[Music]
No
all right good morning everybody welcome
to our work session of Las Cruces City
Council today is Friday June 12 2020
it's approximately 9:30 a.m. if you
please join me in the Pledge of
Allegiance please the United States of
America to the Republic for which it
stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all ok so
we have one item on the agenda double
check we don't have a pet of the week
one item on the agenda
Kovach 19 update when they have three
presenters first one's gonna be Natalie
green followed by Deputy Chief Jason
Smith and then also joining Noah
joining us is Colin combs from our we're
just the operations center so Natalie
take it away good morning mr. mayor
members of council Natalie green of
Community Development so in the
presentation before you is an update on
the funding that council has provided
for coab in 19 emergency response the
first update I have for you is the
Community Foundation of southern New
Mexico overall they they spent all of
their funding in addition to our one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars they
also they spent a total four hundred and
fifty thousand dollars city funds
assisted I apologize your guyses faces
are right in the middle of my
presentation and I can't see they can
escape Natalina should although then it
won't go to sorry they assisted
approximately 489 individuals with city
funding which was a total of 1573
a lot of the funding went to food
service workers hair salon workers day
care
employees that worked at their care
facilities substitute teachers hotels
automobile it's gonna be a lot of those
industries that were heavily impacted by
the shutdown any denials were because
they were either duplicates or
fraudulent applications it's it was a
very small percentage but they were
there there is a continued mean so they
are referring to the other agencies that
still have funding and they through this
process determine their there is a gap
of service for those individuals who
lack computers or have limited English
proficiency so that's something they're
working on overall outside of this
process one thing they did ask me to
emphasize is is for us to consider
options down the road when we're looking
at recovery so not necessarily now with
the during this time but a few months
from now what that recovery process
looks like the next agency is Community
Action Agency Council awarded them
225,000 so far they've processed 300
requests for us just for assistance
they've helped 138 of those households
they had 69 applications that they were
still processing and approximately 50
were non-responsive so this was probably
a midweek update they've spent more
since then but it's about $80,000 and
they're still working to expend those
funds we're hoping that they'll be able
to expend by the end of the fiscal year
but they may need an extension into the
the next fiscal year they are using that
to assist with rent mortgage utility
payments car payments general assistance
casa the pedigree knows they saw over
700 new clients so these are not their
regular clients that they see month
after month these were were new
households that they've never ever seen
before
they assisted in may 249 individuals
with utility vouchers and they've
distributed almost
hundred thousand pounds of food being
and then their expenses again they're
seeing an increase in food costs as we
all know a lot of their food was coming
from the food rescue program so that was
coming from stores that food that they
can't sell or is near the expiration
date then that they give to the pedigree
knows and with the food shortages in the
stores they're not seeing that food
rescue come in families and youth
council awarded them three hundred
thousand dollars and they're using it
across three different programs at
Lucido which has 43 residents and
they've it's a permanent supportive
housing program near the Mesilla Valley
communal campus my friend's place is the
youth shelter so they have nine runaway
youth or homeless youth staying in the
shelter they've done for I apologize
this number is in the wrong spot but
through the mayor's meals programs they
have done forty eight thousand meals in
the months I believe that's the month
hmm I'm not sure what this is I
apologize but they've done four thousand
breakfasts oh I think that all those
numbers add up together so it's a total
for the mayor's meal and the Summer Food
Program so they did 31,000 lunches
they've also started their dinner
service program so they've done 11,000
dinners starting since March 31st and
they've ended their separate breakfast
program so now as part of their lunch
they're serving breakfast and lunch in a
in a common meal bag excuse me Natalie
those three numbers do add up to forty
eight thousand three fifty four thank
you
they also as part of the mayor's mail
initiative they are working through a
restaurant Relief Program so they have
provided about fourteen thousand
vouchers or will be providing fourteen
thousand meal vouchers
that helps food insecure households that
are over the age of 18 so the summer and
the dinner meals can help those under
the age of 18 this can help individuals
above the age of 18 so the restaurants
that are they put out an RFP for with
local restaurants the restaurants that
were awarded vouchers are the aim fit
meals on the list Jake's cafe
jimbob's cafe la posta Lorenzo's Mateos
Ruby Tuesday's and the game one in two
those vouchers are available through
many of our partners in the community so
it's someone is looking for a meal
voucher they can contact a kudu Seto
comprehensive Community Support
Community Action Agency a community of
Hope some of the community schools so
there's quite a few locations to get a
meal voucher and we'll make sure this is
up on our website so not only counsel
can act access this but members of the
public connects us this community of
hope was awarded seventy four thousand
dollars they've expended about thirty
three thousand of that unassisted 41
households so over the last month or so
they've seen 44 first-time clients so
that's clients that have never accessed
their services and all across their
programs that are currently housing over
two hundred and forty-two households and
they did create their online application
so they've seen an increase in
assistance requests lacasa they were
able to open their shelter back up with
the new governor's orders so they have
24 families in shelters they still have
15 families in hotels and they've had
some new families enter transitional
housing programs and they have 48
families that are there not in shelter
but they're receiving services outside
we've served over 3,000 meals to their
residents
Kristoff's creatives counsel awarded
them approximately $21,000 they've
created 5,000 either mass or face
shields and they are distributing those
to different departments and members of
the public and many of the medical
facilities and we'll have a more
comprehensive update if Council wants to
know where those masks are going on the
website Dona Ana communities United they
were able to fill the position to do the
Los Amigos program so they've matched 20
pairs so far and they continue to
coordinate with La Quinta de Familia MMC
in Mountain View to identify
vulnerabilities
benefit from the program opinion last
month they saw 61 children for forensic
interviews they saw 11 adults for sexual
assault exams and they had for deferred
cases for child abuse exams just a
general update from them they're not
seeing an increase or a decrease
necessarily but they are seeing what
they're calling a change in abuse
patterns so they're seeing more chronic
chronic sexual abuse cases involving
children and what they mean by a change
in abuse is they've seen more intimate
partner violence and some some what they
call pretty horrific cases so they they
just want to thank the city for
continued support and they also want to
thank their responding partners so law
enforcement cYFD for their continued
work again on these difficult cases
Catholic Charities they've assisted 49
individuals and distributed almost
$30,000 in direct assistance and again
they're using that for utilities rent
mortgage
mints food assistance they were able to
help for homeless high school students
last month Habitat for Humanity their
contract was executed and they've hired
their local contractors so construction
is on ongoing and we expect the homes
will be completed by the end of the
month and they'll be closing on time the
veteran's treatment Court their contract
was pending I got that contract back
signed so they are purchasing electronic
equipment for telehealth services to
continue their video court sessions for
the clients that are in the veteran's
treatment Court so they're able to
maintain their supervision and provide
that video interaction so they can
continue their path to to their past so
they can comply with their court court
standards and the policies of the
program so they're doing their their
social groups their treatment groups the
fire department we awarded $40,000 for
PPE
so again Fire Department remains a
single point of ordering so any city
departments that need p PE should be
contacting them they were able to stock
all the community interacting
departments and they've bought gloves
masks sanitizer wipes and hand sanitizer
so they're continuing to distribute
those items sanitation kits all the
supplies have arrived they prepared or
are continuing to prepare those kits and
again this was a I made this slide
midweek but they're probably up to a
thousand distributed to community of
hope and they're working on the the
second batch for senior programs
as part of this initiative the fire also
bought these cotton masks to distribute
to the general public so we are
distributing those through quality of
life utilities parks we have some here
at the front desk the fire department
and I believe police already had theirs
I'll let chief correct me on that and
then Community Development also has mass
so if there are members of the public
that don't have access to mass we do
have again these cotton mats available
economic development they have completed
the flash assessment and they that was
presented to Council and someone from
economic development is here to answer
any questions regarding this they are
also working on their technical
assistance so they were finalizing the
contract and are beginning to issue a
Pio on that process the utility
assistance fund they have exhausted
their fiscal year 20 finding and they
are beginning to spend their emergency
kovat funding so they've assisted almost
300 individuals and 40 businesses and
they have spent about fifty six thousand
of that 125,000 and then I will stand
for a discussion X Natalie
any questions of Natalie on these
appropriations counselor basis to be
thank you and thank you Natalie for for
showing off this I had a quick question
if we could go back to the side that had
the fYI restaurant vouchers
when looking at those how many rfp's did
we end up receiving from different
restaurants let me see if I have that
number in the update they provided me I
do not see where they told me how many
RFPs they received would be a number I
would be I'd like to know more about
that RFP process um also with the
masking as well maybe that's something
that we could go over later get
something set up but I would like to
learn more about that and I'd like to
know how many of our restaurants did
apply for that process I also noticed we
do have is Ruby Tuesday's a locally
owned franchise or mr. mayor Councillor
Bates's doobie I will find out for you
okay thank you I just you know um as I'm
new to this process I am starting to see
very similar names pop up consistently
in certain areas and it is something I'm
very excited I want us to be able to
help out as many businesses as possible
but it's just I am it's a very small
list for as many as we have how many
openings did we have for that RFP how
many what was the mechanism to decide
just choosing these mr. mayor Councillor
break this to be so
FYI advertised they had a specific
process were they asked restaurants to
give them information on essentially
what was a ten dollar meal filets those
to them but I would have to get more
specific information from fYI so I can
um reach out to them ask them that and I
will work through management to get you
a response thank you I appreciate that
and then for the second one if we could
go to the side with the lop in your
numbers please and we they had sixty one
of the forensic interviews what was that
date range for that mr. mayor Councillor
rapist to be that was just in the month
of me
just in the monthly okay and all of
these numbers were just for the month of
me so okay thank you
you know I this is a very difficult
situation and I I do apply our my
opinion and the work that they do I know
it's it's very hard for them as well to
hear all those so thank you those are
the only questions I have for now
Thank You counselor Mayor Pro Tem
Gandara and then counselor ruscus Thank
You mayor Thank You Natalie for your
presentation and thank you to the staff
that put this together and I know it's
an enormous amount of work to
to put this together and to manage it
and so I'm hoping kind of I think comes
her I bet this to be alluding to the the
question about well we get an overall an
overall number you know a final report
where you're able to speak to the
numbers of children and families that
each of these organizations have been
able to help
mr. mayor counselor ma'am Tim Gunn do
that so I suspect that we'll get final
reports on total numbers closer to the
end of the fiscal year when they've
expended most of their funding if not
all of their funding so these numbers do
change daily and so some of the agencies
are billing weekly some of them are
billing monthly or every other month so
we really have a full grasp of the
picture both will ensure that we get you
a final report on all of these numbers
as those come in and we are updating the
website with accomplishments weekly yes
I'm aware I see that so the other eye I
I thought that we were in agreement as a
council that as we work through these
food vouchers that varies we were very
specific about making sure that we had
local businesses especially the mom and
pop you know restaurants that that we
can help so I'm hoping that that that um
you in terms of Ruby Tuesday and I don't
know if they're locally owned but that
would be something that I would be
interested in and the other piece and
the other question is the community of
Hope slide can you move to that one
Natalie
okay the I would be interested in
finding out how many of these households
our children and families are
individuals some digging in more with
the demographics would be helpful to me
those are you know when you talk about
forty four first-time clients and 242
currently in housing programs those are
astonishing numbers to me especially
during kovat and I think those are
things that I like to mount to
understand a little more because I'm
afraid that as we move through these
months that we might see some increases
with folks that aren't able to pay rent
unable to pay mortgages so those kinds
of things and we certainly don't want
people to find themselves homeless and
so if we could get a little more
demographics as it relates to that I I
would appreciate it mr. mayor Mayor Tim
Gunn today I will get that information
and to previously answer counselor basis
do be I pulled up the art piece of the
qualifications were that they must be
locally owned and operated so I'm going
to say that Ruby Tuesday's was locally
owned or operated in order to get this
funding on the other qualifications with
us was that they had to be a brick or
mortar and operated at a full-service
restaurant they had to be open for at
least five days a week and they they
preferred delivery services but it was
not required okay well thank you thank
you so much again I know this was a huge
lift I know that a lot of our
organizations are our and our agencies
are really working hard to expend this
money so I know that maybe some of them
might need an extension and I hope that
were
able to give that world were flexible
enough to to agree to move into the new
fiscal year having them assist folks
accordingly so so thank you thank you
Pro Tem and counselor bait this to be
did you guys see that note from Rochelle
okay looks like that Ruby Tuesday is a
locally owned franchise so that's good
Joe sir Vasquez the owner to winter
animus used so that's coachman thank you
Mary
thank you mayor thank you for those
wonderful questions councillors evade
the still being gun that Mayor Pro Tem
gun that I had some similar questions in
particular about the effectiveness of
the restaurant vouchers just given the
amount of restaurants potentially that
needed the help seems like a pretty
small group to pick from in terms of the
impact that we could have not saying
that there's any issues on the part of
staff I just think you know however we
can have more of an impact using those
funds or rework the program in the
future so that it has a little bit more
reach across the restaurant industry in
Las Cruces I think that'd be that'd be
optimal right we don't want to pick
winners and losers and try to help out
as many people as we can necessarily so
you know other than that I just I want
to say that I'm really proud of the
city's response to tick ovid and the way
that we responded with with compassion
than using our tell short fund I think
is an exemplary way to to use that
funding and so I'm very happy with what
we did everything that staff was able to
put together so quickly working with
Council I'm very proud of it also makes
me think a little bit about what kind of
how we can actually keep some of these
programs and these funds these funds
going right I think posts Cobin our
community suffers from poverty at a
pretty high rate I think nearly a third
of our communities
lives under the federal poverty level
and so I
think we have to start thinking about
how to make some of these investments
sustainable long term through actual
programs that are embedded in
departments that we that we can continue
to raise funds for because even when
kovat theoretically goes away poverty is
still not going to go away and so I
think we've shown what the city can do
in terms of supporting folks that really
need the help and so I don't want us to
forget about what we did during this
response when kovat is over I think I'd
love for us to have conversations about
how we make these programs sustainable
and find funding sources and revenue so
that we can continue to help people pay
rent we can continue to help people pay
their bills and we can provide the
resources to especially those in our
community that are going through mental
health or physical abuse or domestic
abuse how can we support those programs
more or continue our support for them
maybe not at the same levels but
definitely at sustainable levels so I'm
glad that we've shown we can do it I'm
glad that we've worked all the legal
angles right in terms of the anti
donation clause so that we know what's
possible in the future in terms of
contributions we can make to the
well-being of our community so with that
I just want to thank staff for all their
hard work and also you know for
partnering with our local nonprofits
that's something that I've I wanted to
see more of in the city for a long time
and we have a pretty oftentimes
cumbersome or complicated vendor process
or not everybody or not every nonprofit
necessarily can can partner with the
city and I think we've talked about some
of the insurance issues in the past on
liability and other things but I think
we want to make it easier for the city
as an entity to continue partnering with
community organizations to provide
services not to duplicate services and
to support people on the ground who have
been doing this work for a long time and
so with that thank you so much Natalie I
appreciate your presentation today happy
is that so many of those funds have gone
to so many families and thank you mayor
Thank You counselor just one quick
comment and so I just verified our
poverty level city Las Cruces at twenty
four point four percent and I know you
said it's close to third and I don't
know I guess last year I was it was it
was higher highly debated that you know
almost given the that it was a City
Council's fault that we actually have so
many people in poverty and I have to
tell you that as long as I can remember
it actually was a little bit higher it
hasn't improved a whole lot in the last
20-some odd years but it's improved by
about two or three percent downward
which is good so I just I didn't want it
to be same it was close to a third and
you know because that's like thirty
three percent which is yeah I thought it
was twenty-eight yeah I thought it was
twenty eight twenty four point four so
mr. mayor
yes mayor members of council um just for
some historical knowledge back in 2000
when we did a major update to the
consolidated plan I think that year we
had 33% of our children in poverty and
our children living in poverty is still
high versus total households I think
we're still children and we'll get that
information updated in the next
consolidated plan as well as through the
census update that's information we get
there as well we were at one point
twenty seven twenty eight percent family
household poverty so we have seen
improvements in the community it helps
with a diversified economy a higher
educational attainment level and so
forth but it's been a long-standing
situation with our poverty rate in Las
Cruces and it's a attributed to a
multitude of factors and and so I feel
like the city's doing its part with what
funding we received from the federal and
state government but as we all know it's
never enough so thanks for that before
we get to council sorg and one other
thing council roscas I like your idea
about being able to not just after we
get through this but be able to help in
the future and I'm just going to circle
back to if we ever get and
that land developed if we do it you know
the vision that I had on the the lowman
property at least portion that would be
income this totally unencumbered and I
was I was thinking that we could give it
to you know that divided by six council
members and and then you have access to
to do what you need to do almost like a
nice little amount I'm guessing each one
would probably to get thirty thousand a
year
collectively couple hundred thousand and
just and just off of that off of that
portion of commercial land so that would
be something to possibly keep in the
back of your back of your mind okay so
we have counselors organic counselor
Bencomo
oh excuse me and now they did you have a
comment badly green I did mr. Muir for
counselor abate this Duty I did receive
a response from fYI so there was sixteen
RFP submitted so they selected ten out
of the sixteen thank you thinking that
Lee counselor soared and then council
Bencomo
Thank You mr. mayor
to begin with Natalie you've done a
great job as usual about Meese impressed
your your work that you've done for the
city well with all that discussion since
when I raised my hand
what I was gonna say is almost all said
on there is one thing that counsel basta
was talking about that I totally agree
with and that is something continuing uh
we have had a continuing year after year
support for organizations that you're
such as you're talking about that we've
gotten out of the the interest in
dividends of the Taos you're fine it's
never enough obviously it's never
nothing I've always been trying to get
more use all of the interest in
dividends which of course varies from
year to year but use it all instead of
putting and just keep the corpus the
same amount year after year I am still
in favor of that but you know like the
mayor says there's other sources of
revenue that we could use in for these
organizations too so yeah we're doing it
and we need to do more agreed agreed
I've been doing some chatting on the
chat thing about the restaurants thing I
is that I don't know in the restaurant
business that well but I would assume
all restaurants in the city here are
managed from a with a local person what
distinguishes persons that are owned and
not owned i I understand sometimes
McDonald's has restaurants that are
locally owned so I suppose that local
person has built the restaurant and so
forth and just has a French reason
agreement but anyway I don't understand
that well anyway so there was other
things that I was gonna say but you've
already set up so I'm just gonna let it
go mister Mary good job done thank you
Thank You counselor you know it's funny
a while back I was talking to the owner
of McDonald's in El Paso and I was I
said I said I can't believe that that
that restaurant on well to say this you
know I won't say the street he says
there I get they gotta be the slowest in
the world and he looked at me says
Kendal's that's a quote that's a company
store that's not my one of his stores he
owns like almost every McDonald's in El
Paso except like - and that's one of the
companies for so the difference is and I
think that's what counsel was trying to
get at you know they wanted a locally
owned store versus a company store
that's controlled by the okay counselor
pink on low and then mayor pro-tem Thank
You mayor um my apologies everyone it
was a little late Natalie could you
email me your presentation I won't ask
you to go through however we get again
that's not fair for everyone but if you
could email it to me that'd be great I'd
really appreciate that
I was basically just gonna ask that but
now that we're on this topic of the
poverty rate I mean I think 24 28 33
they're all in terribly high um you know
I often hear the city especially through
this covet talk about that were in a
lucky place you know not compared to our
perhaps our sister cities in Albuquerque
and Santa Fe and that we have very
healthy budgets here locally I think um
yeah we have a 24 percent poverty rate I
mean I think that that's that's not okay
and it's certainly not councils fault
but I think council has a big role and
responsibility to play in in how we make
a significant stride in minimizing that
poverty rate and I think if if we have
that opportunity we should take it I'd
love to understand how that breaks down
by district I'd love to understand what
that 24 percent looks like when we think
of it in terms of districts one through
six and then mr. mayor I would argue
that you know if I love you know the
idea of the lowman property and but I
would argue that we should distribute
that equitably through districts who
perhaps see more poverty rates in them
perhaps should get more funding I think
that that's I think that that would be
really important and so you know I I
just I want to throw that out there and
then maybe this question doesn't have
for mister - pass or or Barbara I'm not
sure but in terms of cares act money I
know that we had gone a presentation on
that and it was very restricted you know
it what does that look like for the city
I know that we obviously didn't get
cares act like bigger cities across the
country what do we think it looks like
for the future we do we have an
understanding and analysis of of more
federal relief specifically to Cove it
and how we'll be able to use it if it's
going to come from the state is it not
does anybody have any understanding of
what that might look like
Thank You counselor
if I could answer mayor and council herb
in Como we actually have a me Basford
attending the meeting to assist with
that information so I just want to
invite Amy to provide it as a response
thanks Laura
[Music]
yeah Amy are you there what are they
waiting for Amy Johnson Ezra
Here I am sorry sorry what problem with
my mute button this morning I apologize
and start my video yes and I'm sorry can
you repeat the question for me they
wanted to know about the Kara's act
funding you know I know
some of the larger cities that were
500,000 and are more in population got
immediate funding such as Albuquerque
but I also seem to recall the Congress
passed a bill also for smaller cities
but it's based on a different formula
and so they just wanted to know if you
are aware of what amount city of Las
Cruces might be receive so yes let me
share my screen this is information that
Larry who ran our lobbyist shared with
us the other day and there are some
scenarios that the Legislature will be
reviewing when they meet at the end of
next week and so let me share that
screen with you right very quickly Amy
before you do that yes mayor the mayor
and Councilman como is asking on our
status of our cares act funding okay
that one min before you go to the state
situation okay
great can everybody see my screen not
yet
there you go there we go this is a
matrix that we've developed to cover all
of the different sources of federal
funding that came under the cares Act
that were that the city has directly
received or will be receiving the FEMA
disaster relief this first column that
is defeat that is disaster money that
will be ongoing
it will cover 75% of our expenses
they are expenses directly related to
Kovac so it can be overtime and compute
PPEs it can be disinfection incident
management food water supply this is
your basic funding that comes out every
time there is a disaster in our
community or any community so this is an
ongoing application that we will receive
funding from the federal aviation
division allotted a certain amount of
money for all airports to continue
operating during the Kovac crisis and we
have received a sixty nine thousand
dollars for that and that will be used
for some operating expenses in fiscal
year twenty one you will be seeing this
agreement come before you at the July
6th meeting the FTA which is our Federal
Transit Administration has allotted out
of the cares Act for the city six
million plus dollars this is a hundred
percent reimbursement many of these are
a hundred percent reimbursement which is
great we don't have any match for many
of these this is for any and all
operating expenses for transit that will
be coming for you this Monday the
agreement and this is for includes any
expenses due to lost revenue so at this
time since we are allowing the buses to
run for free and we have a reduced
revenue this will help cover that this
funding will start covering expenses
from April 1 until it is expended so we
anticipate that this will last between
11 and 15 months depending on how
operations are adjusted for the various
issues that are related to the the
crisis and and any surges that we might
have in the future then we have the
bureau our Department of Justice this is
our burn grant this is phase one this
was paid for or given to the Department
of Public Safety in New Mexico and they
are putting out two phases of funding
under this first phase for our Police
we have received a hundred and fifty one
thousand dollars that money is a hundred
percent reimbursable this is specific to
covin over time equipment peepees
disinfecting supplies training travel
even hiring additional personnel that
are needed to respond to the crisis this
agreement should be coming forward to
you in early July
we are hoping I think it's in the final
phases of execution and then we have the
National Endowment for the Humanities
which we have applied for this is an
application process we have not heard
yet what we will be receiving we applied
for approximately three hundred thousand
dollars at a hundred percent
reimbursement what we will be doing with
this funding is developing digital and
virtual programming for the museum and
the library it will cover some staff
expenses to develop that type of
programming and so that would include
things like our GED program that we have
at the library some of the art classes
from the museum's and a variety of other
digital programming to continue that
process the New Mexico Department of
Arts received some funding and they
moved that out to us in increments of
ten thousand was the maximum we could
apply for and this will be to retain
employees we will be utilizing this
funding should it be awarded for the
Technical Services at the Rio Grande
theater during the time it's closed and
let me just scroll over a little bit so
you can see that better so then we have
the FEMA assistance to firefighters this
is a specific amount of funding directly
to fire for PPEs
due to the Kovach crisis it does not
cover salaries or regular fire PPE so we
can't purchase any of their they're
really strong PPEs that they use when
they're in a fire but this will provide
for a lot of funding for ongoing needs
that they have and we've asked for
1,000 we are still pending waiting to
pick that one back to get an approval on
that one just yesterday we submitted an
application to the Institute of Library
and Museum services for quality of life
I believe that the total that we asked
for was three hundred and twenty five
thousand I'm sorry I haven't updated
this since it was submitted yesterday
this is a continuation of what we
proposed in the New Mexico Endowment for
the Arts to continue to develop the
digital services through the library
it does include also hot spots that can
be checked out by those who do not have
internet access as well as some tablets
and things that will be available to be
checked out from the library as well so
those individuals who do not have access
to computers or to internet and are
dependent on the library's computer lab
that they can't use at this time would
be able to check out some equipment that
would allow them to access the internet
from home had provided funding through
the cdbg which Natalie has done a great
job of telling you in the past about
what was going to be happening with that
funding that was five hundred and sixty
thousand the Department of Justice
directly from the federal government
provided an allotment through the burn
grant funding which we have received
multiple times that amount is fifty nine
six twenty two and that is a hundred
percent reimbursement again directly
related to kovat overtime equipment PPE
supplies the police are going to do some
unique things they're going to purchase
some the foggers that they can disinfect
the cars with after they have had
somebody in their vehicle they're going
to have the fogger so that they can
disinfect the interrogation rooms and
the holding cells and those kinds of
things as well as have a mobile unit
where they can drive a car in and
completely disinfect it so those are
some
unique things that the police department
is trying now I'm gonna try and move you
guys so that I can show you the rest of
the things over here and then under the
non-metro Area Agency on Aging we have
received funding through the families
first kovat response act in the amount
of 107 this is specifically for
nutrition for home delivered and
congregate meals and it does have to be
used by the end of believe this one is
the end of September and then we also
receive funding through that same agency
through the cares act of a hundred and
thirty three thousand dollars this
provides respite care nutrition
supportive services and that one I
believe they have until the end of
December to use so that is a overview of
the federal funding that we have applied
for to receive some funding from meals
on wheels for shelf-stable meals that
was twenty five thousand dollars we're
looking at applying at other foundations
that may be providing some kovat or
cares Act funding to keep operations
going during that time period so at this
point this is what we have applied for
and we've got a couple still that are
out there waiting for responses and I'd
be happy to answer any questions you may
have on that
thank you would you like me to cover
what the legislature is going to be
discussing regarding the 1.25 million
billion dollars I don't have a problem
with that if you've got it handy
I do let me just stop sharing this
screen and start sharing another so the
other day let me know when you can see
this mayor yes okay so the other day let
me make this bigger so you all can see
it a bit better the other day
Larry her on our lobbyist provided
information to us about what was from
going to be proposed during the the
legislative session that was going to
start on the 18th they have come up with
several scenarios on how to distribute
the 1.25 billion dollars that the state
was allotted for everyone other than
Albuquerque and so they've got these
four different scenarios here on
methodology and basically the first one
is to use the methodology of how they're
distributing internet sales tax the
second one is to use per capita and
gross receipts support allocations the
third one is to use the per capita the
gross receipts tax calculations and the
Cova impact allocation and you can see
there how they're kind of looking at at
distributing this there's 60% of it
under the per capita they're looking at
60% to municipalities and 40% to
counties
they are looking to fund a replacement
of about 10% of GRT in aggregate and
then there's a 15 million dollar set
aside for those municipalities and
counties most affected by kovat and then
the fourth scenario and this is a
proposal and we're not sure exactly how
they will be handling this this is
should the proposal that is currently
before Congress pass this would be how
they would distribute that stimulus
package to municipalities and so then as
I scroll down here you can see what Las
Cruces is and I'm sorry we're not the
ones circled in red we're the very first
one up here I'm not sure why they sent
out something that only had that
particular location circled but for Las
Cruces we have a population of a hundred
and two thousand the support for local
GRT lost is estimated at approximately
five million there's support for the
state GRT that would be lost and that's
at three point nine million we did not
have a significant kovat impact as
Farmington and Gallup and those did so
without a zero for us a per capita
distribution is 5.1 million
so in all depending on this area
scenario one two or three we will
receive but slightly in excess of
fourteen million dollars from the state
under scenario 4 I think that is
additional funding but I I'm not
positive how they're going to do this
that would be an additional eight point
nine million the good news is that we
believe that this will come directly
into the city such as our gross receipts
tax does and therefore can go directly
into the general fund
Leon de moosh our chief budget officer
is also on this out this morning and can
answer any questions on how this funding
might be used again this is all
dependent on what the legislature does
at the end of next week so I will be
happy to answer any questions on this as
well
okay well thanks let's see here we have
custer council ben coleman that was just
talking that asked the question yes
thank you mr. mayor that was it my only
follow up I was gonna have and probably
not free me but thanks I mean I really
appreciate this information um could we
I don't know who would be able to do
this but could we get that data in terms
of poverty rates by district is that
possible and can someone work their
magic dr. Byas maybe I don't know I
would but I would invade on to answer
right now but I would love to I would
like to see that information
Thank You mr. mayor
yes David that's a chance this is David
all on for the record to answer
counselor Ben Como's question that's
it's a complicated process we will try I
think realistically we're more likely to
get it with the census information that
we can end with the consolidated plan
that we can get it at a district level
because of privacy issues with the
census and so forth it's a little bit
hard to get their data at a level that
we can extract it to council level
because the boundaries don't always
overlap we I will work with CD staff to
see if we what we can do with previous
census information but it's going to be
a little dated and we can look at
American Community Survey
maybe we can extract and then we'll put
that in the discussion definitely for
consolidated plan another issue that
might be helpful for you that I can ask
Natalie to share is our designated
low-income neighborhoods through the HUD
program so we have area specifics and
then you they they can show on a map
related to your council districts on
that that one's an easy one we can
provide in short order but the poverty
is a little more difficult
but we will try mayor and David if I may
that was something I asked for when I
came on the council and I wasn't
provided a map counselor Vasquez can you
state your name please Robert yes this
is a counselor Vasquez apologize I just
wanted to say that I did I did receive a
map when I first came on that was I
think it was poverty levels by census
tracts but it had the district's
kind of roped around the map or
designated around the map in different
colors so you could essentially see the
census tracts through poverty you know
the poverty levels of each census tract
but then there was also an overlay of
each district on top of that map and so
I think that was and that that should be
out there somewhere that staff has
produced before Thanks yeah tying it to
the census tract is easy enough we I
think that Turkey Mayor David Dolan for
the record talking to councilor
Vasquez's comments we can overlay that
information it's trying to get it sent
district-wide as one number may be more
more difficult we can show you the areas
that have higher poverty rates it's just
we can't give you a total number by
district I don't believe but we'll look
into it thanks counselor sorry did you
forget to put your hand out
no I did not I had some continue okay
well I'm gonna have to put your be huh
since you've already spoken I'm gonna go
with Mayor Pro Tem if that's okay and
then I'll catch you I just turned okay
sure sure did too but that's okay yeah
April temp
mayor pro-tem gondola I'm here this
counter Starkville need to go before me
I'm happy to yield the floor
to him okay I wanted to I wanted to
suggest or recommend piggybacking on the
questions about the restaurants and the
vouchers I think that the 16 RFPs and
six were not selected and I'm I'm
thinking it's because of the money there
was an additional money and I'd like to
recommend to council to provide funding
so that we can help those six other
restaurants whoever they might be
so that just because they're still at
50% if they are some I don't know who
those six are but I'm sure they're
struggling to get themselves up and
running and I'd like to recommend that
the other thing is thanks Amy that's a
lot of information I'm really impressed
with the organization and the
spreadsheet I think that's and then all
the the work that hat that is being done
to to to make that happen
I'm assuming there's applications that
need to be that you apply for in order
for the funding and such so this is
excellent one of the things that is
tuefel for me is excited about the
opportunities for decreasing the digital
divide right like helping to the museums
and the libraries to assist them and
making sure that our constituency have
the ability the availability of
computers and tablets and hotspots I
think that's going to be really really
helpful and I think one of the things
that we were struggling I've got a few
phone calls with folks that were
using the library computers and then
unable to write and so when it when
you're required to fill things out via
internet and you don't have that kind of
access
especially for unemployment and such I
think that's going to be really helpful
especially to our families because I
think that there will probably be
another surge it looks like we may even
enter into the schools going into a
second phase of virtual learning and we
have to make sure and I again I've often
said how proud I have a response I
didn't hear anything about the schools
Natalie we gave the schools quite a bit
of money and I wasn't sure if we'd
receive an update on that how they were
able to spend that money or continue to
spend that money but I think that's
going to continue to be really helpful
to these families that first of all that
I've heard through community in the
schools they've had some difficulty
reaching connecting with families some
of them just sorta fell off the grid if
you will and haven't been able to
communicate or contact them and I think
as school starts there's going to happen
there's going to be a need to keep in
contact with these families families
that have either Guardians grandparents
that don't have access or even the
knowledge about how to navigate I'm
using that so I'm hoping that the city
can play a bigger role than they already
have
especially around museums and libraries
with the schools I think that's going to
be really important and I'm really
excited because both conservatives and
councilor debate this to be and I heard
a wonderful presentation from the
community from the community and the
schools from Cruces scream I'm gonna get
the name wrong I think I'm gonna butcher
it but
they're going to be they have a program
that they'll be working with teachers
and people who want to provide sort of
students anything from government to art
music whatever that might be and I think
that's gonna be really helpful and
important so I I know that um miss Lynn
Gallagher was on the phone and and
yesterday and so she's very good about
connecting the dots and and really
encouraged us to do that with our
elevate las cruces plan in the community
in the school's planning and so I so a
very long thing but Natalie can we get
an update on where the schools at with
some of that funding mr. mayor Mayor Pro
tempt under that that's one of the
contracts I don't work on summon at the
Frog she's available to give you an
update okay
Thank You Natalie yes Barbara DeLeon for
the record mayor and council urdaneta
with respect to the funding that was
allocated to the school district they do
so the purpose of that funding was to
provide for high-speed Internet to low
income student families and or teachers
they have entered into an agreement with
Comcast to provide that service through
through June free of charge at that
point we will be helping to fund that
service for the term of July 1st through
October 30th and so we've just received
some information from the school
district to help us to craft that
agreement with them and so the we're
anticipating we'll have that in place
though again we can start providing that
funding as of July 1st they have not
needed it up to this point because of
the agreement where they had with
Comcast to get that for free of charge
well that's nice of Comcast huh
so why through October 30th yes ma'am
a why through October that why isn't it
you know the end of the year or
something at this point that's a
guidance that we've had that we have
from the school counselor and certainly
if they think that terms may need to
change that we may need to consider
something different we will we'll be
available to discuss that and bring that
back to you as appropriate that's so
that comes from the school though to us
Thank You Barbara I appreciate that
Barbara now could the internet the to
help with the high speed internet can we
open that up a little more to include
hotspots tablets those kinds of things I
don't have that information but I can
get that for you I just I just hope that
we can connect with what the museum and
library is doing so that we don't
duplicate efforts but really put our
funding together and really be able to
you know use the funding in the best way
possible not duplicate efforts
understood we want to leverage that
Thank You counselor thank you Thanks
thanks Barbara Thank You mayor Mayor Pro
Tem
I wonder if you we can call on our
friend Orlando and have him reach out to
Dell and see if they want to donate some
computers or tablets Yeah right mayor
that's a good idea
we should yeah before do me a favor here
if you would y'all is apparently mr. :
combs needs to leave at 11:00 and since
I've gone through one full round of all
of you I know there's the council
vaska's a bit disturbing and I'm so sore
that it wanted to do a second round of
questions but can we go ahead and listen
to deputy chief Jason Smith and Colin
and then and that way there he can get
this presentation out you can ask any
questions and then we want to go back to
this issue because there's actually a
couple things I wanted to ask Natalie
myself as well does that okay with you
all okay so if we can go ahead and ask a
DC
myth and then : that would be great to
make your presentation that way their
case counsel has questions they can get
these out of the way calling to go to
his 11 o'clock and we'll go come back to
this issue here with good morning mayor
City Council more Jason Smith deputy
chief for the fire department charge of
operations I'm gonna be introducing :
combs he's our emergency manager for
Indiana County in the city of Las Cruces
just some background information on him
he is retired Air Force retired as
Master Sergeant after 23 years of
service in October of 2018 he was hired
as our emergency manager here for our
OPM so with that
Colon's going to do kind of an update a
little background information on the
Emergency Operations Center and the
Office of Emergency Management and then
we'll get into our response to Cove it
sub : if you want to take it sir Thank
You DC Smith mr. mayor council my name
is Kevin combs I'm the emergency manager
for Dona Ana County and the sea of Las
Cruces is DC Smith stated on today I
want to kind of take you through the
structure of OEM and what we're what
we've been about to lead up to the kovat
response before I get into the formal
presentation I also want to just extend
my thanks to the Las Cruces Fire
Department a Las Cruces Police
Department Las Cruces is financed
there's been a lot of great support from
the city with this and and really
enabled us to be able to help the
residents citizens here within our
jurisdiction to be able to best serve
them in as we've been moving through
this pandemic so so why does the Office
of Emergency Management exist here for
Dona Ana County to save Las Cruces
it's a managerial function which is
created which creates a framework to
allow for folks to come together subject
matter experts in different disciplines
of everything from Public Works the law
enforcement the fire to finance to be
able to make a cohesive response once
normal resource
are overwhelmed everyday within our
community we have emergencies which
occur that I have nothing to do with the
reason for that is for instance if
there's a dumpster fire or a house fire
the Las Cruces Fire Department is well
equipped to deal with that one incident
but if we had a whole block catch on
fire and whatnot
that's where resources could become
stretched and what I would do is then
through the office earners management
help assist with resource management and
obtaining a greater support for those so
I wanted to just want you to see that
what the OEM allows for is the ability
for folks to come together and be able
to manage a larger scale disaster we
have different phases that we go through
from preparedness to response to
recovery and mitigation although and
obviously in all those areas there's
different planning efforts that go on as
we walk through those within this we we
follow a lot of our doctrine comes from
FEMA Federal Emergency Management
administration and as we look at it
again kind of talking about what type of
disaster favorite community there's a
way that they kind of articulate that
through a type system you have a type
five through one of different types of
disasters again a type five would be a
small incident which can be usually
managed within a few hours and by a
single agency and then as the numbers
decrease the level of the incident goes
up really what we're dealing with right
now within this pandemic would be
considered a type one reason for that is
there's national and international
impact of what has happened because of
the pandemic the different aspects would
which it has affected our nation state
but in our local jurisdiction here and
and you know though those effects aren't
just our emergency response that we have
economic impact we have social impact we
have psychological impacts a lot of
different aspects we've been dealing
with
as we've been moving through that and
within which DC Smith will speak to in
detail but within the incident command
that's been established we've been
trying to address those different areas
and not stay myopically focus on just
one one part of that so how do we
accomplish that that's accomplished
through what's called the incident
command system and I'll just give you a
definition here it's a management system
designed to enable effective and
efficient domestic incident management
by integrating combination of facilities
equipments personnel first procedure z'
and communications that operate to and
this is the important part to make a
common organizational structure so that
way we aren't having duplication of
effort but rather we're moving together
in unity to be able to make sure that
we're being most efficient with our time
as we address the different areas
there's usually five components which
consists of an ICS structure you have
command which at current DC Smith is the
incident commander for this you have
operations that's being headed up by DC
christine from Dona Ana County fire up
and Jimmy I stand corrected that's a by
DC a Paul brach from Las Cruces fire
Police Department and then the planning
section is being headed up by DC crispy
Logistics is a firefighter Kevin
and he's been doing a lot of that PPE
processing from the state and helping
out getting into distribute it out to
different entities and spend huge help
you can have an intelligence and
investigation unit as of right now we're
for this operation we do not have one
established finance ami Basford has been
doing an outstanding job in just keeping
us a formed however all the things that
are going on within the state and the
different funding opportunities and
tracking processes so I really
appreciate all those efforts so this is
how we are able to form a cohesive
approach to what we've been dealing with
with the COBIT
and then within so you have you CICS /e
ESF that's emergency support function so
within our emergency operation center we
have then different again something
matter experts that are that are working
within there in the and they are grouped
by a function so like es f1 is
transportation es f2 is communications
why do we have this well this is a
universal thing for anyone who adopts
the National Incident Management System
which our jurisdiction has and so I can
pick up from here in Las Cruces New
Mexico and deploy to somewhere in
Florida and walk into their Emergency
Operations Center it would have the same
setup so we have a common language that
we're utilizing as we're coming into
Incident Response and that's helpful
particularly as I've I've had to deploy
and work in different environments
outside of mine my normal work
environment and then be able to step
into another organization and understand
other functioning so within the EOC we
have the different levels of activation
and I just want to kind of talk through
you can see there's levels 4 through 1
for being the least one being the
greatest as we look at that right now we
are considered at a level type one why
is that because we have a presidential
declaration of disaster along with the
state declaration of disaster and as you
all are well well aware a local
declaration of disaster and then with
looking at the impact to our community
we've had to bring in a lot of different
functions and work work through this
problem so that kovat is presented to us
along with management of other
preparedness efforts going along along
with the kovat so we're we're monitoring
other activities are going out our
community that may be a concern or a
threat to the safety of our community
and it's a complex event and one of the
things that we've had to do is we've
negotiated this event to and also with
the social distancing you
just normal meetings aren't able to take
place so we've had to do a lot more
tella type events and being able to
bring this this together but it's been a
kind of a hybrid response is how I would
describe it because of the way we've we
functioned but it's I think it's been
working well particularly as as again
Los Cruces Fire Department stepped up
and really came in and and started to
help out with the command and control
has been a really useful tool in addy
conflicting some of the things that were
early on and and as I approach this
event and looking at it you know we were
look and saying this is not going to be
a sprint you know it's not a it's not
like the church bombings that we had a
few years ago this is this is going to
be a sustained emergency that we're
going to be going through with not
really a defined end date in time so I
we were hesitant to activate the EOC
when we were looking at it but then as
we started to step through it and get as
it grew we reached a tipping point to
where that that came about so let me
just kind of first walk us through the
timeline of the things that happened and
then and then I'll kind of give you a
picture and then I'll turn it over to DC
Smith unless anyone would have any
questions so again it was an involving
situation on March 2nd I I was at the
partners in preparedness conference up
in Albuquerque New Mexico and we we were
going through it was it was supposed to
be a normal conference but it really
became a planning event because the
COBIT threat had started to emerge at
that point we started to see in like
Washington Washington State starting a
little bit in New York and whatnot I
started to see where what this is going
to become an issue and obviously we'd
seen what had happened internationally
and we're starting to track that so as
we were coming together and the partners
in preparedness is a conference
sponsored by the New Mexico Department
of Health we were actually able to set
up a tabletop exercise kind of start to
look at all the different components of
what would be needed for
a state response so then on March 9th
the Stadio Sea moved to a level 3 again
you know looking at our different
activation levels they start to say oK
we've gone from normal to where we need
to start to monitor this situation they
started sending out some updates and
whatnot and we were able to start to
have a little bit of communication and
start to get a little bit more
visibility to what was going on on March
10th I presented along with a Memorial
Medical Center a and an ik the
department of health and presentation to
the Board of County Commissioners on the
threat of kovat and kind of start to
explain a little bit of what it was and
and walking through that leaning heavily
on the medical expertise then on March
11th our governor made a public health
emergency declaration and then following
that on March 13th the president
declared a national emergency
declaration and the EOC on that day
moved to a level 1 activation so full
activation was created and all the
resources were brought to bear a lot of
the National Guard started to step in
and assist with that
then on the 16th I established a joint
information center which I'm hoping that
has been a useful tool to you as we've
moved through because I know a lot of
desire for information what knotless
wanting to be put out and we were trying
to figure out the best way to present
that information as we step through it
and be honest with you there was I think
some trips along the way and I wanted to
keep people informed but also try to
manage my time most effectively to be
able to support our community but the
the Jake as it would be referred to the
joint information center allows for each
public information officer from each
jurisdiction so we have representives
from the save Las Cruces US
Representative from the county the city
and then all of our other municipalities
that come together just kind of talk
daily through that we've also been able
to now provide frequent updates to what
is going on as far as our regional
capability for our different Hospital
and be able to present that information
and that's also something I'm monitoring
and looking at daily because that's
really our trigger to say is there an
issue that's going to occur once we go
past this from capacity thus far we have
not we have not hit that and that has
given me a little bit of confidence in
the fact that our meta our local medical
infrastructure hasn't become overwhelmed
then on March 18th logistics section was
established because we start to receive
national staff strategic national
stockpile shipments and then started a
regular rotation of ordering PPE to
support the different entities that were
required required meaning for it then on
March 23rd we established because of
some issues that first responders were
having as they were responding to kovat
and wanting to get safety procedures out
we establish what we refer to now as the
first responders operational group
affectionately called the frog and that
allows the collaboration between Fire
EMS police to be able to come together
and just talk about different issues and
keeping everyone safe as we're moving
through them that's been a really
productive working group then on the
30th of March I was able to present a
update to you all on what was going on
with the kovat response the 13th of
April and this is kind of leading into
where we're at now
we were able to establish Unified Area
Command and really started to tighten
down a response and be able to get a
much more productive means by which to
manage all the just a lot of the data
that we're receiving and then also
partnering with the Department of Health
to help assist with testing and getting
more of that epidemiological footprint
needed to kind of define where exactly
our threat was and and who was it being
affected by that are participating
agencies within the unified area command
has already mentioned Las Cruces fire
department and police department have
been very helpful
CLC finance and then Dona Ana County
fire and emergency services
ah so Dona Ana County Sheriff's Office
actually uh Dona Ana County Health and
Human Services led by Jamie Michael has
been a really helpful entity that has
provided support and also just kind of
helping understand not just the the
medical side but the mental health
issues that we've been doing with and
just in making sure that there's a full
orbed approach to as we approach this
cove it and we don't again become singly
focused so a lot of kudos to mrs.
Michael's she's been a great partner to
work with with the net we had D Dona Ana
County fire and then actually down south
southern part Fire Department has really
stepped through and provided a lot of
support and in fact captain Dennis Shan
is leading from Sunland Park Fire
Department is leading the Frog the first
responders operation group so it's been
really helpful before we turn it over to
DC Smith is there any questions of
myself let's see here well the first one
in line was supposed to be councilor
Vasquez and then councilor made us to be
and then councilor sorg
I don't know if they if cancer Vasquez
did you have any questions of calling
mr. combs at this time I've had another
comment coughs our bait this doobie yes
thank you Mary and thank you mister
comes for providing these resources for
us I do have a question in regards just
to how we function as an agency together
with other items that are kind of joint
powers I know that we have both county
and city representatives that kind of
either have a board have an oversight so
that there's some sort of communication
that comes through for different
leadership what does that look like for
your department so right now with the
the structure that we have we have an
agreement between the county and city
which brings about the funding for this
office
along with the pass through pass pass
through funds from the federal
government through the state through DHS
am department of homeland security
emergency management to bring that about
typically with the city of Las Cruces I
I communicate directly to the fire chief
and the police chief as matters arise
and then also mister my Estes city as
the city manager keeps me updated and
then also I provide him information and
as he as he requested well we don't have
an executive board for instance like
with merv dad or something like that at
this time okay and director oversight
for your department comes from where
from from Dona Ana County Fire and
Emergency Services yeah and can you
please describe you know you talked a
lot about not duplicating services or
information that sort of thing can you
please describe what
very specific items that your department
has been able to bring here as a
resource
well what again what we do is we we have
a operation plan that we put together
that we bring the different functions
together to work in communication so for
instance once we we establish that
incident command we were able to then
start to have different subgroups to be
able to manage different aspects so we
have like formal populations we have a
communications team with the hospitals
we have do H testing support so what
we've been able to do is kind of
identify where the gaps are and and ask
for folks to serve in those positions to
be able to help sort mitigate any of
those issues does that answer your
question ma'am um perhaps your counselor
if I could there is another section of
the presentation left to go through that
describes the actual actions that we've
been performing since we opened up the
UAC the unified area command
oh thank you uni Smith
Thank You Khan I think mr. come is what
I was looking for is kind of what does
that typical day look like I know that
you're probably reaching out from state
agencies to local stuff and then how
many are also in your department so
currently I have four four people
assigned in my apartment to be myself
okay and what does that typical day look
like to you as typical as an emergency
response can be are you talking about
within the kovat response yes sir oh
yeah a series of meetings that we go
through to just keep everyone updated
right now we have a Monday morning
planning meeting and then Tuesday
through Thursday we step through and
have a daily update and then Friday we
we have the what's called Mack call
which actually I think DC Smith will
talk a little bit about so that's a
multi-agency coordination group and
that's your executive leadership that
comes together and just gets a weekly
update through that we also then have
the joint information center which is
Monday Wednesday Friday where we get an
update from them and then the call that
I got to be out in five minutes is with
the state AOC where we get an update
from them as well and what sorry mr.
comes are you the facilitator than on
those local calls on some of them yes
ma'am and then some I participated with
okay thank you
um efforts make sure other counselors
have time to ask questions I will leave
the rest of my thank you
Thank You counselor I think that's it
for Colin so okay : I guess you're
you're good so thank you for your
presentation and have a good weekend so
I'm gonna turn it back to DC Smith see
if you want to continue with your
presentation or if you're finished
no DC Smith has were to add sir yeah
okay thank you :
mayor members of City Council that
continue on with our update as we were
talking about different agencies were
brought in through OEM to establish our
unified area command we set off very
early to look at our objectives what
strategic results we wanted to achieve
coming together for our community we set
up our initial incident command
structure which I'll go through and
you'll get to see kind of in depth here
we formed the unified area command
assigning positions and getting people
from Dona Ana County summit Park and
also in the city of Las Cruces to fill
in positions so our strategic goals you
can see there we wanted to definitely
slowed the spread of covin 19 or the
Tsarskoe vid 2 virus wanted to keep
clean our vulnerable population centers
these are things like assisted living or
adult living Senior Living facilities
our homeless populations anywhere where
there's a potential for the Cova virus
to spread rapidly and also have greater
effect on that population we also wanted
to assist in protecting our health care
professionals first responders and our
essential workers wanted to minimize the
impact of kovin by working with our
regional hospitals to ensure they had
sufficient capacity to care for our
critical patients these would be ones
that needed an ICU bed
or needed to be ventilated and we also
wanted to prepare we know that this
virus isn't not going to leave our
population in turn 2 and with the
upcoming fall and flu season we know we
need to review and refine our operations
for pandemic threats in the near future
from that we came up with 10 very good
specific objectives that we're working
towards and our ICS structure supports
the first one to provide support to
regional hospitals for critical care the
second one to provide as a central
receiving point for all of our
jurisdictions for things like PPE that's
our logistical support
we also needed to support the Department
of Health in their mission where we
don't make decisions on where or who
they test or their ability to do
follow-up we do support them with
resources when it comes to PPE and
possibly personnel traffic control
things like that
we also wanted to work on non-congregate
sheltering early on we looked at
Centennial High School as a alternative
care site we also worked on finding
places to place people to separate them
from contact with children if they were
to become infected financed as we heard
earlier today as a big part of of what
goes on our finance section served as a
information sharing and also data
gathering we worked on communication
this was communication across all areas
to include our hospitals our pios for
throughout the community and also our
multi multi agency committee and our
first responder group we were able to
share lessons learn and things that
occurred in our department and other
departments with each other
to help us to be better prepared to
respond recovering there's another thing
that we wanted to make sure we we
touched on we didn't wanted to look at
our short-term and long-term recovery
both for our residents and our such
non-essential workers making sure that
we provide information to anybody who's
working on that recovery plan and making
sure that we also address the issues
that may not come up one thing we talked
about early on was the impact mental or
emotional stress on our employees and
being able to address that and with
everything and after-action review where
we take our lessons learned and we
prepare for the future so here you'll
see our ICS structure at the very top
you have unified area commanders that's
where I serve this incident commander my
backup to me was DC crispy new report
weekly out to the multi-agency
coordination group the bat group this is
made up of mayors and policymakers city
manager County manager throughout our
our area and we provide them a weekly
and update our joint information center
liaison with OPM cone combs at two
operation sections finance logistics
planning I'm going to into depth of
where at what we've been doing with each
of these so you can see everything
that's been going on did what's referred
to as the the jig that supports our
objectives of coordinating with our
regional hospitals report for care
recovery planning and coordinating
communication through through the jig
the Mac in the first responders in the
Mac group we had sun and park anthony
hatch sia
Adomian county Las Cruces with the
acting city manager we also had the
hospital's morning medical center view
Las Cruces Public Schools Gatson
Independent School District Department
of hatch I'm sorry Department of Health
High School's and American Medical
Response
so we really had a large group that we
were communicating with every week with
them on the steps that we were taking
within the Unified Area Command to
address concerns with kovat our section
Chiefs
this area here was where most of the
work was performed for our organization
it's split into two operations section
the first one was the chief of that one
was captain Bobby golden from NASA that
was isolation stations with Jamie
Michael we had DC Brock and operations
who had a lot of branches underneath him
doing a lot of work on the ground
finance really with Amy Basford and Mary
Trail County making sure that they
community communicated information to us
that we could pass along to the first
responder group
and also to the Mac group for reporting
expenses and using the theme of portal
and applying for grants planning as with
DC Christine from Dona Ana County fire
versus services this section here is
always forward-looking and planning out
what our next incident action plan is
going to look like that what things we
need to get in the works and in the
pipeline so that we can address the
upcoming days and then logistics has
been overseen by firefighter nathan car
francis taya sand now driver operator
kevin pappy working on that and this is
where a lot of the daily activity takes
place receiving PPE and supplies filling
request orders and then getting those
out to the requesting agencies so now to
go a little bit in depth on each one of
these isolation stations this branch was
looking at quarantine or isolation of
first responders and civilians early on
we were making strides with NMSU for
some of their houses as well as local
hotels and motels right now we have
agreement through the State Emergency
Operations Center for two hotels both of
the Hampton Inns here in the city of Las
Cruces this allows us to place first
responders who may need to be placed
into one team because they've had an
exposure or are having signs and
symptoms of kovat or in isolation when
they've actually been tested that would
be positive for for the corona virus and
then also for civilians the same process
for for civilians one thing that we did
recognize and we've been working with
the state Jamie Michaels has been
working on is mental health we found
that as someone who needs ongoing
support with mental health issues and
they are kovat positive they need
special care and they need to either be
placed in an area where they can be
taken care of or they're in coronavirus
or Cove in symptoms or they need to be
placed somewhere where they can get
their mental health support or they may
be isolated from the rest of that
vulnerable population so we've been
trying to work through our local
providers here in the city of Las Cruces
as well as state resources
that topic within our operations section
2 we have vulnerable populations this is
mainly an outreach and informational
group early on Lyn Gallagher was
overseeing this branch the objectives
they support ours number six support
communication through the JIK also
coordinate services to vulnerable
populations and then to plan for
resurgence of kovat and seasonal flu
later this year so that takes place
through through outreach and information
right now lieutenant Carrie Danes for
LCPD is overseeing this branch as that
that's chief she's been making contact
with numerous places I think we're up to
three different agencies that we've
spoken to 40 populations we provide them
information about how to communicate
with our unified area command how to
request resources and then we're also
trying to get them plugged into a state
resource that comes from the State
Health Secretary of them sorry not the
health secretary but secretary for aging
and long-term care they have a strike
team they put together that goes through
these skilled nursing facilities and
helps outline how they can put in
processes and procedures to isolate
people who are either insect 'add with
code coronavirus are recovered from and
then their general population so we're
making sure we reach out to these one of
the population centers and provide them
information and get them tied in with
the unified area health care
coordination this is our communication
and coordination with our regional
hospitals this is done by Jackie Saldana
she's one of the staff members at OPM
this is an ongoing daily thing that she
receives information from them about how
many ICU beds they have available status
of ventilators their pipeline of
patients the persons under investigation
PU eyes is a common term they use for
that group where they're showing
symptoms but they have not yet been
diagnosed with corona virus or Kovac 19
does a lot of data reporting helps us in
our
section on what resources we need from
this state so that we can make sure
we're forecasting ahead and being ahead
of our curve for demand go into a little
bit of specifics the key to have today
we're at right now as of yesterday
afternoon we have 56 ICU beds in our
region being used our total surge
capacity meaning how how large or how
many Ising beds can be put into play is
149 so we have 93 percent beds that are
available so we have 62% and that's
where we've really been trending since
March since we started this groove and
we've been communicating with our
regional hospitals we've been right
around that 62 to 63 percent beds
available we have currently 15 Kovac
patients admitted total we only had 27
patients admitted to the hospital with
Kovac so since we started this reporting
in March 27 patients total currently
there's 15 ventilator use we have 12
ventilators in use we have the capacity
of 90 so you can see we have 78
ventilators available in our region
currently one kovat patient is
ventilated and that's just an example of
a weekly we do this report daily and
then we share that information weekly
with the Mac Group Department of Health
op support this is a branch that's
overseen by David Daniels from
Department of Health it's really our
information our planning and awareness
branch tells us what the Department of
Health is working on we're able to be in
the loop on where they're going to be
testing where the case outbreaks are
there's any organizations or places of
employment that are having an outbreak
we get that information so we can plug
that into our planning section and start
talking about what resources we need to
try to send to them whether it's PPE or
its horrable population outreach so we
get that information a few times a week
from David Daniels and where they're at
right now is Department of Health is
moving from a surveillance type testing
two more of case investigation in
contact tracing so a lot of the ongoing
just system observation or the spread
observation is going to be switching to
federal partners I here locally so I'm
gonna bring you up to date on some of
our numbers within Dona Ana County in
the state of New Mexico
tonal tested for our County twenty one
thousand eight hundred and fifty we've
had twenty 1218 negative results that's
about finding about two to three percent
of people who are tested returned
positive results currently hospitalized
15 and informant we have had five deaths
related to kovat in our region in our
county I think in a past meeting you may
have heard of an are effective rate that
the state refers to there was no update
this week for that number last week that
our effective rate that they reported
from the state epidemiologic office was
1.09 so they try to make sure that we're
under 1.1 to really be slowing the
spread as we see there in the state of
New Mexico the total numbers tested
negative currently hospitalized in the
number of deaths another thing that we
tracked is the number of people who are
positive there's lead the official name
for for the new novel coronavirus is the
Czar's cove it to why this is important
is cdc guidelines give you some guidance
on when you can be presumed recovered
from the virus if you're not having
symptoms so if you're not having
symptoms past three days you're ten days
that's the first time you had onset of
symptoms you can be considered recovered
obviously this is a little bit different
than if you're still in the hospital or
you have symptoms but if we went back to
June 29th we had 439 confirmed cases in
our county if none of those patients are
having in these symptoms right now it'll
let past 72 hours they could be
considered
and with only 15 patients in the
hospital there's a good number of those
positive tests that should be considered
recovered one thing we've asked Dave
Daniels to pass up through the chain of
command through the Department of Health
is trying to get those numbers for our
County what the Department of Health is
considering recovered this recovery
guidance from the CDC is a little bit
different than what we might use in a
skilled nursing facility places where we
have a vulnerable population and those
areas were probably going to be using a
two sequential test both being negative
before we consider that population that
be covered a reason for that is
vulnerable populations just have a
higher risk for spread and then also the
impacts of coronavirus are much higher
so for general population healthy the
ten days since your first symptoms in 72
hours symptom free is good guidance from
the CDC our first responder group this
is led by captain Dennis Shane from
Sunland Park Fire they really helped
with our first responders sharing
information we were able to share
information about our positive
coronavirus cases within L CFD as well
as the cases within our Police
Department and share our steps and our
processes for taking care of our people
through that group we also get in
support for Department of Health for
test sites and locations through that
group so they're working on several of
our objectives remaining a resource for
request collecting data for FEMA for
financial support and reimbursement and
then communication through the Jick and
in that group participating in this
group it's a long list so I'm gonna read
it out I apologize for the monotone
reading here but Anthony Police
Department LCPD Las Cruces fire Sunland
Park Fire and Police Dona Ana County
Sheriff's Kevin fire NASA the white
sands test facility NMSU police and fire
New Mexico State Police Mesilla
Marshal's see a fire department
Hach police White Sands Missile Range
American Medical Response or AMR the C
Valley dispatch
Merve des and then also our Office of
Emergency Management so it is a large
group of responders in our community
that do communicate about our
experiences and our steps were taken to
slow the spread of coronavirus
Department of Health testing this is a
support branch so we support the mission
of do H when it comes to their testing
go sites what they call the tag sites as
well as n95 fit testing so the resources
they use a law enforcement for traffic
control fire our EMTs are doing some of
the testing and also running some of the
test sites along with them we also do
fit testing for n95 masks to apply of
all hard at 95 masks is the standard of
PPE for healthcare providers those close
continuous contact with positive or
potentially positive rotavirus patients
the n95 respirator keeps them a safer
level and then we also do some logistics
with locations where they're gonna be
testing when they need a site our main
objective here is to free up Department
of Health staff from some of those
testing roles and responsibilities so
that they can focus on contact tracing
and also their Rapid Response Team for
going into facilities or organizations
that do have a cluster or an outbreak
our finance section working with grant
applications and FEMA reporting they
really share information with us and our
first responder group so we can make
sure that information gets to everyone
through either the first responders or
the Mac Group
our Planning section as I talked about
there they're helping us before looking
right now they're working on recovery
they're working with Movida and also the
Chamber of Commerce as advisor is
telling them what's going on from the
Department of Health and also from the
unified Area Command giving that
information to our business owners and
operators so they can make smart
decisions about reopening our logistics
section by far one most busier sections
that we have we were given a tier system
from the state so a lot of our PPE that
we receive is coming from state
resources and they asked us to use a
tier system so there are five tiers
the first one is acute care hospitals
EMS and first responders and testing and
surveillance for Department of Health
tier two is our skilled nursing
facilities or sniffs as they're made
here in call and our long-term care
facilities anything that has a positive
Testament will go to a tier 2 or tier 1
from those groups tier 3 are those
businesses or offices identified in
phase one is being medical clinical and
the central business's tier four are
those businesses that opened up in phase
2 and then tier 5 is any other clinical
business so that's the guidance we
received from the state how our
logistics section has been filling
orders we received hundreds of requests
that we've been trying to fill through
that group as we received PPE as you
heard early on in the media and 95 mass
were nearly impossible to get for a
section of time as well as now it's
probably a little less covered is
natural examination gloves those are
also in scarce supply some of the
requests that we received along the way
we have not been able to feel because
they haven't done the proper reporting
or we've had businesses that have over
requested so you may have somebody who
only has a contact with a few people a
week
question something like two or three
thousand gloves we do provide supplies
to reach goals of having either a
fourteen day or thirty day supply
depending on your tier level to make
sure that you can you can operate to see
what we just interpreted so far
you see we sent over three thousand and
then five minutes over 36,000 surgical
masks the cloth masks that are available
through LCPD LC FD in da so those cloth
mats a lot of those came through the EOC
over 35 thousand of them face shields
gowns hand sanitizer gloves and latex
gloves those have all been supplied from
Area Command so a very busy section
there so what's coming up for our
Unified Area Command we are entering the
end of one incident action plan we have
a two week plan so every two weeks we go
through the process of updating that
it's single we're gonna be working on
one thing we're gonna focus on is our
ball populations with this new resource
from the state from the secretary for
aging and long-term care trying to get
some education and training on the steps
that they're proposing to those centers
those sniffs so that we can start doing
some of that locally really building on
the efforts of lieutenant Danes and all
the 40 groups that she's reached out to
also including the hospitality coalition
we're gonna work on filling the gaps in
PPE requests and receipts make sure we
circle back and follow up with any
organization that hasn't received what
they need right now I can tell you the
number of requests were we have been
receiving has really dropped off so
there's only a few coming in a day most
people are at that 30 day level of
supply that's really where we want
people to be we're gonna provide
assistance to those recovery groups so
that they can get information from the
Department of Health and what we're
seeing in our community with first
responders and spreadeth rotavirus
keep supporting the external
surveillance testing a case
investigation through do H and then
continued communication with our
regional hospitals
so with that I know it was a lot of a
lot of information pretty quick so I can
circle back and answer any questions I
hope thanks DC Smith let's see here
don't sir roscas did you have any
questions uh no I didn't I'm putting my
hand down counselor beta Stevie thank
you actually I I just wanted to say
thank you
deputy chief Smith for this level of
detail it's a lot of the stuff that I've
been working for and you actually
answered most of my questions that I had
through your presentation and I also
wanted to thank you I've heard good
things about yourself in your leadership
too with some of our community partners
and so I just wanted for that to be
known as well so thank you so much for
this I'm obviously very interested to
making sure that we are seeing good
capacity in all the areas that we have
enough supplies that our hospitals
you know don't become overwhelmed with
their systems and so that we can move in
some on a stable range considering like
you said this is going to be a long-term
event that we have to stay plan for and
know that we're gonna see upticks you
know I think some of the cases that
you've seen as it recently probably can
be attributed to graduation Memorial Day
once we open have different opening
levels we're gonna probably in two weeks
or a week or so start to see more cases
maybe not that is the hope but you know
I just want to make sure that we're
staying level um for one of the items
and maybe you can help me if we are
trying to request resources at the state
level
does that go through your department or
is that through OAM that makes those
types of requests
so currently for city of Las Cruces
other departments who need PPE those
requests are coming through the fire
department and Battalion Chief Mike
Daniels is filling those requests we
also send those requests kind of combine
them all together and we send them up to
the unified area command logistics
section to be filled we also are
reaching out to buy our own supplies for
the beforethe city and one of the things
that I know I talked about probably
looking at the time log from mr. comes
provided but I know for sure I said it
on March 30th I may have even mentioned
it on a march 2nd that of having testing
capabilities here in Las Cruces was that
something that his department would have
been able to reach up and start working
on how would that process have worked
with the OEM with with that we're we're
partnered with the Department of Health
and when you look at the pandemic
response as a plan that we had to work
on where we're in line with with doah we
wouldn't be doing an offshoot and
setting up outside testing outside of
that chain of command part of the ICS
structure is to keep things in line so
there's no duplication with that though
you can see our support through
Department of Health through that branch
for testing is providing resources the
ways of people traffic control PPE so
that they can expand their capacity okay
so the OEM itself
they don't necessarily ask for those
types of resources we are our area of
command for this area will also send up
a 213 to the state level you know we can
communicate those needs up to the state
level through that chain of command so
one area of a very large what you can
see for our our ICS structure is
repeated throughout six regions in the
state of New Mexico so we send those
requests up as well
okay thank you I do appreciate that
and thank you again for this
presentation okay let's see counselor
sword did you have a question
not about that presentation no okay
DC Smith looks like looks like you're
done I appreciate it very much we
appreciate your service and and all that
you all have been doing these last few a
couple months a few months so thank you
very much for that so let's go back to
Natalie green and I'll start with that
particular line up we had councillor
Vasquez I baked the steuby and
councillor sword that thank you for
letting me interrupt and and move to
this and then back to Natalie so I'm
sorry boss cos did you have questions
for Natalie um no I just wanted to make
a quick comment on the the small
business is the local restaurant I know
that there's some you know local
franchises that that are owned by local
folks but you know franchises really are
opportunities for people with wealth
already to buy into in fact I'm looking
I was looking at a what a franchise for
Wendy's costs and it's $500,000 in
liquid assets and 1 million dollars of
net worth Dunkin Donuts is 1.5 million
in net worth and 750,000 of cash
reserves so I just wanted to make that
point in terms of the locally owned
small businesses right I think you look
at a like locally owned Mexican
restaurant versus a franchisee of you
know a bigger corporate chain and I
think who are who were helping is
significantly different it's not it's
not all equal even though they're
locally owned so I just wanted to make
that point because it to me it does make
a difference in terms of who we're
helping but with taxpayer money yeah
Thank You Karis because I don't know if
we can if we could make that a criteria
that it only go to non franchise
restaurants I don't know if Jennifer let
me see in Jennifer's yeah looks like
Jennifer is that something that if if we
were to do a second round that you could
focus on non franchise restaurants very
clearly defining I I have to look into
that I
don't know but yeah I I you know I I'd
hate to kind of discriminate Fioretti
clear hear what you're saying counselor
Vasquez I really do I just I don't know
let's let Jennifer look into that so
okay thank you
Thank You counselor abate the scooby-dee
were next in line on for now be green
back when we had Natalie did you have
anything my question it was part of the
second portion of the presentation
actually was for Amy Basford oh okay and
it was looking at my notes here when we
were going over the financials of what
we might expect back from perhaps state
money there was the Cova impact
allocation we saw that some areas have
been able to use it just in scenario
planning if there is a change in our
situation and we do is there an
opportunity to become eligible for that
type of help later on or is this sort of
a one-time event
thank you mayor Councillor beta's to be
Amy Johnson Basford as administrator I
believe that these are determinations
that are made by the state for the
initial 1.25 billion dollars that was
provided to them so I don't believe that
we would receive anything through this
particular one however should our issues
change here any future ones when we may
be able to see that same kind of funding
provided by the state that they are
providing to say Farmington and Gallup
where they have you know really huge
numbers of cases that they're
experiencing thank you I'm very much
hoping we don't ever have to use that
but just making sure so thank you acting
mm-hmm and mayor that's all I had okay
thanks
and last but not least cops are sword
yes thank you so much right there
several of things that we've been
talking about but I want I want to start
with thanking counsel Vasquez for
looking up those
and the types of restaurants that I had
a hunt hint that that was what was
happening but that really helps us
understand on we have a local preference
on our piece anyway that's a standard
practice in the city that local
businesses do get preferences and of
course there's different kinds of
businesses that might change that
preference in some way but it's there
and so it would not be something new but
just to follow up on the poverty thing
that we were discussing earlier the
mayor if you recall about four or five
years ago you actually stated in City
Council that poverty was going to be
wiring one of our number-one priorities
to try to address sure I know we've made
some attempts but again we need to have
it looked at again and we redo our
efforts and our direct support for those
that are in that group of people has to
be increased I believe too as we have
mentioned earlier in the meeting today
but I'd like to emphasize the fact that
to have long-range support we have to
have education when and specifically as
the city's concerned training for people
to get into higher paying jobs and and
along with that they have to have
housing we are desperately short on
fordable housing but then finally the
overall economic development and I go
back to what our presentation was a
couple weeks ago on our economics here
and support for building more economic
base jobs that brings in new money and
that new money gets spread around to
everybody probably but a lot of it goes
to
the poverty people - and of course
emphasis on income equality that is the
ultimate goal here is to have more
income equality so those are the things
I think we should be emphasizing it as
we go forward in time just remember it's
not just a Las Cruces problem it's a
problem all over the state and in the
nation - so gotta have efforts from
everywhere and we have to have people
that will support that effort everywhere
Thank You mayor thank you okay so I've
got a couple questions for Natalie
so is families in youth the only
nonprofit that can provide that week
that the city can work with to provide
these type of meals or is there some one
of the others you know like I don't know
Community Action Agency or one of the
others I mean are they is FYI the the
only one that we could give monies to
and then they go out and get meals mr.
mayor members of council the reason we
work with fYI is because they do the
Summer Food Program so they direct
reimbursement from the federal
government for those meals for children
under the age of 18 so it was a natural
extension that if we're feeding the kids
it's very likely that we probably need
to feed those adults that are in taking
them to those meal programs so that's
the reason we picked them and again it
was an extension of the mayor's meal
program so we would have to do a little
more research with legal to see how we
would structure a different program and
again our contract is with fYI and fYI
does the procurement process so it's
their process but we could we could add
or request that we put some additional
conditions on their procurement process
okay so let's say we wanted to do round
two and not use any of the restaurants
that were in round one and the second
thing is I specifically when I put forth
the original those meals weren't $10
they were smaller they were less meal
less less cost and I wanted to spread
out a little bit long to more
restaurants the second that's one
question the second question is keep in
mind that and I love these two
restaurants one was one was a la posta
and the other one was where the are the
binos the one with the doghouse rate
green chili enchiladas over there but
they're both in Mesilla and I didn't
think that the that we you know we're
gonna use city funds for Mesilla
restaurants so that's why I thought if
we do a round two it's strictly Las
Cruces restaurants and then of course
Jennifer's gonna check to see if they're
gonna be a distinction between franchise
restaurants versus mom-and-pop so to
speak you know and second a $7 and 50
cent meal because that means more meals
which means more restaurants can be done
like 20 instead of 10 and or you can go
down to $5 I mean we're not talking or
main meal here just you know something
that we could do and so but that's up to
council if they want to go around to but
I think if we did around to them might
want to look at something like that so
you're thinking that you're thinking
that obviously we were to have this
agreement with families and youth but
that that if we wanted to do a different
one you have to research that a little
bit uh mr. mayor I'll do a little
research and get with legal ultimately
the benefit is to the household so we
are serving
within city limits I believe that why I
chose a variety of restaurants based on
location right a lot of times we talk
about access to two resources across the
city so they wanted to do an even
distribution in different areas so
someone's not having to drive all the
way across town to the post is found far
but okay that's fine let's look can we
look well I I got it check with council
here first if they want to go another
round two and so we're gonna change the
parameters but anyways okay if you can
stand by it looks like we're starting to
get some questions in so it counts up in
Como you have a comment or question yeah
I mean I think um you know I remember
sort of having this conversation and I
don't necessarily remember us setting up
any parameters as council we did I do
not remember that um but I feel like I
may already hadn't even noticed and it's
true I think Mesilla I mean that's you
know one of the reasons you know a lot
of you all pushed back on on a slower
reopening was because some of these
other communities were doing different
things and so I mean if we're gonna put
city resources towards supporting local
business in this moment then they should
be within city limits and then I think
I'd be curious yeah I mean I think um I
would be interested in if we do a second
round and going back to look at some of
those things for sure okay and I'm not
suggesting that the town of Mesilla
come up with money you know we recognize
that their their budgets are such that
they're so tied into tourism and it's
gonna be it's a challenge you know I've
heard mayor but us a talk on on our
mayor's meetings about how they're going
to be challenged here and we're very
fortunate here at the city Las Cruces
and I know you all get them I see the
emails we would
emails from a lot of people saying when
are we going to do our budget cuts when
are we going to do all these changes
that these other cities are doing well
thank goodness I don't I don't believe
we're gonna have to really go to that in
that direction and that's many thanks to
our management team or finance team you
on the City Council for being able to
recognize that it's good to have money
on hand and and reserves and such so so
that's a good thing so in mr. mayor I'd
also like to understand the outreach
process for how we got this information
out to restaurants to be able to apply
just from looking at that list of ten it
seems like some pretty big restaurant
players are on that list and I would
really like to make sure that the little
guy gets access to some of these funds
so no right rightfully so I think that's
good I don't know the process either all
I know is that we've you know we've
discussed this it's been in various
media sources you would think that that
everybody sign everybody reads the Las
Cruces Sun News you know and you think
that but you know there's all different
other media sources that are out there
and so I couldn't tell you I don't I
don't know how that was advertised
Telstra sorg I did and that I think only
one of the top five restaurants for the
best chili cheese burger in town was on
that list I think another one or two
would be good hey let me tell you
something I've eaten Jake's hamburgers
or Jake's kids kitchen our cafe and
they've got some pretty good hamburgers
there just make sure your you know your
cholesterol is in a decent number before
you go eat it because it'll definitely
go up and but they're you know
definitely worth the you know run around
the track a few times if you want to eat
it okay
I guess that's it that's it for the
questions
looks like we may finish before noon so
if there's nothing further that is added
David we've got pretty much everything
covered David - yes sir mr. mayor that
covers the topics we had today
and we will do research on their
restaurants that way we can let you know
what opportunities and abilities we have
before we go forward on our next step
yeah if we go with another round - yes
sir thank you okay great okay good if
there's nothing further entertained a
motion to adjourn
okay okay Mayor Pro Tem gondola was the
motion and who same answer whoops Oh
counselor Florida's hadn't heard from
you like a little Wallflower my shoes
okay motion a second we adjourn all
those in favor signify by saying aye
those opposed we're adjourned it's 11:40
p.m. have a good safe weekend
Upshaw leader thank you you do the same
there