had not happened we would have
been deep into a discussion on one in
particular that I was going to bring to
council's attention in a closed meeting
under a land acquisition so we're just
gonna let's put it this way it was just
dead on hold until we can get it through
this and and this isn't they this isn't
the land that's in your district that's
a different one that's yeah I can't hear
you see I'm working with this I'm
working with that I mean okay so so
orphan though I'm familiar with it I'm
sure some members of our staff as well
mr. Schumann so yeah you're familiar
with it members of our staff are
familiar with it and it seems to me that
it's something should be forefront in
the Finance Select Committee and it
should be in the forefront of the
Economic Development Committee and the
PRC and it should be in the forefront of
the economic recovery ad hoc board I
mean this is something that we really
have to be looking at because it looks
like it will be a win-win for everybody
this is a first I thank you so much for
bringing that up mr. mr. shooter it
would be councilor it's just the the we
saw mr. mayor said that there has mr.
mayor said that there I'm sorry
we can hear you just I know you can hear
me we you're spri a problem is that I
have to have that phone to be able to
hear any answers and then put the volume
up so so we do know of one in New Mexico
Albuquerque but that may not be a model
we wanted years just because theirs was
a different model because because thank
you assuming for being up the fact that
this would be a way to go because of
code
it having an impact on the fact that
we're not going to be needing a lot of
real estate for a lot of businesses that
we used to having and we know very well
now that even retail is having a bad
time and everybody's going online and
people are finding that it's even better
to go that way people are enjoying being
at home or to find that it's better to
be working at home and there's so
there's going to be a lot of changes in
the Xu's code that is more about so
thank you again very much and I'll be
listening to the first part of your
presentation on our recording thank you
before I go to the next round of
counselors who have already asked some
comments can i if I may ask if dr. peach
would like to comment on something dr.
peach are you available and do you have
any questions or comments
dr. Beach he's on mute mare there there
you know
now I'm unmuted okay first I thoroughly
enjoyed mr. Sherman's presentation and
there as everybody has discussed there
any number of really good ideas here I
was also pleased that very pleased to
see that economic development should be
broad it should be a social development
as well as economic development the
great Nobel prize-winning economist and
development economists generally read
all defined development as the upward
movement of an entire social system and
I and I think that's what you're all
talking about here I was very pleased to
hear Harry Hamlin described some not all
but some of the resources that are
already available Arrowhead Center and
the two chambers and and all kinds of
resources are available one that was not
mentioned is the state economic
development department and they have all
kinds of funds that they can use for
business startups in the life one of the
most intriguing ideas that I saw here
was to do something on either waving or
financing the fees that are necessary
for a brand new business and I think
that has a lot of potential new
entrepreneurial activity may require
more than just that though over the
years to dealing with a number of people
you know somebody may have a really good
idea for a for a new business and not
have any
even basic accounting skills I you can't
imagine the number of people I've talked
to over the years who have no idea that
profit is the difference between total
revenue and total cost at just no clue
no clue or what total revenue might be
or what total costs might be I I am over
the years very impressed with the
availability of capital to advance
businesses and even the local banking
community you need two things to get
money you need a good business plan and
at least not a bad past credit history
they want to say yes now many many you
look entrepreneurs are not going to have
a clue how to put together a business
plan and there is help for that
they can go to Arrowhead center there
are all kinds of things but just the the
really basic stuff of starting a
business yet it's more than saying I can
make the best hamburger in town or the
best green enchilada and that these
things will sell you've got to have some
clue about basic business terms basic
business activities that you've got to
do and that is much needed that the
other the other thing that I would
recommend is you know you've got a real
strength in your Economic Development
Director at the city in Griselda I may
be biased she was once one of my
students but she is really really good
and you've got other strengths that
several people have
described here go for it go for it but
decide what you're trying to do in the
first place
I'll say one more thing and then all and
then I'll quit decades ago one of my old
development frosted you need to define
for yourself what you mean by economic
development if you don't have some
definition of economic development you
won't be asking the right questions you
won't know what the goals are you won't
know what the objectives are and you're
not likely to be very successful you've
got to define it what does it mean and
I've been listening it means a lot of
different things to a lot of different
people so I'll quit and thank you mr.
Schumann for your presentation that was
very good thank you doctor peach good to
see you I'm taking over for a few
minutes as mayor has to step out next is
Sir Thomas
Sharon
we'll go back to her come serve askus
Thank You mayor pro-tem thank you again
doctor peach and to carry into Debu for
your comments and for for all that you
do for small businesses in our community
already like I said I think for us as
policymakers and being able to create
the systems that help to have small
businesses flourish but really to
encourage those underserved communities
again building wealth to me is really
where it's needed right and so that
means underserved communities
communities of color minority business
owners for them to be able to survive to
thrive in our city building wealth is
part of that equation and that comes
through entrepreneurship for many and
creating those good local paint jobs
that that I think are really sorely
needed in certain parts of our city and
so I I just want to go back to some of
the ideas that we may be talked about
and how we turn those into policy
proposals with dr. peaches framework in
mind of what is success right and if
success is trying to get higher paying
jobs more dollars in the hands of those
who currently don't have them or who are
on the lower rungs of the economic
ladder then we create policies that help
get us to that place and so I know we've
talked a little bit about this in the
past in terms of the economic
development department bringing councils
and policy recommendations that allow us
to move in that direction and so I want
to continue to do that and with the new
city manager if we want to come up with
a comprehensive plan to create a greater
entrepreneurial culture that benefits
those populations then it needs to come
with a set of policy recommendations you
know the potential for tax incentives
that the city can leverage to help prop
up these these folks in these
communities to be able to create these
businesses and so don't want us to lose
the steam and the momentum of this
conversation moving forward so that we
can build
on all the great work that's already
being done partnering with local
organizations but like I said you know
if we can if we can create a place in on
El Paseo or on Solano or somewhere where
the city can really facilitate the
growth of local small business local
small businesses with that really low
entry you know that low barrier entry to
business ownership then let's do that
right let's come up with the policies
and the investment and the taxes tax
incentives that we need to do that so
this idea of having folks recommend some
policy ideas especially those who are
already in business or thinking about
going in business and know the barriers
better than than anyone else I think
would be a welcome opportunity so I just
wanted to express that in whatever form
that that may come mr. Mathis in terms
of convening you know a group that can
help to iron out small business relief
package or some type of you know some
type of ostia framework that helps help
set some opportunities for council in
the near future to keep moving these
things along and then we should do that
we should have a roadmap and then lastly
the you know that that mean ganaches
room or the small business resource room
you know I would love for that to just
kind of come hopefully the vision at the
time that was widely accepted by the
council in the city manager we could
finally get that done that would be
really appreciated because I can imagine
that post COBIT as small business owners
have questions ranging from everything
from perhaps state incentives federal
incentives to questions about their
employees you know having that resource
in the city as mr. Schumann mentioned as
a non-threatening kind of place where
you can go and either be linked to a
Chamber of Commerce be linked to the
State Department of Workforce Solutions
or even talk about the city's permitting
process whatever that issue might be I
would still love for the city to have
that and for us to have directions a big
sign right when you walk into the lobby
that says that that this is a place
where you can get the resources you need
so we'd love to also see that being
implemented in the next several months
so thank you mayor thank you
okay iPhone on now can you hear me Oh
Sharon you're up next
yes ma'am Thank You counselor Vasquez I
I really appreciate those comments and I
know from the previous council that meet
with us this room was exciting to to
agree to have I know that there's been
some challenges but is it is an in
existence and I know mr. nickles is
working hard to ensure that it's a more
positive sort of one-stop shop and it's
something that we certainly can continue
to work on so with that I will turn that
over back to Mara and Sharon Thomas is
up Mayer okay Sharon did hear from you
yes so video okay so maybe mr. Schumann
could help us develop the policies we
need to have to achieve the city's
region for developments hearing lots and
lots of good ideas about what our vision
might be I loved hearing about
Zingerman's I'm from Michigan I've spent
lots of time and sing everything's great
place and I want to say that I've been a
fan of economic gardening for a long
time but I didn't like the Gizelle's
idea either I thought it sort of went
off track when it went in that direction
so I just read mr. Schumann's book the
local economy solution and where he
talks about these pollinators and how
economic development actually gets done
by the businesses themselves and so I
would love to hear more about that and
see if something like that can happen
here and I just wanted to mention one
other thing it has to do with this
zoning issue homes are the way most
people accumulate wealth so we need to
make buying a home easier and there's a
group out of the University of Michigan
that's working in Detroit and in a
period where they convince the city to
make really big changes so that smaller
and less expensive homes
it is a feedback there carry I don't
know if that's you or no that's can you
can you all mute your phones if you're
not talking please
yeah I don't think it's so they made any
changes so they could have smaller less
expensive homes so people could actually
afford a home they also allowed duplexes
and a tree ha TripIt this can obtain
income from other units so helps people
buy a home and then also get some income
to pay off that home they also have a
fund people can put in a small
investment and own a percentage they
have a percentage of the ownership in
some housing and then that can grow
until they have enough for a down
payment for their own home so I think
zoning is very very important and and
something to look at
you know especially now that the cities
in the midst of changing so needs to go
with a new elevate las cruces so this
would be a great time to look at those
possibilities how we can help change
zoning to help economic development and
I really appreciated your talk mr.
Schumann thank you very much thank you
Mayor Pro Tem emeritus yeah I wonder if
you picked up on the Michigan Michigan
State stuff is it a no but Ann Arbor
that's that's your rival huh right yeah
yeah that's new University of Michigan
versus Michigan State okay yeah those
are the Wolverines I mean I can't go to
zimmerman's and have good food okay well
I know how that's that's just like the
Aggies and the Lobos okay so we've got
next this counselor sorg
then Debbie more and then Cal Sir Ben
Coleman Thank You mr. mayor
just a couple of three points that I I
wanted to read out on council Bencomo
reminded me something I wanted to
mention too today and that is to think
about the workers in the city here
that's where most of our poverty is if
not almost all of it uh we all can't be
entrepreneurs and yes we need to help
entrepreneurs but it
oh she frees up their councillor sword
looks like he might have well go ahead
let's go to Debbie more and then we'll
come circle back to councillor sort w
are you available yeah Thank You mr.
mayor
I mr. Schumer just a point of
clarification on your you mentioned and
you talked about the local instead of
tax credits are those independent in
each locality in the municipality or do
you like layer them with federal
incentives and federal different like
different zones opportunities uh things
like that or you or do all the above all
above you know I know we are in an area
that some of the USDA funding applies
some of it economic and how do you
partner that then with a local tax
credit and Cine etc I thank you for us
mr. mayor
Michael you there yeah it's good good
question and family hold on I'll take my
video off am I good now can you hear me
okay all right let me let me go without
the video for just a moment and and
hopefully there's restabilized
so the idea of a local investment tax
credit or a state investment tax credit
is to incentivize grassroots investors
to put money into local business local
projects even one another and you know
there aren't a lot of examples of local
tax credits around investment around
local investment there's plenty of
examples of tax credits out there but
almost all of them
are available for wealthy investors
Opportunity Zones
is an example of a you know tax
credit system that was intended to be
for everyone but in point of fact since
only people with significant capital
gains can participate and they have to
put money in funds and the only funds
that have been formed allow accredited
investors that is the top one or two
percent of people by wealth and by
income it's a very limited playing field
of for people to participate in so my
argument is is that a local a local
investment tax credit invites everyone
in small amounts to participate in the
local investment ecosystem side by side
with the wealthier investors who can
participate with Opportunity Zones and
new markets tax credits this is human so
what I'm hearing and are understanding
and I think some of these policies to
the counselors that are mentioned as we
do through the recovery board some of
this can actually start as we recover
through the the Cova but what I'm
hearing is there's one side that would
be a local investment to this grassroots
investor but then the city could provide
some for the lack of a better term tax
credits or credit somehow for the
actually the entrepreneur or the
businesses start again so you've got
this dual process establishment both
from the grassroots investment and the
from the entrepreneur itself so that all
works together
okay yes exactly and let me let me also
say that I mean we've been talking about
local investment largely in terms of
investment in local businesses and I
think that should be a main focus but
you can also invest in people buying
houses
you can invest in energy efficiency and
water efficiency you can invest in
helping people get out of the terrible
depth if they're going to be in post
covet so I think it's useful to think
broadly about how to encourage people to
invest in one another in your community
rather than losing the benefits of that
investment when it completely goes to
wall street
maybe you're muted thank you thank you I
agree I have been toying with some ideas
that myself is how to do of course with
chamber industry we were we're trying to
think about how larger business can
actually invest in farm businesses
membership during this time but I've
also to listening to the council week
after week how can we invest in training
how can we make certain the foods food
insecurity how are we meeting that it's
investment in the person its invested in
our business but it's at the end of a
day it's an investment in our community
so I look at a broad base versus just a
business and some yes I would love to
further that conversation with the city
and see how we could establish that
maybe utilizing several local
foundations in that regard but it's way
more than just investing in business I
would love to see invest in homes and in
tiny houses and and you know how do we
make that and I can go on and on and I'm
very passionate about it and I will so
but thank you thank you for your cook
mr. mayor could I say one more thing
real quick course dr. peach and and I I
really appreciate what Debbie more just
said but I I want to tell you all that
right now is an extraordinarily good
time to borrow money both for businesses
that might be starting up and even if
this even the city if you need extra
funds to implement some of these things
the Federal Reserve is pumped a couple
of trillion dollars in the financial
markets and interest rates are just
extraordinary low use that you can
finance all of this stuff if you want it
thank you
and no we're doing just that I think we
borrowed the 1520 million dollars
recently so we recognize that money is
cheap right now oh that's good on the
other end we have a pretty good
investment side that those interest
rates hurt us so on one hand it helps us
the other hand it hurts us but
nonetheless we appreciate those comments
looks like counselor sorg is well before
I get to that Larry did you have
something you very Nicolas did you have
something you wanted to share with us
yes Thank You mayor there's other
council council concerns economic
development if you can please mute your
phones if you're not speaking please go
ahead Larry thank you I'll begin again
mayor and members of council Larry
Nichols Community Development Director I
just wanted to share a couple of
thoughts with the council and with the
mayor and also with mr. Schumann several
times during the presentation it was
brought up about the zoning and the
billing codes and the billing fees and
the costing of registrations as being an
impediment to to small business one of
the things that was mentioned to mr.
Schue and I think you mentioned that
Riverside California was an example of
where they developed one-stop shop and
that that very quickly brought a thought
to me the fellow that was behind that
and Riverside I believe his name was
John cursed John Kurtz and I work
together in human Arizona we developed
the one-stop shop there he went to
Riverside California
I went to El Paso Texas and we both
carried those programs they had
we had that program here now in Las
Cruces and what we're finding is so been
very helpful to a to economic
development we have other items that
were brought up today about the
concierge ship but we work with
developers we work with the economic
development to help people bring
investment we are updating our zoning
code we have just adopted the elevate
las cruces comprehensive plan that is
going to be a vehicle in which a lot of
these ideas and thoughts that were
expressed today are going to be able to
be implemented I just wanted to mention
all these to help give some peace of
mind if you will to the mayor and
council that many of these things that
were brought up we have in position and
we are working with the meal gracias
room
I guess it may be in Boesky but I'm the
one that brought that name and that idea
to the city and it has been used in fact
the meal gracias room was the first
location that's a developer for the
hospital Goldenrod enterprises that is
where they met with the city to talk
about developing the Apodaca blue Prince
position so all those things are here
they're being worked on they're being
used we're finding that the best offer
that we can make this small business is
to move they're processing a permitting
and all quickly time is as much of an
incentive to them through the process as
money but thank you mr. mayor for
allowing me to express it oh by the way
the last four months during the coalbed
pandemic the construction activity has
set records for the last twelve years in
terms of the the revenues the permitting
issuance and all of those numbers has to
do with what the professor just
mentioned people are able to qualify for
loans to
to buy properties Thank You mr. mayor
well thank you Larry in fact mr.
Schumann before Larry got here I would
get complaints all the times from
contractors and ever since Larry set up
shop here
him and then later on with the concierge
Donal Bustos I have gotten literally
zero we can't thank Larry's initiative
enough I remember you were even doing
inspections through through what do you
call that
the face time and so you've done a great
job for I'm one of your biggest
cheerleaders there Larry so thank you
for all that you do
Thank You mr. mayor that what you're
talking about there was the what we call
the interactive video inspection but
helps business owners move through the
inspection process much quicker and you
know what well I have you and I know
this is a little bit off topic but this
is really important mr. Schumann just a
few days ago the governor basically cut
shut down all indoor dining so Larry
real quick can you just share with with
us the members of the public are
watching what you've done to help those
that are quickly trying to get some type
of outdoor dining
I think you've relaxed or you've
expedited some rules to allow them to be
able to get some temporary structures up
so that they can you know they can move
their chairs out so they can kind of
have some output yes mr. mayor members
of council Larry Nichols Community
Development what we're finding is
alternative means of methods to our
codes to allow them to utilize their
outdoor space to serve curb site we're
finding ways to approve inspections on
operating altering their their different
building systems and electrical systems
some of their instruments x18 and some
of their other mechanical type of
business devices this all came from the
idea that I study and coordinate with
the International Code
council how other businesses in other
parts of the country come back to
Maryland if you will or how they're
utilizing assistance in getting people
through reopening provisions for their
business to help with the compliance
with the code yes sir thank you okay
well we were able to get councillor sorg
on line and I think he's available
accounts for saga you there oh boy okay
well it's not so let's go to counselor
pin : Thank You mayor yes and thank you
everyone I'm glad that Debbie and Kerry
are on and dr. PJ I've never met you but
I'm glad you're on this on this call it
seems like your incredible resource for
our community so I look forward to
speaking with you more and Larry I
actually that's so funny that you jumped
on because you reminded me of an article
I was reading as I was preparing for
this work session that had to do with
the role of community development in
addressing the widening widening income
inequality in communities and someone
send it to you mhm because it just
really hits on a lot of the things that
we've been talking about here in terms
of how I think and you know councillor
Vasquez named this and some of the
zoning code but really how community
development can can play a feel can play
a big big role in inequity that then you
know neck witty often can lead to crime
they can lead to homelessness it can
lead to pretty serious things that in
fact we're seeing in our community right
now we have seen such a huge increase in
property crime and violent crime and
some of these things can be addressed
and should be addressed through
community development and I think that
we have such a big role to play in that
I think that elevate las cruces allows
it gives us a really great pathway so
Larry I'm going to be sending you this
article so that we can
about some of the strategies that can
best that Community Development can play
a role in and one of those big roles is
actually supporting and helping families
are men individuals purchase their homes
and not just that but I dressed I
brought this up before as a first-time
homebuyer myself that there are all
kinds of rules that nobody tells you and
I was just talking to dr. Garcia from
utilities Department he's like we'll
have you drained drained your water tank
and I'm like nobody told me I was
supposed to drain my water tank anyway
asked topic but I'm just saying there's
a ton of information that those of us
who have not got grown up in affluent
families do or not do not have access to
and I think as a city we have such a big
role to play to play in that anyway I
digress I actually wanted to ask my only
question was for dr. Martinez I wanted
to ask what kind of partnership we have
with the Arrowhead Center I think dr.
Peachy dream that they were doing a lot
of this cultivating entrepreneurs
teaching new entrepreneurs how the like
the very administrative side of business
and so I'm wondering how what one what
the relationship was like now and if
there's room to grow it and how we can
do that this mayor Councillor I think
como we have a working relationship with
Arrowhead and the extent of what we have
currently in place at an institutional
level is the the Memorandum of
Understanding of the cohorts that I just
mentioned I believe that there is a lot
more room for more partnerships because
the goal can I mean they have programs
that focus on youth which is a big area
of need in our community they have
opportunities to focus on college
students specifically with with the
current situation they they have changed
and adapted to ecommerce and that's
where we're leveraging upon but I
believe that there are many other
opportunities that we can leverage their
expertise another possible area is how
do we expand into some of the other more
traditional needs such as food
incubators which have been proving in
other communities to be a way to help
communities move forward and upward and
so I believe that there are many many
more opportunities we're partnering with
them well there we they're part of the
economic development policy review
committee now representing Animus you I
believe that there are many
opportunities as we continue to explore
the gaps and feeling with programming to
to make sure that we continue to partner
and duplicate efforts and leverage upon
the resources and the and the common
vision that we'll have to move our to
help our community move forward and
specifically targeting those who may be
out of the the system or marginalized or
or with other challenges so Workforce
Development is I've seen as a key
component to that so but many ways that
we can still partner with Arrowhead in
in dan Jana Community College SBDC was
so where we have a good working
relationship just to make those from the
institutional approach we have a lot of
room to to make those changes great
that's great to hear dr. Martinez and I
would I think it's important that we
explored some of those what some of
those gaps are so that we're not
duplicating services but really getting
at providing you know information and
resources that a lot of people might
need and
I worry sometimes about I think animus
you sometimes operates very much in a
bubble and so I worry very much that not
a ton of folks have access to some of
those things so how do we better partner
with them so that they're they have a
greater reach in in the last Cruces
community especially for some of those
more marginalized folks mayor comes with
urban coma tied to what comes to her
Vasquez has had mentioned before one of
the ideas that that can lower those
barriers in working with our partners at
workforce connections as well is how do
we have all of these services under one
roof to prevent that people don't have
to make different trips to different
resources and so the concept of having
the business support entities the
workforce development partners and also
other services that may be tied to
housing or unemployment or other items
it may be on another area that we could
explore and and continue to bring the
barriers as low as possible
absolutely thank you and laughing I'll
say that I love I personally love the
idea of community land Trust's
I think I'm really glad you brought that
into the space and we've been looking
I've been you know studying looking into
the sawmill district in Albuquerque for
a while and it just I think it's I think
it's a good and smart way forward for
sure thank you hmm Thank You counselor
let's try it one more time
Oh David Dalton did you have a quick
comment no sir okay let's try one more
time with councilor sword he's
somebody's working outside his house I
guess with the internet and counselors
are you with us when once going twice on
let you for sure man well did you have
any comments that you wanted to say
oh it's too late now nevermind oh okay
well sorry did my best
Debbie Debbie more Thank You mr. mayor I
just want to make an announcement well
first I want to come in on councilman
come on I think what we've got going now
counselor is a great partnership of all
of our organizations and trying to
figure out those gap analysis so we can
figure out who we need to recruit to
fill in that gap between all of our
agencies from you know the work force
collaborative that's got several people
at the table to do a great organization
in the chamber so I think we've got the
skeleton of there maybe we have a
ministerís to share what we're doing
with everyone but I think then it's a
priority for me to try to just let's put
it down in writing let's see what we've
got and where we need to go from there
the last thing I just want to announce
because you had mentioned business crime
we are partnering with LCPD for a Friday
zoom you know I probably got your email
from the chamber and that will be from
9:00 to 10:30 on Friday we have several
of the officers deputies going to be
there and as of this morning it's been
at like 48 hours we have almost 50 I
think about 40 to 50 people already
signed up so we are addressing current
issues during this code so the chamber
is trying to stay on top of those so we
can provide the resources and we're
partnering with the other chambers in
the city and getting that word out Thank
You mr. mayor thank you for this
opportunity
absolutely well Michael mr. Truman I
can't thank you enough for you sharing
your information with us I mean I know
you're well known nationally you go
around throughout the nation talking
about this and thank you for not
charging us today and giving us a
freebie but this was incredible
hopefully we can call on you in the
future for something and perhaps we
probably will pay you for that but thank
you again and appreciate it it's a great
it's a great honor to work with you
folks I've had the pleasure and
privilege of being in Los Cruz
as once before and think it's a gorgeous
that in happy to be connected with you
all great yeah not really he gave it to
us for free Wow thank you so we're gonna
make sure that counselor Florida stakes
you out all you can eat steak and
lobster next time you come into local
restaurant though not the Olive Garden
okay okay so we're gonna go ahead and
move toward next item which is I have
one point two which is the police
auditor RFP and that is gonna be
Jennifer Vega Brown our city attorney
and viola Padilla is also gonna help out
so I don't know which one's gonna start
off first
good afternoon mr. mayor councillors
viola Padilla interim audit manager
today we're going to review a
presentation we've prepared for the
police auditor services I will be
sharing my screen and then miss Jennifer
Vega Brown we'll begin the presentation
thank you Mary council I'm gonna go
through the presentation if you want me
to repeat anything please let me know or
if you need me to slow down please let
me know and I'm happy to answer any
questions as we go along as you know the
the city issued an RFP and entered into
a professional services agreement for
police audit services in August of 2014
we are in the process of reviewing that
RFP prime sorry the whole RFP process it
may be that we're going to kind of stay
with the same model but what we would
like to get from you today is some input
on what your thoughts are I wait for
viola to share the screen can you all
see the screen
not yet
you all can't see my screen no ma'am
yeah how about now No viola did you did
you share it did you save it to
SharePoint
it is on SharePoint David yes let me see
if I can get it and open it for you
thank you David dull hand this is David
my assess I'm already in the process of
oat if you want to give me a second or
two we'll see if I can get it for all
defer to you sir thank you so how's
everybody's weekend yeah mine was very
good mayor thank you for asking two
things that you can do two things at one
time there we're looking for yeah it was
hot really Oh for you not this coming
week I don't know
our debt worth waiting for the computer
as fast as technology is it still takes
a while to call it up sure sure
counselor sorg are you on both video and
audio counselor sort no didn't look like
hmmm counselor Flores I know we saw you
earlier Oh looks like we're about ready
to there we go okay have we got to
scream okay we can advance to the first
okay so as I began the city issued an
RFP for professional services for police
audit in 2014 this contract was was
extended multiple times I think a total
of five and it's terminated in August of
2019 a sixth contract renewal was
underway but it was determined in late
2019 that a new RFP should be created to
address an increased need for more
specific data and information the more
detailed information will provide the
opportunity to track trends and identify
areas of needed improvement and policy
revision or implementation this was
discussed this this aspect of it was
discussed in detail with the audit team
and the former city audit manager what
we determined was that there just wasn't
enough detailed information we didn't
have enough data a selection Advisory
Committee was convened on January 8th
and we discussed the scope of services
for the RFP we reviewed the previous
scope of services in the previous
contract and we compared that and added
some additional language the SAC that
include included individuals from the
New Mexico State Police Dona Ana County
Sheriff's Department LCPD
the city
of El Paso internal audit and the city
of Las Cruces that included people from
finance legal and internal on it the sac
determined the general scope of services
and the city's internal audit and legal
department were asked to finalize the
RFP language what's important to note is
that a police audit is not mandated it
is not legally required this is
something that the city has volunteered
to do they have determined through years
ago and I think the mayor has spoken
about this previously that it was
determined that a police thought it
should happen so that we can review
internal affairs investigations and
complaints unlike standard financial
audits which follow yellow book or red
book rules and government auditing
standards when these audits do not have
required specific audit standards and it
kind of varies across the board miss
Padilla
did a survey and I reached out to many
different agencies and she can tell you
how many she reached out just to ask
them what their standards were that they
were using and it really came across it
went from everywhere from yellow book
and red book to other types of
government auditing standards so it
really varies across the board generally
police audits are certified and law
enforcement auditors that you want to
see le8 or members of the international
law enforcement auditors Association the
il EAA and like I said before our
internal audit reached out to get an
idea of what the general standards are
as a best practice model in the current
RFP that has been discussed with the sac
and in compares comparing it to our pre
is contract there are several scopes of
service stuff it will be narrowed down
to the key components or this contract
will be audits of the complaint
investigation process this is a review
and reported on a normal citizen and
internally initiated investigations and
law enforcement complaints received on
the city's anonymous hotline George our
investigations were complete objective
thorough fair and fair and actions taken
work for it this is also any complaints
that will be received and that are
investigated through ia what we did was
we included in addition to what we are
already investigating we included the
citizen hotline complaints may include
code of conduct ethics recording devices
physical arrest search and seizure use
of force bias-based policing and vehicle
pursuits
they will want another scope of service
will be audits of police operations it
will review and report on policies
procedures and training issues and make
recommendations for improvement to
increase police accountability and
transparency in the complaint process
there will also be an evaluation of tort
planning notices and/or notice civil
actions this information is related to
matters that have been litigated or
disposed in are no longer pending and
include offender and victim demographics
location of incidents criminal charges
associated with the incidents
disposition of the case policy
violations and dispositions and placed
on certain graphics it was another
additional change to the RFP there
wasn't a plan we notice civil actions
what we added to that was an evaluation
of tort claim because we received many
different tort claims and we want to
make sure that the serpentine notices
that we receive coincide with the other
investigations that were we are about
moving and I didn't do that which wasn't
included before was the demographic
Jennifer you're kind of fading in a
little bit out I don't know if it's your
microphone I don't know if you can maybe
get closer and and speak just a little
bit louder please okay I will try to
speak louder okay
more key components for the first two
movies follow up on it they will conduct
follow-up audits to evaluate
implementation of recommendations or
insufficient procedural practical or
other barriers that may suppress or
Dysport or discourage reporting of
complaints and will also include a
comparative analysis they will prepare
the from the previous items that we just
mentioned to the overall statistics and
number of is incidents the Police
Department responds to where no
complaints were received so there's
going to need to be some kind of
comparison where where we're evaluating
all responses not just those that
generate complaints another key
component is statistical and trend
analysis they will compile statistics
and report on trends based on new and
historical data resulting from complaint
investigations the statistical and trend
analysis shall include but will not be
limited to offender and victim
demographics location of incidents
criminal charges associated with the
incidents the disposition of cases
policy violations and dispositions
police officer demographics and other
statistics related to the complaint
investigations
some of the details and reporting we
will require a written audit and
evaluation reports which will be
submitted to the city within 30 days of
receiving the complaint or notice and we
will require written semiannual reports
which must be submitted and shall be
compliant with the city of Las Cruces
accountability and government ordinance
the only caveat to that is that they
will not be evaluating complaints of in
cases that are in pending litigation
that could present some danger to the
city and so those that are pending will
be evaluated after the conclusion of
that litigation other requirements will
be on site presentations and written
reports some of the information
contained in those presentations and
written reports will be the number of
audit and investigation requests
received during each semiannual period
the number of audits and investigations
completed completed during each
semiannual period a summary of all
dispositions non complaint actions
positive actions findings and
recommendations reported during each
semiannual period in addition to
statistical trend and comparative
analysis of new and historical data the
demographics of the audit investigations
as they relate to the offender victim
demographics location of incidents
criminal charges associated with the
incidents disposition of cases policy
violations and dispositions and police
officer demographics that is also
another added detail to the new RFP
along with in the RFP as you've seen on
a couple of our bigger contracting we
will have this will be a performance
contract so each scope that we just went
through each scope will have its
distinct objective deliverable and
outputs and performance measures
and I will stand for any questions okay
let's see here Johnson mayor pro-tem
Gandara Cal sir Vasquez Thank You mayor
thank you um Brown and your staff Biola
and others really appreciate it
I think for me the bigger question is
that we asking ourselves do we want a
police auditor versus a citizen review
board both and even diggin-in than that
is about dick gonna go the Las Cruces
Police Department hired a outfit justice
and security strategies to do sort of an
overall assessment of police and kind of
with internal internal survey external
say pervade with the community did
several different town halls and and
really put some you know did ride-alongs
interview law enforcement officers crime
victims looked at crime statistics I
mean I felt like they did an overall
assessment and so like I asked myself is
it time for us to really look at doing
something like that and I think the
answer is yes I think it's important
that so Jennifer my question to you is
would this could this RFP look like that
or would it be couple of you know a
couple of things one we're looking at
doing an assessment of the overall
police right capturing everything I just
said around surveys and community forums
and such and when and then secondly
could this auditor do those kinds of
things once a year
once every six months - really because I
think what's important is establishing a
baseline and I'm not sure that we have
that at this point and then building
from building from that I know that
there is a lot of different statistics I
know that as we were preparing for the
eight can't wait all of us at different
times ask for different types of data
and I know you're currently trying to
get some of that data and so yeah I'll
stop there the question is could could
this RFP not only do what you've asked
because I think those are all excellent
things that we should definitely
consider but I want for us to dig even
deeper and that is with the surveying
the community forums looking at crime
statistics making sure that we have the
best science base programming available
so that we're addressing what the
problems are to begin with but in our
community but also within the police
force pair and council as far as the
krinkle Pacific's go there is a if one
of the scopes of service will be a
statistical analysis and it is going to
include crime statistics for those
incidents and the specific types of
crimes there that are associated with
those complaints and non complaints and
so if there will be an element of
statistical analysis in that as far as a
public oversight we did add language
that will require it to be compliant
with our accountability in government
ordinance we have advertised for our
Oversight Committee and there are
specific wireman for that Oversight
Committee and right now we are receiving
applications for that Oversight
Committee so there will be some
committee oversight along with all of
our other audit functions we will have
that element included in this RFP so
Jennifer that Oversight Committee that's
new to us actually and we revamp though
that policy review committee to look
more like that can you go over that so
that my colleagues and then the public
can understand this is a good plug to
put in for people to submit their
applications so I think I just want you
to explain because I think that's really
important as we can you know continue to
bet whether this is what we want to do
or not yes mayor and and councils are
gone that we as you are aware you passed
an ordinance a year and a half ago
called the accountability and government
ordinance it requires several things one
of the things that it did was establish
some independence with our internal
audit department and our city auditor it
also created an inspector general
position and it created an oversight
committee one of the things that the
Oversight Committee is tasked with is to
evaluate every audit that the city
undertakes it will evaluate for
completeness and make sure that the that
the process was fair that it was
thorough they can make recommendations
back to internal audit or whatever audit
firm exists at that time they will
report to the City Council they will
report any number of things there are
several there are three members of the
committee and I believe I'm trying to
look at my ordinance now to ad hoc the
mayor is one and then there are specific
requirements for each member there has
to be a member
from with a business background an
accounting background perhaps there's a
member from either a legal background
law enforcement background and there was
a member with audit background there
could be any variation we're waiting to
see what applications we received to see
if we have enough people who meet those
requirements to build the committee we
used a best practice model that many
other cities used including City of
Albuquerque but out of state our
external audit firm actually was very
familiar with this model and they liked
the model that we are former external
auditor they liked the form of the
community one of the the most important
part of that is the independence that it
it allows more independence for our
internal audit functioning but it also
allows required reporting to the City
Council okay
all right thank you Miss Baker Brown my
next question is if so if we go through
this and we decide yes to house so we're
gonna have both of these and very
clearly we know that these are the
things we want this auditor to look at
you know via because I think we're
asking every six months correct at least
at least yes okay and how in the event
so they would be reviewing cases prior
year prior or a timeframe it will be
identified or and I know that's like
looking at all the information right the
the calls that are made the reporting
the Fiat anonymous calls complaints all
that right they will be looking at
real-time so there will they will loot
your Ewing complaints that are received
and are investigated
a current in the current time period
okay okay now in the event there is a
issue how an issue say with a use of
force and how does it get connected to
and maybe there is a personnel matter
that needs to be addressed is someone
from HR connected to them do they have
their own HR mechanism the internal
audit isn't intended to review a human
resource matters or personnel matters
because that would put the city in a
precarious position because personnel
matters need to remain separate however
what they do review will be the
investigation of the incident itself so
they're going to look at the
investigation itself to make sure that
it was it was properly done it was
thorough and then they're going to look
at the incident itself and address any
deficiencies if there's a policy
deficiency or if there's a trend that
they are observing they're going to note
the trend to give us that information
that's one of the most important things
that we we need is we need to be able to
track trends you know we don't have a
good basis we don't have data so that we
we really need we just need an actual
physical mapping of where things are
occurring how they are occurring who's
involved in those incidents we really
just need a good baseline so that we can
track any possible trends bakery I agree
so um I guess for me Jennifer I'm
appreciative of the work that you've put
forth all the the you know the reviews
and speaking to or whatever you've done
and to look at national best practices
and so I am for the police auditor I
think that's an that's an important
function but I want us to be very
specific about what all I like to see
that auditor initially I think along
with what you just said about
establishing that baseline that thread
I think it's it's very important to
establish that baseline for them tap for
that for the police force and totality
so I also engaging the community again
like I said having the internal and
external surveying I think it's so in
the focus groups and the the forums that
I think need to happen that we've shied
away from at least in the five years
that I've been here I know there's been
like conversate copy with a cop and some
of these other things and I have to say
anytime that I've had meetings in my
district law enforcement has always been
a part of those and I appreciate it
appreciated that sometimes we've seen
spikes in my district specifically in
property crime under here recently gun
violence and and so I know that they've
they've been a part of that but but I
think again shied away from really
understanding what the community's view
is about our police force and we need to
move move into that and the other thing
I would really like to see is a more
robust I know we have it but I'm not
sure how law enforcement is using our
victims advocates they have a great
victim advocate group Judy Baca she's
been a longtime colleague of mine but I
don't see that we are using that to the
best of our ability and I think they
could really help bridge community and
the victims to what and and so I guess
what I'm saying is I'd like an
assessment about how to really um engage
our victim advocate group because I
think that is so sorely missing and it's
such an important piece and I'll stop
there I have other stuff but I want to
give my colleagues opportunity so thank
you and mayor and councilor one of the
things
that we can talk about when you say that
you would like to have more surveying of
the community I think that we can add an
aspect of that into the RFP but I think
what we'll have to kind of leave it very
open-ended and know that there's some
mechanism we're going to have to refine
what what it is we're surveying what
what what is it that we're looking for
and what questions will be like answer
so we'll have to leave that kind of
open-ended so that we can refine that as
another point but I think that a survey
question certainly some type of
surveying is as possible
it might be that an option to kind of
refine that and maybe put it in the RFP
is to include the Public Safety Select
Committee so that that conversation can
occur and we can refine any survey
questions dirt sure I think that's an
important aspect for sure Jennifer I I
just want the public to be very much a
part of this process I think it's
important they have very strong views
about how they see our police force and
sort of what their encounters have been
if they've had any things are on
customer service are important to me and
if we're going to reimagine what our
police force is going to look like I
really want our public to be definitely
aware of that and again if people
haven't seen that decade-old report I
would encourage you to read that there's
a lot of good good information in there
around community and training and use of
police use of force and and those kinds
of things that have really enlightened
me and and I do also want to say
conserve ask as my stuff and may or may
Cosima
been meeting with our chief or deputy
Chiefs around specifically issues
surrounding our districts and DC
Dominguez and DC brach have been really
helpful and open when we have come up
with different issues and we're really
talking a lot about how we communicate
with the public they're looking at
website changes so that it's easier to
navigate and you'll be hearing a little
more in the form of a Pio in terms of
what to expect and a transparency page
and and and things of that of that sort
so I'm really excited about just the
openness as we move forward so thank you
Thank You keno mere Pro Tem Kevin
Vasquez
Tobuscus oh sorry about that I was on
mute thank you guys thank you mayor I'm
an attorney Vega Brown yes I wholly
agree we need a police auditor in
addition to a robust citizen Review
Board and for those two to work together
I think would be ideal I definitely see
a role in a citizen Review Board having
an annual review or a quarterly review
of the police audits that council gets
and perhaps even provide written
recommendations or written comments on
that audit to council so that we can
perhaps be looking at that police audit
not just independently as counselors but
with the input and comments from a
police review board I think that would
be very helpful the other part is around
the firms themselves
I know the last firm that we selected
was if I'm not mistaken primarily
staffed by former police department
administrative staff and wondering if as
far as we know there's police auditors
out there who are not former police or
law enforcement if we could if we're
going to be expecting to have firms that
that aren't from former law enforcement
officers to apply for this mayor and
council ID I as far as expectation I
don't I don't know because we have
preferred the certifications the it
doesn't require that you are a former
law enforcement those types of
certifications are not it's not required
so I really couldn't tell you who is
going to submit ok well I don't want to
get certainly into the RFP process and
the selection criteria for that for that
but you know I think it would give our
residents perhaps more comfort knowing
that it was not former police officers
auditing other police officers just as a
comment
that I heard from some members of the
public in the past myself included I
feel more comfortable knowing that it's
not you know folks but but again don't
want to get into the RFP process in that
way that artificially you know taints
the process I guess and then another
question I have is regarding the data
collection from the auditor to the
department itself when the auditor is
soliciting information from the police
department or from internal affairs what
guarantees or what check checkpoints are
there that ensures that the auditor is
getting both the correct and the
complete information from the police
department is there any accountability
measure in that process being canceled
as far as an accountability measure
that's a difficult thing to say because
the information is it's held by the
police department I think we can you can
hope that the information is going to be
accurate I mean a lot of it we can there
is public information that we can use
for comparison I mean there the police
department is required to report to the
federal government and state government
and so there's always there can always
be that kind of check to make sure that
the information is accurate and I'll
defer to the police department on their
required reporting but there are some
mechanisms that we can check Thank You
Jennifer I definitely would that be
maybe a you know question for potential
applicants in terms of how how they
ensure the quality and timeliness and
accuracy of information that they
received from other police departments
or other clients to see what kind of
processes they have in place as you said
Jennifer tis to make sure that we are
getting new you know getting up-to-date
information in the same information that
the police department
has available publicly and that we get
that during their reporting back to
Council I think that be an important
aspect of this firm to take on and to
have experience doing and I think with
that those are all my questions and
comments we're now thinking Thank You
counselor
I also Bencomo he's mayor and Thank You
Jennifer for your presentation um can
you sort of walk help walk me through
what this will look like so that once
there are piece completed you post it
where and then how generally how do
applicants find out about this Thank You
Marion Council I will defer to Alex for
that question but generally what will
happen next
is that these the selection advisory
committee will convene again to talk
about any necessary changes but I'll
I'll defer to Alex thank you for the
question
this for the record this is junior Alex
Lewis purchasing section section yes
the selection of Weiser committee will
not meet multiple times before the RFP
was posted so to finalize the RFP when
the draft RFP was finalized we'll post
on several media for example we will
post on the internet which is the
audience is the whole country every
police auditor throughout the whole
country can get on the project and also
we're going to post on local newspaper
as well so that any local vendors that
interested and bid on this project
and we're going to give enough time for
the vendors to respond and draft the
response to the the IFP when auto
respond is submitted
we will bring order for Moses back to
the selection of i3 committee to
evaluate if the the scoring has all the
Preferences from four local vendors
as coals I will go into interview
section so if you ask additional
questions for any specific question that
we need and when the end something one
after the interviews will add all the
schools together and will recommend the
highest scoring vendor or multiple
vendor and recommend for the council
Thank You Alec and who sits on now
selection committee it's dad this the
staff and for this one
every procurement selection of i3 is
unique it was appointed by the user
department also by the a thus in the
city administration for this selection
of ISO committee has internal staff from
different departments and also external
staff like Jennifer mentioned Dona Dona
Ana County please stay please
city of El Paso internal auditors so
they can bring their expertise together
with our own staff from different
departments okay um and then Jennifer
this question might be for you I don't
know if you're still there but um thank
you Alex um the other Oversight
Committee you mentioned that's that's a
citywide Oversight Committee right yes
counselor and I turned off my video
because the last time you told me to do
that because it's nothing better it
actually worked so yeah okay um yes that
Oversight Committee is new we haven't we
haven't sold it yet and we were waiting
we had some turnover within our internal
audit and so I was waiting to fill that
with the city manager we had talked the
previous city manager we talked about it
before but we went ahead and just
advertised it so that is a new that is a
new committee it is citywide it's open
to anybody within the city limits if
it's if it's necessary
to open a countywide we can come back
and let you know that but we'll wait and
see what we get
I know sorry I meant more like oversight
force it like city then tattoo should
write like Department you know what I'm
saying yes it is yes okay it's not just
like oversight for LT PE for specific
Department it is like the entire city
that's correct
it is oversight for the entire city and
every audit function and every it'll
over oversee the activities of the
internal audit department and the
inspector general when that position is
built and also make recommendations
citywide okay that's what I thought okay
thank you um back to the selection
committee though I'm concerned that that
if it's us also other law enforcement
entities choosing an auditor that
there's already bias built into the
process here in Council as far as the
selection Advisory Committee we have
outside you have to remember that we
have to be very careful and again I'll
defer to Alex on this we have to follow
our procurement code the code requires
specific individuals who can be on the
selection advisory it's tailored to be
for specialists in the area so content
specialists as far as bias goes there's
a there's a scoring I don't know what
the I don't know what your concerns are
yeah if you could be a little more
specific that the the outside entities
are hopefully what is assisting with
that and that they're offering an
unbiased very unbiased oversight of it
right right right and yes that's I mean
we hope that that's what it is right
like that would be the ethical agency to
to choose and then for them to have
ethically but I think I hear and just
echoing what counselor Bosco says right
when a lot of this auditors are former
police I think there's um I think that
gives a lot of pods to a lot of
community members in terms of trust in
the process if I can just jump in real
quick and I can appreciate what you're
saying councilor in Como but like right
now take for example we're looking for a
city manager and we're looking for
managers who have experience and I could
I get validate your concern if we were
taking them from here locally but you've
got them from other parts who knows
where they're from I don't even know
where they're from but usually they're
from back east you know if they're from
back east they don't know these officers
they don't have that connection they but
they do have that background to know how
how things are supposed to work and how
they should be working and being bring
best practices with them in fact I would
think that if if if I was a business
like theirs they want to make sure that
they find things clean it up because
that's that's the best recommendation
therefore for their business to grow if
they start doing a bad job and things
still mess up they're gonna say who what
company did you use I mean they're
worthless they're not doing a good job
and so and I think it's fair to say that
that is really what you're looking for
you're looking for someone who knows
what they're what to look for knows how
to fix the problem and and has really no
connection to anyone here locally I mean
that's why I look my yeah my concern is
not bias because I know someone that's
not the concern I have my concern is
that there is a widespread protection
across this country now mistrust with
policing isn't something unique to Las
Cruces right it this is happening all
over the country and I mean I'll just
come out and say it right my concern
that there is a widespread protection of
law enforcement officers by other law
enforcement
officers the Aryan Council we addressed
that just if I can when you're talk
about auditors and viola can rile up
that a effectiveness of any auditor is a
member of professional organization and
those licenses and certifications are
extremely important for any auditor any
auditor including our external auditors
any professional auditor is going to
have to maintain neutrality and and to
be unbiased to say that anybody's going
to be biased toward a particular
department the check and balance in that
is that if you have a certain number of
complaints and certain types of
complaints you can't hide that
that's just reporting of data and so for
example if you have a number of use of
force complaints for a particular area
that's just statistical data it's not an
interpretation of that data because what
auditors do is report the facts and the
facts are you have X number in this area
this could be the problem and then they
look at the problem but you can't hide
the data that's why it's so important to
add those demographics into the audit
because you can't really it isn't it
leaves very little to interpretation
when you just have it all mapped out
yeah no I appreciate you saying that I
think that's actually an excellent point
you know I think for me and awed it and
I'm just finishing one in my own private
job but I think or not it really is that
for the purpose of finding your gaps
right finding your weaknesses patterns
like you said trends and patterns so
that you can correct them so that
ultimately at the end of the day you'll
your war can be better it can be
stronger and and I'm by no means right
saying that and not it like I don't want
this to I don't want it to come off like
I'm saying an artist should lead to
punitive outcomes because I don't think
that's gonna serve anybody I think the
audit an intense comprehensive audit can
lead to actually a
better working police force that has the
trust of community members right that we
that there's communication that's
flowing both ways in terms of how they
operate that's ultimately what I would
love to see come out of this right and I
think that that's a long-term process
for sure I will say that in my I've been
doing some research on this on just
police audits in general and there are
several nonprofit organizations that are
researchers that have been researching
racial bias in conjunction with a bunch
of bias in conjunction with policing and
the outcomes of that has had
historically in this country something I
came across that I don't know Jennifer
if this would be a I don't this is what
I was asking about the RFP process
because I found that I came across an
organization that was highly recommended
rights and colleagues and another state
called the Center for policing equity
highly recommend that folks look into
that and that this is an organization
that we reach out to I think their goal
is to build strong law enforcement
partnerships and then pull in
stakeholders in our community so that we
can you know pinpoint what those
inequities are and their whole the
Center for policing equity is all about
research and analyzing it and then being
able to provide actionable steps that
can better whatever situation is
happening in the community so for me for
me that's that's something I would like
to see Jennifer is how I mean honestly
it's exactly what you said what what how
are they looking at data and then
providing actionable steps to the City
Council to the department so that we can
move in a direction of of rebuilding
well frankly what Public Safety looks
like what policing looks like and then I
think consequently rebuilding trust
within our community
Thank You councillor and and mayor also
one of the things that when we look at
our when we look at our audit function
if we look at our just our regular
external audit or any kind of financial
audit that we have what the auditor does
they they identify they they review data
and information a lot of documents they
find like you said they find the gaps
they find the problems and they may make
a recommendation to you have to improve
your internal control once that happens
we leave it up to our internal audit and
our own departments to start identifying
ways to address the lack of internal
control that's why we have internal
audit it may be that this is a two or
three or four stage process because what
we need is good data collection so that
we can identify those gaps and once we
have that it may mean that we need to go
now to a different type of consultant to
help us figure out how to fix the gaps
but I think at this stage just knowing
where they are is the most important
thing because I don't think we have a
clear picture of where those gaps exists
and so I think we should look at it in a
prospectively in a very from a very wide
lens this may have to be several
different steps yeah I think that's I
think you're I think you're totally
right Jennifer I don't even think it's a
mediating diff it definitely will be
several different steps and I just want
us to make sure that we're looking at
this very holistically and so that's why
I'm I'm suggesting an organization like
the Center for policing equity because I
think whatever stepped up might be it's
important to bring folks that have been
studying all of this for a long time
that can provide you know we've all had
conversations about reform publicly and
I think if that's the direction we're
moving into I you know I want us to have
all the information and data and
diagnosis so that we can move forward
with what's something that makes sense
for for our communities
I also I'm also a deep believer that
throughout this process whatever how
many other steps that might be that one
of them needs to be the creation of a
citizen review committee as well in
conjunction with with this auditor and
whatever other consulting consultants
related to this to this issue might be
able to provide for us so thank you okay
thank you
looks like councillor Flores is next oh
wait before we begin David Maestas you
have a comment Thank You mayor yes I did
I had one previously too so if it's okay
mayor you will indulge me I'll try to
answer both of them just for
clarification hopefully this will help
councillor Bencomo this is David masters
interim city manager with her questions
specific to the selection Advisory
Committee contraband : when the
committee reviews the RFPs they review
it based on those measures that Jennifer
talked about based on the parameters
that we're asking for and demographics
and items that we want to see as part of
the audits that they turn in so the
committee doesn't necessarily rate on
the firm the type of firm that they are
but rather their ability to perform
those deliverables that we asked for and
the experience that they have providing
that information so thank you for that
mirror the other one I wanted to just
clarify real quick when we're talking
about trends the police department does
publish their report and in that you do
see trends however when we're talking
about not having a baseline for trends
right now the ones we're talking about
are the additional demographics that
Jennifer has pointed out and those we
feel are critical to help us with the
analyzing of what the audit report tells
us to know that we can look at things
more specifically and more in-depth and
help us to better work on areas that we
might need to but also see areas where
we are doing okay and that way we can
separate the two out and really focus on
the areas that we need to thank you Mary
thank you David
okay so councillor Flores
Thank You mr. here and thank you and
thank you wait a minute this is that
going this is nuts and thank you also
like I like to thank my colleagues I I
have a question for the attorney Vega
Brown what when you started this you
said that we passed an ordinance about
from one and a half years ago and you
went through a couple of there were
three things that were in that ordinance
what what you wanted inspector general
you mentioned an oversight committee and
what was the third one the auditor I
can't hear mayor and council yes there
were
well we already had a city auditor at
the time we still we have an interim
right now but what it allows for
independent audit function so that it
requires more independence which is one
of the recommendations is the best
practice model it in our subsequent
external audits they had they had
suggested that there'd be more
independence and that was written into
the ordinance
Chancellor Flores you were muted I'm
sorry so you also said that that there
with the auditor would be looking at an
incident report in detail and then look
at a policy and then track the trend um
whose policy exactly would they be
looking at and why is it important to
track the trend Marion council the the
fleet audit will look at the complaints
and the investigations that are
conducted by our ia division so they're
going to look at our complaint process
and the investigation of those
complaints to make sure that those
complaints were adequately reported
investigated and then they're going to
look at if there's if there's a problem
I can get I don't know I'm trying to
think of a specific example if you have
a use of force incident and that
incident is investigated and they can
identify a problem and because of our
policy it may be that we need to adjust
our policy to prevent that type of
action from occurring in the future or
amend our policy or create and maybe
that an incident occurs and we don't
have a policy to have addressed that so
we need to address it so they will
identify those types of situations so
the policy I'm sorry I'm really sorry
I'm having a horrible audio problem so
the policy would be set by whom they
would review our own in our Police
Department policy and city policy oh so
they be reviewing the policy that the
police Rd Police Department has
yes they try to identify any problems or
lapses in policy or deficiencies in
policy yes okay and then it would be and
then it would be submitted to the police
department the audit or would it be to
our city manager the reporting is going
to occurrence by at least by annually to
signal an entire report of what's been
occurring however every after 30 days of
viewing a complaint we will receive a
report so the news department will
receive it he the manager will receive
it on it bullies keep it turning yes the
Oversight Committee will receive it you
see
oh and tracking the trend who would be
tracking it it would be the the auditors
or would it be the LCPD or people
reading the record or and then what
would we do with that what would it
would it be an indication that it policy
isn't working or their thirds in a
policy that really addresses the issue
of reoccurring the problem
great council it's not that they would
be tracking a trend it's that they would
be keeping or providing us data so that
we can identify a trend it may be coming
up
yeah you guys can mute your phones
please
you're not talking so if there's if
there is a particular type of incident
that keeps occurring over and over or
you know more than once it we would be
alerted to that because we'll have that
data we'll have that information and
then we can identify is this a training
issue is this what is the issue is it a
policy issue is it that we don't have a
policy on this particular issue it could
be any number of things but the
important part is that they will how
they will identify the data and provide
us the data if they can track it if they
can identify any trends that that's part
of it but we also have to look at the
data and evaluate the data
go surf Lotus you're muted I apologize I
haven't asked this question again but
who is by the auditors we present just
the LCPD
all right you know what mr. mayor I'm
sorry this isn't working
okay so let me go - counselor made the
Scoobies excuse me mr. mayor
yes I'm gonna have to log off and then
we're going to try to get back home okay
oh thank you thank you counselor abate
the Stevie Thank You mayor and thank you
Jennifer most of my questions have been
answered and I want to thank mayor
pretend for her questions many of mine
were very similar but I did have a
question regards to the audits
previously done and if we in this new
process will be looking back at any
findings or recommendations from that
audit and to see if we had achieved
those recommendations moving forward
mayor and council we will look at that
as I think that's an important part of
us moving forward is to evaluate what's
already been done I think one of the
deficiencies was that we didn't have a
lot of use data and so it it might be
limited but yes I think that that's an
important place for us to begin is to
look and see if there was anything
identified that we should have changed
and didn't or there was a deficiency and
we didn't identify it yes thank you and
thank you Mary thank you
council Bencomo did you have a follow up
question or did you forget to put your
hand out
no no I have a follow-up question thank
you this councillor Ben Coleman
um Jennifer did I hear you so I was
hearing you list out it was just hard to
hear because of that going for comes
from Flores but did I hear you when I
heard you list out the folks who would
be receiving the audits I didn't hear
the council but did you say City Council
yes mayor and council that the the 30
day so once a complaint is received
they'll have 30 days to report it right
back that means you know right back to
the LCPD let's see the city manager the
city attorney our internal audit and
then the City Council is going to get
report so you're going to have
semiannual but we're also going to have
more frequent reports because the
Oversight Committee is required to
report to the City Council also and so
that's why it was important for us to
put that in the RFP because that's a
more regular reporting to the council
that's right so we're essentially
looking for one big audit right like one
big swoop to sort of figure map out
where we're at and then after that its
quarterly reporting at least yes okay
okay and then then how much of that is
public information the link once the
Oversight Committee approves an audit or
has they don't ever I should I hate to
use the word approves but they have to
authorize the audit so the Oversight
Committee can't change an audit but they
can add comments to it they can say well
we don't think it was good enough in
this area or they can make comments once
that's done it's public okay okay Thank
You Jennifer and thank you mayor okay I
think that concludes this portion of the
police auditor RFP I appreciate
everyone's information and presentation
and so we're gonna go to Oh chief
Gallagher do you have a comment yes sir
just quick Patrick Gallagher Las Cruces
police chief I know everybody was
talking about the 2009 report I wanted
to draw everyone's attention to an
analysis of Las Cruces police department
I was
2016 that's I think it's available
online still that's where I found it
it's by the Center for Public Safety
management and they audited all types of
parts of the police department including
the Internal Affairs process as well
something you might want to take a look
at okay thanks chief okay so with that
we're going to go to item 1 point 3
which is the 2018 geo bond park and
sports field improvements and additions
East Mesa public recreation complex
Master Plan Update looks like mr. David
Savio and Tony Trevino will be making a
presentation good afternoon mayor and
city council this is Tony Trevino the
interim deputy director of public works
and as you just mentioned yes we are
here to go over the East Mesa public
recreational sports complex or just part
of the 2018 geo bond at this point in
time we're here to present the master
plan for its entire build-out however
we'll come back and depict of what's
going to be part of the first phase with
the improvements that are to be included
with the Geo bond which is a 10 acre
park the baseball complex soccer
football fields 1/8 pickleball courts so
you'll see that in the presentation
below that I also want to mention we
have had five public meetings at this
point with stakeholders as four teams in
the public and we did have our first
frictional meeting here and that was a
great success we had over $24,000
$24,000 24,000 views on this virtual
meeting and over one hundred and twenty
six comments so this was it was great
there was a first time doing that so I
was happy to get all the comments from
the public and be with to address them
with the project we have Wilson company
inside southwest doing the design for
the project
mr. George Voinovich is here with site
southwest he's going to be given the
presentation so George neither
I can see you're alright can everyone
see the president we can't we have
everyone there are viewers on the movie
or not speaking that would be great
principle and we'll have plenty of time
for questions and answers at the end of
the presentation mayor so thank you for
having us mr. mayor and councillors as
Tony said this is a presentation for the
East base