You're live.
We're good?
All right. I would like to call it's
9:01. I'd like to call this meeting to
order and if you would join me, please,
in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
[clears throat]
Um we do need to determine the quorum,
but I would ask for I would entertain a
motion to uh allow remote participation
for Commissioner Saucedo-Hernandez.
Move approval.
Second.
Okay. This is on the motion to allow uh
Commissioner Saucedo-Hernandez to
participate remotely.
Uh ex-officio board?
Yes.
Board member Peck? Yes.
Board member?
Yes, sorry.
Yes.
Board member Harris? Yes.
Uh I say yes.
Uh and Commissioner Sanchez, I say yes.
I Sorry, I'm I just realized like at
this is I'm I am chairing this meeting
because uh Vice Chair Saucedo-Hernandez
is at a distance and I'm someone has to
be in the room to see the
make eye contact with you all. So, I
apologize for being a little bit behind
the the ball and following up on this.
Okay, then
uh I would also say that we have a
quorum.
Five
members present in person, one online,
which I don't think counts to a quorum.
Um but we have enough in person to count
that. So, I would entertain a motion to
accept the agenda.
Move approval. Sanchez.
Second, Harris.
Thank you. Any discussion?
Seeing none,
Board member Ward?
Yes.
Yes. It The agenda is approved. I would
entertain a motion to approve two sets
of minutes
um
from the October 23rd and the November
26th, please.
I move approval of both minutes from
October 23rd, 2025 and November 26th,
2025. Thank you.
Second.
Any discussion?
Hearing none,
Board member Ward?
Yes.
Board member Peck? Yes.
Yes.
Yes. Awesome.
Thank you. We've got this.
Okay. [clears throat]
Uh on to reports and presentations.
First, we have represent our
representative from SNAP, Spay Neuter
Action Programs. Please come on up. And
it should be ready to go. Uh make sure
Please remember to state your name for
the record. And
uh welcome. Good morning.
I think you can push F5 and it should
F5, maybe? There you go.
Sorry, I'm used I've taught this stuff
for years and years, but I've been out
of that market for a while and I forget
all those little shortcuts.
Um good morning and thank you for having
me here today to talk about the Spay
Neuter Action Program, SNAP. My name is
Levon Hart and I'm the director of SNAP.
As I'm sure many of you are aware, SNAP
has been serving Doña Ana County since
and we have facilitated over
30,000 spay and neuter surgeries for
companion dogs and cats for low of
low-income residents for over these past
26 plus years.
We also provide rabies vaccinations and
microchipping
uh if needed. When people call SNAP,
they are pre-qualified for for vouchers
and provided an application. When SNAP
receives the completed application along
with proof of income and residency, a
voucher is issued for the surgery at one
of our participating vets. The client
schedules an appointment and the bill is
sent to SNAP.
For the last year, we've been able to
provide vouchers without co-pays for
clients as we have had funding from Doña
Ana County and the City of Las Cruces.
We do work with many of the vets in the
area, including ASCMV,
and uh we are always looking for more
vets to work with our clients.
Uh the vets work with the clients and
they do give us a reduced rate on their
services.
In August of 2024, the SNAP board held a
retreat and reviewed our vision and
mission as well as developed a a value
statement. These three statements guide
all of our decisions and how we conduct
business.
As noted on the previous slide, our
services have focused on serving
companion animals. However, we realize
that there is a tremendous need to
reduce the number of community animals
as overpopulation of dogs and cats is
not limited to companion animals.
Also, the problem of overpopulation is
not limited to Doña Ana County. It's
statewide, nationwide, worldwide.
We also believe that it is important to
educate the public on the need for spay
neuter and to advocate for programs that
enhance the health and safety of both
companion
and community animals.
Our mission is focused on improving the
lives of dogs and cats in Doña Ana
County.
In addition to offering
uh and to addition to facilitating spay
and neuter surgeries, we believe that
providing vaccinations and microchips
are important to the lives of our dogs
and cats. Our primary
mission continues to
be working with low-income residents to
have their dog companion dogs and cats
spayed and neutered.
The SNAP board also developed a value
statement that reflects how we want to
work with other groups and with our
clients.
No one group can solve the problem of
overpopulation of dogs and cats.
Collaboration is the key to making a
difference.
The SNAP office is welcoming.
Anytime any of you want to come by and
see us, please feel free to do so.
We welcome everyone who calls in, comes
in, emails us,
and we do return phone calls, emails.
And when people come in, we greet them
with a warm smile.
We believe in ex- excellent customer
service and being open and honest in all
of our communications.
We strongly believe that the funds that
we have need to be spent in ways that
move our mission forward. We strive to
keep all of our expenses at a minimum.
Over the last several years, SNAP has
seen a significant increase in the
growth a significant growth in the
number of people accessing our service.
Um the blue line that you see on the
chart is the number of completed
surgeries and you'll see that we've been
experiencing increase over the last 4
years.
The orange line is the number of rabies
vaccinations that we have facilitated
and the green line is the number of
microchips.
You may notice that both the rabies
number of rabies and the number of
microchips provided has risen
significantly.
We attribute this in great deal to the
fact that we have now have several of
our vets who will take care of the
rabies and the microchipping at the time
of surgery.
SNAP provides the microchips to the vets
so there's no cost
for our clients for those services and
last year we started that in mid-year
and our numbers just flew.
ASCMV is one of our partner vets.
Over the last several years ASCMV has
completed approximately 6 and 1/2 to 7
and 1/2% of the total number of
surgeries that we facilitated.
We hope in the future that ASCMV will be
able to work with more of our clients.
We understand that there's been limited
surgery slots available over the last
several years. But we would really love
to work more with the vets at ASCMV and
getting our animals and our clients into
them.
SNAP has been working with Doña Ana
County
for over the last 10 years and during
that time we've facilitated over 5200
spays and neuters for residents of
unincorporated areas in Doña Ana County.
In uh
2020 the late part of 2020 for and
really starting in January of 2025
City of Las Cruces joined with us to be
able to offer the same services to
low-income residents of the city.
And we have seen an amazing increase in
the number of city residents requesting
our services. It's up about 40%.
Which is just been incredible. Well,
scary at times.
Unfortunately,
the funding from these contracts is
limited
and only covers about 40 to 50%
of the animals that we
issue vouchers for
in those areas.
And in fact this year
we've already expended all of the 2526
funding from the city of Las Cruces in
just the first 5 months of the fiscal
year.
And the county funding will be fully
expended by the end of January.
Once that funding is gone
we rely on our grants and donations.
We're always looking
for fundraising opportunities and new
grants
but
those are not always available and take
a lot of work to get sometimes. But if
anybody has any ideas, we're open. Call
us. Talk to us. We love y'all.
Um what
it means to SNAP and to SNAP's clients
that our funding from the city and
county
will be fully expended soon
is that we may have to reinstate copays.
This is not something that we want to
do.
This limits the number of people that
can access our service.
But
we have to pay the bills just like
everybody else.
So in terms of where our funding comes
from
we have three primary sources. Of course
our contracts and then our donations and
grants.
Our total income for last year is
approximately $450,000.
Of that 400,000 was spent on vet bills.
This year
we're anticipating that our vet bills
will be
at least 420,000
and probably more like 430,000.
So you can see that our need for grants,
donations and contracts is critical.
At our last board meeting the SNAP board
sat down and looked at what were our
goals going to be for 2026.
And
we decided that we would be looking at
issuing approximately 3,000 vouchers.
In 2025 we issued 2800.
We want to be able to complete at least
2500 surgeries.
We've also
received a grant to start work on a TNR
program very small.
We consider it a pilot program for us.
But we are looking at working with the
community to
uh
spay and neuter approximately 150 cats
throughout the county. I'm hoping we can
do some more.
We're going to look for funding but
that's our goal for right now.
Um
and we also in that grant which from by
the way was from the New Mexico spay and
neuter program.
We also be looking at increasing our
work with
clients and vets in the South County
area which has been a typically
underserved area.
Uh
we also
um
are looking to increase donations and
grants by 15%
and we need one or two more
board members. So again
anybody looking for a few hours of their
month to be used
call SNAP. We'd love to have you.
Um
and we know to reach these goals we will
need to develop more of collaborations
with other groups in the county and
potentially in the state. We are
actively advocating for the renewal of
SB 57 which by the way now has a new
bill number. It's SB 38. Just got the
the news this morning.
Which provides funding for spay and
neuter statewide.
In closing
I want to thank you again for inviting
me to come and give this information and
we look forward to working with ASCMV as
we move through this year and into the
future. We share many of the same goals,
reducing overpopulation of dogs and cats
and other critters.
Improving the health and safety of
animals throughout the county and
serving the residents of Doña Ana
County.
We are open to ideas on how we can work
to achieve these goals
and
again
I would encourage anyone with ideas
time to volunteer
come and see us. Come and talk to us.
I think you'll like us. We're actually a
pretty nice group.
Thank you.
Can confirm that you're both nice and
very effective. Thank you so much for
presenting. Are there any questions from
anyone on the board? Please
board member Gates and then board member
Ward, please.
I just had a question. What percentage
like what's your breakdown? Sorry.
What's your breakdown of like cats
versus dogs in your totals?
Actually it's pretty evenly spent. Okay.
I think it's
um
49. blah blah blah percent cats and 50.
blah blah blah percent dogs. So yeah,
fairly
newsletter. Yes. Yes. Oh, and I do have
some extra copies if anybody wants
newsletters.
And then I was just curious is that so I
noticed you know you had first of all I
appreciate that you guys have like your
goals set. That's amazing. I love seeing
organizations goals and them also
achieve them is is amazing. Um
as far as like that TNR number that you
had the 150 is that included in your
goal of the 2500 surgeries for
Actually not. Okay, so you're you're
actually going to exceed
because those were
set by um
without looking those goals the TNR was
separate because we have separate
funding for it. Okay, and I presume that
funding will work a bit differently with
regard to like you know how people
qualify. Are you
TNR does not require the state program.
TNR does not require income verification
because those cats don't have people.
They're community cats. So
we're following the guidelines from the
sheltering committee
and so we are what's happening every
week every week. We get
three, four, five more calls in from the
public saying,
"My neighbor has 20 cats in their yard
and they need help." Or, "I'm feeding
blah blah blah." And so, we've started
by
getting those names and numbers.
And we're working with those people
first.
And we'll have our 150 done out of that
group like that. Um to
uh facilitate this program to get get it
on its feet. I'm really hopeful that
um
we can do more. I'm really hopeful that
we can
get additional funding
to do more
uh because the need is so critical. I
also volunteer at a rescue group. And
people in the spring will be flocking in
with the kittens that they miraculously
found in their garage and their
backyard and underneath the nursing
mother. And
[laughter]
So, this is just a service that we've
got to to do more for. So. Is the is the
idea though that you also will, you
know,
essentially be providing like trapping
services? Or are you kind of trying to
push I don't want to say push that off
on, but like maybe train people to be
able to have sort of that like
independence in doing that? Or are you
adding more to your plate and also
trying to provide kind of the trapping
services as well?
So, we do have traps available for
people who are um
who know how to trap.
Um and we do work with a few people that
will go out and help people trap. So,
kind of um
an approach that we try to meet
everybody's needs. And we can certainly
lose more people to volunteer with that.
If you've had training in trapping,
please contact us because a lot of
people I personally I have worked in
rescue for 25 years, but I have never
trapped a cat. So,
uh except in my house. But that's a
different issue.
[laughter]
So, um
this is that's partially why we started
out with a small program.
Was we wanted to see what was going to
work
for us and for our the people that work
with us. Great. Awesome. Thank you so
much. Appreciate the information. Yeah,
no problem. Anything else? Thank you.
Board member Warden.
Thank you. And thank you for your
presentation.
Um
I just have a couple questions. On the
400,000 in regards to the vet bills that
you mentioned, is that just surgery-wise
or is that other expenses?
Pretty much just surgery.
Just surgery-wise for the spay/neuters?
Mhm. Okay. And then in regards to the
contracts, so the city of Las Cruces and
Doña Ana County, I know I know how much
Doña Ana County actually gives gives you
each year. What is the um
the amount that city gives? 80. 80,000?
Okay. Just curious about that. Mhm.
Thank you. No problem.
And and we'd love to talk to you more.
[laughter]
Thank you.
Anything else? I'm happy to answer
questions about us. We know and
Sorry. Please. Thank you uh chair. I
I just had a quick question. I know when
you're looking at at the data you had
commented about
um
the increase in microchipping and
uh being able to do it as part of the
spay/neuter and the vets are doing that
now. But I noticed when you look at the
data from 2022 to 2023 on the
spay/neuter, there's a huge jump. Yeah.
And was wondering
what drove that that increase in
particular? I didn't know if there was
something outreach or funding or
something that that may have
helped drive that increase cuz it's
obviously I would love I I think when
we're talking about like what what you
do, if you if there is a way to
facilitate making another big leap, that
would be amazing. I actually think that
a lot of that was coming out of COVID.
Um
basically vets just pretty much were
shut down during '20 and '21.
So, when we got to '22 and on, people
were coming in just like crazy cuz
they'd gotten all these animals while
they while that was happening and they
hadn't been able to get them spayed or
neutered yet. So, that would be my
guess.
I came on board with SNAP in the spring
of '23.
So, we weren't doing anything different
in the office. Um our processes were all
the same. Our our outreach was all the
same.
But I think word of mouth that we were
open, that we were doing these things,
that we were moving forward, and that's
what we've been seeing all along is a
lot of our people come in because of
word of mouth.
So, I think that's what it is. I think
to make another big jump,
we got to have some more vets in this
area.
Yeah, no, I think
a huge problem for us because we can get
a voucher taken care of and ready to go
in
3 weeks is kind of our longest.
Um
but they're going to have potentially
another 6-week wait to get into a vet
because our our vets are very very very
very busy.
So, to go another step and be able to
push
and have more go through the system,
we need more vets.
So, I am actively looking for some vet
in the South County area to work with us
uh because that's one of the areas where
we've got a vet in Anthony
um that works with us, but we need
somebody more.
Could you and I don't know if if there's
specific restrictions on the funding
that you could potentially
uh
reach out just over the state line. I
think like when you're looking
especially in the in the southern part
of the county, southern parts of that
area, La Union, that whole area is is
right next to Canutillo, El Paso, and so
um you know, I don't know if there's a
potential to tap into those resources.
I'm not adverse at all. In fact, the
list I have has some El Paso vets as
well as some
uh that are still in Doña Ana County. Um
it's um
vets are busy and we're asking them not
only to take on our animals, but also to
give us a discount because frankly
vet bills
just to give you an idea,
last year our vet bills were $32,000
over.
At least $32,000 a month. Wow.
Um
so,
yeah, it's going to be scary this year.
[laughter]
But then I said that last year and we
made it, you know? So, we're
we're definitely looking for more vets
because I think that's how we get
more clients into our system and through
our system.
So, if anybody knows any vets
and thinks they'd be willing to work
with us,
again, we're open. Awesome. No, thank
you. And I and I while I while I
absolutely
um
would love a priority of going be being
for any vets or businesses in Doña Ana
County,
um you know, we we live in a
here in the you know, in this these
communities that are all connected
regardless of uh state lines. So, you
know, if there's a way for us to to help
each other, that'd be amazing. So, thank
you so much for for answering the
questions and thank you so much for the
for what you do and having the
conversation with us today. Thank you.
Oh, anytime. And and I'm truly mean come
by the office. Mary Lou's been there.
Um she'll tell you. We're a nice group
of people.
And passionate about what we do.
Probably picked that up. Um we're very
passionate about taking care of these
animals.
So, thank you very much. I also just
wanted to add will be the city of Las
Cruces included the spay/neuter funding
as one of our priorities and we'll be um
working with Animal Protection Voters
has a day of action on February 10th. If
anyone wants to participate, you can
register online and they're going to be
having a whole bunch of events. They'll
help you go and talk to folks to make
sure that this gets passed. Although I
wouldn't be surprised if it actually
gets passed before that day. I I ideally
it will it will we'll already know by
then, but they have other priorities as
well. So, Animal Protection Voters, if
you want to check out their website,
people who are in the audience who are
interested in making sure that that
happens, um
February 10th in Santa Fe to help
support that. And and the city will I'll
be there and and that's been on our
priority list as well. So, I'll see you
we'll see you in Santa Fe. Thank you so
much for for all that you do and and
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it
greatly. And we appreciate the support
of both the city and the county that has
just been
incredible
for our program to have that. Um I can't
really tell you how much that means to
us every year and to all of our clients.
Just on a kind of side personal note,
we get clients in and when they find out
there's not going to be a cost, they are
in tears.
They are so happy that they can get
their animals taken care of.
And
the money from the city and the county
have really made a difference in us
being able to do that.
And it is it was a very difficult
decision by the board to even consider
reinstating
co-pays cuz we know that impacts.
But
[laughter]
we have
to do what we have to do.
Board Board member Gates, did you have
one more? Yeah, I just had one more
question um kind of just curious about
like operational. Um so, first of all,
do vouchers expire? And if so, how long?
Okay. What is the time frame?
3 months.
Okay. And they can call in like let's
say something happens, people get sick,
people whatever.
Um they can call the office and uh we
will extend.
Okay. And then I may have asked this at
some point, but um
I have a terrible memory. So, what
happens like essentially when a voucher
has not been used? Do you have any like
kind of follow-up? Do you Do you guys
kind of track like what barriers like
people are like, "Yeah, I'm sorry. I
can't use it because I can't, you know,
drive to the the vet." Or, you know,
whatever their um reasoning might be to
not use the voucher cuz like that seems
like a pretty big deal for somebody to
go through that whole process and then
be like, "Oh, well, I just won't use
it." So, curious about that. So, um
we do try. We
we want to get this to be something
that's regular, but right now it's kind
of spotty. It has to do with what our
workload is. Um
but we do try. I I generate a list
um that is all the vouchers that are
going to expire within the next month
or so.
And our office staff
our two volunteers
uh
call those people to find out have they
made an appointment? Do they need it
extended? Is there something happening?
Um and and then if we find out by
chance, you know, sometimes the dog ran
away, whatever. Uh we take them off the
list. A lot of times they have
appointments coming up, so that's great.
So, we do try to follow up and we do
talk when people call in and and say, "I
need to get my voucher extended." We do
ask, you know, well, what happened, you
know, to find out if it was a
transportation problem or a
whatever we can do to help. Um and then
I didn't mention it, but we do have a
program
um with uh Shoemaker a Shoemacher's
Veterinary to uh work with the uh
unhomed to get their animals
uh
spayed and neutered and vaccinated and
microchipped. Um and so if we get a call
from anybody that's unhomed, we see if
we can work out through that program.
Awesome. Thank you so much and I really
appreciate that y'all make the extra
effort. That's exactly what I was hoping
for. So, awesome. Awesome.
would anybody like a card?
Again, thank you so much for presenting
and doing everything that you do within
the community. We're extremely lucky to
have have you all
um
as part of our community of trying to
make a change. Okay. Next up, city and
county ACO reports, please.
Oh.
Brian, you're up first.
I was there. Okay.
I tried to say city county to you know,
mix it up, but okay.
I'll back up.
Hello, my name is Brian Halsey. I'm the
case worker for Doña Ana County Animal
Control here to present the October
through December
um
report.
For reported stray animals, we had 667
reported stray animals.
Out of those we were able to pick up 389
stray animals.
110 were cats and 279 were stray dogs.
We ended up picking up 52 sick or
injured animals, 26 of cats and 26 dogs.
And uh luckily we had a lower number for
our owner surrenders. We had 39.
This is our reported stray animal uh for
your comparison.
Uh our four-year
uh field return to owner comparison,
that's our um animals that don't go to
the shelter that we're able to return to
the owners in the field.
Uh
we ended up having 278 as our total for
the year. We had 18 in December, 19 in
November, and 19 in October.
And our additional animals picked up and
I do apologize uh I we found an error
after I submitted it. Um our owner
surrender dogs was 37, not 39. Um
and then we had two owner surrender
cats.
We had 52 sick or injured animals. We
had 12
welfare hold animals. Uh no neglect,
abuse, or cruelty. We had 14 shelter
quarantines, 10 home quarantines.
For court hold quarantine and cases, we
had two. Live evidence, we currently
have seven. One of those are in foster
at this time, so we have six at our
facility. We had one rabies submission,
44 diverted intakes.
948 education and our total calls for
the three months was 1,611.
Uh these are the animals picked up by
district. So, district one, we had seven
cats and 28 dogs for a total of 35. For
district two, we had 47 cats, 24 dogs
for a total 71.
Uh we had a couple people in that area
that uh were actively trapping the cats
in that area. That's why our cat numbers
are up a little more in that area.
For district three, we had 15 cats and
41 dogs. For district four, we had 13
cats, 67 dogs. District five, 12 cats
and 46 dogs.
Six, we had four cats and 18 dogs. And
district seven, we had 12 cats and 55
dogs.
So, these are our stray cat picks up for
for the year and the comparison.
Same thing for the dogs.
And then our reasons for owner release.
Out of the 39 animals, we had 10 that
were vicious and or dangerous. We had
six that they were sick or or old or
injured.
We had four that they were just unable
to care for the animals. We had five
that they were unable to keep them on
the property.
We had five that the um owner of the
animals um either had ill health issues
or they were um elderly.
Uh one thing we seem to find in that
that the
um the more elderly people, their sons
or daughters will give them like a
Belgian Malinois or a husky or something
that's really high energy and they just
they don't have the strength or the
energy to deal with them.
Uh we had seven that were lifestyle
changes. We had one that they were
moving and they weren't able to take the
animal. And we had one that they could
not afford the animal.
And for the end of 2025, this is our
total numbers. We had 3,705 stray calls.
Stray cats picked up was 625.
Stray dogs was 1,702.
Our field return to owners was 278 and
our total calls to service for the year
was 7,849.
And for that, I'll stand for any
questions.
Any questions?
[clears throat]
Seeing none. All right.
Supervisor Ximenez, please. Good
morning, Madam Chair.
And board members.
For the record, my name is Gino Ximenez.
I will give you the city of Las Cruces
uh
numbers for the last quarter.
So, I'm going to go through this very
quickly
um because I continue to give you the
month-to-month breakdown. So, I'll have
October, November, and December, but
when we get to December, it will give
you the totals for the quarter.
One of the most important things that I
can show here is that our peak
performance goal of reach of responding
or securing 65% of all reported strays
in the month of October, we were able to
reach that goal of 50.
And number two is
25% of all stray animals were returned
to their owners in the field. The animal
control officers were able to return 17%
of those animals.
So, I'll go through this really quickly,
give you a chance to look it over, but
when we get to December, I will speak
for the total amounts for the quarter.
So, here we go with December.
For the month for December, uh here is
our three-year
uh stray animal comparison.
Total for the year, we have
responded to 5,180
stray reported stray calls.
Again, animal control was able to secure
50% of all those animals.
Our next slide shows our three-year
field RTO comparison.
Uh for the year, we were able to return
animals back to their owners.
Um
that gives us for our peak performance
goal and at 18%. Uh remember, our goal
is 25%. We achieved 18%.
Next is our peak performance for the
year.
Uh this is number three is our measure
for stray animal bite responses.
So, for the year of uh 2025, we
responded to 178
reported stray bites
compared to 2024 of 135 gave us an
increase of 24%.
Our next peak performance measure is uh
10% reduction in owner victim bites.
For the year of 2025, we responded to
116 owner victim bites.
Compared to last year,
excuse me, for 2024 with 115 give us
that 1% increase.
Again, our goal there is a 10%.
Here's our community cat program.
For the year, we responded to 788 cats
in trap calls.
And of those, 150 of them were community
cats. So, those are 150 that never
crossed the threshold of the animal
service center.
Next is our slide for reasons that we
were unable to field RTO. 27 dogs, there
was no contact by phone or at the
residence.
Eight dogs, the chips were not
registered or updated. Three dogs, the
owners were out of town. One dog, the
mother no longer wanted to allow that
dog to stay at her home.
And finally, one cat, the owner was
unable to reclaim at that time.
Next is our reasons for owner releasing
animals. This is a lengthy list, as
usual.
We had 10 dogs that were sick. There
were four euthanasia requests.
Nine dogs for aggression. Nine dogs for
behavioral issues.
Seven cats, the owner was moving and
couldn't take them with him.
Six dogs, owners could not afford them.
Five dogs, the owners could not keep
confined. They were Some of them were
escape artists.
Five dogs, owner was unable to care for.
Three cats, the owner were unable to
care for. Two roosters, they owner
released them because they violated
city ordinance.
Two dogs, the apartment complex would
not allow.
Two dogs for bites. One dog killed
another family pet.
One dog, not adapting to the new home.
One cat for aggression. One cat for
sick, who was euthanasia request.
One dog, the owner was evicted and
didn't have anywhere to house himself.
So, he had to give up his animal at that
time.
One dog, the owners were getting
divorced and there was a dispute over
who was going to have custody of the
dog. And finally, one dog for lifestyle
changes.
Here is our monthly calls for service
for October.
The officers responded to 1,178.
In November, 1,043.
In December, 1,009. Bringing our grand
total to the for the year at 13,792
calls for service.
And with that, I'll stand for any
questions.
Thank you. Any questions?
It's a race.
Board member
Gates, please.
I'm just curious if you've noticed or I
think we might have talked touched on
this a little bit, but any changes to
anything kind of after the new ordinance
have ordinances have come out? Any any,
you know, improvements in things or
you know, degradation in things just
kind of from that like shift in some of
the ordinance we've ordinances Las
Cruces has updated. I will say you the
one that has the most impact right now
is the tethering. You know, that's the
one that we're getting the most impact
with. Um
the fees the schedule of fees was
approved in November.
Um so, the officers are barely getting
into that groove and the citizens are
getting into that that requirement of
the the new fee schedule.
Um we haven't had any any disputes or
any uh
anybody not willing to pay that new
increase in the fees. So, that was one
of the things that we were anticipating
that we were going to have to convince
people that yes, these are higher rates.
This is why. Um again, those rates
hadn't gone up since 2010. So, it was
way overdue.
Um but right now,
nothing that comes to mind that really
sticks out other than the tethering.
Cool. Thank you.
Board member Harris. Um so, on slide 15
15, let me go back.
Um yeah, so on these two peak
performance measures
what are the methods that we're actually
using to try and hit them?
Seems reducing bites is a challenge, but
interested to hear what we're doing to
try and reduce those. Absolutely. And if
you if you look at
we try to use this one as a comparison,
slide 13.
Yes.
So
the quicker we can respond to a stray
animal bite, I mean a stray animal call
I think is a direct correlation to
number three.
Because we the quicker we can respond to
a stray bite, we may prevent that dog
that stray bite from occurring at all.
Um
right now
I think with like everybody else, and I
know Mary Lou is included in this one,
is that we have some manpower issues.
I have two vacancies. Um I believe that
if once I'm fully staffed that those we
can meet those numbers and meet that
goal and and reduce those number of
bites.
Um number four, if you look at the owner
victim bites, and I've said this before
in front of council and in front of this
board
animal control really doesn't have any
influence on this one because you know
your pets better than we do. So, if
they're resource guarding or food
guarding, whatever, you know that better
than we do.
Um
but going back to your question, number
three, I think we will be able to
influence that number once I'm fully
staffed.
Okay, thanks. You're welcome.
Thank you. Any other questions from the
board?
No. Thank you. I have
one announcement, ma'am, if I may.
I would like to announce that Janine
Torres has been promoted to animal
control supervisor.
So, she and I will both be teaming the
daily supervision of animal control from
this point forward. That's why I have
some vacancies.
Um so, if in any of your emails, please
address her as well so that if I'm off,
she can answer them or if I'm off, she I
will answer them.
I I know that you're just trying to like
chill like no no one notices me, but I I
see you there. I try to hide.
Supervisor Torres, thank you.
Do you want to introduce yourself real
quick? My name is supervisor Janine
Torres.
Um
happy to be with you all.
You and I know that you've been with
animal control for for a bit, yes?
Yes. Do you want to talk a little bit
about that? Um it's been it was 5 years
last month that I was with animal
control. So,
I'm pretty blessed to move to the next
phase of of my career. Awesome. Thank
you. And I know I've heard you shouted
out as one of the
best interactions that residents have
had with a with an animal control
officer.
I'm happy to hear that.
I'm glad to hear this. So, thank thank
you and welcome to this. I'm sure Dino
will be like, "Oh, sorry. I can't
present. Can you do it?" That's totally
going to happen next time. This may be
my last one. Uh-huh.
I would suspect.
Welcome. Thank you. We're glad you're
here.
Thank you.
Ma'am, if I may one more. Um
I'm going to ask a favor. I I typically
don't do this, but I think this time is
warranted.
With that cold front that's coming in,
uh projected to come in this weekend
I'm asking the community if they have
any
uh reason not to bring in their animals
over the the weekend, please do so.
Um I don't know if it's going to hit the
way that it's predicted. I know for some
reason I'm a little
apprehensive, a little anxious about it.
Um so, I'm asking the community for
please bring them in this weekend.
Bring them into your garage if you can.
If you Whatever you can do. Did you want
to Did you want to come up? Come on up.
Doc.
Come come up. Sorry, you you should come
up and speak into the microphone. Yes.
Our county veterinarian.
Please. Very much.
to this, absolutely. So, we have a
program that one of the animal control
officers
started with New Mexico dog that
provides straw for the community
members. So, if there's folks also get
the word out to get straw for
the cold. Yeah. They So, they could 8846
is the number for Doña Ana County Animal
Control. Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. And yes. Absolutely.
Even if you it's your garage, something
warmer than leaving them outside. I hope
no one's
doing that, but I know people do.
Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you very much.
[clears throat]
Uh
interim director Seeley, please.
I need to exit this. Is this Chris? It's
Chris.
I think. Or
Yeah, it looks like it's Chris.
Okay.
Uh Liz Seeley, interim director for ASC
and V.
Um so, I'll be presenting the 2025
annual report. Um, I think it's
important to just see the annual
numbers.
Uh, we also will have our quarterly
report available and all the graphs and
information in this presentation will be
available
um, in an actual report on our website
in the next couple of weeks.
So, we'll start off with our intake
stats.
These are the stats for city intake. So,
all of these animals were brought in
from within the city limits.
Um, our highest numbers there are going
to be our strays from animal control,
that city animal control. Um, and if you
look, the dogs are in the blue, the cats
are in the green.
Um, what's interesting about this slide
is there were more cats brought in last
year than dogs. Um, which looking back
the past few years, um, historically
it's been dogs.
Um, same with strays from the public.
So, these are animals that came through
our front door.
Um, there were more cats from the city
than there were dogs.
Uh, but if you look over at the owner
surrenders to the left, uh, 676
uh, dogs were owner surrendered.
These are the same stats uh, for the
county and this includes all of Doña Ana
County. So, uh, Anthony, Hatch, Mesilla,
Sunland Park, White Sands Missile Range.
Um, and here you can see the highest
number by far is the dogs um, brought in
from county animal control
as well as the owner surrendered dogs.
And this slide uh, is a combined total
of the first two slides. So, um, in
total in 2025, uh, we took in 9,664
animals.
Here's a comparison throughout the
years. So, um,
ASCMV was established in 2008, so we are
missing one year on there.
Um,
but if you just focus on the last 10
years from 2015 to now, you can you can
kind of see we average around 9 to
10,000 every year
with the exception of COVID in 2020. Um,
they uh, we were on an an emergency
intake only situation. So, um, animal
control was bringing in dogs that were
um, animals that were immediately um,
a risk to the public or emergency
situations. So, we did have a lot less
intake in 2020. But, our numbers have
been fairly the same if you exclude that
year.
Here's our monthly intake numbers. Um,
this graph kind of looks the same every
year. We always see the highest intake
in the summer months.
Here's our our species comparison. So,
uh, in total of the total intake, 61.4%
were dogs, 37.7%
were cats and the rest uh, made up less
than 1% of the total intake.
Here's another um, intake comparison.
You can see uh, the total of strays
brought in by animal control.
Um, the next highest being strays by
public and then owner surrenders. Those
are kind of where the bulk of our
animals come from.
So, now we'll look at our outcome stats.
So, this is how the animals left the
shelter.
Total outcomes for 2025, 10,304.
So, this number will never be equal to
the intake because you don't start the
year with zero. Um, we always have
animals at the beginning of the year and
this also includes our owner requested
euthanasias. So, that's a service to the
public um, that we count as an outcome.
So, if you look over to the left, uh,
euthanized was our number one uh,
outcome.
2,880
animals.
Next was our um, actually our adoptions
were uh, 2,205
and then our transfers to rescue were at
1,959.
Typically, the transfers uh, the rescues
and the adoptions numbers kind of stay
similar each year.
Our return to owner numbers, um,
we were able to return 1,298
pets back to their owners.
And our community cats,
um,
that's the highest number that I've seen
in several years.
Um, so we did 1,118
community cats.
And then again, the owner requested
euthanasia, 787. That's a service to the
public. Those are uh, end-of-life
services. So, a lot of times we
typically see um, injured um, or sick
animals or um,
older animals. There are some cases of
uh, behavior aggression in there as
well. So, if an owner if the animal is
um, attacks another pet or bites the
owner, um, a lot of times the owner
likes to do a euthanasia request.
So, here's our euthanasia breakdowns.
This chart only shows the top 18
reasons. Um, there are about double the
amount of reasons, but all of the others
were either less than 20 or at zero. So,
if we look over at the left, the number
one reason at 353 is uh, medical
respiratory signs. That's going to be
non-treatment. So, that's going to be
animals that were not able to um, treat
for upper respiratory signs for one
reason or another. Um, we do treat upper
respiratory infections and we are pretty
successful at um, getting them better.
If you look over to the right, all the
way to the right, uh, the 23, um,
that's for medical respiratory signs
treatment. So, of all the animals that
we treat for upper respiratory signs,
only 23 did not overcome those and had
to be euthanized. So, in other words,
they didn't respond to the treatment.
The next highest uh, euthanasia reason
is going to be behavior, timid, fear
biter. A lot of these are going to be
dogs. Um,
we as humans can understand the scary
situation that they're put in when they
come into the shelter and they're in an
unknown environment with unknown people.
Fear biting is kind of a natural
behavior for them. Um, but it also
affects their adoptability,
unfortunately, and we always want to
take um,
public safety into account when we're
making these decisions.
So, the euthanasia comparisons
throughout the years, um, you can see
the breakdown
um, of the 200 uh, 2,880.
1,948
were dogs, 913 cats and then 19 other.
Our animal transfers, um, these are our
rescues throughout the years. Um, so in
2025, we did 1,959
and of that 1,336
were dogs, 617 cats and six others. So,
I just want to say thank you to all of
our rescue partners who continue to help
us out. Um,
the number does seem lower this year
than the past few years, but 1,959
is a is a tremendous amount of animals
and um,
we are appreciative to all of our rescue
partners, both out of state and local.
Here's our adoption comparisons
throughout the years. So, we did do more
adoptions last year than we have in the
past several years. So, of that um,
64% were dogs, 35% were cats and then
uh, 1% were other.
So, now we'll get to our live release
rate. So, for those that may not know,
the live release rate is um, how many
animals left your shelter alive. In
order to be considered no kill, the
standard is 90%.
Um, if you look back, we have not
reached 90% since 2020 and that's
attributed to our low intake during that
year. So, um, we did reach no kill
status in 2020 for dogs. Um, but in
2025, our dog live release rate was
66.6%
and our cats was 74.3%.
So, that brings us to a total live
release rate of 69.6%
in 2025.
Um, I don't foresee this number changing
drastically unless there's a drastic
change in our intake numbers.
So, now we'll get into our public
services and community outreach.
So, um, in 2025, the shelter saw 23,192
visitors. Our highest numbers were in
July and December and those are our two
months that we partner with the Doña Ana
County Humane Society for our um,
biggest promotions of the year. So, in
July, uh, we do our red, white and cute
event and in December, we do our home
for the holidays as well.
These are our annual surgery totals and
when we say surgery, these are going to
be mostly spay neuters. Um our TNR
numbers um
we did 1,772.
Our adoptions 1,422.
Shelter fosters, those are going to be
animals that are awaiting adoption at
the shelter. Um if they get spay
neutered, we consider that an in-house
surgery. So, that's where they uh that's
the category they would go in. And then
the other at 648, the other is going to
be all of our um
return to owner surgeries, all of our
rescue surgeries, and all of our public
low-cost spay neuters. Um
the SNAP included is going to be in
there.
So, in 2025, we did three uh drive-thru
vaccination clinics in February, June,
and October. And these are really huge
events. We do hundreds of vaccines. We
see hundreds of animals. Um
we've been pretty consistent throughout
the year. Now we're getting to the point
where we kind of recognize the dogs that
are coming each year. They're coming for
their annual vaccines. Um so, in total,
we uh did 5,703
vaccinations. Most of those were free or
at low cost.
And microchips, we did 907. Again, a lot
of those were um sponsored or at low
cost. Um we are starting to see a lot of
animals that come through already
microchipped, which is a good sign. Um
it's the reason why we do these
vaccination clinics. And we will have
our next clinic coming up in February on
the 22nd at the Field of Dreams. So, uh
information for that is on our website
and on our social media.
So, now we'll get into our digital
content. Our our meta ads, they're to
the left. Those are the ads that run on
our uh social media pages. Um if you go
down to the clicks to website, those
will be the ads. Um if an ad is running
on social media and you click that and
it takes you to our website, that's
where those are counted.
I if you go to the middle uh and look
down at Facebook, total views 7.3
million. That's not uh 7.3 million
people, that is how many views our
content got. So, if a video, a post, or
a picture of ours rolls across your
screen, that counts as a view.
Um page visits, these are the amount of
people visiting our Facebook page.
And then content interactions, those are
all the likes, shares, comments. Um and
the same for the Instagram down below.
Our website views um 418,000.
These count a view is every time you
look at an animal on our website. If
you're viewing one dog and you move to
the next dog and then you look at a cat,
that counts as three views.
And if you look down, we did uh we
registered 73,000 new users to our
website.
So, now we'll look at our foster
program.
So, in 2025, um this graph shows how
many animals were in foster each month.
So, a lot of the times our fosters end
up adopting their foster animals, so we
love to see that. Um but we continuously
have uh at I would say on average 100
animals in foster um throughout the
throughout the year.
And uh these are our foster parents. So,
these are the amount of active foster
homes that we had each month.
In April and May, those numbers are a
lot higher. That's what we usually call
kitten season and we like we see a lot
of people step up to foster bottle baby
kittens and puppies. Um so, those are
our two those were our two biggest
months in
2025.
And now we'll look at our volunteer
program. So, over 120 volunteers
contributed to more than 10,000 hours um
assisting the shelter in various
capacities.
I um I'm going on almost 12 years at the
shelter and I can say that I've never
seen our volunteer program uh so well
ran. Um I've never seen so many
volunteers there before. It's really
robust. Everything it just seems to be
growing and growing and we're so
appreciative to our volunteer
coordinator Christie, all that she does,
and mostly all of our volunteers that
just come and spend their time with us
and help our animals.
Um we'll look at some of our volunteer
numbers. So, um we saw our highest
volunteer numbers in the fall.
Um but if you look at February, uh we
see we had 65 volun- active volunteers.
And here if you look at the next slide
in February, you'll see even though it
was only 65, they contributed to 1,000
hours of volunteer work at the shelter.
So, again, we're we're super thankful
for all of our volunteers. Um
this next slide slide shows a few
pictures. Um we have uh whole group that
just does uh playgroup for our animals.
They volunteer at our vaccination
clinics. Uh they volunteer on-site and
off-site at our adoption events. They do
uh dog walking, animal socializing. They
help take pictures, networking. Just so
many volunteer opportunities at the
shelter, so um we really appreciate all
of the work that they put in.
And this is one of our adoptable dogs,
Lemon Meringue.
So, with that, I'll stand for any
questions.
Thank you, Liz. Um
board member Harris.
Um thank you. So, on slide
22,
I think. Um
you're talking about the ads and the ad
spend. Um
I guess
are are we seeing real good ROI on the
meta ad spend? Um
I know that can be pretty difficult to
track uh versus like regular organic
engagement, but
Um I would say it's been up. Um we have
hired um in the last year a digital
content specialist. So, prior to that,
um
we didn't have a whole lot of data. But
now I think now that we can track that a
little bit more, it's something that
we'll be looking into and seeing what
we're doing that's working or what we
need to change, what we need to focus on
more. Um but I would say
since the hiring of that position, um
our social media has increased. Okay.
And are
well, I guess it'll be interesting to
see I guess next time
how we can correlate
um
that to actual like adoptions and less
than intake. So,
Um I will say that on our Facebook page,
um we have four Facebook pages. So, we
have our main uh social media for the
shelter. We also have a networking page
for rescues, um a volunteer page, and a
foster page. Um our networking page has
become really popular, especially with
our volunteers.
Um That's where we post a lot of our
at-risk animals. So, those are probably
the ones that you guys have seen the
most of. Um
so, yeah.
Sounds good. Thanks. Mhm.
Any other board member Ward, please.
Thank you. Thanks,
Liz, for your presentation. I have a
couple questions. Um
on the shelter, um
the numbers
on the stats, like the numbers of
animals in the shelter, does that
include
numbers at the courthouse facility or
does that not include that? No.
It does not include the courthouse
facility. Okay. And then also in regards
to your vaccine clinics, I know you're
when you guys report that, it's usually
out at the Field of Dreams.
Is it ever out in any of the
unincorporated areas of the county? Or
is it always in the incorporated areas
of the city? Um we have when we first
started, uh we used to do it at NMSU. Um
and we moved to the Field of Dreams um
mostly because of traffic control. The
amount of animals that come in and the
amount of people, you really need a
large space to control all of the
traffic. Sometimes the wait to get uh
your pet vaccinated is 1 to 2 hours. So,
um if we can find a space out in the
county um that'll work for our setup, um
we can look into going out there. Right
now, the Field of Dreams uh kind of
works best to get it uh
in order for us to do the amount of
vaccines that we do, we need that kind
of setup. Okay. Thank you. Mhm.
And I mean, that's like you use both
parking lots. That's like two Walmart
Yes. approximately two Walmart parking
lots Yeah. If you've ever if you've ever
been out there, you know that it's uh
it's a lot of traffic.
Yeah, I think logistically that's
it's a huge heavy lift. So, Yeah. I
know. I I I think it would be great,
too, if we could do it in the
unincorporated county areas. I just no
place comes to even I think about DACC,
which has a number of spots, but it's
our parking lots are probably a third of
the size of that area. So, Yeah.
could just get with me and we could
probably come up with some areas within
the county on the unincorporated areas
that has pretty good large areas that we
could probably set up. We'd be happy to
partner with you on that.
Yeah, definitely. We can look into that.
We had considered Vado Speedway Park at
one point. Um
just I mean,
a lot of the times people will be
willing to drive from
Mesilla and Vado if it's closer.
Another consideration we tried was the
fairgrounds, but that's kind of far out
from everybody. So, we're definitely
open to options. So, what what is your
average
vaccines at each clinic that you guys
do? You can see the numbers here.
So, I don't know if they're
I don't know how to make this bigger on
the same slide. But, yeah. So, if you
look at February, these are all the
vaccines for that clinic. Usually, the
numbers
for the rabies are a lot higher.
The distemper, parvo, and the and the
feline distemper, those are the free
vaccines that we offer at most of our
clinics.
And those are yearly vaccines as well.
So,
I would say
700 on average probably a good number.
Thank you.
Board member Gates.
I'm just wondering with the return to
owner totals,
how many of like
you know, obviously I don't need the
actual numbers, but
what is kind of the percentage breakdown
of like, you know, 20% were ones that
were brought in via animal control,
whether it be county or city versus
return to owners from like a public
member that had brought in
an animal.
Okay. So, you're looking at So, the
return to owners
total, you would like to see a breakdown
of county versus city? Or just like an
estimate. Like just essentially like so
when
basically whether the return to owner is
an animal that had been brought in by
animal control or an animal that had
brought in been brought in by a member
of the public. Okay.
I don't have that breakdown, but we can
probably run reports and get it. I will
just say of the return to owners, the
majority are not going to be from the
county.
And a lot of people
especially in like
Mesilla, Vado, Chaparral, they don't
really know that their animals are
brought to us. And we have actually
talked about that in our last meeting.
We're trying to put out more information
so people in these areas, if they're
missing a pet, they know to come to Las
Cruces to look for it. Some people just
aren't aware that their animals are
brought all the way over here, so they
just they don't ever come looking. And
one of the ideas that we have is to
include some inserts in their water
bills so that they're already getting
these water bills, they can look and
see, "Hey, if my pet's missing, this is
where it can go." Cuz that kind of
reaches everybody, even if you don't
have social media.
But, yeah, I would say I can get you the
breakdown of that,
but the majority are going to be
reclaimed from the city. Okay, cool.
Thank you.
Thank you. Any other questions?
Madam Chair. Please. I just want to kind
of I think is Mary Lou was suggesting, I
think you know, we I think is given the
size of the event here at the Field of
Dreams,
potentially if we if we can find a way
to, you know, look at
some of the other areas of the county. I
don't think we necessarily have if we
can do something like that or even
provide some support for that. It
doesn't even have to be the full size
that we do here at the Field of Dreams.
Just
but, you know, I think some of the
places that come to mind like in my
district, the Hatch High School. Because
it has multiple
entrances and exits. If we were to
partner with the school district, that
might be a good spot. Gadsden High
School.
Maybe thinking further in the future. I
know this is several years, but I know
as as we're working night and right now
as a county with the passage of the GO
bonds,
we're looking to possibly potentially
build
a large for a rec center facility
that'll have significant amount of
parking area right along 404 and Stern
Drive just right there
in Anthony. And so, like I said, I think
there's some potential here, but like I
said, maybe like I said, maybe we can
come up with the project with working
with Mary Lou, working with Dr.
McKenzie, and kind of figure it out.
But, I would love like I said, I think I
would love it because I think that that
is one of the feedback I get is some of
the folks
in my district having to drive 40 40
miles to get from from Hatch, Salem area
to to here. They they would love to take
advantage of it, but you know, so
I try to I'd love for us to see how we
could maybe partner together. So, I
appreciate you being open to suggesting
it.
Thank you so much, Liz. Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
Next on our reports and presentations
are committee reports. We have a finance
report to Josh if you're up for coming
up. Thank you so much, Liz.
Good morning, Madam Chair, members of
the board. My name is Josh Saxton. On
behalf of the finance department of the
city of Las Cruces, I would like to
present the unaudited financials as of
December 31st, 2025.
If we look at our first slide here, we
see our statement of net positions. This
is going to be for all funds combined.
So, our cash and investments is
$1,929,184.
We have capital assets of $283,148.
So, this gives us an all funds a total
assets of $2,212,332.
When we take away our total liabilities
of $418,627,
that leaves us a total fund balance of
$1,793,705.
We now see our statement of revenues,
expenses, and changes in fund balance
budget to actual. This is just for the
general fund.
So, here we see the actual revenue for
the period was $2,936,592,
which was at 56.6% of budget. We do
follow a fiscal year of July through
June. So, this is 50% of the year, so
our budget parameter would be 50%. So,
that is slightly above, which is good.
Our total expenditures for the period
were $2,192,505,
which is 39.2%,
which is significantly lower than the
50% budget parameter.
We see when [clears throat] we take our
expenses away from revenues, we had a
total change in net position of
$744,087.
When added to our fund balance at the
start of the year, we had an ending fund
balance in the general fund of
$1,482,545.
Now, we're going to see the breakdown of
expenditures for each of the four main
programs. Starting with the executive
director, we see for the period total
expenditures of $79,662.
This is at 39.2%
of the budget.
For the medical director program, we're
seeing total actual expenditures of
$540,806,
which is at 34.8% of the budget.
For kennel director, it's $853,466,
which is at 40.6% of budget. Again,
we're seeing that all of these are
coming in under that 50% budget
parameter.
And finally, as the administrative
operations, that's their actuals were
$718,650,
and that was at 41.5% of the budget.
Finally, we look at the grant and
donation schedule as of December 31st,
2025. We're showing about five grants
outstanding that the animal services
center is still working on. Of those,
one is almost completely spent. Another
is being well spent, and there are three
others that are in the process of
making sure that they're getting spent,
preparing
different POs, and other things in order
to spend out those funds.
And that is my entire presentation, but
I will stand for any questions.
Board member Peck.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Josh, just so
the rest of the board knows, we're fully
staffed now as far as the financial
positions of the service center.
As far as I know, yes, but if uh Liz,
we're we're That was we we had that
discussion last week.
We're on
Almost fully. Okay. But, the management
analyst
all that's been
So, then again, moving forward,
the bills are getting paid on time.
We're getting caught back up in some of
these lower amounts will be adjusted in
What What did we talk about last week?
Couple Maybe by February, March we're
starting to see
the nor the the financial numbers
normalizing.
Okay. Madam Chair, I just wanted to make
point that out to the rest of the board
that
because of some of the issues with their
staffing in in some of the turnover we
saw late, you know, in late in 2025,
that's why it's reflected in their
financials, but it'll normalize soon.
Thank you for pointing that out. Any
other questions?
On the finance report.
Seeing and hearing none, thank you,
Josh.
Next up, I don't know. I'm going to
talk to you in Santa Fe, Chris. Are you
there?
Uh
No, I don't.
No.
If you if you're up for an executive
report,
Sorry, I think it was muted. Okay.
Thank you, Adrian slot Ouija board.
Uh-uh.
Worker, miracle worker. Chris, are you
there?
Yes, I'm back. Thank you.
Okay.
Uh do are you up for giving an executive
report, please?
Of course, can you hear me? Yep, we can.
Perfect.
Yeah, no. So, we definitely have been
working uh hard with Liz and team on
getting the new executive director
um up and going. Uh I know that that's
been one of the bigger projects that
we've all been working on.
Uh so, really that's all we're doing and
uh trying to finalize that. But, I just
want to say a big thank you to Liz and
her team for working with us as much as
possible to get all the relevant
information out and just really uh
just being awesome team members and I
know it's been a long haul. But, that's
really all we've been up to uh the last
couple months and we've just been trying
to fill the fill the shoes and, you
know, plug the holes lately. So, thank
you.
Thank you. And more on that
shortly.
Um
So, facilities, board member Ward.
Thank you. And
First, I want to apologize. I did miss a
couple of the meetings, but I did get
the notes from the meetings from Liz.
So, thank you, Liz, for providing the
notes to me. So, I will report on the
notes that were um
given on the facilities meetings. So,
there were some pending work orders that
were reviewed from outstanding from the
facility related and facilities is
continuing to work on those access
and to schedule some items several work
orders to remain those in progress. The
adoption building, there's a lock
replacement system. So, the facilities
is still working on plans to replace the
existing locks in the adoption building.
Um there was discussion in regards to
completing the lock replacement in
phases to expedite the start of the
work. And then the there's a maintenance
supervisor update. So, updates on the
maintenance supervisor remains they
remain out on medical leave, which
continues to impact the internal
maintenance capacity and the turnaround
times.
Um the medical kennel renovation grant
was discussed and the project was funded
through recent grants.
Um
the project planning and management will
likely wait until the next new executive
director is hired and funding options,
including potential use of the fund
balance, will need further review. It's
anticipated that the project planning
will begin once the new director is on
board. And then the next meeting was um
scheduled and that's all I have to
report.
Thank you.
Um
Any questions from anyone?
No.
Uh
The the
grant, I think we do have ongoing
conversations about the grant to update
the medical kennels, but also to update
the the building's medical capacity
overall. And I do look forward to the
new executive director coming on board
and for us to think about those capital
improvements separate from
from a lot of the operational
improvements that will be or operational
funding that we are often talking about
here. So, I think
I I hope I'm hopeful that in the next
year or so we'll have a capital
improvement strategy and approach that
we can help keep building up
you know, from this beyond
increasing capacity. So, thank you for
representing on the facilities
committee. And also, I think we'll be
looking for um
new board members, which
is our next discussion item. Uh seeing
no more questions from the board, the
process for selecting a new board
member, board member Campbell resigned
um just a few weeks ago.
Um
And also, you may have noticed that I am
the lesser Becky. Uh the Becky Graham is
no longer on city council and we are
joined by
um
councilor new councilor Harris
representing district 3 and and
representing the city on on the ASCMV
board. So,
this discussion item is directly related
to filling that
spot uh on the
uh on the board. We will be looking for
a new public board member. So, we've
gone through this process before.
Um we'll do it again. We to do this um
process, we folks we ask folks to um
submit their information to the boards
and committees website on on the
city's
boards and committees website. And I
will follow up with Liz and more more
over our city
clerk who helps us run that
uh system, which is where we collect the
information for anyone who's interested.
And then um
we take those interested parties and
decide from there where um
uh on the next public board member. So,
uh anyone in the
city I think this is a city position. We
have these loosely designated. So,
someone who lives within the city
limits, not in the county limits as both
of those uh
Is that correct?
Not correct. Is that correct? Both of
those spots are are full. So, someone in
the city limits and I will there will be
a we'll post the job description for a
board member shortly.
Um so, be on the lookout for that if you
are interested in getting engaged. You
can also I don't forget the snap board.
So, a number of places where you can get
engaged if you are interested.
Um So, any questions for anyone
related to that?
Hearing none, the next action item is
selection of ASCMV board chair and vice
chair and committee assignments.
Um
This
happens every year. As you can see, we
have turnover on the board, who's who's
there and who's not. We also try to,
even though I don't think we're required
to, um rotate this between county and
city representatives just so that there
is never a kind of
hegemonic
agenda, although that hasn't I have not
experienced one or the other trying to
trying to boss the other in my time on
on this board. But, I think that that
idea is still a good one to keep
perpetuating. And so, for that reason,
the city was chair last year. Um
I I think we'll start with the ASCMV
board chair and then go on to vice chair
if that's if I have the consent of my
colleagues.
And given that and the history of of
rotation, I nominate um Manny Sanchez as
the as board chair.
Do you do you accept the nomination? I
do. Thank you. Any other
inputs from the board? Uh
are we allowed to nominate anybody who's
not in the room with us?
[laughter]
I mean,
yes. I don't know how quickly they can
get on the Zoom to accept or reject the
nomination. If you if you want to
nominate someone else, that's also
welcome. I I was just expecting I was
just expecting a little some some
comment from Santa Fe there, but
obviously I I guess he's
I'm staying quiet, commissioner.
[laughter]
I'm staying quiet.
Okay.
Good try, though.
Uh
I don't think
I can poll the board to see, but if
there are no other nominations, I think
it it goes to
uh now chair Sanchez. Do you want to
continue on with the rest of the meeting
or do you want me to continue? No, I I I
uh I completely up to you. I don't mind.
And I think just just for the record, I
guess by affirmation, do we want to uh I
guess approve of myself as chair? I
should ask this so for the record. What
I think we could do at the end of this
uh a slate if there aren't
True.
multiple nominations, perhaps. Does that
work? That works. Okay.
So, do you want me to take over or What
what would you like? I
I'll take over. Okay.
Thank you.
[laughter]
Uh with that, we'll open up the floor
now for uh vice chair of the ASCMV
board. Um I know as we said, we
alternate. And so, with that, the vice
chair would be uh back with the city of
Las Cruces. So, with that, I'll open up
the floor for nominations.
I nominate board member Gates.
Board member Gates, do you accept?
I accept.
All right. Are there any other
nominations for vice chair?
All right. Then, we will close the floor
for nominations for vice chair.
Um with that, since there are only one
nomination for chair and vice chair, so
chair uh myself, Commissioner Sanchez,
and uh vice chair, board member Gates.
Um I will then just uh
if there are no objections, uh I'll ask
for a all those in support
say I.
I.
I. I.
All right. I.
And with that, uh then we'll call the by
by unanimous consent there, we now have
officially chair and vice chair for the
board. So, thank you, board member
Gates, for joining this with me. So,
Thank you. Very excited to work with
you. Thank you. And thank you to the
board members. And thank you to uh my uh
my compadre in in Santa Fe for
for his support.
The the committee assignments, I think I
don't know if you want to talk more
about that. I think we're missing
someone on facilities. The executive
committee is proscribed by the
um
by who's in the vice chair position
typically.
Um and then
chair and vice chair and then finance. I
don't know if the finance committee is I
think the finance committee is fully
staffed. So, it's just the facilities
committee I think that we're missing
that we're missing someone on.
Um
Yeah, I I don't know if anybody then if
that's the case, I don't know if anybody
would like to be part of the facilities
committee that is not or currently part
of it.
Uh Commissioner Shel-Don Andes, I know
uh you were on the executive as being
vice chair.
Uh any chance you'd be open to doing the
uh facilities committee from instead of
uh in place of the executive?
100%. I can
Yes, I'll be on facilities.
Okay. And I see Mary Mary Lou as well is
open. Is that I think if we're if we're
good with that, are there any Who else
is on the
Do we need
I think with the two with
I mean, I'm on it. Okay. Did you want to
stay on it board member or vice chair?
Yeah, that's fine. Okay.
Then I think if there's no there's no
issues with having those
appointments, we'll we'll plan on having
uh Commissioner Shel-Don Andes, vice
chair Gates, and then
uh as ex officio, you know, uh member
Ward, uh we'll have those as part of the
facilities committee as well.
And then the executive committee will be
made by
uh myself as chair, uh vice chair Gates.
Um I believe also unfortunately we we it
was usually the outgoing chair. So,
um I I don't know how or if we want to
have someone else from from the city as
a part of that as the executive
committee or if
uh we're just okay with myself and uh
the vice chair as being part of that.
I
Yeah.
I'm sorry, what?
Uh sorry, board member board member
Peck. Mr. Chairman, in order to avoid a
conflict or deadlock, don't you normally
need three?
Um but there
Yes, but I I don't know that we've I
don't know that we've generally made
decisions on in the executive committee.
I think we we usually defer to the
larger board
uh with those, but
like I said, it I I'm open either way. I
think in like I said in the past, we've
generally not made made those
determinations on in the in the
committee.
Well, I would leave the question open
until we have a chance to look at the
JPA, but I'm fine with the
Okay. Cuz it's structured in the JPA.
Okay.
And then just for the record now, uh who
is on the finance committee so we can
Okay, board member Peck. Uh okay, we
have Councillor Corwin.
And also uh Commissioner Shel-Don Andes
is um
Okay.
Okay, with that so so just so that way
I've got just to for the record as we're
I'll need a motion and a second to
approve, but on the executive committee,
it'll be for now myself, Chair Sanchez,
Vice Chair Gates.
Um
on the facilities, we will have um
Commissioner Shel-Don Andes, ex officio
member Ward, as well as Vice Chair
Gates, and then on the finance
committee, it will be also Commissioner
Shel-Don Andes, Councillor Corwin, and
Board Member Peck.
Okay.
All right. If I can get a motion and a
second to approve those
uh appointments
or if there's any changes to that.
I I was just going to suggest
um and I don't again, I I think this is
really just additional meetings that we
are required to attend. So, in respect
for that, but also in thinking about um
integrating board member Harris, I was
going to suggest that perhaps
uh instead of serving on facilities,
Chair Harris takes your spot. Would that
be okay with you?
Yes. Would that be okay with you? Yes.
Okay. Not to be again, I'm not trying to
stack any decks. I'm just trying to make
sure that people don't have 20 meetings
per month as a result of their
commitments and that and that board
member Harris gets to be on a committee.
Okay.
the special fun of being on a committee.
Do you're you're in? Yep. Okay. So, That
would be for facilities?
Yes. Okay.
Okay, so in in lieu of
Vice Chair Gates, it'll be uh board
member or Councillor Harris will be
taking her place. Okay.
So, if I can get a motion and a second
to approve those
committee assignments. So moved. I
second.
I have a motion by uh Councillor Corwin,
a second by I believe Board Member Peck.
Okay. All right. If there are no other
comments or questions, we'll do a roll
call vote.
Ex officio member Ward.
Yes. Board member Peck. Yes. Vice Chair
Gates. Yes. Councillor Harris. Yes.
Councillor Corwin. Yes. I
uh Chair Sanchez vote yes. And with that
those committee assignments are
approved. Thank you all.
All right. And then we're on to
resolution 2601, which is item 7.2 on
our agenda. This is a resolution
approving an employment agreement hiring
Stephanie Lewis as executive director of
the Animal Services Center of the
Mesilla Valley. If I can get a sec a
motion and a second to begin discussion,
please. Move to approve.
I have a motion by Councillor Corwin,
second second by Councillor Harris.
All right.
And so, I hope uh
the board members have had a chance to
review the
uh
the resolution. I don't know if there
are any
questions, changes, comments to the
resolution.
Councillor Corwin. Um
I First of all, I just want to give a
huge shout-out to the folks who worked
on the
um smaller committee to
have this search process and to the
search firm who who I believe did a
really good job of integrating a number
of
complicated variables. Um one of which
is the fact that we have to go through a
lot of public meetings to
to come to this conclusion, but uh I
know it represents a lot of work for a
lot of people and we are very lucky to
have the opportunity to
um
offer this extend this contract. I'm
sure Liz is very happy we cat fished her
into what was supposed to be a 4-month
job. It ended up being a year more more
than a year. Um and so, I'm sure
I I also will thank her later, but I did
want to make I So, thank you to everyone
who worked on this, but I did want to
make one um
follow-up amendment to page 14 of 17. If
you're looking at it directly in the
packet under salary,
the moving expenses caveat um we learned
um
board member Shel-Don Andes brought this
up in the conversations that we were
having with the legal team and then the
search firm that
uh
the one-time
stipend for moving expenses is taxed at
the same rate as
um
regular salary. And so, I'm I'm
mentioning this because
the candidate in in setting up that has
asked for that to be changed to a
stipend of $6,000.
Um and so, I would propose an amendment
on
in under
number five B
that that five be changed to a six.
So, I am making that formal amendment.
Okay, so I'll take that as a there's a
motion to amend the moving expenses
under section 5B from 5,000 to 6,000. Is
there a second to that? Second. All
right. I have a second by
Harris.
Any comments,
input from the board
or the public?
All right. And with that then we will do
a roll call on
the proposed amendment to the moving
expenses. Ex officio member Ward.
Yes.
All right. Uh board member Peck. Yes.
Vice Chair Gates. Yes.
Councillor Harris. Yes. Councillor
Corwin. Yes. I Chair Sanchez vote yes.
And so, with that the amendment is
approved. The moving expenses are now
shown to reflect $6,000.
Um So, now we're back to the uh
resolution as amended.
Are there any other comments,
changes,
questions,
public input?
Okay.
All right. With that then um I'll do a
roll call vote on uh resolution 26-01
as amended. Ex officio member Ward.
Yes. Board member Peck. Yes. Vice Chair
Gates. Yes. Councillor Harris. Yes.
Councillor Corwin.
Yes. I Chair Sanchez vote yes. And with
that the uh resolution is approved.
And uh so again, as
Councillor as you mentioned, I
appreciate the the staff and all of the
work that was put into uh the process.
Uh Liz, thank you again so much for
stepping in. I I can't see you over the
monitor, but
um thank you so much for for stepping in
and helping us and
lead the center during the the time of
transition. I know there'll be a little
bit more, but uh, glad that we had a
really good interview process.
Um, and I know we we talked about that
during the during the selection of Miss
Lewis, so I'm looking forward to
welcoming her to
uh, Las Cruces and Dona Ana County and
looking forward to working with her. So,
thank you all so much.
Mr. Chair. Yes, Board Member Peck.
For the record, Liz, thank you very much
for all your hard work in the last year.
I know it was been really tough
and you've done a fantastic job.
Um, Mr. Chairman, I would also like the
board to consider direction to the new
director to keep Liz as an interim
resource for at least 6 months. Um,
that helps.
You know, I'm
you know, I would is you can go back to
your regular job, but you know, I think
that
Just during the transition, I would like
to recognize the hard work that she did
and her knowledge.
And that she you maintain as an as an
interim deputy director
to help the new person come through.
Yeah, I think that we can
No, absolutely does and I think it it
for continuity
as well as the the knowledge that that
Liz has has from working at years of the
ASCMV and every the lessons learned over
the last year, I think it makes perfect
sense. So, I think maybe that's
something we can have that discussion
with as we come in, but I absolutely
agree. I think having for purposes of
continuity, I think it it makes perfect
sense.
Uh, but also I understand Liz is ready
to get back to her job and I think she
plays an important role with working
with our our community partners and so
we'll have to work on on figuring that
out, but I I believe it's a great idea.
Thank you, Board Member Peck.
Mr. Chairman, I also you know, you can
see the numbers in the rescues and in
where those things have gone down and I
think that's where Liz fits right back
in, but
during that 6 months then again, I think
her pay should be maintained to where
it's at for you know, during this
transition period as well.
Yeah, I think I'm sure we can probably
like I said, we can probably figure that
out as a board and
I'll probably have to lean a little bit
on on Josh as we and the finance
committee as well as we you know, if we
were to explore that, what could
potentially be
impact to the budget if there is or if
there's any concern with vacancies and
that comes in, we can figure that out. I
think as as a board. But,
like I said, I I do I do completely
agree. I think it's rather than throwing
Miss Lewis to
you know,
learn learn to throw her in the deep
end. Obviously, I know she has plenty of
experience, but I think having that
perspective will be helpful. So, thank
you, Board Member Peck.
Um, all right, we're on to agenda item
number eight, which is public input. Are
there any members of the public that
would like to provide public input at
this time?
All right.
Oh, please.
Come on up.
And we can please state your name for
the record.
Hi, I'm Dina Dargo. Um, some of you know
me from Animal Protection Voters and I
will be lobbying on February 10th at the
capital
regarding SB 30 as well as the other
three legislative priorities. I just
wanted to mention that as we did last
year, we're asking community members to
please write letters in support of these
bills. They can email them directly to
Animal Protection Voters and it's
imperative that they put their residence
address because we hand deliver those
letters to their legislators. So,
whatever
uh,
you want to do to rally the community,
we really really appreciate that. It was
very impactful last year.
Awesome. Thank you.
All right.
Any other public input at this time?
All right.
We'll move on to chair and board
comments. Board.
Uh, we'll go ex officio number one and
then
Council Corn.
Thank you. Um, I just have an
announcement and it kind of goes with
what we were
[snorts]
discussing earlier with the free straw.
Dona Ana County has been giving out free
straw with the New Mexico dog program.
They've been partnering with us. We've
been doing it for some time now, so our
office does provide free straw to any
residents. So, you don't just have to be
a resident within the unincorporated
areas. We don't ask any questions and it
doesn't matter if it's a dog or a cat or
what animal you have that's outside that
you need to help provide warmth to that
animal in the winter months. Just come
by the office, let us know that you need
free straw. We'll be happy to provide it
for you. Our office is located at 2024
East Griggs.
If you can come by between the hours of
8:00 and 12:00 and then again from 1:00
to 4:30 in the afternoon, Monday through
Friday and we'll be happy to provide
that for you.
That's it. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Corn.
Thank you. I just wanted to give a
really public
shout out to both Liz, who I will
continue to express my gratitude for
throughout this time.
Again,
it's been very powerful. There are a lot
of things coming at you in this role
that I know Stephanie
is up for and and thinking about too,
but you you really worked hard to keep
things moving and keep us keep us all
together.
I also want to give a shout out to
Michelle who was who for a long time had
been
has been until recently filling in and
doing
a lot of the work related to the
documentation that we have that we
expect and and a lot of the public
documentation and and doing a number of
things
that also fall into other duties as
assigned, I think. So, thank you,
Michelle for doing that. Also, I I just
want to give a a secret shout out to
Michelle who who accounts for my single
happiest day ever in public office when
she showed me a tiny baby goat.
That was the best day of my job, the
only time I've ever experienced some
extraordinary benefit from this job.
It was from you, Michelle. So, I will
never never forget that happiest day of
my
of my public office career, but thank
you. I I know it's unseen, but I see you
and we appreciate both of you very much.
So,
thank you.
Thank you.
Councilor Harris. Oh, sorry, then oh,
sorry, I see sorry, so the red light and
I apologize. I'll go Vice Chair Gates
and then here to Council Harris. Um, I
just want to echo the same. I mean, Liz,
you stepped into this role and I mean,
to go from being really awesome doing
your rescue work,
transports and and getting all of the
animals out of the shelter and having to
kind of give up something that you're so
incredibly passionate about for a year
and some change.
I mean, obviously we're like home
stretch right now for you and you know,
like it's not going to be like
overnight, obviously. You're going to
have some some
transitional things happening, but
just it's incredible that you were able
to step into this role
and just do amazing work despite, you
know, being, you know, probably very
overwhelmed with with everything that
was happening and you know, that role is
not an easy role and you were able to
just keep everything smooth and you
know, it's just so incredible to see
someone
able to step in like that and I am so
excited for the future of the Animal
Services Center.
You know,
even without you at the helm, I'm it's
it's just going to be so impactful to
see the changes and to see you getting
back into your into your role and the
changes that it brings. I mean, same
goes for Michelle and the work that you
do there and I'm just like I'm so
excited moving forward and you both have
had such a big impact on keeping things
running organizationally. So, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Usher Gates. Councilor
Harris.
Um, thanks. So, I'm I'm guess I'm
excited to be a new part of this board
and I'm excited for the future of ASCMV.
I I think I was very encouraged by all
the reports and presentations we saw
today.
So, that's cool. I think we have a a
good future and I also just wanted to
give a special shout out to the TNR
program. Um, I've put a couple community
cats through it myself in the past and I
think we're we're doing some great work
on the preventative side of things which
which hopefully will will increase the
the positive outcomes that we see.
That's it. Thanks.
Thank you, Councilor and and welcome to
the ASCMV board. We're excited to have
you on. I'd like to also extend an
invitation if you ever have questions on
the county, obviously, you can reach out
to myself or Commissioner Shelly
Rodriguez, but especially Mary Lou can
share a lot of the
initiatives that we've been working on
at the county level and so that way kind
of how we might be able to dovetail
continue to dovetail with the efforts of
the city.
Please feel free to reach out anytime.
We'd love to kind of figure out and even
have
new set of eyes of even trying to have
some new suggestions. So,
thank you, sir.
All right.
Any other questions, comments from the
board?
All right.
And with that, then we'll move on to the
last item of our business, which is
adjournment. If I get a motion and a
second to adjourn.
Motion to adjourn.
Second. I have a motion and a second for
adjournment. We'll call this meeting
adjourned at 10:48 a.m. Thank you all so
much.
We will see you all in a couple of
months and
thank you all for uh,
for this meeting. Thank you.
Mhm.