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Councillor Dean. 00:00:01
Councillor Fleming. 00:00:03
Answer Hicks. 00:00:05
Councillor Ocampo. 00:00:07
Councillor Olguin. 00:00:10
Councillor Romero here. 00:00:11
Councillor Solomon, we have a quorum. I have to say that Councillor Chavez Lopez is at the rodeo arena. 00:00:13
Practicing with the Queen candidates on their horses. 00:00:20
That's what she's doing. 00:00:24
The fact that he had States of America. 00:00:29
We should ask one person. 00:00:34
In the response choices. 00:00:37
Mayor. 00:00:43
Mr. Ryan, will we approve the? 00:00:44
Consent agenda. 00:00:47
Mr. Mayor. 00:00:48
I need to change something on the agenda. 00:00:50
To remove a. 00:00:52
Item. 00:00:55
6C. 00:01:00
The RFP award. 00:01:02
We need to do some interviews before before I can award that so. 00:01:04
That we can strike that off. 00:01:09
Thanks man. 00:01:13
Mr. Romero, I move we approve the consent agenda with that change. 00:01:14
2nd. 00:01:19
Seconded discussion on favor. 00:01:21
Pushed. 00:01:24
OK. 00:01:26
Mr. Romero, No, that's fine. 00:01:27
Don't confuse me already. I already told you, you confused me there, OK? 00:01:31
We're at the public forums show their Youth Advisory Board of New AO Mexico. Who is that? 00:01:38
Well, come on up. 00:01:45
Hello, my name is Maya Fern. I'm a representative of the Southern New Mexico Youth Advisory Board. 00:01:49
Our mission is to advocate for unhoused young people by educating the community, dismantling stigma and providing insight to youth 00:01:55
serving agencies. 00:01:59
As a part of our advocacy efforts, we request your support and reopening the Sapporo Team Center located at 1002. 00:02:04
8th Ave. 00:02:11
Since its closure, local young people have been displaced and they're wandering around town getting into trouble. 00:02:13
The team center provided a safe space for kids to do Sorry. 00:02:18
The teams that are provided a safe space for kids that don't want to go home to make new friends, work on school assignments and 00:02:23
view themselves. 00:02:26
Teams also really appreciated the guidance from the staff. 00:02:29
And having adults care about them and support them. If the teen center reopens, the Youth Advocacy Board would be willing to 00:02:33
facilitate field days, cookouts, sports. 00:02:37
Board game nights and video game tournaments and most importantly life skills classes. 00:02:42
We are happy to support the reopening. 00:02:47
And any and all capacity necessary, we firmly believe that teens need somewhere to go, a safe space and an alternative to hanging 00:02:50
out with the wrong people and getting into trouble. 00:02:53
We understand that funding can be a barrier to this goal. However, the southern part of the state is taking steps to invest in the 00:02:58
young people. 00:03:01
Unfortunately, youth homelessness rates are rising at an alarming rate. 00:03:04
These are our sons and our daughters. 00:03:09
Our future leaders, and they deserve our commitment to empowering them. 00:03:11
We recently applied for a grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that the sorry. 00:03:15
That prioritizing prioritizes setting young people up for success to end and prevent youth homelessness. 00:03:21
We would be immensely grateful if you align yourselves with our goal and invested your time and funding into the young people's 00:03:27
Poro. 00:03:30
By supporting this reopening. 00:03:33
Are you from Socorro? I'm not, but I represent all housing agencies in the southwest. 00:03:36
And I understand the housing, but you're specifically talking about our youth center? 00:03:44
Do you know what the use has been as far as the youth center is concerned when it was open? 00:03:48
And from what I hear, it was a place for kids to go and hang out, hang out with their friends, do homework and get support from 00:03:52
the staff. 00:03:55
Us a place when you don't want to go home but you can feel safe. 00:03:59
And what hours were they being used? 00:04:03
That I'm not sure of. 00:04:06
We have a brand new facility we just opened. 00:04:08
Is she here? 00:04:11
Shelley. 00:04:14
And and you say also that's good. 00:04:18
I don't see her here, but I I would. Who's your local contact here in the city? 00:04:20
Fisher you are. And have you spoken with Shailene? 00:04:26
Just. 00:04:32
Yes. 00:04:36
Speak. 00:04:38
Working. 00:04:41
The. 00:04:42
Or four or five local teenagers here in Decoro talking about what different things are needed. 00:04:42
In this particular community. 00:04:48
What? What is your What is your standing? I mean, you are what? 00:04:52
Well, so I'm a part of the Youth Advisory Board that lets you live in Sikora. 00:04:55
I live in Poland area. 00:05:00
But as you know, Iran. 00:05:02
Forever. So I've been taking years before in my capacity as the the Board chair at Portland State harbors the day shelter for 00:05:05
homeless adults in Sequiro, hence the day shelter for homeless adults. 00:05:11
We don't really serve the teenage population because. 00:05:18
Teenagers don't really want to go to a homeless shelter where there are a lot of adults, right? If that makes sense. 00:05:21
I could go into that further, but they there are homeless teenagers in Socorro of 4040% of the youth in Socorro live below the 00:05:28
poverty line, which astronomical actually, if you have a map of New Mexico, Socorro County has the highest rates of child poverty. 00:05:35
So even if they're not outright homeless and sleeping at the Bio park, which some of them are, they are very poor and have nowhere 00:05:43
to go to to do things. So I did just learn about family gym and see what that's going to be. 00:05:51
Immune to seven I guess, right? And that was a $2.2 million allocation for family gamified, if I understand that correctly, 1.2 00:05:58
million. 00:06:02
1.3 OK has already been allocated and there's another $1,000,000 on debt and we're gonna go check that out for sure. Like all of 00:06:08
you that are on the Youth Advisory Board are gonna go check out from within and see what's going on there for sure. 00:06:14
So if there's a way that somebody could be at the team center of providing those those classes basically like life skills 101 or 00:06:47
something like that. 00:06:52
Their kids would, and the abuse Advisory Board and Maya have definitely stepped up to like help facilitate that and facilitate 00:06:57
events there to kind of draw teenagers into it. There's definitely a need and a desire within the team community in Socorro for 00:07:02
those types of services. 00:07:07
But I'm not sure if you know what we do for that youth we we hire 120 youths through the summer. 00:07:13
And they're on their team to make those budget, about $150,000 for that. 00:07:19
And they work with different. 00:07:24
People in the community. 00:07:27
Such as the VLA, such as Tech, such as the county. 00:07:28
They learn life skills there. We have also. 00:07:32
Family gym and and we had a youth center but we moved everything over there plenty of space. Do you have some youth here that from 00:07:36
Sequoia that feel that they haven't been getting the right access to activities They might be able to if they would kind of tell 00:07:41
us a little bit about what they might need. 00:07:47
Can they come up to the mic? 00:07:56
Can you come up to the mic? Yeah. 00:07:58
Hi, my name is Jess. I live over in Polvadera, but I. 00:08:02
Used to come over here to Socorro to go to school. Unfortunately, the Socorro schools were not able to accommodate to my needs. I 00:08:06
was on a lot of medications so I had a hard time staying awake during school. So I stopped taking the bus and I had dropped out. 00:08:14
And shortly after that, they closed the Teen Center. 00:08:22
Um, which was my only. 00:08:25
Source of like interaction with kids my age in town. 00:08:28
Because I just live 15 minutes away and this is like the closest place that I could go to hang out with somebody or spend time 00:08:32
with someone that I care about. 00:08:35
Um. However, the streets are just not very safe and. 00:08:39
I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. Is this not very safe out there to be out, Especially the past couple weeks it's hit like 104, 00:08:45
very steady 108. It's been very hot, so it's it would be very nice. I just found out that this place opened and I would love to 00:08:53
check it out and see what it has to offer. But I would love if you could come and advocate for this center maybe as well and bring 00:09:00
life skills to those kids because like you said, you are helping 120. 00:09:08
Kids, but I was not a part of that. But these kids in the in the Pew, we all need your help. 00:09:16
I've never spoken in a group of people this big before. 00:09:22
I've never thought many people, no, you're explaining that very well. Had you talked to the county at all as far as their ARPA 00:09:25
money? That could have used that for some of the some of that. 00:09:30
Stuff that is for the youth. 00:09:36
The county Commission itself. 00:09:38
No, I don't believe we have talked to the County Commission. That's not. 00:09:40
Yeah, well you know, we're certainly gonna relate this to Shaylee and who is our recreation director and we will take your input. 00:09:44
But it's a nice 70 degrees in that family gym now, so the hatchbacks are working very well. 00:09:50
I encourage you to go there. I was there yesterday. 00:09:57
And must have had about 20 kids in there. 00:10:02
Playing volleyball and basketball and. 00:10:05
So. 00:10:08
Provide sardine, but do you provide transportation options? 00:10:08
We don't in the county. We do have city transportation. 00:10:12
I'm not sure if. 00:10:17
How did you come to the youth center when you were using it with my grandmother and friend Rides from friends and family? 00:10:19
It may be that way. I mean, I we don't have see. 00:10:26
Since it's a city function. 00:10:31
It's difficult to have services out in the county that. 00:10:33
Because we have to spend that. 00:10:36
In the city. 00:10:38
We can look into transportation for certain routes. We do go to Berlin. 00:10:39
And when they go to Berlin, when they're coming back, they could stop and pull over there and pick people up at a certain spot. We 00:10:44
can maybe think about coordinating that. We can work on some of that. Amazing. That would be a great first step. Sure, sure. But 00:10:49
but I would like for your. 00:10:54
And I'm not really wanting to know. What I really want to know is who is the spokesman. 00:11:00
That could bring this stuff together so that. 00:11:05
We hear. 00:11:08
You know, kind of a cohesive outline of what you really need. 00:11:10
That would be me. 00:11:14
Kind of what I want to advocate for as well. It's fantastic that you do have a space and that it's 70 degrees and there's kids 00:11:16
playing ball. That's fantastic. 00:11:19
But what's really going to help is these life skills is providing counseling and mentorship to young people. 00:11:23
These are the ways that we prevent those numbers, that 38.1% from growing and rising. If we're not educating our young people, 00:11:28
we're setting them up for failure. 00:11:32
Well, I I agree that you're making that speech, but you know. 00:11:37
The city city government has certain goals that we need to meet, but we have a great Chelsea Jones, our library director, who's 00:11:40
really into that and she does that with seniors. 00:11:46
And she made Chelsea come on up if you've got some ideas. 00:11:52
Maya. 00:11:58
Check. 00:11:58
Actually just received literacy funding to do exactly what you're talking about, GD life skills training. I have volunteers. We 00:11:59
just met. They're trained, they're educators and. 00:12:04
I want to come over. Yeah, we'd love to collaborate. All of these already available in our community? That'd be fantastic. Or any 00:12:10
of you familiar with the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project grant? 00:12:14
So that's the grant that was recently applied for from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. And what that 00:12:20
project is for is to eliminate youth homelessness. 00:12:24
We just applied for that grant and it looks really good that we're going to get it if we get this money. We want to know that the 00:12:28
city is on board to help us with these goals. 00:12:32
Well, we we had a, I'm sorry, Mr. I just wanted to inform you that last year. 00:12:36
We did. We did ask for that grant and then evidently it went to the northern part of the state. Most of that money went to the 00:12:41
northern part of the state, didn't come to the southern part. So I'm I'm sure the Council would be more than happy to sponsor 00:12:47
that. As a matter of fact, I can't remember that the people that came to us about that. 00:12:52
But we went through this last year, Mr. Romero, sorry. 00:12:58
Well, the same thing today, we. 00:13:02
Councillor Dean, Councillor Ogan and myself has the one of our first meetings as to. 00:13:05
The possibilities of what might be done. 00:13:12
Ohh. 00:13:15
To further better, use the portions of the old. 00:13:16
High school. 00:13:20
That aren't being utilized and Councillor Dean has you know specific ideas like that, that. 00:13:22
She would like to see done too, but there's all kinds of things that we're going through. 00:13:27
You know meeting rooms and and different things. So we are looking at some kind of development and. 00:13:32
You might want to tell them what you were thinking. I'm just trying to create a Community Center where there's different rooms for 00:13:39
different purposes. One might be for teams design more for teens, one might be for. 00:13:44
Kids who are interested in, I don't know, music. 00:13:50
Climbing wall, I mean those are some things that you know, just been talking about. But you know, we're quite a ways away because 00:13:54
we've got to do some. 00:13:58
Demolition work first, but but we are thinking about the kids. 00:14:02
And we're rolling out a music program right now at Family. 00:14:06
So there's there's lots of space that family right now that's usable. 00:14:10
And Chelsea made a great suggestion. 00:14:14
For the life skill and the and the literacy program to be put together for the youth, I think somebody was dropped out of school, 00:14:16
could get a GED and also learn other things. 00:14:21
That's available at our City library. 00:14:26
And Chelsea is in charge of that, so there are things available and perhaps it would be best if. 00:14:29
We could maybe. 00:14:35
Get that information out a little better than we're doing So it sounds like there's two things here though. You're representing A 00:14:37
homelessness and and and for for basically lost children that went. 00:14:42
And the pandemic we had, the the numbers were horrendous in Socorro. 00:14:48
That there there were I think in the 100. 00:14:52
As far as and then. 00:14:55
Kids who were homeless and didn't have anywhere to go. So those are the things that we're certainly will support. 00:14:57
The other part of your question as far as giving. 00:15:03
Activities for youth. 00:15:07
I must say you need to kind of. 00:15:09
Get acquainted to the stuff we are already doing. We're doing a lot of stuff. 00:15:12
Now, as far as educational is concerned, Chelsea is taking care of that, Shelley takes care of the recreations. 00:15:16
You know, we have many, many events that the kids are involved with that we allow them to. 00:15:22
Use our facility so we're more than happy to accommodate them. 00:15:27
That's fantastic. How do these young people find these events? Because when I look it up or when I try and find things that are 00:15:31
going on in Socorro, I can't find anything. 00:15:34
And so I imagine that the young people also have that struggle. 00:15:37
Apollo, we've got a website that. 00:15:41
Has talked about youth employment. Talk about. 00:15:45
Recreation and things of that nature. Sure. If I, if I, If I'm. 00:15:49
If I get the. 00:15:53
Material to advertise all advertising? Yeah, sure. 00:15:55
So, so we'll do a better job than what we're doing now and to maybe get a resource book. 00:15:58
That everybody can access on the net. 00:16:04
That'd be fantastic. And my last request is just as these plans continue growing, I would love if you could involve the Youth 00:16:06
Advisory Board. That's our purpose, is to advise, because nobody knows what young people need better than these young people who 00:16:10
live here. 00:16:13
So I guess my last request is just to reach out to us and utilize our advice and our guidance. What is your contact for the Youth 00:16:17
Advisory Board? So we have a website, it's NM Youth advocacy.org. 00:16:23
And who are the people that are from Sikora on that? 00:16:30
City of Shakur, yeah, so FYI, wasn't in Sequoia, but they're in southern New Mexico and they were part of that. Shay is a huge 00:16:33
part of that, as well as Brit over here. 00:16:37
And mostly young people. I mean, the Advisory Board is really just made-up of young people, 16 to 25, with lived experience of 00:16:42
homelessness. 00:16:46
Mr. Fleming. 00:16:50
One other questions Mayor just stated. 00:16:52
Who from the studios of Coral is on this board right now? It's all young people and Shay and grit. 00:16:55
It's all young people, you're saying. 00:17:03
Umm. 00:17:05
Here's two people who had. 00:17:06
70 years of teaching. 00:17:10
Young people in Socorro. 00:17:13
And I haven't heard a single name. 00:17:15
From you. 00:17:19
Answer right now. 00:17:20
Of. 00:17:22
A young adult from the city of Socorro that's on this board. 00:17:23
Right. I mean, well, I have. 00:17:27
Four sitting right here in the 2nd row and not from the city of Socorro. 00:17:29
When they go into tomorrow. 00:17:38
So. 00:17:41
That. 00:17:42
Yeah. 00:17:44
Anastasia and Trinity through field. 00:17:47
And it's also Trinity Trujillo. 00:17:51
James Whalen. 00:17:53
The city they go to, the Coral High School. 00:17:56
Well, you're not answering my question. I'm not trying to put shade on this, but. 00:17:59
Thank you. 00:18:07
I'm talking about budgets and you brought that up. 00:18:09
Money and and the amount of money that the city spends. 00:18:12
On youth, I I think it's tremendous. 00:18:16
And we're more than happy. 00:18:19
To. 00:18:20
Work with you on specific things. 00:18:22
It's the first time I've heard you here. It's first time I've seen anybody from the youth. 00:18:25
I hear about this. 00:18:30
But we're, as we've explained, we're willing to. 00:18:31
Talk about activities. 00:18:34
And talk about new activities that we can in place. 00:18:36
But I want you to go to the county to help us also and they they go to the city of they go to the high school in Socorro but. 00:18:39
That's. 00:18:46
That's funded by another source. It's not funded by taxes that the city gets. 00:18:47
And so we need a lot of help. 00:18:52
And making our budgets, because the cost of giving some of this sometimes is beyond our budgets. 00:18:55
When, when we're working with people who are right now, we have to put in a million dollars. 00:19:02
For people's natural gas rates that went three times normal, the city put in $1,000,000 to bail some of the people you're talking 00:19:06
about, which is the poorest community, poorest. 00:19:12
Poorest county in the state. 00:19:18
And so those things that we've been spending money on also so. 00:19:21
Hello. 00:19:24
Trying to get money from the budget. 00:19:25
To pay for some of the things which we I think we'd love to do, if you can help us with grants and we'll help us with your 00:19:28
committee to come together and and advocate for us with the legislature. 00:19:33
That'd be a big help. 00:19:39
Absolutely, yeah. It's actively working on applying for grants. We applied for the HP grant. We're also in the process of writing 00:19:41
out for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act grant. 00:19:45
Yeah, I can absolutely help the fiscal agent for those grants. That would be the next Coalition to End Homelessness. Who I'm 00:19:50
employed. That's the city. 00:19:53
No, but we would like the city to align themselves with our goals and be a part of this mission. 00:19:57
Funds from that grant. 00:20:02
Well, we don't know until we get the grant. But you know, if we do get the grant, we would love to have meetings. We'd love to be 00:20:04
in this space more. We'd love to have one on ones with each of you and figure out what we can do. Like I said, I think it's 00:20:08
amazing that you helped bail out families, but those aren't. 00:20:13
My kids here, that's that helps their families maybe and that maybe help some people they're involved with. 00:20:17
But that's a whole different matter. 00:20:22
That's great that we bailed those people out, but. 00:20:24
There's still a population of young people who needs your help. 00:20:27
Sure. 00:20:30
Mr. Smith, Mr. Mayor. 00:20:31
I'm a part of the Socorro County Juvenile Justice Board. Kristen Keller is Kirsten Keller. She's the coordinator for it. It's a 00:20:34
it's a programmer Polo runs it from the city standpoint. It's it's the administrative entity for that program is the is the city. 00:20:43
They do teen diversion programs. They do counseling boys circle girls. 00:20:51
Circle counseling. They put on a free movie for all Socorro ones on, I think the first Wednesday of every month. 00:21:01
We're always looking for youth representation on our committee that in fact it's required to have a youth on there. So I can give 00:21:12
you the contact number to to Kirsten and that way maybe you can have somebody from. 00:21:18
Your group. 00:21:25
Be a member of that committee and we can start with that. 00:21:26
Yeah, that would be fantastic. Be a great first step. 00:21:31
And this is your first meeting with us and you're you're welcome to reach out to. 00:21:35
Any of us and and you know talk more about it. Definitely, definitely there's all kinds of. 00:21:39
Of possibilities, you know, you know, we possibly would want to buy in and you'd want to buy in too, and contribute. 00:21:45
You know. 00:21:53
But like I said, it's. 00:21:54
It's it's a progression of doing a lot of things before we get to that. 00:21:56
Mr. Logan, I was gonna say, just making that connection with Chelsea tonight. I mean, once you start working with her and you get 00:22:00
more feeling, you get familiar with other connections with that within the city. 00:22:04
I mean, the city of Allison provide that facility, but they also have access to tech students or whatever else you need once you 00:22:09
start making those connections. 00:22:12
Right. I mean, I guess where my concern lies is that I planned for this grant two years in advance and sent out large calls to 00:22:16
action to get people in support of to care about the disadvantage of homeless youth. 00:22:22
And these meetings happened for a really long time and the only people who really got on board were my young people, Jay and 00:22:28
Britt. 00:22:30
So I see a lack of concern. I see a lack of empathy and a lack of compassion, honestly. 00:22:34
Did you say you sent one to the mayor and the City Council? I sent one everywhere. Me and my coworkers are collection position. I 00:22:39
wasn't directly in charge of sending them out. 00:22:43
I don't know who exactly got them, but I know that large mass emails and letters were sent to. 00:22:48
City Council members. 00:22:52
And to stakeholders in the community, well, you've been here now. 00:22:54
I I I'm, I'm sorry to tell you that. 00:22:58
And I look at all my emails every day and respond to them. I have yet to see one. This is the first time I've even heard of you 00:23:00
committee. 00:23:04
Mr. Mr. Mayor the the schools have a fund and. 00:23:08
That supports students who are temporarily experiencing homelessness. 00:23:13
And. 00:23:18
Polar Miss Puller is the coordinator of that program. Are you referring to the Convento? Yeah, McKinney Vento program? 00:23:21
So there's funds specifically for that. 00:23:28
And but but I don't know you know the the extent to which they need to be enrolled. 00:23:30
In school or an atheist now? 00:23:37
So our high school does not have a navigator. 00:23:46
They're experiencing onset to resources. 00:23:50
And I just wanted to submit as well. There is a principle in social work. 00:23:53
And it's very simple. Nothing for us without us. 00:23:58
It's very important whenever you have any initiatives that is serving you, that you have youth on your board and I was happy to 00:24:01
hear you talking about that, Mister Zimmerman. 00:24:06
It's very important because you're not going to have true engagement from youth if they're not involved process. You'll have 00:24:11
beautiful programs and people may have people. 00:24:17
Hey, you had a comment Yeah program and the support to the high school has. 00:24:26
For homeless youth, I worked closely with Francis Fuller last year, and Portless Brocade Harbor has an A Memorandum of 00:24:32
understanding with the high school, so we actually take care of. 00:24:37
The hotel rooms and stuff like that or homeless youth who are in moments of crisis because we have, we already have contracts. 00:24:43
With a hotel in town to provide emergency housing. 00:24:51
But it is. It is not. It is. 00:24:55
In grossly inadequate in terms of actually getting teenagers. 00:24:58
Who suddenly find themselves out on the street just to speak to the homeless. 00:25:03
Youth a little bit. I've I have 10 years of experience. I've participated Estate Harbor and five years prior to that I've worked 00:25:07
with. 00:25:11
Find. 00:25:14
I would say that we always say that anybody could be two paychecks away from homelessness, right? Like the last two paychecks. And 00:25:17
a lot of people will be out in the street because of something like 80% of Americans don't have much more than $500 in the savings 00:25:23
account at any given moment. But with a teenager, it's even more volatile because all it takes is the guardian or the person that 00:25:28
they're living with saying get out. 00:25:34
Is 1 sentence, you know, one sentence away from the street and we I worked I think with like. 00:25:40
Nine or ten teenagers with Francis Fuller just in the last four year the suddenly found themselves in need of a hotel room or an 00:25:46
emergency situation. We also open up the shelter, you know, in in certain circumstances to let kids stay there. But it is grossly 00:25:52
inadequate. We can only afford to pay for those hotel rooms. We can only afford a couple nights. It's not enough time to like 00:25:58
solve any real crazies or or solving real issues. 00:26:04
And we've also, we've run into problems with some of the the state and government programs that are designed to help you sometimes 00:26:11
and often you're far more damage than good. So there needs to be a place in the community. I think what you were speaking to 00:26:17
earlier was really powerful in terms of there used to be a simple and easy place for teenagers that's very proficient with 00:26:23
Instagram, Snapchat, whatever to be able to get online and go to a website and see exactly what services are available for them in 00:26:29
this community. 00:26:35
I think the fact that we didn't know about a lot of this stuff. 00:26:41
But getting that out to people so that they can see what's going on would be very helpful. 00:27:10
So first time for some of these students who are in the high school, there is a program called Gear Up and that's with Kathleen 00:27:16
O'Connell and Real Madrid. 00:27:21
And this last year, we actually were actually participated. Christian helped give some mock interviews. 00:27:26
For these kids, they did do checkbook balancing. They did do the importance of credit. They did. 00:27:32
They have all of that there too. 00:27:37
So that's just another resource that is available and it's asked to. 00:27:40
Stay and I actually sat at the same table for the 100% so coral. 00:27:48
Tell me. 00:27:52
Project with Doctor Sharon Sessions. I think they're trying to do a lot of the same things. You are healthcare homeless. 00:27:54
You name it, they. 00:28:01
That eight or nine different goals, so I think Sharon would be an awesome resource. 00:28:02
Um, we've signed up for a new app called My Civic. It'll be hosted with a link on our website. You can see where our parks are, 00:28:06
what it costs to rent them, all kinds of information. 00:28:11
And the third thing is to get a message out. We have a messaging system where poll sends out text messages about different events 00:28:16
and different things going on. 00:28:20
And you can sign up for that on our website as well or. 00:28:24
Column or come in, but I think that's three tools that you can add to your toolbox. 00:28:26
And recreation has a Facebook page. 00:28:32
This is, Mr. Mayor, the Southwestern Area Workforce Development Board. 00:28:35
Which encompasses 7 counties in the southern part, State, Donana, Socorro, Hidalgo. 00:28:39
They have a youth program which. 00:28:45
Hires youth between the ages of 16 and 21. 00:28:48
Who have a barrier. 00:28:52
Homelessness is definitely a barrier, so if any of our young folks. 00:28:55
Wanna go to the Department of Labor as it was once known? 00:29:00
And talk to the representative there. 00:29:05
There's a tremendous amount of funding to support their employment journey. 00:29:08
In. 00:29:15
In in Socorro County and Socorro, the funds are used to support paying the the, the, the, the student. They can they can find work 00:29:16
and plumbing and electrical and restaurant and hotel, all of those things. 00:29:24
So I am hopeful that and some of us here on this Council sit on that board. 00:29:32
And we would like to know and hear how the experience was for a young person. 00:29:38
And it's supposed to serve 25% of youth in school and 75% of youth out of school. 00:29:45
So. 00:29:53
That's what there's a lot of opportunity for young people to get a job on top of the the The Cities program in the summer. 00:29:54
So yes, ma'am. 00:30:02
One of my tasks this summer was. 00:30:04
Completing the resource crisis across county. 00:30:06
The last time I talked to them, this bill wasn't open the youth program. Have you heard other one? No, I'm. I'm under the 00:30:09
impression that they were hiring a coordinator for it. 00:30:14
And and if that isn't coming, if there's nobody there, like I said, there's seven counties. 00:30:19
We can tap into another county. You you can. I'll give you the the contact information for the. 00:30:26
For the center, which is in Guyana and you know what those funds are, are here to support the seven counties, whether there's 00:30:33
somebody sitting behind the desk or not. So we need to figure out a way. 00:30:39
To. 00:30:45
Connect these students and young people to jobs, and that's exactly the focus of. 00:30:46
Of those millions of dollars that are supported by Title One Federal federally. 00:30:53
So I do know about some of those jobs, especially the plumbing. 00:31:00
Those jobs are only available to kids who are, fortunately, drug free. 00:31:07
Majority of homeless youth in Socorro are unfortunately not drug free and don't have the resources. 00:31:11
To. 00:31:18
Obtain that. So that's another issue. And another thing is, I'm not a high school student. Like I said, I had dropped out, but I 00:31:20
have never heard of a single. 00:31:25
Things you guys have offered today. 00:31:31
Like I said. 00:31:33
I'm a teenager. 00:31:34
Teenagers rely very heavily on the Internet, on social media. It would be extremely beneficial. 00:31:36
To. 00:31:41
Establish a social media president presence and I would be happy to do that and I'm certainly of us would be happy to establish a 00:31:42
work with someone, with you guys and establish the social media presence, but. 00:31:48
I would love it. Sounds very quite lovely what you guys are doing for Socorro and I would love to be a part of it. 00:31:55
And I would love to take advantage of these resources and so would all the kids sitting here in this room. 00:32:01
But we have never heard of it. 00:32:06
And that is an issue. 00:32:09
Well, I hope you take a chance to talk to Chelsea because it gets started on your GED. 00:32:11
And she's offered. And then. So go by the library and sign up there. We'll do a better job of getting. 00:32:16
Youth involved with what our programs are, but I'll tell you. 00:32:22
We had 120 kids this summer. 00:32:26
Who took advantage of our program and they heard about it. 00:32:28
So but. 00:32:31
Please. 00:32:32
Allow us to make a better effort in getting information out. 00:32:33
But today you could. 00:32:37
Get with Chelsea tomorrow and and perhaps. 00:32:39
Get involved with her program, and that's a good start right away. 00:32:42
To get this done. 00:32:45
And if there's others who have? 00:32:47
That they have need for getting a GED and are not going to school and can do it at their own pace. 00:32:49
I'll get with Chelsea and and I think she'll certainly get you on. 00:32:55
Start with that. 00:32:58
OK. 00:33:00
That sounds amazing. 00:33:00
Mr. Mayor, I just added two more things, Shane, that kickoff meeting. 00:33:04
We brought this up specifically that there's not one place where you can find all the resources available and I can't remember for 00:33:08
his missed months here, Charlene Montoya that said they were going to. 00:33:12
OK. So that would be another great place to start. We can host that on our website. 00:33:18
Jack. 00:33:23
And so she had to put in. 00:33:28
For the Mental Health Collaborative, we want this one to one, but you guys haven't been to that. It's amazing. There's over 40 00:33:30
organizations involved in town that all work in behavioral health or just various aspects of the community. But she is working on 00:33:36
that website. It's just, it's positive but very long process. 00:33:42
To get all of these listing community in the community in one place and get them all online, but it is going to be basically like 00:33:48
a website. 00:33:52
Or a link that would be shareable to other social media platforms. 00:33:58
People are only going to be able to find that resource, and so much of it is shared and put in places where teenagers will find 00:34:03
it, right? So that's in the context of that it's done except for a couple of things, but for today I didn't have anything but was 00:34:07
not aware of them. 00:34:12
But you have let let Jackie know. That was one of my past when he was supposed to work intern. We completed it. We sent it to 100% 00:34:17
New Mexico. It's gonna be put online. My greater concern because I know you've mentioned social media. 00:34:24
Young kids don't look at Facebook. I'm sorry all they've done. And so you you've gotta think a little bit outside of the bottom 00:34:31
things like Instagram. Other sources. I submit mayor, that it's possible that some of the young people that did the program, they 00:34:37
found out about it through other channels, maybe parents. 00:34:44
Family members, things like that. 00:34:50
Because listen, if they can't find it, these. 00:34:53
Like most kids are really savvy with the Internet, then it's a problem with where it's being. 00:34:56
Featured. 00:35:01
But I hope the ones that are here take advantage of the stuff that we're talking about, family gem. 00:35:03
Or at the library. 00:35:07
At least do that and then again, we'll try to get more information. 00:35:09
That's friendly to. 00:35:13
So you'll send and put it on different. 00:35:15
Platforms rather than just the Standard Oil. 00:35:18
Facebook type of stuff. 00:35:22
Will work on TikTok and. 00:35:24
What's the new one that's coming out is? 00:35:26
Great. 00:35:30
I think it's called threads, OK, yeah. So we'll we'll we'll certainly try to collate all that information and try to put it out so 00:35:32
that. 00:35:36
It's available to them. 00:35:40
And the transportation part, we certainly should work on that to try to get. 00:35:41
Transportation out to Cloudera and Lemitar and. 00:35:47
Grab San Antonio and see if we can have. 00:35:50
The youth at least be able to access our facilities. 00:35:53
By that kind of transportation. So we'll work with that. 00:35:57
But I think it's important for you to make a presentation to the county also because. 00:36:00
They they did have a they had $3 million of ARPA money. 00:36:04
And I think you would certainly would want to get some of that to. 00:36:08
Help with the homeless and the the motel bills. 00:36:12
And also to try to get. 00:36:15
Some. 00:36:17
Involvement with the City County Coalition. 00:36:18
That we could work together on the budgets because that's that's really very important these days. 00:36:21
As to the amount of money that is available and what the cost of things are. 00:36:26
But we have those. 00:36:31
Plans right now with Finley. 00:36:33
For youth programs. 00:36:35
Councillor Dean and Olguin are working on trying to do more as far as. 00:36:37
Space is concerned where it's literally can hang out. 00:36:42
And Chelsea's got the program for the literacy, so hopefully they'll take advantage of that. 00:36:46
Absolutely. Trust me, nobody knows more about budgeting and lack of funding than homeless youth. It doesn't take much to make a 00:36:52
homeless youth really happy. It doesn't take much to implement these programs. It doesn't take much to do the social media, sure. 00:36:57
Yeah. 00:37:04
I'm going to jump in at Amy Kimball. While you were we were talking about this, I went to the Socorro City of Socorro web page and 00:37:06
looked at the recreation department page. 00:37:11
And it still says that the Socorro Finley gym is closed due to construction. 00:37:17
So it sounds like it's not closed. 00:37:23
So just sort of wanted to 2nd that that there definitely is an issue with getting information out there even if the youth had gone 00:37:26
to the web page here. 00:37:29
It would have said that the gym was was closed. 00:37:33
Um. 00:37:36
So I, I, and and just on personal, I thought it was great that Jace was. 00:37:37
Teen offered to help with with social media. 00:37:42
If people are are are volunteering to help in ways that they know will get the message out to their their peers, I hope that. 00:37:46
That. 00:37:53
So someone from the City Council or from the city would be would be willing to work with them. 00:37:55
I don't know what that would look like though. 00:38:00
Thank you. 00:38:02
Anyone else? 00:38:04
Great. Well, thank you for coming. Yes, ma'am. 00:38:07
And a different. 00:38:11
And she got. 00:38:12
Ohh sure. Come on up. I just. I wanted to just say if anybody had. 00:38:13
Anymore comments, but come on up with second, the second topic for public. 00:38:17
Sure. 00:38:24
Thank you for coming in. 00:38:27
Hi. 00:38:33
My name is Bridget O'Neill. I live here in town over on on. 00:38:35
Shawn Ave. 00:38:41
And I I I'm sorry, this is the first City Council meeting I've come to. 00:38:43
So I don't know if this has been talked about in the past. 00:38:49
But I was talking with Marcella, with the city. 00:38:53
This afternoon on the phone and she encouraged me to. 00:38:58
You know said. 00:39:02
I mean, I was asking her about. 00:39:04
The. 00:39:07
That the topic is water meters. 00:39:07
They didn't know if that's something the City Council had already. 00:39:10
Knows about address. 00:39:14
Or not. But that's really the administration's fault. It's not the City Council. 00:39:16
And I kind of know about your situation where you you've been asking for a new water meter for nine months or 10 months has not 00:39:21
been, has people haven't shown up to put a new one in they didn't even. 00:39:26
Say anything about it? So yeah, so this, this administrative, not City Council and. 00:39:33
Ohh, but that that's that's our fault. It's our fault that we didn't bring you a new. 00:39:38
City Water Meter Well, my my. 00:39:42
My main concern now is you know in talking with her just about the the numbers. 00:39:45
Of it, you know, it's like. 00:39:52
You know, of course, she's just talking off the top of her head, so it's no, but she she directed you to the right place. So you 00:39:55
know she stood there. City has like 4000 water meters. 00:40:01
And and they're all dying, yeah. 00:40:08
And uh. 00:40:11
And that again is a budget problem and I know they've been estimating your water. 00:40:14
Of consumption and. 00:40:18
We're we're trying to free up some money to buy those water meters right and but this problem is so at the at the current rate. 00:40:19
You know, it's not keeping up with the rate that they're failing at. 00:40:29
And you know, she was saying she gets like. 00:40:33
10 calls a day about water meters that are failing. 00:40:37
And you know, I was on the phone with her for between. 00:40:41
5 to 10 minutes or maybe 15 minutes because she went to talk with the. 00:40:46
Guide to see if they had a water meter for me. 00:40:51
You know, so that's like over an hour of her time every day, you know? She says. It's a real mess. 00:40:55
And you know, they weren't able to buy any new water meters for like the last. 00:41:02
Four months and. 00:41:08
They're only able to buy. 00:41:10
Like 100 water meters a month. 00:41:13
So it's going to take. 00:41:15
You know, I mean, I already been waiting for a water meter for 10 months. 00:41:18
And and I'm not alone, you know so. 00:41:22
And at the current rate, you know it would take. 00:41:26
You know more than three years and 100 water meters a month to. 00:41:29
Replace people's water meters. You know, people gonna have to wait that long. 00:41:35
For a new. 00:41:40
And Ruby, you want to give me an answer for that? 00:41:43
So. 00:41:46
It's. 00:41:47
15. 00:41:48
3000. 00:41:51
OK, so right now we're starting to die since 10 years. 00:41:52
So they're starting to die, So we're actually going to order. 00:41:56
We've been ordering 100. I talked to Marcie today and she said she needs like 300, so we're gonna get it done and probably put her 00:41:59
on the top of the list. 00:42:04
They said they're going to bring one tonight. I apologize for all that. I mean, I again, it's a matter of budgets, but I apologize 00:42:10
for this. 00:42:14
And it came here today was so that. 00:42:18
You might think about. 00:42:21
This not happening again in another 10 years, You know, like maybe they're. 00:42:23
Set up some fund to pay into annually or whatever so that when they start dying. 00:42:27
You've got enough money to buy. 00:42:33
All the meters then and not have people wait for a year to get their water meter replaced, I mean. 00:42:36
Social. 00:42:43
So a citizen. 00:42:44
But like I said, they're dying. They're not all dying at once, but they're just dying. 00:42:47
Change it as good, but it just happened all at once. 00:42:51
It's it's 10 years and they just, yeah. So with another 10 years, yeah, gonna happen all at once again. 00:42:54
And so, but but you weren't prepared for it this time. 00:42:59
And and I'm hoping that you know you're you actually asked me right now the the planning was not there and we are gonna you know 00:43:03
we we tried you know I'm trying to wake up to that with my with my water. 00:43:10
I don't know. You're right and and I think it woke us up to some of the things that you're talking about. 00:43:19
Again when I was talking to the other group. 00:43:24
It's all about budgets. Water meters have increased in cost by about. 00:43:27
40 to 50%. 00:43:31
Same thing with gas meters, same thing with the everything, so, so our budget for replacements. 00:43:34
Are dwindling and and so but but your your comment is appropriate I mean we're certainly going to work on. 00:43:42
Trying to be more responsive and and also you know when it does happen again or for you know the people. 00:43:48
You know, while you get this problem fixed? 00:43:54
You know, charging people some flat rate, that's an average for all of the. 00:43:56
People's usage across the city is not at all. It's not a fair way to do it, you know, ask for word, I'm I'm getting charged. 00:44:02
For 60 units of water a month. 00:44:11
I live alone. I'm trying to be conservative. I'm retired, you know, So I'm just at my house. I don't have to. I don't have to 00:44:14
shower everyday, you know. Sorry. 00:44:20
You know, I don't have very much laundry. I don't run my dishwasher, you know, and and I'm getting charged. 00:44:27
You know an average. Well, there's a basically my my average usage for 2022 or 2021 when I had a full. 00:44:34
You're working? 00:44:43
For that, and we can't just estimate according to average, use. 00:44:47
Just. 00:44:53
It's not. 00:44:55
That would be fine. 00:44:56
Costco, we need to look. We need to look at that. She shouldn't be charged for. 00:44:58
Being frugal, I mean, if she's not using the water. 00:45:03
Thanks. 00:45:07
Because the. 00:45:10
Calling every month saying I got you know it says 0 usage on my water bill and that's not true either. 00:45:13
I I wasn't charged anything. And then for the last. 00:45:20
Normally I've been getting charged for 60 minutes on. 00:45:24
My peak usage in any year is 60 units a month. 00:45:28
But you know, we need to, we need to adjust that. 00:45:33
There may be a way that it can give her that. 00:45:44
People individual out there, you just go and use that. 00:45:49
And then that will translate this for us, not it's not what's been happening. 00:45:53
But that's the way it should be done. 00:45:57
I think please let us know if that's not adjusted. 00:45:59
Well, hopefully it will be fixed well, but if it's not, I think this is your place to be able to come and tell us. 00:46:03
Appreciate that. 00:46:09
Yeah. 00:46:11
Anyone else that's not on the agenda would like to make a comment. 00:46:14
Hey. 00:46:20
We have public hearing for the I CIP #4. 00:46:23
That's true. Again, it wasn't in the public hearing for the I CIP. 00:46:28
2nd. 00:46:32
Moved and seconded all in favor. 00:46:32
Aye. 00:46:35
Chief Greenwood, you wanna put something on the I CIP? 00:46:38
Come on, come on up. 00:46:43
Put him on the spot. 00:46:45
You know our police and I've known about it for a while. 00:46:48
But our police? 00:46:52
Have us. 00:46:54
Problem with the quarters. 00:46:55
That are really becoming more and more decrepit. 00:46:57
On the old junior high side. 00:47:00
And I would hope you guys would. 00:47:03
Support us in trying to put this perhaps as a priority for new. 00:47:06
Facilities for the rest of evidence, room and. 00:47:11
Holding cell and some of the work desks that you have to have. 00:47:14
Is to put it in a place that's at least suitable. I was thinking about a second. 00:47:19
A police substation but. 00:47:23
I don't know what you think of that. 00:47:25
Yes, Angel and I, we both went and looked at the the Youth Center on 8th St. 00:47:27
Which we think is more than efficient for. 00:47:33
For the new version, So I'm I'm gonna try to find funds, emergency funds. 00:47:36
To be able to get something done for them. 00:47:41
Pretty quick and they don't really have air conditioning, really. They're using fans. 00:47:44
So that's something that I would recommend. 00:47:48
And a public I'm I'm, I'm having one of the public say I would like to. 00:47:51
I like to think about moving that to number one for now. 00:47:55
Hello. 00:47:59
Mr. Romero, in fact, that was going to be my suggestion. I was gonna move my priority to the. 00:48:00
Relocation. 00:48:06
I just encourage the City Council to please look at that or go visit it if you have a chance because. 00:48:09
They're they're really under some hazardous condition. They haven't said anything. 00:48:14
I'm not saying that, they said. It's just that they're not complaining. We we we we've seen it and it's really. 00:48:19
Pretty nasty and. 00:48:25
There's a, There's a. 00:48:26
Black mold problem in the bathrooms that's spreading. 00:48:28
And and the insurance company denied our claim. 00:48:31
So and it's really not recoverable. 00:48:34
At this point, it really needs to be demoed. 00:48:36
But anyway, I just put you on this. Sorry, but I wanted to. I wanted to let the council know that that's one of the things that. 00:48:39
Really needs to be looked at. 00:48:46
Anyone else, Mr. Manchester? 00:48:48
I've left the ranking sheets on the desks again if I could get those. 00:48:51
She's by the end of. 00:48:55
Tonight. 00:48:57
And there's also an e-mail attached to that list from Francis Teeters where she made two requests. 00:49:00
That should be taken care of with the Highway 60 project and two other kind of suggestions. 00:49:06
Speaking of the Highway 60 project, well, that we're still in public hearing anyone else? 00:49:13
Alright, let's do again Motion. We go back into regular session, moved and seconded. All in favor, aye? 00:49:18
There's a. 00:49:26
Zoom Call tomorrow. 00:49:28
At 9:00 o'clock if anybody wants to get on it. 00:49:31
About the Highway 60 project. 00:49:34
It'll be a. 00:49:37
It's with the. 00:49:39
Engineers Molten Corbin from Las Cruces. 00:49:41
Of course dot NM dot will be on there. 00:49:45
And. 00:49:48
We're going to speak about. 00:49:49
Hwy. 60? From California to the bridge where? Unto Maglena. 00:49:52
It's a. It's a very. 00:49:56
Again, a generational changing project. 00:49:58
So if any of the Council want to. 00:50:01
Please listen in and chime in if you have any questions. Can you guys send us the information? Yeah, it's a. It's a. 00:50:04
Is it a Microsoft team? 00:50:12
Yeah. So send that, send that to all the counselors so they can get involved with that. 00:50:15
I think. 00:50:20
That's like I said, that's going to be especially hopefully the schools. 00:50:21
We'll get involved because they're gonna put a junior high up there. 00:50:25
There's got to be a there. They've got to get involved with it. 00:50:28
I saw the Superintendent was invited, yeah. 00:50:32
So. 00:50:35
Just to let you know, so the New Mexico. 00:50:37
League voting delegate and alternate. 00:50:40
How is the placed Councillor Hicks on that? 00:50:44
And if there's some other suggestions, I will change it. 00:50:48
And everybody wants to be an alternate who can certainly point them, but that's my. 00:50:52
My. 00:50:57
Recommendation. 00:50:58
Mr. Mayor and the Municipal League request that the alternate also attend. 00:51:00
The the meeting, annual meeting, yes Sir, To anybody who's interested in attending the meetings. 00:51:04
I still again. 00:51:09
Mr. Logan has alternate. 00:51:10
If you could confirm that for me. 00:51:12
If anybody. 00:51:18
Yes, this is an action item. 00:51:20
2nd. 00:51:23
OK, what's that? Who's that second? 00:51:29
OK, Arthur. Thank you. 00:51:31
Yeah. 00:51:34
Although the press has been not gonna talk about it today. 00:51:39
Resolution 23-07-18A, The DFA. 00:51:44
Fourth quarter report, What's that really? 00:51:49
Mayor Council, this is the fourth quarter report that I have to report to DFA. 00:51:59
Uh, so I'm reporting beginning cash balance was 10 million. 00:52:05
Um 335,000. 00:52:10
Our revenue for 20/23 was 31 million 904. 00:52:13
Our expenditures were 31 million, 989. 00:52:18
And our ending cash is 10 million, one 91185. 00:52:21
So that balance has to match my beginning cash balance on the balance on the budget, and it does. 00:52:25
So I just have to report all our revenue and expenditures for the year. 00:52:31
What say you multiplying? 00:52:36
Shall we accept that? 00:52:41
Mr. Again, make a motion. We approve resolution #23-07-18A. 00:52:43
2nd. 00:52:48
Moved and seconded discussion. 00:52:49
Answer. 00:52:51
Then the final budget. 00:52:53
Mr. Again, thank the motion. We approve Resolution number 001 a second. 00:52:54
Moved and seconded discussion. 00:53:00
Ohh favor. 00:53:02
If the South Central Council of Governments. 00:53:05
We do have a grant writer from them that's doing really a good job, Gwen Valentino. 00:53:08
So I would recommend that we go ahead and. 00:53:14
Continue participation. 00:53:17
Mr. Salomi. 00:53:21
Second moved and seconded Mr. Romero discussion. 00:53:23
So, so she has we do we do have a lot of support from them from. 00:53:27
Running the grants and when she's doing great jobs, she got us 2,000,000 for the natural gas trucks. 00:53:30
We're working on an electric garbage truck. 00:53:37
She's done. 00:53:40
Police cars. 00:53:41
So it's it's been worth it in the past I've been kind of hesitant but. 00:53:43
It's been worth it. 00:53:47
All in favor, aye. 00:53:50
New business. 00:53:52
Any new business from the directors? 00:53:56
Nope. Nope. Nope. 00:54:00
How's this any new business from the? 00:54:02
Senior Center. 00:54:05
Other than that, there should be. 00:54:10
I think. 00:54:13
It is. 00:54:15
You should feel. 00:54:16
Did the gentleman for the air conditioning come by? 00:54:18
Ohh, I'm not gonna. 00:54:23
But then we can't get another project going with him until he fixes that one. 00:54:25
I talked to him yesterday. OK, well. 00:54:31
Uh. 00:54:34
Anyone else knew you? No. No, no. 00:54:35
Mr. Shiloni. 00:54:39
Was in the center. 00:54:40
And they said that the food has drastically improved. 00:54:42
Yeah. 00:54:46
This person, thank you. 00:54:47
And actually you're doing more. 00:54:51
Home deliveries too? 00:54:54
If we get ours exploded. 00:54:57
Some pretty big, So we're gonna start doing just some my neighbor. 00:54:59
Oh, oh. 00:55:05
The boxes. 00:55:07
So that's. 00:55:08
You have a senior with you. 00:55:11
Ohh no, I thought there was somebody there. 00:55:14
OK, great hold, Mr. Romero. 00:55:18
On that they get the route. Do you do the the drop off for the meals for a week? Is that how it works out? 00:55:22
And then there are going to be those. 00:55:29
Did you get a chance to go to the Magdalena Senior Center opening? 00:55:32
OK, well, good. You're doing a good job. It's a great job. 00:55:39
Old news. Anybody on this man? 00:55:43
Mr. Logan, I see we got the information on the Open Meetings Act and our governing rules. 00:55:46
Party rules and procedures. 00:55:52
So if we wanted to make a change and it basically under the highlighted on attendance. If I were to propose a something Adobe 00:55:53
under item B saying. 00:55:57
Our tenants by telephone is not permitted or something like that, right? 00:56:02
Yes, Sir. 00:56:05
Because of that and the Rules of Procedure, obviously we can't change the Open Meetings Act, but we can't change the rules and it 00:56:07
says up to the governing body on the from the Open Meeting Act, yes to us decide on that. 00:56:12
OK. 00:56:18
Just to let you know, Finley is moving ahead with the contract for the. 00:56:19
Substation. 00:56:23
Her. 00:56:25
Uh. 00:56:26
Luminary Engineering. 00:56:28
Plan. 00:56:30
And the. 00:56:31
We're planning a. 00:56:33
Presentation to the school board and hopefully the hospital in September. 00:56:34
And having all the people that came here, plus hopefully somebody from Kit Carson. 00:56:39
Come down and and speak. 00:56:44
And hopefully we can get together a large group of people so they understand where we're headed. 00:56:46
So there's no confusion as to what we're doing. 00:56:51
Hello. Louise Reyes said he would come down. So Luis Reyes is the manager of Kit Carson Co-op. 00:56:55
That converted away from. 00:57:01
From. 00:57:04
I state. 00:57:06
And have paid off the buyout and so he very hands on. 00:57:07
And they're also doing broadband on their own. They're doing solar on their own. 00:57:13
And it's about. 00:57:17
Going to half times bigger than us. 00:57:19
But that's that's a. 00:57:21
A person that would be. 00:57:23
Really would answer a lot of the questions about what's the future is with what's wrong. 00:57:24
Uh, so that that's going to happen? 00:57:29
The. 00:57:32
As we said, Friendly Gym is. 00:57:33
Opened and and sharing is putting together a lot of different programs. 00:57:37
And. 00:57:42
The the committee to look at the. 00:57:44
Rest of The thing is meeting met today and. 00:57:47
Hopefully have another meeting coming up and decide exactly which way we're headed. 00:57:50
Can I make a comment? 00:57:56
I want to. 00:57:59
Apologize to your administration. 00:58:01
For excluding them from the meeting meeting we had today, I think there was some miscommunication. 00:58:03
I was really just looking to see like what the role of the committee was. 00:58:08
And if it was going to be an open meeting, I I really had a couple of people that wanted to come. So I wanted to apologize to you 00:58:13
guys. I didn't mean anything by it and I didn't mean to exclude you from the meeting. Thank you. 00:58:18
And. 00:58:26
Would you conclude by the way? So I don't know I can look out for the. 00:58:29
I am not going to be there because you didn't invite us. 00:58:34
OK. And Steve, how's the soccer fields taking this heat? 00:58:38
Struggling, yeah. 00:58:46
Yeah. 00:58:47
And the Convention Center is going well. They've got a lot of. 00:58:48
Stuff going on and having. 00:58:55
The use of the Convention Center, So that's going well. I don't know if you have any other old business that you guys. 00:58:57
How was the wrestling under the lights? 00:59:03
Wrestling under the lights it was that. Did anybody write the electric bull? 00:59:06
Or the the. 00:59:10
The mechanical bull. 00:59:13
And the buckles, the buckles that they had for the winners look like. 00:59:15
So, so, Mr. Partridge, and and. 00:59:18
I know. 00:59:21
James. 00:59:23
The material, they're all they're. I mean, they gotta they grew a program out of nothing. 00:59:25
And they're gone with it and we're supporting it and hopefully they'll continue to get bigger. I know the wind was a factor and. 00:59:30
Again, we're trying to erase some money to do a skin around the place where the wind comes in. 00:59:37
But that place is going to get more and more use. I mean as as time goes by you've had rodeos. 00:59:44
And then recently or any barrel racing? 00:59:49
And roping. 00:59:55
So that's it. 00:59:57
Lot of stuff coming up and you're going to see Steves change of. 00:59:58
Job description, but he really deserves it. He's done a real good job in getting everything under control out there. 01:00:03
Mr. Mayor. 01:00:08
Mr. McDonald, Speaking of the Convention Center and tourism, I just like the council to know that the tourism staff has moved to 01:00:09
the Convention Center because they're. 01:00:14
Air conditioner has gone out. 01:00:19
Like a lot of places. OK, couple of fans over there and move, move them back Speaking of fans. 01:00:22
It's nice. And Speaking of fans, do you want to tell the council what? Yes, we we made available $400.00 worth of fans. 01:00:29
And it was like a fire sale so to speak that they were out within. I don't know how quick follow. 01:00:37
Help. 01:00:43
So, and I'm asking probably for another $600.00 worth of fans that we're going to get. 01:00:45
And perhaps Walmart or somebody will work with us on it, but we're gonna get some more fans out there and I invite the public to 01:00:51
go to Finley if they just wanna chill out. 01:00:56
And justice sit there. 01:01:01
And and and go to the library. Chelsea, I know is your is your air conditioner working? 01:01:04
I. 01:01:10
In the beginning. 01:01:11
And it. 01:01:13
It's close to the public. 01:01:16
Huh. 01:01:18
Because the kids. 01:01:19
Ohh OK well. 01:01:24
Ohh gosh saving agreed to having him come over. 01:01:25
Well, you should think about it. 01:01:30
Ask her again. 01:01:32
Yeah, I think, you know, the kids are there too, but they adults can sit in the stands and watch them or whatever, but it's. 01:01:35
If somebody is so hot. 01:01:41
And to be able to get out of your house and go cool down a little bit, I think might be helpful because it's it's horrible. 01:01:44
It's horrible. So, so we're trying to help with that something. 01:01:50
Can be done. 01:01:53
But the fans are. 01:01:54
That will be made available. 01:01:56
Executive session. 01:01:59
No. 01:02:01
So there's a new job description for the Rodeo and Sports Complex facility director, and that's. 01:02:03
Uh. 01:02:08
Steve there. And then we would like to ask the council to approve that. 01:02:09
Mr. Again, make a motion We approve the rolling on Sports Complex Facilities director second. 01:02:13
Moved and seconded discussion Mr. What's the main difference on this one compared to the last JavaScript? 01:02:19
The only difference on. 01:02:28
Speaking. 01:02:32
It. 01:02:35
It's OK. 01:02:37
Yeah. 01:02:38
All in favor, aye. 01:02:43
So I have the personal matter, so one Vegeta. 01:02:44
He is a certified police. Peter Jim Gonzalez certified police. 01:02:48
And then the maras temporary to permanent. 01:02:53
**** Hargus Temporary to permanent Danny Hill. 01:02:55
Is that Danny or Danny? 01:02:59
Danny. 01:03:02
Hill temperature permanent. 01:03:03
Donald Wood he resigned Taylor Salvador resignation. 01:03:05
That's not the one we got in our packet. 01:03:10
Oh. 01:03:12
What did I do? 01:03:14
Christy said That was the last meeting. I thought those names sounded familiar. 01:03:18
Just the last meeting one. 01:03:21
OK. 01:03:25
You got the recent one? 01:03:27
Or maybe there is there one there? 01:03:30
Huh. 01:03:34
Ohh, sorry. Thank you. I got it. 01:03:34
Felix Savedra, Production Foreman. 01:03:41
Steve Matthew, Rodeo Complex Director. 01:03:43
Uh. 01:03:46
Abandonado. How do you pronounce that? 01:03:48
But. 01:03:51
Evan Nago. 01:03:55
The Seattle Parks new hire Carlos Benevides Rodeo Complex resignation. 01:03:57
Thank you. 01:04:02
Mr. Hammer moved to approve the personnel changes as read. 01:04:03
OK. 01:04:08
Move the second on favor. 01:04:09
And for business, we have a peaceful tree man out of town. Bosky, New Mexico, Joshua. 01:04:12
Struck Nikki. 01:04:17
About Cultural Services with Mayor Mr. Romero approved business registration. 01:04:18
Ohh. 01:04:25
2nd 2nd. 01:04:26
Second all in favor, Aye, opposed. 01:04:27
Next meeting August 1st Tuesday. 01:04:31
Thank you very much everybody. 01:04:36
Thank you. 01:04:41
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Councillor Dean. 00:00:01
Councillor Fleming. 00:00:03
Answer Hicks. 00:00:05
Councillor Ocampo. 00:00:07
Councillor Olguin. 00:00:10
Councillor Romero here. 00:00:11
Councillor Solomon, we have a quorum. I have to say that Councillor Chavez Lopez is at the rodeo arena. 00:00:13
Practicing with the Queen candidates on their horses. 00:00:20
That's what she's doing. 00:00:24
The fact that he had States of America. 00:00:29
We should ask one person. 00:00:34
In the response choices. 00:00:37
Mayor. 00:00:43
Mr. Ryan, will we approve the? 00:00:44
Consent agenda. 00:00:47
Mr. Mayor. 00:00:48
I need to change something on the agenda. 00:00:50
To remove a. 00:00:52
Item. 00:00:55
6C. 00:01:00
The RFP award. 00:01:02
We need to do some interviews before before I can award that so. 00:01:04
That we can strike that off. 00:01:09
Thanks man. 00:01:13
Mr. Romero, I move we approve the consent agenda with that change. 00:01:14
2nd. 00:01:19
Seconded discussion on favor. 00:01:21
Pushed. 00:01:24
OK. 00:01:26
Mr. Romero, No, that's fine. 00:01:27
Don't confuse me already. I already told you, you confused me there, OK? 00:01:31
We're at the public forums show their Youth Advisory Board of New AO Mexico. Who is that? 00:01:38
Well, come on up. 00:01:45
Hello, my name is Maya Fern. I'm a representative of the Southern New Mexico Youth Advisory Board. 00:01:49
Our mission is to advocate for unhoused young people by educating the community, dismantling stigma and providing insight to youth 00:01:55
serving agencies. 00:01:59
As a part of our advocacy efforts, we request your support and reopening the Sapporo Team Center located at 1002. 00:02:04
8th Ave. 00:02:11
Since its closure, local young people have been displaced and they're wandering around town getting into trouble. 00:02:13
The team center provided a safe space for kids to do Sorry. 00:02:18
The teams that are provided a safe space for kids that don't want to go home to make new friends, work on school assignments and 00:02:23
view themselves. 00:02:26
Teams also really appreciated the guidance from the staff. 00:02:29
And having adults care about them and support them. If the teen center reopens, the Youth Advocacy Board would be willing to 00:02:33
facilitate field days, cookouts, sports. 00:02:37
Board game nights and video game tournaments and most importantly life skills classes. 00:02:42
We are happy to support the reopening. 00:02:47
And any and all capacity necessary, we firmly believe that teens need somewhere to go, a safe space and an alternative to hanging 00:02:50
out with the wrong people and getting into trouble. 00:02:53
We understand that funding can be a barrier to this goal. However, the southern part of the state is taking steps to invest in the 00:02:58
young people. 00:03:01
Unfortunately, youth homelessness rates are rising at an alarming rate. 00:03:04
These are our sons and our daughters. 00:03:09
Our future leaders, and they deserve our commitment to empowering them. 00:03:11
We recently applied for a grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that the sorry. 00:03:15
That prioritizing prioritizes setting young people up for success to end and prevent youth homelessness. 00:03:21
We would be immensely grateful if you align yourselves with our goal and invested your time and funding into the young people's 00:03:27
Poro. 00:03:30
By supporting this reopening. 00:03:33
Are you from Socorro? I'm not, but I represent all housing agencies in the southwest. 00:03:36
And I understand the housing, but you're specifically talking about our youth center? 00:03:44
Do you know what the use has been as far as the youth center is concerned when it was open? 00:03:48
And from what I hear, it was a place for kids to go and hang out, hang out with their friends, do homework and get support from 00:03:52
the staff. 00:03:55
Us a place when you don't want to go home but you can feel safe. 00:03:59
And what hours were they being used? 00:04:03
That I'm not sure of. 00:04:06
We have a brand new facility we just opened. 00:04:08
Is she here? 00:04:11
Shelley. 00:04:14
And and you say also that's good. 00:04:18
I don't see her here, but I I would. Who's your local contact here in the city? 00:04:20
Fisher you are. And have you spoken with Shailene? 00:04:26
Just. 00:04:32
Yes. 00:04:36
Speak. 00:04:38
Working. 00:04:41
The. 00:04:42
Or four or five local teenagers here in Decoro talking about what different things are needed. 00:04:42
In this particular community. 00:04:48
What? What is your What is your standing? I mean, you are what? 00:04:52
Well, so I'm a part of the Youth Advisory Board that lets you live in Sikora. 00:04:55
I live in Poland area. 00:05:00
But as you know, Iran. 00:05:02
Forever. So I've been taking years before in my capacity as the the Board chair at Portland State harbors the day shelter for 00:05:05
homeless adults in Sequiro, hence the day shelter for homeless adults. 00:05:11
We don't really serve the teenage population because. 00:05:18
Teenagers don't really want to go to a homeless shelter where there are a lot of adults, right? If that makes sense. 00:05:21
I could go into that further, but they there are homeless teenagers in Socorro of 4040% of the youth in Socorro live below the 00:05:28
poverty line, which astronomical actually, if you have a map of New Mexico, Socorro County has the highest rates of child poverty. 00:05:35
So even if they're not outright homeless and sleeping at the Bio park, which some of them are, they are very poor and have nowhere 00:05:43
to go to to do things. So I did just learn about family gym and see what that's going to be. 00:05:51
Immune to seven I guess, right? And that was a $2.2 million allocation for family gamified, if I understand that correctly, 1.2 00:05:58
million. 00:06:02
1.3 OK has already been allocated and there's another $1,000,000 on debt and we're gonna go check that out for sure. Like all of 00:06:08
you that are on the Youth Advisory Board are gonna go check out from within and see what's going on there for sure. 00:06:14
So if there's a way that somebody could be at the team center of providing those those classes basically like life skills 101 or 00:06:47
something like that. 00:06:52
Their kids would, and the abuse Advisory Board and Maya have definitely stepped up to like help facilitate that and facilitate 00:06:57
events there to kind of draw teenagers into it. There's definitely a need and a desire within the team community in Socorro for 00:07:02
those types of services. 00:07:07
But I'm not sure if you know what we do for that youth we we hire 120 youths through the summer. 00:07:13
And they're on their team to make those budget, about $150,000 for that. 00:07:19
And they work with different. 00:07:24
People in the community. 00:07:27
Such as the VLA, such as Tech, such as the county. 00:07:28
They learn life skills there. We have also. 00:07:32
Family gym and and we had a youth center but we moved everything over there plenty of space. Do you have some youth here that from 00:07:36
Sequoia that feel that they haven't been getting the right access to activities They might be able to if they would kind of tell 00:07:41
us a little bit about what they might need. 00:07:47
Can they come up to the mic? 00:07:56
Can you come up to the mic? Yeah. 00:07:58
Hi, my name is Jess. I live over in Polvadera, but I. 00:08:02
Used to come over here to Socorro to go to school. Unfortunately, the Socorro schools were not able to accommodate to my needs. I 00:08:06
was on a lot of medications so I had a hard time staying awake during school. So I stopped taking the bus and I had dropped out. 00:08:14
And shortly after that, they closed the Teen Center. 00:08:22
Um, which was my only. 00:08:25
Source of like interaction with kids my age in town. 00:08:28
Because I just live 15 minutes away and this is like the closest place that I could go to hang out with somebody or spend time 00:08:32
with someone that I care about. 00:08:35
Um. However, the streets are just not very safe and. 00:08:39
I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. Is this not very safe out there to be out, Especially the past couple weeks it's hit like 104, 00:08:45
very steady 108. It's been very hot, so it's it would be very nice. I just found out that this place opened and I would love to 00:08:53
check it out and see what it has to offer. But I would love if you could come and advocate for this center maybe as well and bring 00:09:00
life skills to those kids because like you said, you are helping 120. 00:09:08
Kids, but I was not a part of that. But these kids in the in the Pew, we all need your help. 00:09:16
I've never spoken in a group of people this big before. 00:09:22
I've never thought many people, no, you're explaining that very well. Had you talked to the county at all as far as their ARPA 00:09:25
money? That could have used that for some of the some of that. 00:09:30
Stuff that is for the youth. 00:09:36
The county Commission itself. 00:09:38
No, I don't believe we have talked to the County Commission. That's not. 00:09:40
Yeah, well you know, we're certainly gonna relate this to Shaylee and who is our recreation director and we will take your input. 00:09:44
But it's a nice 70 degrees in that family gym now, so the hatchbacks are working very well. 00:09:50
I encourage you to go there. I was there yesterday. 00:09:57
And must have had about 20 kids in there. 00:10:02
Playing volleyball and basketball and. 00:10:05
So. 00:10:08
Provide sardine, but do you provide transportation options? 00:10:08
We don't in the county. We do have city transportation. 00:10:12
I'm not sure if. 00:10:17
How did you come to the youth center when you were using it with my grandmother and friend Rides from friends and family? 00:10:19
It may be that way. I mean, I we don't have see. 00:10:26
Since it's a city function. 00:10:31
It's difficult to have services out in the county that. 00:10:33
Because we have to spend that. 00:10:36
In the city. 00:10:38
We can look into transportation for certain routes. We do go to Berlin. 00:10:39
And when they go to Berlin, when they're coming back, they could stop and pull over there and pick people up at a certain spot. We 00:10:44
can maybe think about coordinating that. We can work on some of that. Amazing. That would be a great first step. Sure, sure. But 00:10:49
but I would like for your. 00:10:54
And I'm not really wanting to know. What I really want to know is who is the spokesman. 00:11:00
That could bring this stuff together so that. 00:11:05
We hear. 00:11:08
You know, kind of a cohesive outline of what you really need. 00:11:10
That would be me. 00:11:14
Kind of what I want to advocate for as well. It's fantastic that you do have a space and that it's 70 degrees and there's kids 00:11:16
playing ball. That's fantastic. 00:11:19
But what's really going to help is these life skills is providing counseling and mentorship to young people. 00:11:23
These are the ways that we prevent those numbers, that 38.1% from growing and rising. If we're not educating our young people, 00:11:28
we're setting them up for failure. 00:11:32
Well, I I agree that you're making that speech, but you know. 00:11:37
The city city government has certain goals that we need to meet, but we have a great Chelsea Jones, our library director, who's 00:11:40
really into that and she does that with seniors. 00:11:46
And she made Chelsea come on up if you've got some ideas. 00:11:52
Maya. 00:11:58
Check. 00:11:58
Actually just received literacy funding to do exactly what you're talking about, GD life skills training. I have volunteers. We 00:11:59
just met. They're trained, they're educators and. 00:12:04
I want to come over. Yeah, we'd love to collaborate. All of these already available in our community? That'd be fantastic. Or any 00:12:10
of you familiar with the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project grant? 00:12:14
So that's the grant that was recently applied for from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. And what that 00:12:20
project is for is to eliminate youth homelessness. 00:12:24
We just applied for that grant and it looks really good that we're going to get it if we get this money. We want to know that the 00:12:28
city is on board to help us with these goals. 00:12:32
Well, we we had a, I'm sorry, Mr. I just wanted to inform you that last year. 00:12:36
We did. We did ask for that grant and then evidently it went to the northern part of the state. Most of that money went to the 00:12:41
northern part of the state, didn't come to the southern part. So I'm I'm sure the Council would be more than happy to sponsor 00:12:47
that. As a matter of fact, I can't remember that the people that came to us about that. 00:12:52
But we went through this last year, Mr. Romero, sorry. 00:12:58
Well, the same thing today, we. 00:13:02
Councillor Dean, Councillor Ogan and myself has the one of our first meetings as to. 00:13:05
The possibilities of what might be done. 00:13:12
Ohh. 00:13:15
To further better, use the portions of the old. 00:13:16
High school. 00:13:20
That aren't being utilized and Councillor Dean has you know specific ideas like that, that. 00:13:22
She would like to see done too, but there's all kinds of things that we're going through. 00:13:27
You know meeting rooms and and different things. So we are looking at some kind of development and. 00:13:32
You might want to tell them what you were thinking. I'm just trying to create a Community Center where there's different rooms for 00:13:39
different purposes. One might be for teams design more for teens, one might be for. 00:13:44
Kids who are interested in, I don't know, music. 00:13:50
Climbing wall, I mean those are some things that you know, just been talking about. But you know, we're quite a ways away because 00:13:54
we've got to do some. 00:13:58
Demolition work first, but but we are thinking about the kids. 00:14:02
And we're rolling out a music program right now at Family. 00:14:06
So there's there's lots of space that family right now that's usable. 00:14:10
And Chelsea made a great suggestion. 00:14:14
For the life skill and the and the literacy program to be put together for the youth, I think somebody was dropped out of school, 00:14:16
could get a GED and also learn other things. 00:14:21
That's available at our City library. 00:14:26
And Chelsea is in charge of that, so there are things available and perhaps it would be best if. 00:14:29
We could maybe. 00:14:35
Get that information out a little better than we're doing So it sounds like there's two things here though. You're representing A 00:14:37
homelessness and and and for for basically lost children that went. 00:14:42
And the pandemic we had, the the numbers were horrendous in Socorro. 00:14:48
That there there were I think in the 100. 00:14:52
As far as and then. 00:14:55
Kids who were homeless and didn't have anywhere to go. So those are the things that we're certainly will support. 00:14:57
The other part of your question as far as giving. 00:15:03
Activities for youth. 00:15:07
I must say you need to kind of. 00:15:09
Get acquainted to the stuff we are already doing. We're doing a lot of stuff. 00:15:12
Now, as far as educational is concerned, Chelsea is taking care of that, Shelley takes care of the recreations. 00:15:16
You know, we have many, many events that the kids are involved with that we allow them to. 00:15:22
Use our facility so we're more than happy to accommodate them. 00:15:27
That's fantastic. How do these young people find these events? Because when I look it up or when I try and find things that are 00:15:31
going on in Socorro, I can't find anything. 00:15:34
And so I imagine that the young people also have that struggle. 00:15:37
Apollo, we've got a website that. 00:15:41
Has talked about youth employment. Talk about. 00:15:45
Recreation and things of that nature. Sure. If I, if I, If I'm. 00:15:49
If I get the. 00:15:53
Material to advertise all advertising? Yeah, sure. 00:15:55
So, so we'll do a better job than what we're doing now and to maybe get a resource book. 00:15:58
That everybody can access on the net. 00:16:04
That'd be fantastic. And my last request is just as these plans continue growing, I would love if you could involve the Youth 00:16:06
Advisory Board. That's our purpose, is to advise, because nobody knows what young people need better than these young people who 00:16:10
live here. 00:16:13
So I guess my last request is just to reach out to us and utilize our advice and our guidance. What is your contact for the Youth 00:16:17
Advisory Board? So we have a website, it's NM Youth advocacy.org. 00:16:23
And who are the people that are from Sikora on that? 00:16:30
City of Shakur, yeah, so FYI, wasn't in Sequoia, but they're in southern New Mexico and they were part of that. Shay is a huge 00:16:33
part of that, as well as Brit over here. 00:16:37
And mostly young people. I mean, the Advisory Board is really just made-up of young people, 16 to 25, with lived experience of 00:16:42
homelessness. 00:16:46
Mr. Fleming. 00:16:50
One other questions Mayor just stated. 00:16:52
Who from the studios of Coral is on this board right now? It's all young people and Shay and grit. 00:16:55
It's all young people, you're saying. 00:17:03
Umm. 00:17:05
Here's two people who had. 00:17:06
70 years of teaching. 00:17:10
Young people in Socorro. 00:17:13
And I haven't heard a single name. 00:17:15
From you. 00:17:19
Answer right now. 00:17:20
Of. 00:17:22
A young adult from the city of Socorro that's on this board. 00:17:23
Right. I mean, well, I have. 00:17:27
Four sitting right here in the 2nd row and not from the city of Socorro. 00:17:29
When they go into tomorrow. 00:17:38
So. 00:17:41
That. 00:17:42
Yeah. 00:17:44
Anastasia and Trinity through field. 00:17:47
And it's also Trinity Trujillo. 00:17:51
James Whalen. 00:17:53
The city they go to, the Coral High School. 00:17:56
Well, you're not answering my question. I'm not trying to put shade on this, but. 00:17:59
Thank you. 00:18:07
I'm talking about budgets and you brought that up. 00:18:09
Money and and the amount of money that the city spends. 00:18:12
On youth, I I think it's tremendous. 00:18:16
And we're more than happy. 00:18:19
To. 00:18:20
Work with you on specific things. 00:18:22
It's the first time I've heard you here. It's first time I've seen anybody from the youth. 00:18:25
I hear about this. 00:18:30
But we're, as we've explained, we're willing to. 00:18:31
Talk about activities. 00:18:34
And talk about new activities that we can in place. 00:18:36
But I want you to go to the county to help us also and they they go to the city of they go to the high school in Socorro but. 00:18:39
That's. 00:18:46
That's funded by another source. It's not funded by taxes that the city gets. 00:18:47
And so we need a lot of help. 00:18:52
And making our budgets, because the cost of giving some of this sometimes is beyond our budgets. 00:18:55
When, when we're working with people who are right now, we have to put in a million dollars. 00:19:02
For people's natural gas rates that went three times normal, the city put in $1,000,000 to bail some of the people you're talking 00:19:06
about, which is the poorest community, poorest. 00:19:12
Poorest county in the state. 00:19:18
And so those things that we've been spending money on also so. 00:19:21
Hello. 00:19:24
Trying to get money from the budget. 00:19:25
To pay for some of the things which we I think we'd love to do, if you can help us with grants and we'll help us with your 00:19:28
committee to come together and and advocate for us with the legislature. 00:19:33
That'd be a big help. 00:19:39
Absolutely, yeah. It's actively working on applying for grants. We applied for the HP grant. We're also in the process of writing 00:19:41
out for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act grant. 00:19:45
Yeah, I can absolutely help the fiscal agent for those grants. That would be the next Coalition to End Homelessness. Who I'm 00:19:50
employed. That's the city. 00:19:53
No, but we would like the city to align themselves with our goals and be a part of this mission. 00:19:57
Funds from that grant. 00:20:02
Well, we don't know until we get the grant. But you know, if we do get the grant, we would love to have meetings. We'd love to be 00:20:04
in this space more. We'd love to have one on ones with each of you and figure out what we can do. Like I said, I think it's 00:20:08
amazing that you helped bail out families, but those aren't. 00:20:13
My kids here, that's that helps their families maybe and that maybe help some people they're involved with. 00:20:17
But that's a whole different matter. 00:20:22
That's great that we bailed those people out, but. 00:20:24
There's still a population of young people who needs your help. 00:20:27
Sure. 00:20:30
Mr. Smith, Mr. Mayor. 00:20:31
I'm a part of the Socorro County Juvenile Justice Board. Kristen Keller is Kirsten Keller. She's the coordinator for it. It's a 00:20:34
it's a programmer Polo runs it from the city standpoint. It's it's the administrative entity for that program is the is the city. 00:20:43
They do teen diversion programs. They do counseling boys circle girls. 00:20:51
Circle counseling. They put on a free movie for all Socorro ones on, I think the first Wednesday of every month. 00:21:01
We're always looking for youth representation on our committee that in fact it's required to have a youth on there. So I can give 00:21:12
you the contact number to to Kirsten and that way maybe you can have somebody from. 00:21:18
Your group. 00:21:25
Be a member of that committee and we can start with that. 00:21:26
Yeah, that would be fantastic. Be a great first step. 00:21:31
And this is your first meeting with us and you're you're welcome to reach out to. 00:21:35
Any of us and and you know talk more about it. Definitely, definitely there's all kinds of. 00:21:39
Of possibilities, you know, you know, we possibly would want to buy in and you'd want to buy in too, and contribute. 00:21:45
You know. 00:21:53
But like I said, it's. 00:21:54
It's it's a progression of doing a lot of things before we get to that. 00:21:56
Mr. Logan, I was gonna say, just making that connection with Chelsea tonight. I mean, once you start working with her and you get 00:22:00
more feeling, you get familiar with other connections with that within the city. 00:22:04
I mean, the city of Allison provide that facility, but they also have access to tech students or whatever else you need once you 00:22:09
start making those connections. 00:22:12
Right. I mean, I guess where my concern lies is that I planned for this grant two years in advance and sent out large calls to 00:22:16
action to get people in support of to care about the disadvantage of homeless youth. 00:22:22
And these meetings happened for a really long time and the only people who really got on board were my young people, Jay and 00:22:28
Britt. 00:22:30
So I see a lack of concern. I see a lack of empathy and a lack of compassion, honestly. 00:22:34
Did you say you sent one to the mayor and the City Council? I sent one everywhere. Me and my coworkers are collection position. I 00:22:39
wasn't directly in charge of sending them out. 00:22:43
I don't know who exactly got them, but I know that large mass emails and letters were sent to. 00:22:48
City Council members. 00:22:52
And to stakeholders in the community, well, you've been here now. 00:22:54
I I I'm, I'm sorry to tell you that. 00:22:58
And I look at all my emails every day and respond to them. I have yet to see one. This is the first time I've even heard of you 00:23:00
committee. 00:23:04
Mr. Mr. Mayor the the schools have a fund and. 00:23:08
That supports students who are temporarily experiencing homelessness. 00:23:13
And. 00:23:18
Polar Miss Puller is the coordinator of that program. Are you referring to the Convento? Yeah, McKinney Vento program? 00:23:21
So there's funds specifically for that. 00:23:28
And but but I don't know you know the the extent to which they need to be enrolled. 00:23:30
In school or an atheist now? 00:23:37
So our high school does not have a navigator. 00:23:46
They're experiencing onset to resources. 00:23:50
And I just wanted to submit as well. There is a principle in social work. 00:23:53
And it's very simple. Nothing for us without us. 00:23:58
It's very important whenever you have any initiatives that is serving you, that you have youth on your board and I was happy to 00:24:01
hear you talking about that, Mister Zimmerman. 00:24:06
It's very important because you're not going to have true engagement from youth if they're not involved process. You'll have 00:24:11
beautiful programs and people may have people. 00:24:17
Hey, you had a comment Yeah program and the support to the high school has. 00:24:26
For homeless youth, I worked closely with Francis Fuller last year, and Portless Brocade Harbor has an A Memorandum of 00:24:32
understanding with the high school, so we actually take care of. 00:24:37
The hotel rooms and stuff like that or homeless youth who are in moments of crisis because we have, we already have contracts. 00:24:43
With a hotel in town to provide emergency housing. 00:24:51
But it is. It is not. It is. 00:24:55
In grossly inadequate in terms of actually getting teenagers. 00:24:58
Who suddenly find themselves out on the street just to speak to the homeless. 00:25:03
Youth a little bit. I've I have 10 years of experience. I've participated Estate Harbor and five years prior to that I've worked 00:25:07
with. 00:25:11
Find. 00:25:14
I would say that we always say that anybody could be two paychecks away from homelessness, right? Like the last two paychecks. And 00:25:17
a lot of people will be out in the street because of something like 80% of Americans don't have much more than $500 in the savings 00:25:23
account at any given moment. But with a teenager, it's even more volatile because all it takes is the guardian or the person that 00:25:28
they're living with saying get out. 00:25:34
Is 1 sentence, you know, one sentence away from the street and we I worked I think with like. 00:25:40
Nine or ten teenagers with Francis Fuller just in the last four year the suddenly found themselves in need of a hotel room or an 00:25:46
emergency situation. We also open up the shelter, you know, in in certain circumstances to let kids stay there. But it is grossly 00:25:52
inadequate. We can only afford to pay for those hotel rooms. We can only afford a couple nights. It's not enough time to like 00:25:58
solve any real crazies or or solving real issues. 00:26:04
And we've also, we've run into problems with some of the the state and government programs that are designed to help you sometimes 00:26:11
and often you're far more damage than good. So there needs to be a place in the community. I think what you were speaking to 00:26:17
earlier was really powerful in terms of there used to be a simple and easy place for teenagers that's very proficient with 00:26:23
Instagram, Snapchat, whatever to be able to get online and go to a website and see exactly what services are available for them in 00:26:29
this community. 00:26:35
I think the fact that we didn't know about a lot of this stuff. 00:26:41
But getting that out to people so that they can see what's going on would be very helpful. 00:27:10
So first time for some of these students who are in the high school, there is a program called Gear Up and that's with Kathleen 00:27:16
O'Connell and Real Madrid. 00:27:21
And this last year, we actually were actually participated. Christian helped give some mock interviews. 00:27:26
For these kids, they did do checkbook balancing. They did do the importance of credit. They did. 00:27:32
They have all of that there too. 00:27:37
So that's just another resource that is available and it's asked to. 00:27:40
Stay and I actually sat at the same table for the 100% so coral. 00:27:48
Tell me. 00:27:52
Project with Doctor Sharon Sessions. I think they're trying to do a lot of the same things. You are healthcare homeless. 00:27:54
You name it, they. 00:28:01
That eight or nine different goals, so I think Sharon would be an awesome resource. 00:28:02
Um, we've signed up for a new app called My Civic. It'll be hosted with a link on our website. You can see where our parks are, 00:28:06
what it costs to rent them, all kinds of information. 00:28:11
And the third thing is to get a message out. We have a messaging system where poll sends out text messages about different events 00:28:16
and different things going on. 00:28:20
And you can sign up for that on our website as well or. 00:28:24
Column or come in, but I think that's three tools that you can add to your toolbox. 00:28:26
And recreation has a Facebook page. 00:28:32
This is, Mr. Mayor, the Southwestern Area Workforce Development Board. 00:28:35
Which encompasses 7 counties in the southern part, State, Donana, Socorro, Hidalgo. 00:28:39
They have a youth program which. 00:28:45
Hires youth between the ages of 16 and 21. 00:28:48
Who have a barrier. 00:28:52
Homelessness is definitely a barrier, so if any of our young folks. 00:28:55
Wanna go to the Department of Labor as it was once known? 00:29:00
And talk to the representative there. 00:29:05
There's a tremendous amount of funding to support their employment journey. 00:29:08
In. 00:29:15
In in Socorro County and Socorro, the funds are used to support paying the the, the, the, the student. They can they can find work 00:29:16
and plumbing and electrical and restaurant and hotel, all of those things. 00:29:24
So I am hopeful that and some of us here on this Council sit on that board. 00:29:32
And we would like to know and hear how the experience was for a young person. 00:29:38
And it's supposed to serve 25% of youth in school and 75% of youth out of school. 00:29:45
So. 00:29:53
That's what there's a lot of opportunity for young people to get a job on top of the the The Cities program in the summer. 00:29:54
So yes, ma'am. 00:30:02
One of my tasks this summer was. 00:30:04
Completing the resource crisis across county. 00:30:06
The last time I talked to them, this bill wasn't open the youth program. Have you heard other one? No, I'm. I'm under the 00:30:09
impression that they were hiring a coordinator for it. 00:30:14
And and if that isn't coming, if there's nobody there, like I said, there's seven counties. 00:30:19
We can tap into another county. You you can. I'll give you the the contact information for the. 00:30:26
For the center, which is in Guyana and you know what those funds are, are here to support the seven counties, whether there's 00:30:33
somebody sitting behind the desk or not. So we need to figure out a way. 00:30:39
To. 00:30:45
Connect these students and young people to jobs, and that's exactly the focus of. 00:30:46
Of those millions of dollars that are supported by Title One Federal federally. 00:30:53
So I do know about some of those jobs, especially the plumbing. 00:31:00
Those jobs are only available to kids who are, fortunately, drug free. 00:31:07
Majority of homeless youth in Socorro are unfortunately not drug free and don't have the resources. 00:31:11
To. 00:31:18
Obtain that. So that's another issue. And another thing is, I'm not a high school student. Like I said, I had dropped out, but I 00:31:20
have never heard of a single. 00:31:25
Things you guys have offered today. 00:31:31
Like I said. 00:31:33
I'm a teenager. 00:31:34
Teenagers rely very heavily on the Internet, on social media. It would be extremely beneficial. 00:31:36
To. 00:31:41
Establish a social media president presence and I would be happy to do that and I'm certainly of us would be happy to establish a 00:31:42
work with someone, with you guys and establish the social media presence, but. 00:31:48
I would love it. Sounds very quite lovely what you guys are doing for Socorro and I would love to be a part of it. 00:31:55
And I would love to take advantage of these resources and so would all the kids sitting here in this room. 00:32:01
But we have never heard of it. 00:32:06
And that is an issue. 00:32:09
Well, I hope you take a chance to talk to Chelsea because it gets started on your GED. 00:32:11
And she's offered. And then. So go by the library and sign up there. We'll do a better job of getting. 00:32:16
Youth involved with what our programs are, but I'll tell you. 00:32:22
We had 120 kids this summer. 00:32:26
Who took advantage of our program and they heard about it. 00:32:28
So but. 00:32:31
Please. 00:32:32
Allow us to make a better effort in getting information out. 00:32:33
But today you could. 00:32:37
Get with Chelsea tomorrow and and perhaps. 00:32:39
Get involved with her program, and that's a good start right away. 00:32:42
To get this done. 00:32:45
And if there's others who have? 00:32:47
That they have need for getting a GED and are not going to school and can do it at their own pace. 00:32:49
I'll get with Chelsea and and I think she'll certainly get you on. 00:32:55
Start with that. 00:32:58
OK. 00:33:00
That sounds amazing. 00:33:00
Mr. Mayor, I just added two more things, Shane, that kickoff meeting. 00:33:04
We brought this up specifically that there's not one place where you can find all the resources available and I can't remember for 00:33:08
his missed months here, Charlene Montoya that said they were going to. 00:33:12
OK. So that would be another great place to start. We can host that on our website. 00:33:18
Jack. 00:33:23
And so she had to put in. 00:33:28
For the Mental Health Collaborative, we want this one to one, but you guys haven't been to that. It's amazing. There's over 40 00:33:30
organizations involved in town that all work in behavioral health or just various aspects of the community. But she is working on 00:33:36
that website. It's just, it's positive but very long process. 00:33:42
To get all of these listing community in the community in one place and get them all online, but it is going to be basically like 00:33:48
a website. 00:33:52
Or a link that would be shareable to other social media platforms. 00:33:58
People are only going to be able to find that resource, and so much of it is shared and put in places where teenagers will find 00:34:03
it, right? So that's in the context of that it's done except for a couple of things, but for today I didn't have anything but was 00:34:07
not aware of them. 00:34:12
But you have let let Jackie know. That was one of my past when he was supposed to work intern. We completed it. We sent it to 100% 00:34:17
New Mexico. It's gonna be put online. My greater concern because I know you've mentioned social media. 00:34:24
Young kids don't look at Facebook. I'm sorry all they've done. And so you you've gotta think a little bit outside of the bottom 00:34:31
things like Instagram. Other sources. I submit mayor, that it's possible that some of the young people that did the program, they 00:34:37
found out about it through other channels, maybe parents. 00:34:44
Family members, things like that. 00:34:50
Because listen, if they can't find it, these. 00:34:53
Like most kids are really savvy with the Internet, then it's a problem with where it's being. 00:34:56
Featured. 00:35:01
But I hope the ones that are here take advantage of the stuff that we're talking about, family gem. 00:35:03
Or at the library. 00:35:07
At least do that and then again, we'll try to get more information. 00:35:09
That's friendly to. 00:35:13
So you'll send and put it on different. 00:35:15
Platforms rather than just the Standard Oil. 00:35:18
Facebook type of stuff. 00:35:22
Will work on TikTok and. 00:35:24
What's the new one that's coming out is? 00:35:26
Great. 00:35:30
I think it's called threads, OK, yeah. So we'll we'll we'll certainly try to collate all that information and try to put it out so 00:35:32
that. 00:35:36
It's available to them. 00:35:40
And the transportation part, we certainly should work on that to try to get. 00:35:41
Transportation out to Cloudera and Lemitar and. 00:35:47
Grab San Antonio and see if we can have. 00:35:50
The youth at least be able to access our facilities. 00:35:53
By that kind of transportation. So we'll work with that. 00:35:57
But I think it's important for you to make a presentation to the county also because. 00:36:00
They they did have a they had $3 million of ARPA money. 00:36:04
And I think you would certainly would want to get some of that to. 00:36:08
Help with the homeless and the the motel bills. 00:36:12
And also to try to get. 00:36:15
Some. 00:36:17
Involvement with the City County Coalition. 00:36:18
That we could work together on the budgets because that's that's really very important these days. 00:36:21
As to the amount of money that is available and what the cost of things are. 00:36:26
But we have those. 00:36:31
Plans right now with Finley. 00:36:33
For youth programs. 00:36:35
Councillor Dean and Olguin are working on trying to do more as far as. 00:36:37
Space is concerned where it's literally can hang out. 00:36:42
And Chelsea's got the program for the literacy, so hopefully they'll take advantage of that. 00:36:46
Absolutely. Trust me, nobody knows more about budgeting and lack of funding than homeless youth. It doesn't take much to make a 00:36:52
homeless youth really happy. It doesn't take much to implement these programs. It doesn't take much to do the social media, sure. 00:36:57
Yeah. 00:37:04
I'm going to jump in at Amy Kimball. While you were we were talking about this, I went to the Socorro City of Socorro web page and 00:37:06
looked at the recreation department page. 00:37:11
And it still says that the Socorro Finley gym is closed due to construction. 00:37:17
So it sounds like it's not closed. 00:37:23
So just sort of wanted to 2nd that that there definitely is an issue with getting information out there even if the youth had gone 00:37:26
to the web page here. 00:37:29
It would have said that the gym was was closed. 00:37:33
Um. 00:37:36
So I, I, and and just on personal, I thought it was great that Jace was. 00:37:37
Teen offered to help with with social media. 00:37:42
If people are are are volunteering to help in ways that they know will get the message out to their their peers, I hope that. 00:37:46
That. 00:37:53
So someone from the City Council or from the city would be would be willing to work with them. 00:37:55
I don't know what that would look like though. 00:38:00
Thank you. 00:38:02
Anyone else? 00:38:04
Great. Well, thank you for coming. Yes, ma'am. 00:38:07
And a different. 00:38:11
And she got. 00:38:12
Ohh sure. Come on up. I just. I wanted to just say if anybody had. 00:38:13
Anymore comments, but come on up with second, the second topic for public. 00:38:17
Sure. 00:38:24
Thank you for coming in. 00:38:27
Hi. 00:38:33
My name is Bridget O'Neill. I live here in town over on on. 00:38:35
Shawn Ave. 00:38:41
And I I I'm sorry, this is the first City Council meeting I've come to. 00:38:43
So I don't know if this has been talked about in the past. 00:38:49
But I was talking with Marcella, with the city. 00:38:53
This afternoon on the phone and she encouraged me to. 00:38:58
You know said. 00:39:02
I mean, I was asking her about. 00:39:04
The. 00:39:07
That the topic is water meters. 00:39:07
They didn't know if that's something the City Council had already. 00:39:10
Knows about address. 00:39:14
Or not. But that's really the administration's fault. It's not the City Council. 00:39:16
And I kind of know about your situation where you you've been asking for a new water meter for nine months or 10 months has not 00:39:21
been, has people haven't shown up to put a new one in they didn't even. 00:39:26
Say anything about it? So yeah, so this, this administrative, not City Council and. 00:39:33
Ohh, but that that's that's our fault. It's our fault that we didn't bring you a new. 00:39:38
City Water Meter Well, my my. 00:39:42
My main concern now is you know in talking with her just about the the numbers. 00:39:45
Of it, you know, it's like. 00:39:52
You know, of course, she's just talking off the top of her head, so it's no, but she she directed you to the right place. So you 00:39:55
know she stood there. City has like 4000 water meters. 00:40:01
And and they're all dying, yeah. 00:40:08
And uh. 00:40:11
And that again is a budget problem and I know they've been estimating your water. 00:40:14
Of consumption and. 00:40:18
We're we're trying to free up some money to buy those water meters right and but this problem is so at the at the current rate. 00:40:19
You know, it's not keeping up with the rate that they're failing at. 00:40:29
And you know, she was saying she gets like. 00:40:33
10 calls a day about water meters that are failing. 00:40:37
And you know, I was on the phone with her for between. 00:40:41
5 to 10 minutes or maybe 15 minutes because she went to talk with the. 00:40:46
Guide to see if they had a water meter for me. 00:40:51
You know, so that's like over an hour of her time every day, you know? She says. It's a real mess. 00:40:55
And you know, they weren't able to buy any new water meters for like the last. 00:41:02
Four months and. 00:41:08
They're only able to buy. 00:41:10
Like 100 water meters a month. 00:41:13
So it's going to take. 00:41:15
You know, I mean, I already been waiting for a water meter for 10 months. 00:41:18
And and I'm not alone, you know so. 00:41:22
And at the current rate, you know it would take. 00:41:26
You know more than three years and 100 water meters a month to. 00:41:29
Replace people's water meters. You know, people gonna have to wait that long. 00:41:35
For a new. 00:41:40
And Ruby, you want to give me an answer for that? 00:41:43
So. 00:41:46
It's. 00:41:47
15. 00:41:48
3000. 00:41:51
OK, so right now we're starting to die since 10 years. 00:41:52
So they're starting to die, So we're actually going to order. 00:41:56
We've been ordering 100. I talked to Marcie today and she said she needs like 300, so we're gonna get it done and probably put her 00:41:59
on the top of the list. 00:42:04
They said they're going to bring one tonight. I apologize for all that. I mean, I again, it's a matter of budgets, but I apologize 00:42:10
for this. 00:42:14
And it came here today was so that. 00:42:18
You might think about. 00:42:21
This not happening again in another 10 years, You know, like maybe they're. 00:42:23