Meeting: City Council Meeting

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Event transcript
	City, of course. City Council meeting Tuesday, February 18th, 2025. Roll call, please.	00:00:08
	Mayor Baskar here.	00:00:13
	Councillor Travis Lopez here. Councillor Dean.	00:00:15
	Councillor Fleming here. Councillor Ocampo here, Councillor Ogame here, Councillor Partridge here, Councillor Romero here,	00:00:18
	Councillor Salome.	00:00:23
	All right for the Pledge of Allegiance.	00:00:28
	I pledge allegiance.	00:00:31
	CS GO.	00:00:35
	Than on the beach.	00:00:38
	Can you ask the song?	00:00:41
	Just left. Mr. Romero, I'm only approve the consent agenda as presented.	00:00:52
	So moved and seconded discussion.	00:00:58
	Any questions about the consent agenda?	00:01:01
	Not, not not having any. All in favor, aye. Opposed.	00:01:05
	OK, we're going to the public forum.	00:01:12
	Request for Mr.	00:01:14
	Because he lives so far away.	00:01:17
	That we want to get it home before it gets dark.	00:01:19
	So, Jason, come on.	00:01:21
	I just want to preface what Mr. Everett and he's a third party, not he's not related to the city other than.	00:01:27
	He also is the.	00:01:33
	Emergency.	00:01:35
	Planning committee chairman.	00:01:37
	I've been after the county to help us with the ambulance.	00:01:40
	And we are in the process right now of excluding Kettering County.	00:01:44
	From our district.	00:01:49
	And I'm also getting ready to get in the process of excluding.	00:01:51
	The county.	00:01:54
	And justice taking care of the city because we're understaffed.	00:01:56
	We've asked.	00:01:59
	The county to help us.	00:02:02
	Really. So far they haven't given us a viable.	00:02:04
	Choice, Mr. Irving came to me. He actually presented this a year ago, unbeknownst to me.	00:02:07
	Of the city of Sakov.	00:02:14
	The Mississippi system providing services outside the city.	00:02:18
	Suggestion without purpose, I'd let you.	00:02:22
	Make the presentation and tell us who you are and what you do. And of course, good evening, Mr. Mayor.	00:02:24
	Honorable Council members.	00:02:30
	Of course my phone starts ringing and I have it on.	00:02:32
	Answer it. Go ahead and answer.	00:02:36
	Honorable council members, administrative staff, and ladies and gentlemen of the public, thank you for.	00:02:40
	Allowing me to share some of my views.	00:02:46
	I am the Fire Chief at the Very Large Array and I took that job.	00:02:48
	Just about 3 years ago.	00:02:52
	I had the good fortune to come from.	00:02:55
	Seattle, King County.	00:02:57
	King County Medic 1 is.	00:02:59
	Ostensibly considered one of the best Emergency Management systems.	00:03:01
	In the world.	00:03:06
	So with that I bring that experience and that background.	00:03:07
	And I noticed pretty quickly that things could be a little bit better here.	00:03:11
	So my intention is not to.	00:03:16
	Tried or critic?	00:03:19
	But I realized that you may not know and I had the same feeling about the the county.	00:03:22
	And their Commission, they may not know what they don't know.	00:03:29
	And so my intention is to just raise awareness, give you some basic background.	00:03:33
	I identify or share what I've identified.	00:03:37
	And areas where we can improve.	00:03:42
	And make a significant improvement in saving lives and property.	00:03:44
	Within the city and county.	00:03:49
	So we can go to the next slide, you know.	00:03:53
	We could actually go 2 slides from here. I'll just jump the overview because I got into detail.	00:03:56
	OK, so this information.	00:04:02
	Is my opinion.	00:04:05
	It does not reflect the organization I work for, which is NRA Home.	00:04:07
	The National Radio Astronomy Observatory.	00:04:11
	It does not represent.	00:04:15
	The county's local emergency planning committee, which I'm the chair.	00:04:18
	So this is just my opinion and my thoughts and.	00:04:22
	I'll let that stand as as it is next.	00:04:26
	Oh, did we miss the page about me?	00:04:31
	Can we back up to?	00:04:35
	There we go.	00:04:36
	So you don't need to know all of my background. What I think is important for you to know.	00:04:37
	Is not only in the eye the Fire Chief of the VLA.	00:04:41
	And the emergency services manager for NRA? Oh, I am the chair of the county's local emergency planning committee.	00:04:44
	I'm also organizing an active shooter.	00:04:52
	Field exercise and tabletop drill over the next year and a half with the state's DHS EM.	00:04:54
	Active member of the Socorro County Fire Chiefs Association.	00:05:00
	And recently appointed to the New Mexico region to EMS Advisory Board.	00:05:04
	OK, we can go to forward there, Lena.	00:05:09
	So EMS is a structured program.	00:05:14
	And this is consistent around the country.	00:05:17
	It starts with four tiers of emergency medical responders.	00:05:20
	With first responders being the lowest level.	00:05:23
	Going up from there, our EMT basics.	00:05:27
	The next step up is EMT intermediates.	00:05:30
	And finally, we have paramedics, which is also known as ALS or Advanced Life support.	00:05:34
	We do not have any paramedics in the entire county.	00:05:39
	Of Socorro.	00:05:43
	Except Alamo has a paramedic program.	00:05:45
	That's it.	00:05:48
	Now paramedics can do almost doctor level activities in the field.	00:05:50
	They can.	00:05:56
	Do cardiac monitoring.	00:05:57
	They can intubate, they can do cricothyronies, which means giving somebody an airway who's lost an airway.	00:05:59
	They can administer life saving drugs.	00:06:05
	They have a very, very high level of training.	00:06:08
	And they are also able to stabilize multi system traumas.	00:06:11
	Thanks Selena.	00:06:16
	Now, while paramedics would be great to have here in the city.	00:06:18
	The reality is, is everybody within the cities within 5 minutes of the ER.	00:06:22
	So I'd still recommend it, but I can understand.	00:06:28
	That that might not be your highest priority.	00:06:33
	Given your incredible high structure fire call volume here.	00:06:37
	Having more firefighters might be more important, however, with that said.	00:06:42
	Paramedics and that level of care are essential.	00:06:48
	To people in the rural part of this county. So this presentation was delivered.	00:06:51
	To the county Commission.	00:06:57
	With a focus on what the county can, maybe should.	00:06:58
	And could be doing.	00:07:02
	All right. And I shared this information with the Mayor and he asked me to share with you. So there are some things that are city	00:07:05
	centric.	00:07:08
	But primarily.	00:07:11
	I'm talking about the rural parts of Socorro County.	00:07:13
	And the bottom line is people are.	00:07:15
	Our constituents are dying without this level of care.	00:07:18
	I don't know how many.	00:07:22
	I think we could study that and come up with a definitive answer. I think that.	00:07:25
	We could.	00:07:31
	Ascertain the financial damages of every life lost.	00:07:32
	But I guarantee you that people are dying who would normally live.	00:07:37
	If they had access to this service, there's no question about it.	00:07:41
	No, obviously as a minor G.	00:07:49
	One of the first things I did when I got here is the cheap baca.	00:07:53
	And that was within maybe my first or second month.	00:07:58
	Chewbacca.	00:08:03
	Shared some information with me with that had my mouth again.	00:08:04
	And one of the things he shared?	00:08:08
	Is that he just lost one of his frontline firefighters.	00:08:10
	For Walmart.	00:08:15
	That is staggering to me.	00:08:18
	In King County, Washington, where I used to work.	00:08:21
	These are the most coveted jobs. People work three to five years.	00:08:24
	Volunteering. Working for a private ambulance.	00:08:29
	To be competitive enough.	00:08:32
	To get these jobs.	00:08:34
	And once they get them, they keep them.	00:08:36
	They worked very hard there and the intention is to have a very high bar.	00:08:39
	Of quality of employee.	00:08:45
	Because it takes a while.	00:08:48
	To learn this job and to be good at it.	00:08:50
	So I walked in the door as a frontline firefighter. ENT.	00:08:54
	25 years ago making $78,000 a year.	00:08:59
	I made 150 when I left.	00:09:02
	Now obviously that's not comparable.	00:09:04
	To our community here, however.	00:09:06
	The training that went into that young man.	00:09:10
	To get his EMT to get his fire one and fire 2 and then for him to leave that.	00:09:14
	Because Walmart had better benefits.	00:09:19
	That scares me.	00:09:22
	Because honestly, look at ourselves.	00:09:23
	This is your wife, your husband, your kids, your parents.	00:09:26
	They need this life saving care.	00:09:30
	You want somebody?	00:09:32
	It was fresh out of the gate. Or do you want somebody who has some time in?	00:09:35
	You want somebody who's committed to this work and held accountable to the highest standards.	00:09:39
	And Cheapock has got a great crew. He holds his crew accountable.	00:09:44
	So I'm, I, I love his crew. I love his people.	00:09:48
	But if they're making a decision to work at Walmart?	00:09:53
	Versus this job?	00:09:57
	They are desperately underpaid.	00:09:59
	And undervalued.	00:10:02
	So I think that's pretty much the only thing I'm going to say about.	00:10:04
	The city and the their fire department.	00:10:07
	What's that I said? Well, that sounds like enough to say about it.	00:10:11
	All right, well, there you go. I think he missed the other 3.	00:10:18
	Which is a high call volume.	00:10:21
	Which has the largest sponsored area?	00:10:23
	A high turnover rate? Absolutely, I think perhaps.	00:10:26
	You spent a little more time on Walmart than you did the last three. That's true because.	00:10:29
	Then that's the region.	00:10:34
	Why the city is asking the county to help out and catalog for that will also get benefits because.	00:10:37
	We've been having to scribble on.	00:10:44
	Serving the whole region is not even just the county. We go to Katherine County you deserve.	00:10:47
	Desktops and.	00:10:53
	Our budget is strained because we're serving more than just the city. That's true and that's reflects and we'll try to increase	00:10:56
	the payment, right And we'll and we get into another piece of that in a little bit.	00:11:02
	Which is the inner facility transfers.	00:11:08
	So Chewbacca's crew.	00:11:11
	Firefighters, EMT's are running stable patients from Sapporo General Hospital to Albuquerque.	00:11:14
	That takes them out of service for almost 4 hours.	00:11:21
	And sometimes there will be two cars gone at a time.	00:11:24
	That wipes out half of the available crew.	00:11:27
	So we'll get into that in a minute. But yeah, the large response area, the high call volume will also get into in some detail	00:11:30
	shortly.	00:11:34
	But you need more firefighters.	00:11:39
	You need them to be committed to staying.	00:11:42
	And you need them to stay around long enough to be really good at their jobs.	00:11:45
	Now when I was hired.	00:11:52
	I was at 36.	00:11:54
	I've been running a nonprofit organizations for 15 years as the executive director.	00:11:56
	So I had a high skill set.	00:12:01
	It took me 3 years of running every call for me to feel like I was finally competent and have learned enough.	00:12:04
	So that's just for some context there.	00:12:12
	In general, we can go to the next slide.	00:12:15
	Recruitment and retention are challenges in the fire service.	00:12:19
	Because a lot of our country rely on volunteers.	00:12:24
	And my personal beef.	00:12:28
	Why are we OK with that?	00:12:31
	We don't have volunteer police.	00:12:34
	We're not going to give somebody a badge and a gun.	00:12:36
	As a volunteer.	00:12:39
	They have to be held accountable.	00:12:41
	Why are we OK with putting?	00:12:43
	That our loved ones health, safety and lives.	00:12:45
	In the hands of people who need more training.	00:12:50
	Your fire Academy here is a great facility.	00:12:54
	Their fire Academy is 2 weeks online and two weeks in the field.	00:12:57
	That is totally inadequate. That is going to get people killed.	00:13:03
	My fire Academy was six months, 380 hours.	00:13:06
	And if they were hired and had to go through that Academy, it was paid time.	00:13:11
	So the bar is very different here.	00:13:17
	The reason that's two weeks is they say they can't give volunteers to commit to more time than that.	00:13:19
	They don't have the paid time off.	00:13:24
	So that's just the reality if we're going to rely on volunteers.	00:13:27
	Volunteers are great. My department was a combination department.	00:13:31
	Some people want to help and have other jobs.	00:13:34
	But if you're.	00:13:38
	If your department is all volunteer.	00:13:40
	There's no guarantee.	00:13:43
	Who is going to show up on that call?	00:13:45
	There's no guarantee.	00:13:49
	Oh, it's my birthday. Oh, I had a beer.	00:13:51
	All right, we're going to my daughter's dance club. You have to make choices.	00:13:54
	They're paid, they're on and they are.	00:13:59
	They have a duty to respond.	00:14:01
	So there's a very different dynamic between volunteers.	00:14:03
	And and paid.	00:14:06
	And paid responders.	00:14:09
	So the other thing about our job?	00:14:11
	Is at very high stress.	00:14:15
	I worked for 20 years frontline before I retired.	00:14:18
	I'm still trying to catch up on sleep.	00:14:23
	I have many physical injuries. I have 3 back injuries. I blew a bicep tendon.	00:14:27
	And I have a severe PTSD from my job. The reason I finally retired is I had my 14th dead kid.	00:14:33
	That was a small community. I knew most of those kids.	00:14:40
	And when 12 of the 14.	00:14:43
	And this one.	00:14:46
	Broke me, it couldn't go back.	00:14:48
	And that happens to all of us.	00:14:51
	We have a higher rate of depression, both EMT's, law enforcement and firefighters, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide.	00:14:55
	And like I said earlier, it takes a long time.	00:15:03
	To be good at this job.	00:15:06
	So moving on.	00:15:11
	With regard to volunteer departments.	00:15:13
	Recruitment and retention is very challenging.	00:15:16
	So it's not just in our career departments.	00:15:20
	There's even the training that they get now.	00:15:23
	As I mentioned, I feel is inadequate.	00:15:27
	It's still significant, it's still a huge time commitment our volunteer departments are making.	00:15:29
	To protect their neighbors.	00:15:35
	They're paid $15 a call.	00:15:38
	Even if it's a 2 hour fire.	00:15:41
	Of $15.	00:15:43
	And it's been really challenging for us to engage young people.	00:15:47
	And being interested in this work.	00:15:51
	So Magdalena Fire Department.	00:15:55
	You have the mayor who's running the aid car.	00:15:58
	And the one EMT is in his mid 70s.	00:16:01
	And that's it.	00:16:05
	When I met with the Battle fire department after I moved here.	00:16:06
	There was the Fire Chief who was in his 30s.	00:16:10
	Everybody else was 60 or older.	00:16:14
	So we have to find a way to engage our young people.	00:16:19
	And one of that is to make this a desirable job.	00:16:23
	That's compensation.	00:16:26
	So the county does step up to help out with Socorro Fire Department, In fact, Midway.	00:16:29
	Has sent almost all of its responders.	00:16:35
	To EMT class. I happen to be that instructor. I'm an instructor for the University of New Mexico.	00:16:39
	I am just finishing up my 5th.	00:16:44
	EMT basic class in two weeks.	00:16:47
	So I've turned out 70 EMT's and Catherine and Coral County.	00:16:50
	In the last three years.	00:16:55
	Wait, wait, are you, are you saying they're right on our ambulances to help us?	00:16:59
	We do not have that agreement yet.	00:17:04
	They they're certified and they've taken the class.	00:17:07
	But that's we're talking about the city.	00:17:10
	Right. And I've also trained some of your city fire.	00:17:12
	Who are running on your aid cars?	00:17:16
	But the county doesn't.	00:17:19
	Staff, our city, the county is not able to do emergency medicine.	00:17:20
	At this point because they do not have a Department of Health agency license.	00:17:26
	I do believe that that is going to change in the very near future.	00:17:31
	I'll get into that in a minute.	00:17:35
	So Midway fire is Socorro fire is basically back up.	00:17:37
	They have a mutual aid agreement.	00:17:42
	They show up on fires, they roll on motor vehicle accidents.	00:17:45
	And their group of volunteers, but they're very devoted.	00:17:51
	And I think the other volunteer departments are.	00:17:54
	Can be as well.	00:17:57
	But this is this is what you guys have got to work with right now.	00:17:59
	So in order to get licensed by the state, each EMS agency needs a medical director.	00:18:03
	Which is an ER doctor and a consulting pharmacist.	00:18:08
	To go over what drugs we carry, even at the BLS level.	00:18:13
	We're carrying albuterol, Epipens, Narcan.	00:18:17
	Aspirin. So nothing really scary, no narcotics.	00:18:22
	But we still have to be inspected quarterly by the state Department of Health.	00:18:27
	So next.	00:18:32
	So I did an analysis of three years 20/21/22 and 23.	00:18:36
	This data was given to me wrong by Chief Bacon.	00:18:42
	If you can see the left side, the left columns represent.	00:18:46
	Medical calls, EMS calls.	00:18:50
	2516 and 21.	00:18:53
	2590 and 22.	00:18:56
	And 2566 and 23, so pretty consistent.	00:18:58
	What is staggering is the number of fire calls which are represented in red.	00:19:03
	Almost 200 calls a year.	00:19:10
	Let's not mine this time.	00:19:14
	200 calls a year my department.	00:19:17
	Was a community of 10,000. It was on an island outside of Seattle, so very similar. We had long transport times. We had to take a	00:19:20
	boat.	00:19:24
	Transport our patients. There was only two firefighters and two fire.	00:19:28
	Medics on at a time.	00:19:31
	Than we had were supplemented by volunteers.	00:19:33
	We ran about.	00:19:36
	Wanting house fires a year?	00:19:37
	These guys here in your community.	00:19:42
	Are running over 100. Not all 200 of these are.	00:19:44
	House fires. Restructure fires, as we call them.	00:19:48
	There's some wildfires in there. There's some you know.	00:19:51
	Garbage, campfires, whatever.	00:19:55
	The amount of structure fires your guys are fighting is extraordinary.	00:19:57
	See how many of you have done this year.	00:20:03
	What was that structure fires? How many this year?	00:20:05
	Which year? Yeah.	00:20:08
	Over 30, right?	00:20:10
	Yeah. So last year when I gave this this presentation to the county Commission.	00:20:12
	They were at 60 in May.	00:20:18
	60 structure fires.	00:20:22
	These are dangerous and they're long and they take a lot of personnel.	00:20:24
	So I'm just I'm blown away by how many structure fires.	00:20:28
	Your crews here have to fight.	00:20:33
	So moving on to the next one.	00:20:35
	I also did an analysis of the data that Chief **** gave me.	00:20:38
	Which is how many calls this Coral Fire Department responds to within the city.	00:20:43
	And within the county?	00:20:48
	So if you look at 2021, it was 28%.	00:20:50
	Were in the county the next slide.	00:20:54
	36% in 2022.	00:20:58
	And 30% in 2023.	00:21:02
	I have not reworked 2024's numbers.	00:21:05
	And I'm not sure I'm going to.	00:21:08
	It's not necessarily not just kind of help.	00:21:10
	So if you go to the next slide.	00:21:14
	And you look at the city's fire department budget.	00:21:16
	So just about $2,000,000.	00:21:20
	So what? I informed the county Commission.	00:21:23
	Is they're getting $650,000 worth of service?	00:21:26
	And contributing $40,000.	00:21:31
	Worth of cash.	00:21:34
	And I think that that's a disparity that I'm sure you're all sensitive to as City Council people.	00:21:36
	And the county commissioners were actually.	00:21:44
	Very sensitive to it as well.	00:21:48
	Not very sensitive.	00:21:50
	It was a year ago.	00:21:52
	Let me just say that they were receptive to this presentation.	00:21:55
	So I'm glad to hear that.	00:21:59
	So my recommendation, oh, here you go. If you go to the next slide, Chief Baka and his team.	00:22:01
	Hey, just go there for a picture.	00:22:11
	That's printed without his permission, by the way.	00:22:14
	OK, so as I mentioned, the interfacility transports are a major time set for Socorro fire.	00:22:18
	I have talked to Adrian Morris of Sephora General Hospital.	00:22:27
	About how inappropriate it is in my mind to take frontline fire and EMS crews out of service.	00:22:30
	To transport stable patients.	00:22:37
	And Socorro General Hospital agrees.	00:22:40
	Socorro General Hospital is putting together a critical care unit so they can take over those transports.	00:22:42
	And they are the ones who've been funding these five EMT courses that I've been teaching for the University of New Mexico.	00:22:49
	They have a donor who's totally on board.	00:22:56
	Each EMT class cost between 18 and $22,000. We do 2A year.	00:22:58
	And like I said, I've trained 70 people to be EMT basics.	00:23:04
	And part of that is an investment vice pro General Hospital to be able to free up.	00:23:08
	Chief Bacchus people to not be doing these stable transports.	00:23:14
	So I commend Socorro General Hospital and their.	00:23:18
	And they're working on this and they're, they're working with the state.	00:23:23
	Department of Health and the state Legislature to fund.	00:23:27
	Their acquisition of apparatus and to put together the program.	00:23:31
	Yes, Sir, question.	00:23:36
	When did Socorro General Hospital give you this information?	00:23:38
	About two years ago they told me they were working on this.	00:23:44
	Well, I'm on the Finance Committee.	00:23:47
	And we fought like tech to get.	00:23:50
	A transfer ambulance.	00:23:54
	The state will not allow the coral to transport certain drip systems as you know.	00:23:57
	The head shed in Albuquerque would not.	00:24:06
	Come up with the money.	00:24:10
	To bring on war or end nurses that have that certification and bring its own unit down.	00:24:11
	And that was.	00:24:21
	Six months ago.	00:24:24
	So, well, there are definitely some political issues to be overcome.	00:24:26
	I just know that the hospital is working avidly.	00:24:29
	To bring this to fruition.	00:24:33
	And part of their funding, the training program for EMT's is in that context. So thank you for your input, Sir. I appreciate the	00:24:34
	work that you did.	00:24:39
	So in terms of the next slide?	00:24:44
	Squirrel fires funding issues.	00:24:49
	I'm not an expert on your budget.	00:24:51
	How you do things.	00:24:54
	But I do know that.	00:24:55
	Revenues that are generated from those transports are billed to insurance and go into the general fund. They don't go to the fire	00:24:58
	department.	00:25:02
	In our we did bill for transports.	00:25:06
	But all of that came back to the fire department's bottom line to help with our staffing costs. So that's something that you might	00:25:09
	consider.	00:25:12
	I also think that, you know, as the mayor mentioned.	00:25:15
	The fire department is running into Catching County. At least now that might change.	00:25:19
	But I think there's the opportunity to engage Katherine County.	00:25:24
	In fees for service when your people show up.	00:25:28
	That their county also kicks in.	00:25:31
	To cover those expenses. I don't think that that's unreasonable at all.	00:25:34
	I'm I'm the kind of guy.	00:25:38
	Call me crazy.	00:25:41
	I believe in government and I believe in paying my taxes. I believe people like roads, public safety, education.	00:25:43
	Safety Nets.	00:25:49
	And I think the people of Katherine County would agree that with the lack of EMS service, if they're going to be getting it from	00:25:52
	you guys.	00:25:56
	That they should be able to pay for it and shouldn't be.	00:26:00
	Surprised when asked to do so.	00:26:04
	Listen, there's two parts to that, though.	00:26:06
	One is free for service.	00:26:08
	One is.	00:26:11
	The ability to have that service which is we call standby.	00:26:12
	We do in those water stores.	00:26:17
	Its base rate for.	00:26:19
	Having the privilege of having that service available.	00:26:21
	And so.	00:26:25
	You know, with your presentation what I'm saying is.	00:26:27
	We've approached the county for several years.	00:26:31
	And we got $40,000 out of them.	00:26:34
	That the services and you.	00:26:37
	Pointed it out very clearly.	00:26:39
	25 to 30% of the service.	00:26:42
	Is out of the city limits.	00:26:45
	We're giving that.	00:26:49
	Because we're good guys.	00:26:50
	Just like we are with a Senior Center.	00:26:53
	Or that guys. But at this point, the budget is under so much stress.	00:26:55
	That we've asked them to staff 3 positions.	00:27:00
	Without any strings attached.	00:27:04
	To put into their recurring budget.	00:27:06
	To cover that 30% which not only just includes the service.	00:27:08
	But instead of them setting up a certified ambulance service for the county, which would cost at least a million or two.	00:27:14
	We would be the base for that, but we're asking for three staff people.	00:27:24
	And the.	00:27:28
	Response we got from them lately for Mr. Lot Rich, the county manager, was.	00:27:30
	That number one, it would not be.	00:27:35
	Constant that might sunset.	00:27:38
	#2 They wanted us to go to the jail to take care of their prisoners.	00:27:40
	#3.	00:27:44
	They were talking about two staff people instead of three. So that's the that's the. If I'm wrong, Donald, let me know.	00:27:46
	But.	00:27:53
	That's the that's the response we got, which is inadequate.	00:27:54
	Sure. And you know with with that, said Mr. Mayor.	00:27:58
	When I gave this presentation to the county manager.	00:28:01
	His response was we'll have to wait until the new fire Marshall is hired.	00:28:05
	I am pleased to say that.	00:28:09
	The new Fire Marshall emergency manager is hired as of two weeks ago.	00:28:12
	He happens to be here Mr. Fred Berger.	00:28:17
	He and I have.	00:28:20
	Talked about this information.	00:28:22
	And seemed to be of a very similar mind. So as he gets his feet under him, I'm sure that you'll be hearing from him.	00:28:24
	And I think that that response might in the future change.	00:28:32
	Right, we can't wait.	00:28:36
	As I said, we've already gone.	00:28:38
	To a department transportation now runs the ambulance, right? Well, I'm not I'm not in a position to do anything but to share	00:28:40
	information. So going to the next slide.	00:28:46
	So we do have some dispatch issues that I think are not difficult to fix, but absolutely need to be fixed.	00:28:52
	There is not currently a contract between the county and the city's dispatch.	00:28:58
	As a result, there is no regular or formal communication.	00:29:03
	In terms of addressing dispatch criteria.	00:29:08
	Dispatch does not know that I've trained these EMT's.	00:29:11
	So they might get a car wreck.	00:29:16
	I'll give you an example. One of my firefighters who's now paralyzed because he was ejected from a rollover accident in San	00:29:19
	Antonio.	00:29:22
	I had two EMTs in San Antonio less than 1/4 mile away who were not dispatched to.	00:29:26
	Can transport, but could have provided initial treatment.	00:29:33
	For this young man who's now 19 years old, has a brand new baby and is paralyzed from the waist down.	00:29:38
	So. But there's no way for us to talk about.	00:29:44
	Changes in staffing.	00:29:47
	And what are dispatch criteria should be?	00:29:50
	So my recommendation?	00:29:53
	To the county has been that they engage.	00:29:55
	The city and a formal contractual agreement with regard to dispatch. So background on that, the city.	00:29:58
	Approached the county five to seven years ago and they decided again that they would not pay for our dispatch to have an extra	00:30:05
	dispatcher.	00:30:10
	To cover the extra work there might be.	00:30:14
	And they went to Las Cruces. So they're being dispatched out of Las Cruces.	00:30:16
	And not the city of Sakura. Again, it's a matter of budget and.	00:30:21
	You know.	00:30:26
	Be strained under county workload to the city. But I'm just giving you an answer for what what happened and I think I think that	00:30:28
	you know it's helpful to.	00:30:34
	Know that history, but I also think that it's more helpful to look forward.	00:30:40
	Well, it is if you're if it's not your checkbook.	00:30:44
	Well, we're doing this together and I see Mr. Burger out there. I didn't, I didn't say hi to him. Mr. Burgers out there.	00:30:47
	In terms of other issues with dispatch.	00:30:55
	Like I said, there's no legal agreements, there's no formal agreement, there's no ongoing dialogue.	00:30:58
	And they have little or no medical training.	00:31:03
	So in the dispatch system that I come from.	00:31:06
	The dispatchers have a very high level of medical training.	00:31:09
	So when they're asking questions, they're asking the right questions.	00:31:12
	And they know who to dispatch, whether it's going to be an EMT, basic or a paramedic.	00:31:16
	Based on the answers they received to those questions. So I think there's some opportunity for growth there.	00:31:21
	So next slide.	00:31:28
	Again, as I as I prefaced, my intention is not to be critical, but to raise awareness.	00:31:30
	I had suggested.	00:31:37
	To the Commissioners, and this is what they were receptive to.	00:31:40
	Was commissioning a study between the City Council, the mayor's office?	00:31:44
	The manager's office and the county Commission.	00:31:49
	To look at these issues to develop some data.	00:31:52
	Make sure all the stakeholders are involved.	00:31:55
	And to put forward a plan.	00:31:57
	To make things better.	00:31:59
	We can make things better without.	00:32:02
	You know some of it's going to be financial, absolutely, but there are other things like talking to dispatch and having a formal	00:32:05
	monthly meeting.	00:32:08
	Would make things better, so not all of it's going to cost money.	00:32:13
	And they were very receptive to the idea. In fact, it was unanimous.	00:32:16
	That they support a study.	00:32:20
	I'm going to go a little beyond that right now.	00:32:25
	If I had.	00:32:29
	All the money in the world.	00:32:31
	And I had the ability.	00:32:33
	To make these changes.	00:32:35
	What I would recommend is that the county.	00:32:38
	In a very similar model to my model. So in Washington state, and I'm not saying you need to be like Washington, I'm just going to	00:32:41
	share.	00:32:45
	The information.	00:32:49
	The cities, the municipalities are responsible for fire and BLS which is EMT basics.	00:32:51
	The county.	00:32:57
	Took it upon themselves to take on paramedics.	00:32:59
	And they fund that throughout the county with a levy.	00:33:03
	So I'm not suggesting that there are $650,000 necessarily come to you.	00:33:07
	There's $650,000 a year it could be invested in.	00:33:13
	Term medicine outside of the county.	00:33:18
	Which would relieve a burden on the city. So if I had that magic wand, I would have a paramedic firefighter unit.	00:33:20
	Staff for north county, probably near Abathis.	00:33:27
	That would be 24/7 365.	00:33:31
	They could respond to ALS calls and if they have a fire call, one paramedic can take the engine, the other paramedic.	00:33:34
	Could take the aid car.	00:33:41
	Then the volunteers can respond right to the scene instead of to the.	00:33:42
	To the station.	00:33:48
	And then?	00:33:49
	I would also put another one in West County.	00:33:51
	Probably somewhere between Magdalena and the VLA.	00:33:54
	If there was going to be an opportunity to serve Katherine County, then that would they would be asked to pitch into.	00:33:58
	That would be my vision.	00:34:04
	So for whatever that's worth.	00:34:06
	And who is it that you're saying is going to get the 650,000?	00:34:10
	To fund it, well, what I'm saying, what I'm saying is.	00:34:14
	What I'm you mentioned a #150 thousand.	00:34:19
	Are you recommending that to the city or the county? No, I'm saying that that is a model that the county, if they wanted to pay	00:34:23
	their fair share, right, that is something that they could do. So you know, I I know that Chief Burger here.	00:34:31
	He's going to have his own vision.	00:34:39
	That is just what I've come up with in three years.	00:34:42
	And I don't even work here. That's just what that's one.	00:34:45
	Solution that I could see.	00:34:49
	There are going to be other solutions and I'm going to defer to him.	00:34:52
	I will say that I'm very optimistic.	00:34:55
	About the meetings I've had.	00:34:58
	With Mr. Berger and.	00:35:00
	His commitment to saving lives and property.	00:35:02
	In this county and in this city.	00:35:06
	So I'm going to support him and his vision.	00:35:09
	Any way that I can, but my intent here was just raise some awareness with you.	00:35:12
	Let you know that I have shared this information with the County Commission.	00:35:16
	And I think that if we work together, which.	00:35:20
	I've been warned, you guys don't necessarily work together that well.	00:35:24
	If we can work together, I'm not sure about the comment. OK, well, that's just I'm just you've been warned.	00:35:28
	You know, warned that we're giving all the services, they're not getting compensated from them and so you, I'm sorry.	00:35:35
	Sir, I'm just, I'm just been told.	00:35:43
	When I've been talking to people about this, that.	00:35:46
	Communication between the city and the county is not always.	00:35:49
	I'm healthy.	00:35:53
	Let me say it that way. Well, I don't know who's telling you that, but we've had lots of Mr. Latrich has met with us.	00:35:54
	When you throw out that kind of a comment, this hearsay, but if you specify as to how it is that we have not communicated.	00:36:05
	That would be more specific.	00:36:13
	And and and communication to me is.	00:36:14
	Asking a county to participate in the care of their medical needs, I agree, just as.	00:36:18
	They asked us to commit to participate in the needs of the senior citizens when it comes to and we're also serving the Gita.	00:36:24
	Right, but.	00:36:32
	The thing is and and their cash reserves are like $22 million.	00:36:33
	Cities, I'm telling you that you haven't heard that. I'm saying it out front. It's not a hearsay.	00:36:38
	Their their money from their investment is about 1,000,002.	00:36:45
	A year.	00:36:49
	The county has the money.	00:36:51
	The communication has been very direct and I believe in being direct.	00:36:53
	And it has to do.	00:36:58
	With what you just presented, which is unbelievably important and helpful.	00:37:00
	Thank you, It's very important.	00:37:05
	But as you said, the communication that you had with them a year ago.	00:37:07
	Hasn't produced any kind of.	00:37:11
	Offer to us as to.	00:37:14
	Handling the problem.	00:37:16
	Well, I think that part of that is now is leadership changes.	00:37:18
	OK. And I think that leadership is in place.	00:37:22
	And.	00:37:26
	What I what I was told by many people when I started vetting this as a draft.	00:37:27
	Is that the city and the county quote don't play well together.	00:37:32
	Now I don't know.	00:37:36
	How you guys actually county and Tacoma, Seattle?	00:37:37
	I know, I know, Sir. I'm not asking you to be. I'm just telling you.	00:37:41
	That if you and the county can work together.	00:37:45
	On this issue I am confident.	00:37:49
	Their lives will be saved and that well as you throw that part out but.	00:37:51
	The working together means.	00:37:55
	Taking your share of the responsibility of funding projects.	00:37:58
	The city has been good enough to continue doing this through the county and.	00:38:03
	Basically, we're the doormat because they don't.	00:38:08
	They don't think we're going to pull back.	00:38:11
	But at this point, we're have to pull back because.	00:38:13
	If we have people going to Walmart.	00:38:16
	Because they can't. The salaries at the fire department aren't sufficient.	00:38:19
	We've got to increase their salaries by decreasing.	00:38:23
	Our load as far as covering the whole county is concerned.	00:38:26
	Ambulance right now is costing $300,000.	00:38:31
	They're paying $40,000 of that.	00:38:36
	They actually should be paying 2530% of them.	00:38:38
	Fair enough. And so those are the things that are obvious that I've communicated if you look through the minutes here.	00:38:41
	I've communicated that.	00:38:47
	Trying to communicate with the previous manager, Mr. Hawks.	00:38:49
	I've worked with Mr. Lotrich, have worked with Ray Martinez.	00:38:53
	I guess who's the new chairman is Mr. Secretary.	00:38:57
	As a new chairman of the Commission, you know.	00:39:01
	I think so. So we have communicated and I'm not sure.	00:39:04
	Where the Well, that was before, that's when Mr. Hawks was still here. When I for this, I started this work three years ago. The	00:39:08
	only reason I bring that forward and I don't know if it's true or not.	00:39:14
	And I don't know if it's relevant or not.	00:39:20
	But everybody has history, and not all of its good.	00:39:22
	If we're going to fix this, we need to move forward together.	00:39:25
	That is the message I'm trying to do. There's a good message. A good message.	00:39:29
	And thank you again for the tremendous work you've done in putting this together.	00:39:33
	And some of the things that you.	00:39:37
	Recommended. I think those are this very positive. Well, thank you, Sir, and thank you, commissioners. I'm over my time, but I'll	00:39:39
	entertain any counselors, not commissioners. Oh, excuse me, yes.	00:39:43
	Jason, thank you for the report, but.	00:39:50
	Do you know how many paramedics are in Socorro County?	00:39:52
	Zero. No there isn't. There is one sitting right behind you.	00:39:57
	Oh yes, are you? He cut his teeth at Sakura party.	00:40:01
	And then joined Bernalillo County and worked at their most active station.	00:40:07
	At Rio Bravo and tourist, right, But he's been working in a different county and he's his licenses are expired.	00:40:14
	Mr. Vata, did you have Chief?	00:40:22
	No, no, I'm finished. I'll entertain the first question.	00:40:25
	Appreciate. OK. Thank you all.	00:40:28
	All right.	00:40:31
	Thank you, Sir.	00:40:34
	Mayor, Council, I just wanted to clarify a couple of things. When he came with those three years ago, we were having issues	00:40:35
	keeping people. We all know that.	00:40:39
	But the city's done a great job.	00:40:43
	Raising our pay to make it competitive.	00:40:45
	Where we're at right now, we're very competitive, so thank the city for that.	00:40:47
	When we talk about the 30% of our calls, 35% of our calls are out in the county.	00:40:51
	That's just EMS. That's not fire at all. That's EMS.	00:40:56
	The bottom line is.	00:41:00
	What I'm concerned about, what the mayor's concerned about.	00:41:01
	Is we don't have enough staffing.	00:41:04
	To staff the department covering the area that we cover.	00:41:07
	Not only doing this counting but in a facility transfers.	00:41:10
	There's time, there's times that we.	00:41:13
	We have two ambulances at the same time and ambulance in Albuquerque. We have nobody in the city limits to man.	00:41:15
	The city.	00:41:22
	In case of a, you know.	00:41:24
	Somebody gets sick, fire, whatever. We have nobody to man. And that's what we're trying to avoid and that's why the mayor is	00:41:26
	trying to ask the county to help us out with hiring more people.	00:41:30
	And it distilled. It distills down.	00:41:34
	To the city taken care of.	00:41:38
	Our mandate to take care of the city people.	00:41:41
	And we could have better communications. I'm glad Mr. Berger's here.	00:41:44
	And maybe we'll have a meeting with Mr. Latrice. I think the county even made a.	00:41:49
	Just recently may have talked about having us to dispatch.	00:41:54
	But those are things that come along but has been.	00:41:57
	And unfortunately, I've had a long history, Jason so.	00:42:01
	How about a long history here?	00:42:05
	And I have a perspective on the horizontal.	00:42:07
	Work.	00:42:10
	Between the county and the city.	00:42:11
	And it's always been the county has, whether it's the library.	00:42:13
	Or the fire, whether it's recreation, whether it's.	00:42:17
	Senior Center.	00:42:23
	That had been dumped on our budget.	00:42:25
	And it's time that we now start making some.	00:42:27
	Actual.	00:42:31
	Movement towards.	00:42:34
	Protecting the city.	00:42:36
	As far as the ambulance is concerned and a minimum of three staff.	00:42:37
	Is what we mean. And we've already made that presentation to them and that's a minimum that's not even going to fix the problem.	00:42:41
	We just had our ISO inspection we.	00:42:45
	We just learned a bunch of you know, we get, we have this 85 foot ladder truck that we pay.	00:42:50
	Almost $1,000,000 for that we don't get credit for.	00:42:54
	Because the minimum staffing for that truck to get credit for, you have to have at least six people on that truck for every fire.	00:42:57
	That's just for that truck itself. We don't even have that in our department.	00:43:03
	So Mr. Burgers said a long time ago to me, I think it was. Suppose it.	00:43:07
	When did you go 25 years ago? Get some paramedics.	00:43:11
	Fred always said that.	00:43:16
	But again, you know, I have to watch the budget and I have to staff every ambulance call with a paramedic.	00:43:18
	Otherwise the person who doesn't get a paramedic and dies.	00:43:23
	That's our responsibility. But.	00:43:26
	I think staffing around this county with paramedics is great idea. There's a great idea cost money though paramedics are not	00:43:29
	achieving.	00:43:32
	Fred knows that.	00:43:36
	Mr. Sir, we had a conversation about the village of Maguena.	00:43:38
	And supporting.	00:43:42
	Supporting our efforts in that way and there was some discussion about what they were going to provide or.	00:43:44
	They were. They're not a certified EMS.	00:43:49
	They got the benefit of a brand new ambulance when I was.	00:43:53
	Trying to get an ambulance.	00:43:56
	And at this time, they use it when they can.	00:43:58
	When they have a volunteer group but they're not a.	00:44:01
	24/7 as as Jason said.	00:44:04
	Dedicated to.	00:44:07
	Picking up the phone.	00:44:09
	So when we have volunteers.	00:44:10
	And.	00:44:12
	Bless.	00:44:14
	They're volunteers and sometimes they don't.	00:44:16
	You know they're not available for calls.	00:44:18
	Mr. Clark, Mr. Mayor, we also discussed.	00:44:21
	You had mentioned that you're going to start, and it sounds like it is. Just to clarify that you're starting the process to look	00:44:25
	at.	00:44:28
	Reducing the coverage area for our EMS staff and fire staff and that has you have started looking through we've already put in the	00:44:31
	application to.	00:44:36
	Disengaged from Katherine County.	00:44:40
	And now Department of Transportation.	00:44:43
	Is the one that is the umbrella, not the PRC anymore.	00:44:46
	So that's what we do.	00:44:49
	If that does happen, and it does, sounds like a process to disengage accounting.	00:44:50
	If they decide that they wanted to come to the table.	00:44:55
	Reengaging that county, if that's something we want to do, is that a lengthy process or I have to do something?	00:44:59
	In black and white, so they understand, they don't understand they're going to lose that coverage and I can't do it just.	00:45:06
	By.	00:45:12
	We're going to start that process and.	00:45:15
	They will not have coverage.	00:45:17
	At the rest stops when they have something happen on the Interstate.	00:45:19
	They will not have courage in.	00:45:23
	Outside the city.	00:45:26
	Now the Gita the the. It clearly shows that we need some support from.	00:45:27
	Jason presented a year ago.	00:45:34
	We definitely need some help.	00:45:38
	Sounds like Chief Buck, I need some help to.	00:45:39
	That's, that's my, that's our biggest concern.	00:45:41
	Hey, the phase where we wanted to be no competitive but.	00:45:45
	We don't have enough staffing, sure, you know, to leave the city on man like that. So they have the equipment, they have equipment	00:45:48
	and we got too many ambulances coming in July or August.	00:45:52
	You know, that's a lot of help from the governor. That's another speech.	00:45:57
	And that's the other cost to that the county is not.	00:46:01
	Covering, you know, it's not just staffing, it's the.	00:46:04
	All the wear and tear that we go to Begita, you know, 4-5, six times a day and all that stuff, you know, and I think Mr. Everett	00:46:07
	didn't talk about this, but I know he's very.	00:46:11
	Involved with that, is that the amount of money that the EMS gives you compared to the fire fund?	00:46:15
	Are not equal.	00:46:20
	And some of these areas are not being able to buy ambulances, although it went from 25,000 to 100,000.	00:46:21
	For us to put in 25,000,000 at the last legislature, and I testified for that.	00:46:27
	But the amount of money that the.	00:46:32
	That the fire fund.	00:46:35
	Were equipment for fire compared to what they did for ambulances?	00:46:37
	Way Askew.	00:46:41
	Yes, last question for me, Miss Murray, you also said that there was issues with like reimbursements.	00:46:56
	From some of these areas, does that still seem to be a problem? Medicare. Medicaid.	00:47:01
	Then you go to Vegeta and there's 80% refusals, they'll call you. But then when you go there to, well, I'm not coming, I'm not	00:47:06
	going in the ambulance. So we called, well, we had to go.	00:47:11
	See the lies The lie is the as a as a licensed, certified ambulance service, we have to be able.	00:47:16
	Available to respond to 911 calls.	00:47:23
	And we do, and we can do and we do, but that's what we're trying to avoid.	00:47:25
	And you know, two or three ambulances out of town at the same time, we have nobody in town understood so.	00:47:30
	Thank you and I'm sorry for everybody for taking all this time, but.	00:47:36
	As Mr. Edwards, it's a very important issue and.	00:47:40
	Lives are lost.	00:47:43
	Lives are lost and if we don't talk about it.	00:47:45
	We're not. We need to come to an answer for this.	00:47:48
	For the city and the county.	00:47:51
	Maybe.	00:48:13
	Thank you for your comments.	00:48:16
	I think certainly appreciated.	00:48:17
	Thank you.	00:48:20
	Thank you. Have a safe trip, Mr. Mayor. OK, Mr. Monett, before we move on to the next public forum item, can we hear from the	00:48:21
	Warrior golf team so they can go? Warrior golf team, OK.	00:48:27
	I see. They brought, did you bring guys here? They brought gifts or something like that? Carlos, come on.	00:48:34
	Mayor, Council, we just wanted to.	00:48:42
	Thank you guys and we really appreciate the support you give us as we start our season.	00:48:46
	And they're here to just present you guys with some of our sponsor shirts.	00:48:51
	That do have our shield on there, but they also have the city of Sapporo on the sleeve. Commending your support. How'd you guys	00:48:55
	do?	00:48:59
	We're just starting our season, but the outlook is good and we hopefully bring home 2 state championships this year. What about	00:49:03
	last year?	00:49:06
	2nd place both teams.	00:49:10
	So yeah, you want to introduce that.	00:49:12
	Wait, wait, wait. Don't want to introduce everybody first.	00:49:15
	We'll get we'll get a picture out here. OK. We do have our senior, Andrew Henrich.	00:49:19
	Umm, Junior Natasha up a doctor in.	00:49:26
	A freshman, Abigail Munguia.	00:49:29
	And then?	00:49:34
	Of course, Kristen.	00:49:34
	With his dog Coach.	00:49:37
	OK, come, come with my. Let's get.	00:49:42
	Everybody.	00:49:45
	Thank you guys.	00:49:49
	Congratulations.	00:49:59
	You're welcome. We'll let you know how we do this.	00:50:02
	For sure come back.	00:50:04
	Good luck, guys. Thank you. Thank you.	00:50:06
	This weekend.	00:50:12
	Yeah.	00:50:12
	They turn them. Here we go.	00:50:16
	OK, we have score county extension.	00:50:21
	Thank you for being so patient.	00:50:23
	Good evening, mayor councillors.	00:50:28
	We appreciate the opportunity to present with you this evening.	00:50:30
	You were generous in giving us some financial support, so we felt we needed to come give you an update on our program. I'm Emily	00:50:34
	Bruton.	00:50:39
	This is Jamie Facet.	00:50:43
	Together we, we oversee the 4H program, which I'll get to in just a second. And the purpose of this is just like I said to give	00:50:45
	you a program at programmatic update of where we are, what we're doing and what we're planning going forward.	00:50:51
	So, um.	00:50:58
	You can go the first time. Thank you.	00:51:00
	If any of you are unfamiliar, a quick overview of who we are. We work for the New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension	00:51:02
	Service, so New Mexico State University is the land grant institution.	00:51:07
	Of the state of New Mexico and therefore have an extension arm and we fall within that.	00:51:13
	So they have an office in every county.	00:51:19
	Where's the Coral County, obviously.	00:51:21
	And we provide.	00:51:23
	The people of New Mexico with practical, research based knowledge and programs to improve their quality of life. That's our	00:51:25
	mission statement.	00:51:28
	So we do programming in many areas.	00:51:32
	This evening we came to talk to you about youth development. SO4H is our flagship program. I know many of you have heard of it.	00:51:34
	Many of you have.	00:51:41
	Have kiddos participating in it.	00:51:42
	But this is the extension youth development program that we oversee.	00:51:44
	Next slide, please.	00:51:49
	So really quickly.	00:51:51
	Kind of an overview of what 4H is. Mostly. We aim to provide opportunities to learn life skills.	00:51:54
	Being knowledge while having fun and and grow. Grow kids into productive adults. That's our main mission.	00:52:01
	You will see four agents, Soccer County and several places.	00:52:09
	We have community clubs that are ran by leaders. That's our traditional enrollment system that we work off of.	00:52:13
	But we are also in school enrichment programs within the schools and we work in after school and specialty programs. And so in the	00:52:20
	last year we have brought Jamie on so we have a full time second agent now. It used to just be myself.	00:52:26
	And she primarily focuses on these special interest groups in schools because we felt like there were many kids in within the city	00:52:33
	and the county who were not benefiting from.	00:52:37
	What 4H has to offer. So she's done a wonderful job in reaching more kiddos and we'll talk about that as we move forward.	00:52:42
	So what have we been doing?	00:52:51
	Quick overview of what we've been up to lately.	00:52:53
	On February 4th, we were able to take 12 youth from the county and the city.	00:52:55
	Umm, to for each day at the Roundhouse. So this is a really fun and cool opportunity where we take kids.	00:53:01
	And teach them about the legislative process within the state.	00:53:08
	So we go to the Rain house, they listen to different speakers.	00:53:11
	We were able to get kids on the floor in both the House and the Senate and visiting with those representatives from us. And so	00:53:15
	this is really just a.	00:53:18
	An opportunity for them to see that in person. Many kids don't don't get to get in the Roundhouse and see, you know, our	00:53:22
	legislative process in action.	00:53:26
	And it sparked interest in were able to answer questions and get that in front of them. So this is a citizenship building.	00:53:30
	Type opportunity for those kids that we just went on. We do this annually.	00:53:36
	And so.	00:53:42
	I think next slide.	00:53:43
	I'll let I'll turn this over to Jamie.	00:53:45
	Hey, umm, I'm going to talk a little bit about the outreach that we are doing now. This first one, kind of our flagship, just	00:53:48
	getting my feet wet, but aquaponics.	00:53:54
	This program I've brought to about 5-6 schools reach over about 200 youth.	00:54:02
	And it sounds pretty simple, but there's a lot of lessons that I'm able to teach and help tag on to science classes.	00:54:10
	Umm, plant needs a plant nitrogen cycle. I even have some lessons with career goals within agriculture, within nutrition and a lot	00:54:18
	of STEM stuff. A lot of agriculture based careers are.	00:54:25
	Our STEM, lots of STEM, lots of building, really interest middle school. Get some of those kids that aren't very excited about	00:54:32
	being there.	00:54:37
	Getting excited, I'll go to the next slide.	00:54:42
	And again, I'm just highlighting some of the programs that we've done this fall.	00:54:45
	This one leadership development, this as a next step program.	00:54:50
	Like it says 8 weeks we I went into the classroom for an hour every week.	00:54:56
	Really great skills built on they.	00:55:02
	Learning styles. They learn their learning styles they talk about, we talked about study skills, strengths and their personalities	00:55:08
	and how that that.	00:55:12
	Really ties to what they're going to be, how they're going to do in high school and beyond.	00:55:18
	And this one's really cool because we actually got a paid trip for these 20 students.	00:55:23
	To have a 2 day campus tour down at NMSU.	00:55:29
	So, and I'm hoping to expand this into Seracino next year. We're working on those relationships right now.	00:55:33
	Next slide.	00:55:42
	Is that the moon challenge? This one we did starting in the fall and engaged with the Mesa team at Saraceno. And then I also have	00:55:46
	a small group of great and non 4H members into the office every Tuesday.	00:55:55
	This one was a.	00:56:04
	Based challenge thing.	00:56:07
	Spent eight weeks growing crops. They had to design the entire experiments.	00:56:10
	We had chili growing and wheat growing in 80% lunar soil.	00:56:18
	And it was very successful. That's not.	00:56:24
	The kids enjoyed that character. You really got some research, some data, they got some skills that.	00:56:27
	Hands on, doing it the whole time.	00:56:34
	Where'd you go to the moon to get that?	00:56:37
	Regulate. It's not even called cereal, so it is simulated, but it was it was quite a unique project.	00:56:43
	And then our last slide.	00:56:53
	Yes, just.	00:56:55
	Oh, the Youth Center and this one. I do spend an hour every week at the Youth Center working with those students on Mondays.	00:56:57
	Umm, we do everything. So everything that I'm doing in the classroom, plus a lot of advocacy, science, STEM, those kids, those	00:57:05
	guys get to experience that every week.	00:57:12
	It's amazing program and those kids are super excited to have that hands on experiential, you know, get dirty but also learn a lot	00:57:19
	to it.	00:57:24
	One of my favorite stories is if you guys ever visit make sure to ask them the difference between a dairy cow and a beef cow and	00:57:31
	they will tell you for like 15 minutes the difference which I'm super proud of.	00:57:37
	Congratulations. That's great.	00:57:45
	I think the city has been sponsoring we.	00:57:47
	Yes, give me a fairly.	00:57:50
	And.	00:57:53
	Appreciate that because part of.	00:57:55
	All of this learning and what makes it so great is kids are always have their hands on something they're building, they're getting	00:57:58
	them dirty and that that stuff takes.	00:58:03
	Of that support and I truly appreciate it. It is making a huge difference.	00:58:09
	Fantastic. You know, I hear they're renting chickens so you can have eggs at home.	00:58:15
	Within a month we will have chickens or eggs incubating in four different locations, so.	00:58:21
	Hopefully.	00:58:28
	It will help with a small portion of that issue.	00:58:31
	Next, this has a list. Go through it. This is just a few of the things that we have.	00:58:34
	The senior leadership retreat, the youth giveaway, those are more traditional 4H, but they are leadership development. They have	00:58:41
	camps.	00:58:45
	That we take groups of kids to Egg Explorer D is a huge day where we have all of the schools, city and.	00:58:50
	County come into the fairgrounds for morning.	00:58:59
	And then finally, I really want to highlight that we are the host of the Southwest District contest this summer. We will be	00:59:02
	bringing in about 200. That's probably a little low.	00:59:08
	And they will be here competing through those all kinds of contests, livestock, archery, lots of shooting sports.	00:59:15
	So they're fantastic. Did you guys do the horse?	00:59:24
	School also last year or was it?	00:59:28
	We did horse school two years ago and they're working on that, moving around the state. The state office does that. They are	00:59:31
	looking at Socorro again for this year. I I don't know what their final decision will be, but it is.	00:59:37
	OK, we've got another group, Friends of the Library, Peggy Lowen.	00:59:48
	Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council, how much to see you all again? It's been a while since I've been here.	01:00:15
	It's really good to see it.	01:00:21
	I'm here tonight.	01:00:23
	As the president of the Friends of the Socorro Public Library.	01:00:24
	This is Judy Kurtz. She is the vice President of our group.	01:00:28
	And you know, Chucky John, who is the library director, she's our boss. She tells us what we have to do every time.	01:00:32
	We are here tonight to thank you all.	01:00:40
	For our new.	01:00:43
	It is the most wonderful space.	01:00:45
	We were in Finley Gym for many many years. Little bitty tiny place with no heat, no air, no anything. We moved to Zimmerley which	01:00:47
	truly was the most perfect place for us and.	01:00:53
	We were very upset to hear that we had to leave there.	01:01:00
	But the mayor very kindly offered us a new building.	01:01:03
	It came in and was remodeled to fit our needs.	01:01:07
	I got the keys to it on January the 10th.	01:01:11
	We moved shelves.	01:01:14
	We have moved boxes of books.	01:01:16
	I want to thank.	01:01:19
	The RISE crew from the detention center.	01:01:21
	We had over 230 boxes of books.	01:01:24
	That we moved, they moved.	01:01:28
	They we have pickup trucks. They moved. We just said put him here, put him there, put him there, you know.	01:01:30
	But we are now unpacking all of those boxes of books.	01:01:34
	And we are hoping to have our first book sale.	01:01:38
	On March the 1st.	01:01:42
	So.	01:01:44
	The friends group will be 40 years old this year.	01:01:46
	Its purpose is to support the programs at the library.	01:01:50
	We pay for such things as.	01:01:54
	Summer reading program.	01:01:57
	We pay for reading as fundamental.	01:01:58
	That gives books to every child in kindergarten through 3rd grade throughout the county.	01:02:01
	We pay for family yoga, which is every week.	01:02:08
	We pay for a lot of little things that aren't included in.	01:02:11
	The city budget for the library.	01:02:15
	So we are.	01:02:17
	A valuable part of this community.	01:02:19
	And we truly appreciate that you recognize what we do and that you support us.	01:02:21
	So as I said, our next book sale is Saturday, March the 1st.	01:02:27
	I hope to see each and everyone of you there that day for our brand new building.	01:02:32
	And thank you again, Mr. Clement.	01:02:38
	Where is this sale going to be? It is in the parking lot at Zimmerly.	01:02:40
	We Zimmerly School is over here we are across the parking lot in this beautiful beige and orange modular. You will see us when you	01:02:46
	drive in there.	01:02:51
	With a big sign, Yeah, we'll have a sign out in front.	01:02:56
	But again.	01:02:59
	Honey, why did people donate books? Do they bring them to you all? They bring them to us. The donation spot. We take donations.	01:03:02
	We're there every Wednesday morning from 10 until 12. That's our regular work day.	01:03:08
	They can also bring donations on our sale days, which it's usually the first Saturday of every month.	01:03:14
	And we get tons of donations. It's it's.	01:03:20
	I can't explain how many thousands of books we get a year.	01:03:25
	That I don't know where they all come from. You know, I haven't figured that out, but.	01:03:29
	We have just a ton of books and.	01:03:33
	We are very appreciative of our community and everybody that supports us and we make.	01:03:36
	Around I'd say 5 to $6000 a year, which all goes back to the library. Every cent we own goes back to the library.	01:03:42
	So I want to congratulate the volunteers and yourself.	01:03:52
	The vice president.	01:03:56
	For being proactive and pushing the city to make sure that you had a room.	01:03:57
	So that's all on you. I think you guys have done a good job and.	01:04:01
	Being advocates for that and.	01:04:04
	People doing it.	01:04:07
	Thank you.	01:04:10
	Most important thing in the world to me and always has been.	01:04:12
	Guys being so active.	01:04:16
	Thank you.	01:04:19
	This is part of the public comment because I.	01:04:24
	Meeting with somebody.	01:04:27
	About what they thought that I was planning to put a.	01:04:29
	Marshall Water Park in the.	01:04:32
	In the in the gravel pit.	01:04:35
	I won't live to see it.	01:04:38
	So just want to put that out.	01:04:39
	The main reason we got and we're in the process of getting that pawn.	01:04:43
	Is for the EPA super fund.	01:04:47
	And for the Conservancy diversion in case there's flooding in the ditches.	01:04:50
	There is no commercial water park.	01:04:56
	That's going to happen.	01:04:58
	Other than we're going to clean up the lagoon.	01:05:00
	And it can be used for.	01:05:02
	Water aerobics or whatever you want to do in there.	01:05:06
	That's the last thing on the list. So I just want to and I'm seeing this in public comment because somebody.	01:05:11
	Came and told me that in my office.	01:05:17
	So I'm speaking for them just to let them know that that's not something that.	01:05:20
	Is going to be slides and.	01:05:25
	And all kinds of stuff out there, but.	01:05:27
	The first two things are the most important.	01:05:31
	Which is EPA Superfund site.	01:05:33
	To clean up the groundwater.	01:05:35
	And also for Conservancy to have a place to put the.	01:05:37
	Water when they have a.	01:05:40
	2 inch rain that fills their ditches and as you know our ponds pump into the ditches.	01:05:42
	And if the dish has water in it, it's full. We can't pump that water in there.	01:05:48
	So we would divert it into that pond.	01:05:52
	And Lord has spoken with them about.	01:05:54
	Doing that project.	01:05:58
	So that's under public comment.	01:06:00
	OK, we have Mr. Gita. I call it Mr. Gita, but it's MRGEDA.	01:06:02
	It's a discussion.	01:06:07
	Christie, you want to come up and.	01:06:09
	Talk to us about your Mr. Martin. I think from the last from the last meeting, I think there was some some question as far as what	01:06:11
	mercy was doing and how much the city contributes and.	01:06:16
	And I asked Kirsten to come and, and I know you're, you're on all the e-mail lists that.	01:06:21
	That all the emails that Mercer does. So I'm sure you're pretty aware and this Donald is also involved with Kirsten as well too.	01:06:26
	So he's pretty aware of what MERS has been up to.	01:06:33
	But I think it's a good idea that the Council also sees two and one of the biggest things here is this.	01:06:36
	Site readiness.	01:06:41
	Report through the Working through the Economic State Economic Development Department.	01:06:43
	And.	01:06:48
	Let Kirsten kinda.	01:06:49
	Talk about what the city has contributed to Merza.	01:06:51
	And what? What we're, what the organization?	01:06:55
	Does and how it involves the whole region.	01:07:01
	And promoting the whole region for the betterment of everybody.	01:07:04
	Yes, Hello everybody.	01:07:09
	Thank you for taking, I'll try to be quick. I know it's getting late. So they're getting paid for this.	01:07:11
	OK, so everyone, I wanted you all. I wanted to kind of kill two birds with one stone here tonight since I'm here.	01:07:18
	The New Mexico Economic Development magazine that's earmarked that you will be receiving.	01:07:25
	Is a collaboration that we are in our third year. We have a partnered with Saguro County.	01:07:30
	The Sierra County, Spaceport America, Facebook and Valencia County and this is our third year and I'm really proud of the	01:07:36
	collaboration because.	01:07:40
	Without that partnerships, we would not be able to afford the ad. The ad is $14,000.	01:07:45
	And it runs for the entire year of 2025. And so these magazines are given at.	01:07:50
	Site selection, events to showcase our region and I'm really proud that we are in the front of the magazine. That's a really big	01:07:56
	deal.	01:08:01
	And so.	01:08:05
	We did receive $1000 grant this year for merge DE and I would like to request that because every partner paid 2600 and merged that	01:08:07
	covered the remaining 3800 that the $1000 grant that we received this year go towards the magazine.	01:08:15
	Which word is the which the magazine ad that runs for the year of 2025? I thought that would be an easy way to.	01:08:25
	Get that line item out of the way so.	01:08:31
	Back to the other things I I handed out, we did do a brochure for also for site assessment, site of visits and also the merge the	01:08:34
	newsletter and it showcases what we've done in 2024.	01:08:42
	So to give everyone.	01:08:49
	Because some of you may not be aware of what mergers been doing.	01:08:51
	I've been hired.	01:08:55
	I was contracted in 2018.	01:08:56
	And I wanted to give a little overview of some of the things that we've accomplished and so.	01:08:59
	Merge that in 2016 was created and they were they received quality plan recognition through the for their economic development	01:09:03
	plan.	01:09:08
	In 2020.	01:09:13
	To the present, we received 32,800 annual recurring legislative funding for rural economic development.	01:09:15
	In 2023, we received the USDA RDBG grant for 90,000 for phase two of our economic recovery projects.	01:09:23
	And in from 2020 to 2023, we did economic recovery phase projects one and two for Sakura and Sierra counties.	01:09:32
	And 2324 and 25.	01:09:41
	Murder to receive New Mexico economic development leads funding to upgrade the Socorro regional commercial kitchen and that amount	01:09:45
	total of 43,720 and that funding has been able to provide.	01:09:52
	Umm stainless steel tables, convection ovens, commercial microwaves, 3 refrigerators installed a new AC.	01:09:59
	Repaired concrete steps, conducted repairs to the building and we also have created 4 jobs through this initiative, which I think	01:10:07
	is really important.	01:10:11
	In 2022 and 2023, I was the presenter at the New Mexico Economic Wasted course at Western University and our topics were the	01:10:16
	economic.	01:10:21
	Recovery projects that we conducted.	01:10:27
	In 20 and I just spoke on the New Mexico Economic Development Magazine partnership.	01:10:29
	And in last year, in 2024, we signed an MO U with Spaceport America.	01:10:35
	And we hosted our first annual New Mexico Tech.	01:10:40
	Tour of Spaceport America, which will be an annual event.	01:10:43
	In 2024 and 2025 we have Co sponsored legislative priority meetings with the South Central Council of Governments.	01:10:47
	And in November of 24, we worked with Donald Monett and in Economic Development department on a site assessment evaluation, which	01:10:55
	was really fun for Donald.	01:11:00
	And 2024, I was invited to the Department of Transportation and thriving community, community stakeholder group that meets monthly	01:11:06
	with city stakeholders and the COG as well.	01:11:13
	And in 2024, we were the title sponsor for the Show of Hands project.	01:11:20
	Through the Truth or Consequences Chamber of Commerce for assisting small businesses.	01:11:24
	And this year will be our first year of collaborating with the county managers for the tri-county Day.	01:11:30
	Which will also include materials from the city of Socorro.	01:11:37
	And in 2025, in May, we should, we received the green light, but considering how things are at the federal government.	01:11:40
	Fingers crossed that we did receive $150,000 for UMM.	01:11:48
	To support small businesses in the Middle Rio Grande Valley.	01:11:53
	And in 2023 and 2024, we've attended the Governor's Conference on Economic Development. We've presented to multiple organizations	01:11:57
	including the TRC rotaries, the Coral Rotary SW Workforce Connections, and New Mexico Economic Development Department.	01:12:05
	We've organized multiple tours in court, including Spaceport America Business Development team tour of New Mexico Tech.	01:12:12
	Made it meta tour which is Facebook.	01:12:20
	Valencia County Workforce Training Center tour and multiple space support American tours.	01:12:22
	Our membership includes Meta Village of Los Lunas, NM Tech, Socorro County, Sierra County, City of Socorro, City of Tier C.	01:12:28
	City of Elephant Butte, Spaceport America, Sierra Vista Hospital, Socorro General Hospital, C&K Auto Agitator Coffee and the	01:12:36
	Socorro Regional Commercial Kitchen and many other individual members. That's if the city renews our membership, right, of course	01:12:42
	and I did a little research and wanted to find out what the city.	01:12:49
	Had provided to merge the just for my.	01:12:55
	Knowledge and to update the Council that may not remember.	01:12:59
	In 2018, the city of Socorro paid merged at $10,000 and I think the previous.	01:13:03
	Executive Director had this set up with every county except the Coral County.	01:13:10
	So Coral County's invoice was 500.	01:13:16
	But Sierra County was 10 and the city of Sakura was 10, so I'm not really sure why that happened.	01:13:18
	Umm, but that was the last time the City of Sakura donated $10,000.	01:13:27
	And now what we received from the city is the $1000.	01:13:32
	Annual membership fee.	01:13:36
	And of course, how much are you asking for?	01:13:38
	1000 for the membership, but I just wanted to clarify too because I think there was some misconception.	01:13:40
	On the last meeting, thinking that with cities contributing a ton of money and they're not getting anything out of this. So I kind	01:13:45
	of took that at the heart.	01:13:48
	And I just wanted to make sure that everybody's aware of what's going on and.	01:13:52
	And it was time. It was time when I came to update everyone since you brought that up.	01:13:55
	What what? What's the economic development impact in Socorro?	01:14:04
	Citizen koro FMRGDA.	01:14:08
	We created 4 jobs with the commercial kitchen last year.	01:14:11
	Before the site assessment, that's never been done on the. That's a very good positive thing and, and.	01:14:14
	We did the commercial kitchen.	01:14:22
	And we've also learned on the issues that need to be addressed with the industrial park which merged. That can help.	01:14:24
	I would like to help the city get a feasibility study.	01:14:32
	For the industrial park.	01:14:36
	Well, yeah. And then we'll want to do that. But on the commercial kitchen, there's four full time jobs over there.	01:14:38
	Well, I I can't clarify whether they're full time or part time, but their jobs nonetheless. And we all know that there's a huge	01:14:43
	workforce gap in this region and I have to take the little wins even though 4 jobs doesn't seem like a lot.	01:14:50
	To me it's it makes a positive impact.	01:14:58
	That's a great thing. It's just like when you brought up the kitchen.	01:15:02
	I've just been looking for who's the manager and who's running it.	01:15:05
	Darla Darla Broughton is the manager. Who Darla Broughton?	01:15:09
	Is that who you've been dealing with down Delina?	01:15:14
	I think they deal with me mostly now.	01:15:17
	I've kind of been.	01:15:21
	Yeah, spearheaded person at the kitchen, which has taken a lot more time than I really intended, you know, but.	01:15:23
	It's it's a good thing and we are in our third phase with the kitchen. This is hopefully the last phase. I think I'm going to move	01:15:29
	on to other areas that need assistance and so.	01:15:34
	Umm, they do have a lot of new equipment, which is great and that the idea behind that was because.	01:15:40
	The Sierra County kitchen closed and the Valencia County Commercial kitchen is so much more expensive. We wanted to make this a	01:15:46
	regional kitchen because people could drive from Albuquerque and use the Socorro kitchen and say even save money because it's so	01:15:52
	much more expensive. Just real quick too, just so people refresh them on the community kitchen as well, too. So if you have a	01:15:58
	product that you want to produce, whether you're a farmer or you have a business or whatever you have to have.	01:16:05
	A certified kitchen in order to produce a product, and that's what this kitchen would be able to do for people.	01:16:12
	That do not have the money or the accessibility.	01:16:17
	With their own kitchen to produce the product that they that they want.	01:16:20
	The site assessments a great addition.	01:16:25
	We were talking to Senator Sanchez last week at the legislature.	01:16:27
	And he mentioned that.	01:16:32
	MRG. EDA.	01:16:34
	Could apply for some state money.	01:16:36
	To help us with say, site clearance.	01:16:39
	That was one of the grants and I was wondering if you would get.	01:16:42
	Get with us.	01:16:46
	To see if you could because we have money to put a building up.	01:16:47
	There's money available that's not been used.	01:16:51
	Very much for site clearance. Yes Sir, that is a new one.	01:16:54
	And it was representative now that said she added language to the.	01:16:58
	Current budget, we're always used to just say municipalities or.	01:17:03
	Yeah, but now it has. Yeah. She texted me today, actually. Yeah. And this is how it's another three. She's like.	01:17:07
	Whirlwind so, but did she text you about the specifics? I said that she put in language for merge though that we could help apply	01:17:14
	for so if you would.	01:17:19
	I think those are a couple of salient things that you could help us with.	01:17:24
	Is this site clearance and the other one?	01:17:27
	I'm trying to think of the other I can't think of, but anyway they mentioned that that there's some state funds being made	01:17:33
	available that are not being used.	01:17:36
	And this one thing is really a.	01:17:40
	At the industrial park is to put up a building because we're trying to move that money from the Superfund site.	01:17:43
	To industrial park, but the site.	01:17:49
	If we could get that and.	01:17:51
	That would give us more funds to build a good spec building. This means we have the green light to get the membership.	01:17:53
	Oh absolutely. Thank you. I thought you already got it.	01:18:00
	You already applied it to the well, I submitted an invoice, but the link the check was written last week already, but I wanted it	01:18:03
	on for discussion for your yeah for your concerns and just to let the action item No, no Sir is an action on. Thank you Donald.	01:18:10
	And also I would just like to mention that I would like to really work with Donna and Donald and Lena and Polo on you know fixing	01:18:16
	some of the the air the.	01:18:23
	The issues that we have at the industrial park because like you said, what is economic development, economic development would be	01:18:30
	to make sure that industrial park is ready for site selection.	01:18:35
	And at this point of the game, according to the site assessment, we have not had a due diligence study done.	01:18:41
	And it's in a floodplain and so there's issues we need to address and I would really like to work with the city.	01:18:47
	To get the industrial park where it needs to be so we can start advocating. There's a grant process that we can get the planning	01:18:53
	grant. I'm gonna.	01:18:57
	Work on, I'm pretty sure we can get it funded to the finance room. Sure. Great. OK.	01:19:01
	Thank you.	01:19:06
	Thank you. He's very thank you. Yeah, very, very good.	01:19:07
	And airport got airport title 6 plan.	01:19:12
	For approval, Mr. Mayor, that's a required a new requirement from the federal government to apply for federal grants for the	01:19:18
	airport.	01:19:22
	And it has received approval from the Aviation Division of New Mexico Department of Transportation.	01:19:26
	So I will have brought it to the Council's consideration.	01:19:32
	I think we should probably approve it.	01:19:39
	2nd 2nd the discussion.	01:19:47
	On to Aye Hogg City Vijay agreement.	01:19:50
	You know, they're asking us for.	01:19:54
	How much 22,500?	01:19:56
	To manage A to manage a CDBG project this year.	01:19:59
	And we ended up trying to get it on that. We got us on our own.	01:20:03
	We did she. I'll let Polo answer that question because he deals more with the CDBG project.	01:20:08
	Yeah, they they actually handle.	01:20:15
	Pretty much all the paperwork.	01:20:17
	It's worth it, yes, because I get it one year and it's a lot of work.	01:20:19
	Well, for 23,000 you can hire somebody to do that.	01:20:24
	Anyway, OK, well.	01:20:29
	I've got other things that we can talk about the Cog later on, but I think they need to help us a little bit more.	01:20:31
	And there are.	01:20:36
	But you know me.	01:20:39
	But anyway, so agreement.	01:20:40
	Shall we do it because we need the CDB project done?	01:20:42
	I'll make a motion that we approve.	01:20:45
	The COG agreement.	01:20:47
	Now moved and seconded discussion.	01:20:50
	All in favor, aye?	01:20:52
	So the map project we're trying to get.	01:20:54
	The road in front of New Mexico Tech fixed up again. Leroy.	01:20:57
	So if everybody would agree on doing that, it's time for it.	01:21:01
	And then next thing is going to be El Camino real, I mean we.	01:21:06
	Our roads are starting to deteriorate again and we'll just keep working at it.	01:21:09
	Mr. Fleming.	01:21:14
	Road situation.	01:21:18
	So we've been taking that discussion.	01:21:20
	All in favor, aye, the local governments rockfront project. There's a whole bunch of roads there.	01:21:22
	That are by the courthouse.	01:21:27
	In that area that we want to clean up and make sure it looks nice after we get Finley done.	01:21:30
	So we'd like to get that put into the.	01:21:34
	Enter the program.	01:21:38
	There I make a motion that we.	01:21:39
	Approved resolution 25-2-18B.	01:21:43
	So moved to 2nd.	01:21:47
	All in favor.	01:21:49
	OSHA certainly has been working with us on this risk protection program and guide. Lena, what is that?	01:21:51
	For wastewater treatment plant.	01:21:58
	We did not have a plan for the respiratory system or respiratory.	01:22:01
	And so Ojas helped us that.	01:22:06
	They could be exposed to and so.	01:22:11
	You have to wear a respiratory mask and all that stuff. So that's something that.	01:22:14
	We need to get the City Council to approve.	01:22:17
	So moved and seconded All in favor, aye?	01:22:23
	OK.	01:22:27
	We've got appointments for the police oversight committee.	01:22:29
	I'm just reappointing them.	01:22:33
	Yes, Sir, I.	01:22:35
	Into our attention last week that they were all.	01:22:37
	Expired when Marianne.	01:22:41
	SharePoint and Peggy Lopez.	01:22:44
	So she'll be Peggy Lopez, already appointed, last meeting for the Northeast quadrant.	01:22:47
	So these people would like to be reappointed similarly. SE Quadrant. David Naranjo.	01:22:53
	Southwest quadrant. Joe Daniel Sadra, Northwest Quadrant.	01:23:00
	And Fred Berger.	01:23:05
	Remember at large.	01:23:07
	As you know, as you know, we have a police oversight committee that's and it's also it's run by a lawyer from Albuquerque, not	01:23:10
	that has to do with the city.	01:23:15
	So this is what this committee is for.	01:23:20
	All in favor, aye?	01:23:23
	Job description.	01:23:29
	New business.	01:23:32
	Anything from that? I know you guys have been here for a while, but.	01:23:35
	Add anything.	01:23:39
	Have a quick question for Ruby. There's been some discussion on.	01:23:42
	That's reserves for.	01:23:50
	Government agencies and things of that nature, and I think it's important.	01:23:51
	I have every confidence that this administration.	01:23:56
	Custodian.	01:24:00
	But I think it's.	01:24:03
	The good idea to Let's share with the public.	01:24:06
	How those cash reserves that the city has.	01:24:09
	Invested.	01:24:12
	Thank you.	01:24:15
	OK, Mayor Council. So we do have reserves of.	01:24:20
	We have about $1,000,000 in reserves. That's actually for loans that we have.	01:24:23
	And then we do have money at.	01:24:27
	Mexico at the.	01:24:29
	New Mexico.	01:24:31
	Investment Council, we have about 6,000,000 in there and we did move it from First State Bank.	01:24:33
	It has grown in the past.	01:24:39
	I don't know, seven years maybe since I've been in there. You know, it was like 1,000,000 and now we're up to like.	01:24:42
	6,000,000 But you know, with GRT movement with the mayor last.	01:24:47
	We're going to have to be a little more conservative and watch GRT did go down like 50,000 this month compared to last year.	01:24:51
	So what happens is once we need money in general fund, we will move money from investment to cover general fund.	01:24:58
	So we have been kind of fortunate that.	01:25:05
	And Max Investment Pool has been paying a really good interest rate.	01:25:08
	So we've been getting at least.	01:25:11
	$30,000 a month just on that interest.	01:25:13
	Which we have a million in First State Bank and we're getting like $80.	01:25:16
	A month so that money is budgeted in general fund.	01:25:20
	So even though the money is put away, it is still budgeted. So we need to move that money we do put it in back into general fund.	01:25:24
	You're welcome.	01:25:28
	Any other question, Miss Dean?	01:25:35
	Many reports Committee of course. Committee. We have committees.	01:25:37
	Yeah. So the zoning committee met and we discussed several things.	01:25:42
	We thought it was time to update the map, obviously.	01:25:48
	And then we talked about.	01:25:52
	Taking some of the verbiage to include some of the.	01:25:56
	New concepts like people are using.	01:26:00
	Storage sheds and turning into small homes or.	01:26:03
	Shipping containers and it's not real. There's no wording in the in the zoning. So we thought we needed to add that.	01:26:06
	We talked about expanding the notifications in the rural areas.	01:26:12
	When someone's requesting a special permit or something to maybe 200 feet instead of the 100 feet we're doing right now.	01:26:17
	And we'd like to try to figure out a way to work with some of the property owners that they marked some of their properties,	01:26:24
	whether it's private property or no soliciting or something kind of like Smith's, that's kind of one of our.	01:26:30
	Problem areas, but if we can work with them to put some signage, we don't have to deal with it.	01:26:36
	What else? What else, Christy?	01:26:42
	I would be thinking about.	01:26:45
	Update our.	01:26:50
	Eight to 10,000.	01:26:51
	Try to put that in the budget.	01:26:55
	And then and then and then.	01:26:57
	Are you talking about?	01:27:00
	When you add this to the ordinance.	01:27:01
	Or do we do this as a resolution into the ordinance?	01:27:04
	Ordinance I believe we have to approve the gain as an ordinance once the changes are made to the 30 days of advertising out of 15	01:27:11
	days of advertising have the two public hearings and.	01:27:16
	And vote. He had this in.	01:27:21
	I can watch it.	01:27:23
	Are we getting there? Yes, Sir, we're working on it. We're also doing that with the personnel manual.	01:27:26
	Finally.	01:27:30
	Yeah, the marijuana. The marijuana.	01:27:32
	For all your division heads.	01:27:34
	It's going to come up.	01:27:36
	So we're trying to work our way around it. I've already.	01:27:37
	Had people come in that are medical marijuana and.	01:27:40
	I've said we're not going to fight him.	01:27:44
	Unless there's an accident and we test them.	01:27:46
	So we're kind of using Bernalillo County.	01:27:48
	Manual as to how they put in it.	01:27:51
	It's a work in progress and.	01:27:54
	You guys are going to be probably.	01:27:56
	Have employees that.	01:27:58
	To have this happen.	01:28:01
	So we're going to have to figure out a way to deal with this.	01:28:03
	Well, then the other committee is the Finley, the Finley remodel.	01:28:07
	So we also get last month and we.	01:28:11
	We decided that instead of installing a playground equipment, we'd rather have something like a water feature or.	01:28:15
	A water. A water fountain of some sort in that.	01:28:22
	Outdoor space.	01:28:25
	Want to vote on that?	01:28:29
	You know my my question. I heard that.	01:28:31
	And I know we don't need another park. That's what you guys said.	01:28:34
	But I'm just saying.	01:28:38
	A water feature is a real You know what a pain.	01:28:39
	Because it has, you know, I had one at the hotel. I had to get rid of it because.	01:28:43
	So slimy.	01:28:48
	People were throwing stuff in it.	01:28:49
	The kids are definitely going to play in it.	01:28:51
	And so it the maintenance of it is going to be a problem.	01:28:54
	Well, we were just finding out. Ideas. No, but I mean.	01:28:58
	But if you want to have more of a.	01:29:00
	Interactive feature in there and not interactive but a decorative feature in it.	01:29:03
	If you can make it into some sort of a landscaping thing, but if you want to put a fountain in.	01:29:09
	It's like.	01:29:14
	It gets to be a mess. I think Boyd and Dave are still trying to figure out what might work.	01:29:16
	Don't listen to Lloyd. I don't listen to Lloyd.	01:29:23
	What?	01:29:26
	Maybe a cascading? I mean, that's great, but not a fountain.	01:29:34
	The architect you're working on it already, not?	01:29:40
	There you go. Yes, I missed. I missed that train.	01:29:43
	But no, that's great.	01:29:48
	Yeah, it's just better fountain, you know where you have.	01:29:50
	Right.	01:29:53
	Anyway, thank you. Anything else, guys? Yes, I have the animal shelter committee. Animal shelter. So we met last month and we're	01:29:56
	gonna meet again this month.	01:30:01
	We're reviewing all the policies and procedures for the animal shelter and stuff, so the girls that we picked were had a lot of	01:30:05
	good ideas.	01:30:09
	I think we can work together to come up with something.	01:30:14
	I don't know. Did you give them an article that I gave you?	01:30:18
	Did you see the article with the closing animal shelter? Was it in?	01:30:21
	Bernalillo.	01:30:26
	For different reasons, but anyway, great.	01:30:27
	And any other committees that you guys have?	01:30:29
	No state wrestling championship this weekend. Wrestling championship? Where is it at? Real wrench Event Center.	01:30:34
	I know that would be nice.	01:30:43
	The arena, let's get over there and we can do a tournament.	01:30:46
	Good. Well, good luck. Thank you. You guys got some state championships.	01:30:49
	Yeah, I think we can.	01:30:55
	Every year we have hopefully can do it again and get someone seeds and.	01:30:56
	Should be good all right.	01:31:02
	And own business.	01:31:04
	Executive session.	01:31:07
	We're getting sued by anybody.	01:31:09
	You know, we did. We did get a, we did get a lawsuit.	01:31:14
	Two people came into the police station.	01:31:18
	Started taking videos.	01:31:20
	And they're in a restricted area that should not have been.	01:31:22
	But not as soon As for keeping them out.	01:31:27
	To me, that's just.	01:31:31
	Doesn't make siblings, huh? Seems a little frivolous.	01:31:32
	Seems frivolous to me, but frivolous but as people want. And then of course.	01:31:36
	We're going to end up having to buy them out.	01:31:42
	Can I be saying this or no?	01:31:44
	No, I don't get printed anyway with that up here.	01:31:48
	But that's just not right. I'm sorry.	01:31:51
	But I'm not the negotiator, So what the hell?	01:31:54
	Anyway.	01:31:57
	Yeah, You know, you're saying, Mr. Mayor, no good deed goes unpunished. Some of you'll find a way to turn that around. But that's	01:31:58
	why we don't have executive session. We just say everything out here in public.	01:32:03
	So anyway, no, I got to go through a job description.	01:32:09
	Somebody's trying to be a director of the Recreation Center or something like that.	01:32:12
	This is the administrative assistant director of recreation. Who is that?	01:32:18
	What's this?	01:32:23
	Huh. Looking for someone you guys see that?	01:32:25
	No, it's not she at least her job, but.	01:32:34
	It's Pete Lopez. What was.	01:32:36
	Huh. Well, come up here and tell us a little bit about it.	01:32:39
	You keeping the mirror in the dark? I've already made my I've already put my foot in my mouth. I don't have any more room left.	01:32:43
	So we're going to hire Pete Lopez full time from.	01:32:50
	I'm going to train them how to do the youth sports to kind of take over that like focus on some other.	01:32:54
	Things for the gym, you know, these guys are doing a great job and I thought we're just trying to fill those positions, so if you	01:32:59
	guys are OK with having a.	01:33:02
	Administrative assistant firms, I think.	01:33:06
	So thank you, thank you for your.	01:33:10
	Testimony.	01:33:14
	Oh, OK, we got personnel changes.	01:33:18
	Garrett White Library circulation assistant, new hire.	01:33:21
	Antoinette Lopez.	01:33:26
	New hire at the library, Polo Panetta.	01:33:28
	Administrator. He got a, he got a certificate.	01:33:30
	What is that tilapia? What kind of a? What kind of a?	01:33:33
	What kind of certificate is it?	01:33:37
	When we we get federal funding. OK PLPA. I missed the I and I thought it was tilapia.	01:33:39
	OK, Victor Salvador, administrator, completed probation.	01:33:49
	Pete Lopez, that's the one we just did temporary to full time.	01:33:53
	And Kyle Jillian has resigned.	01:33:56
	Motion Make a motion to pass personnel changes as follows.	01:34:00
	All in favor.	01:34:04
	Then I have.	01:34:07
	Under.	01:34:09
	I forgot my glasses.	01:34:11
	Piano 1. Deanna Way.	01:34:13
	I am thinking Anyway LLC Martin Lee. He's a software developer.	01:34:15
	Make a motion to approve the business registration to ZED.	01:34:21
	Moved. Seconded. Anything.	01:34:24
	Aye, Mr. Mayor.	01:34:27
	Before you announce the next meeting, you want to discuss the municipal elected official salaries. Oh.	01:34:30
	Just give you a heads up. Just the.	01:34:37
	County commissioners and this is going to affect you guys because unless you get reelected or me and then.	01:34:40
	But I think we need to adjust our council salaries.	01:34:46
	And so I am going to make a presentation as an ordinance to.	01:34:50
	Change.	01:34:54
	The mayor's salary and the city councillor salary.	01:34:56
	To match the inflated.	01:34:59
	Inflation.	01:35:03
	That would just be for the new.	01:35:04
	Councillors after the election, yeah.	01:35:06
	But we want to do it before the election but.	01:35:09
	I think we want to keep up with people's interest in running.	01:35:12
	And also to make sure that.	01:35:16
	We keep up with the county Commission.	01:35:19
	We don't want city good city councillors to run for county Commission just because the compensation.	01:35:21
	OK. Thank you, Donald.	01:35:27
	That's it. Then I.	01:35:30
	Beg your pardon? The next meeting is March 4th, 2025.	01:35:32
	Yes.	01:35:39

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Documents available for this event
	Document Name	Document type
	City of Socorro Respiratory Protection Program and Guide	General Document
	Resolution No. 25-02-18b - Local Government Road Fund Program	General Document
	Resolution No. 25-02-18a - Municipal Arterial Program (MAP) - Leroy Place	General Document
	SCCOG-CDBG Agreement	General Document
	Airport Title VI Plan	General Document

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Transcript

Event transcript
	City, of course. City Council meeting Tuesday, February 18th, 2025. Roll call, please.	00:00:08
	Mayor Baskar here.	00:00:13
	Councillor Travis Lopez here. Councillor Dean.	00:00:15
	Councillor Fleming here. Councillor Ocampo here, Councillor Ogame here, Councillor Partridge here, Councillor Romero here,	00:00:18
	Councillor Salome.	00:00:23
	All right for the Pledge of Allegiance.	00:00:28
	I pledge allegiance.	00:00:31
	CS GO.	00:00:35
	Than on the beach.	00:00:38
	Can you ask the song?	00:00:41
	Just left. Mr. Romero, I'm only approve the consent agenda as presented.	00:00:52
	So moved and seconded discussion.	00:00:58
	Any questions about the consent agenda?	00:01:01
	Not, not not having any. All in favor, aye. Opposed.	00:01:05
	OK, we're going to the public forum.	00:01:12
	Request for Mr.	00:01:14
	Because he lives so far away.	00:01:17
	That we want to get it home before it gets dark.	00:01:19
	So, Jason, come on.	00:01:21
	I just want to preface what Mr. Everett and he's a third party, not he's not related to the city other than.	00:01:27
	He also is the.	00:01:33
	Emergency.	00:01:35
	Planning committee chairman.	00:01:37
	I've been after the county to help us with the ambulance.	00:01:40
	And we are in the process right now of excluding Kettering County.	00:01:44
	From our district.	00:01:49
	And I'm also getting ready to get in the process of excluding.	00:01:51
	The county.	00:01:54
	And justice taking care of the city because we're understaffed.	00:01:56
	We've asked.	00:01:59
	The county to help us.	00:02:02
	Really. So far they haven't given us a viable.	00:02:04
	Choice, Mr. Irving came to me. He actually presented this a year ago, unbeknownst to me.	00:02:07
	Of the city of Sakov.	00:02:14
	The Mississippi system providing services outside the city.	00:02:18
	Suggestion without purpose, I'd let you.	00:02:22
	Make the presentation and tell us who you are and what you do. And of course, good evening, Mr. Mayor.	00:02:24
	Honorable Council members.	00:02:30
	Of course my phone starts ringing and I have it on.	00:02:32
	Answer it. Go ahead and answer.	00:02:36
	Honorable council members, administrative staff, and ladies and gentlemen of the public, thank you for.	00:02:40
	Allowing me to share some of my views.	00:02:46
	I am the Fire Chief at the Very Large Array and I took that job.	00:02:48
	Just about 3 years ago.	00:02:52
	I had the good fortune to come from.	00:02:55
	Seattle, King County.	00:02:57
	King County Medic 1 is.	00:02:59
	Ostensibly considered one of the best Emergency Management systems.	00:03:01
	In the world.	00:03:06
	So with that I bring that experience and that background.	00:03:07
	And I noticed pretty quickly that things could be a little bit better here.	00:03:11
	So my intention is not to.	00:03:16
	Tried or critic?	00:03:19
	But I realized that you may not know and I had the same feeling about the the county.	00:03:22
	And their Commission, they may not know what they don't know.	00:03:29
	And so my intention is to just raise awareness, give you some basic background.	00:03:33
	I identify or share what I've identified.	00:03:37
	And areas where we can improve.	00:03:42
	And make a significant improvement in saving lives and property.	00:03:44
	Within the city and county.	00:03:49
	So we can go to the next slide, you know.	00:03:53
	We could actually go 2 slides from here. I'll just jump the overview because I got into detail.	00:03:56
	OK, so this information.	00:04:02
	Is my opinion.	00:04:05
	It does not reflect the organization I work for, which is NRA Home.	00:04:07
	The National Radio Astronomy Observatory.	00:04:11
	It does not represent.	00:04:15
	The county's local emergency planning committee, which I'm the chair.	00:04:18
	So this is just my opinion and my thoughts and.	00:04:22
	I'll let that stand as as it is next.	00:04:26
	Oh, did we miss the page about me?	00:04:31
	Can we back up to?	00:04:35
	There we go.	00:04:36
	So you don't need to know all of my background. What I think is important for you to know.	00:04:37
	Is not only in the eye the Fire Chief of the VLA.	00:04:41
	And the emergency services manager for NRA? Oh, I am the chair of the county's local emergency planning committee.	00:04:44
	I'm also organizing an active shooter.	00:04:52
	Field exercise and tabletop drill over the next year and a half with the state's DHS EM.	00:04:54
	Active member of the Socorro County Fire Chiefs Association.	00:05:00
	And recently appointed to the New Mexico region to EMS Advisory Board.	00:05:04
	OK, we can go to forward there, Lena.	00:05:09
	So EMS is a structured program.	00:05:14
	And this is consistent around the country.	00:05:17
	It starts with four tiers of emergency medical responders.	00:05:20
	With first responders being the lowest level.	00:05:23
	Going up from there, our EMT basics.	00:05:27
	The next step up is EMT intermediates.	00:05:30
	And finally, we have paramedics, which is also known as ALS or Advanced Life support.	00:05:34
	We do not have any paramedics in the entire county.	00:05:39
	Of Socorro.	00:05:43
	Except Alamo has a paramedic program.	00:05:45
	That's it.	00:05:48
	Now paramedics can do almost doctor level activities in the field.	00:05:50
	They can.	00:05:56
	Do cardiac monitoring.	00:05:57
	They can intubate, they can do cricothyronies, which means giving somebody an airway who's lost an airway.	00:05:59
	They can administer life saving drugs.	00:06:05
	They have a very, very high level of training.	00:06:08
	And they are also able to stabilize multi system traumas.	00:06:11
	Thanks Selena.	00:06:16
	Now, while paramedics would be great to have here in the city.	00:06:18
	The reality is, is everybody within the cities within 5 minutes of the ER.	00:06:22
	So I'd still recommend it, but I can understand.	00:06:28
	That that might not be your highest priority.	00:06:33
	Given your incredible high structure fire call volume here.	00:06:37
	Having more firefighters might be more important, however, with that said.	00:06:42
	Paramedics and that level of care are essential.	00:06:48
	To people in the rural part of this county. So this presentation was delivered.	00:06:51
	To the county Commission.	00:06:57
	With a focus on what the county can, maybe should.	00:06:58
	And could be doing.	00:07:02
	All right. And I shared this information with the Mayor and he asked me to share with you. So there are some things that are city	00:07:05
	centric.	00:07:08
	But primarily.	00:07:11
	I'm talking about the rural parts of Socorro County.	00:07:13
	And the bottom line is people are.	00:07:15
	Our constituents are dying without this level of care.	00:07:18
	I don't know how many.	00:07:22
	I think we could study that and come up with a definitive answer. I think that.	00:07:25
	We could.	00:07:31
	Ascertain the financial damages of every life lost.	00:07:32
	But I guarantee you that people are dying who would normally live.	00:07:37
	If they had access to this service, there's no question about it.	00:07:41
	No, obviously as a minor G.	00:07:49
	One of the first things I did when I got here is the cheap baca.	00:07:53
	And that was within maybe my first or second month.	00:07:58
	Chewbacca.	00:08:03
	Shared some information with me with that had my mouth again.	00:08:04
	And one of the things he shared?	00:08:08
	Is that he just lost one of his frontline firefighters.	00:08:10
	For Walmart.	00:08:15
	That is staggering to me.	00:08:18
	In King County, Washington, where I used to work.	00:08:21
	These are the most coveted jobs. People work three to five years.	00:08:24
	Volunteering. Working for a private ambulance.	00:08:29
	To be competitive enough.	00:08:32
	To get these jobs.	00:08:34
	And once they get them, they keep them.	00:08:36
	They worked very hard there and the intention is to have a very high bar.	00:08:39
	Of quality of employee.	00:08:45
	Because it takes a while.	00:08:48
	To learn this job and to be good at it.	00:08:50
	So I walked in the door as a frontline firefighter. ENT.	00:08:54
	25 years ago making $78,000 a year.	00:08:59
	I made 150 when I left.	00:09:02
	Now obviously that's not comparable.	00:09:04
	To our community here, however.	00:09:06
	The training that went into that young man.	00:09:10
	To get his EMT to get his fire one and fire 2 and then for him to leave that.	00:09:14
	Because Walmart had better benefits.	00:09:19
	That scares me.	00:09:22
	Because honestly, look at ourselves.	00:09:23
	This is your wife, your husband, your kids, your parents.	00:09:26
	They need this life saving care.	00:09:30
	You want somebody?	00:09:32
	It was fresh out of the gate. Or do you want somebody who has some time in?	00:09:35
	You want somebody who's committed to this work and held accountable to the highest standards.	00:09:39
	And Cheapock has got a great crew. He holds his crew accountable.	00:09:44
	So I'm, I, I love his crew. I love his people.	00:09:48
	But if they're making a decision to work at Walmart?	00:09:53
	Versus this job?	00:09:57
	They are desperately underpaid.	00:09:59
	And undervalued.	00:10:02
	So I think that's pretty much the only thing I'm going to say about.	00:10:04
	The city and the their fire department.	00:10:07
	What's that I said? Well, that sounds like enough to say about it.	00:10:11
	All right, well, there you go. I think he missed the other 3.	00:10:18
	Which is a high call volume.	00:10:21
	Which has the largest sponsored area?	00:10:23
	A high turnover rate? Absolutely, I think perhaps.	00:10:26
	You spent a little more time on Walmart than you did the last three. That's true because.	00:10:29
	Then that's the region.	00:10:34
	Why the city is asking the county to help out and catalog for that will also get benefits because.	00:10:37
	We've been having to scribble on.	00:10:44
	Serving the whole region is not even just the county. We go to Katherine County you deserve.	00:10:47
	Desktops and.	00:10:53
	Our budget is strained because we're serving more than just the city. That's true and that's reflects and we'll try to increase	00:10:56
	the payment, right And we'll and we get into another piece of that in a little bit.	00:11:02
	Which is the inner facility transfers.	00:11:08
	So Chewbacca's crew.	00:11:11
	Firefighters, EMT's are running stable patients from Sapporo General Hospital to Albuquerque.	00:11:14
	That takes them out of service for almost 4 hours.	00:11:21
	And sometimes there will be two cars gone at a time.	00:11:24
	That wipes out half of the available crew.	00:11:27
	So we'll get into that in a minute. But yeah, the large response area, the high call volume will also get into in some detail	00:11:30
	shortly.	00:11:34
	But you need more firefighters.	00:11:39
	You need them to be committed to staying.	00:11:42
	And you need them to stay around long enough to be really good at their jobs.	00:11:45
	Now when I was hired.	00:11:52
	I was at 36.	00:11:54
	I've been running a nonprofit organizations for 15 years as the executive director.	00:11:56
	So I had a high skill set.	00:12:01
	It took me 3 years of running every call for me to feel like I was finally competent and have learned enough.	00:12:04
	So that's just for some context there.	00:12:12
	In general, we can go to the next slide.	00:12:15
	Recruitment and retention are challenges in the fire service.	00:12:19
	Because a lot of our country rely on volunteers.	00:12:24
	And my personal beef.	00:12:28
	Why are we OK with that?	00:12:31
	We don't have volunteer police.	00:12:34
	We're not going to give somebody a badge and a gun.	00:12:36
	As a volunteer.	00:12:39
	They have to be held accountable.	00:12:41
	Why are we OK with putting?	00:12:43
	That our loved ones health, safety and lives.	00:12:45
	In the hands of people who need more training.	00:12:50
	Your fire Academy here is a great facility.	00:12:54
	Their fire Academy is 2 weeks online and two weeks in the field.	00:12:57
	That is totally inadequate. That is going to get people killed.	00:13:03
	My fire Academy was six months, 380 hours.	00:13:06
	And if they were hired and had to go through that Academy, it was paid time.	00:13:11
	So the bar is very different here.	00:13:17
	The reason that's two weeks is they say they can't give volunteers to commit to more time than that.	00:13:19
	They don't have the paid time off.	00:13:24
	So that's just the reality if we're going to rely on volunteers.	00:13:27
	Volunteers are great. My department was a combination department.	00:13:31
	Some people want to help and have other jobs.	00:13:34
	But if you're.	00:13:38
	If your department is all volunteer.	00:13:40
	There's no guarantee.	00:13:43
	Who is going to show up on that call?	00:13:45
	There's no guarantee.	00:13:49
	Oh, it's my birthday. Oh, I had a beer.	00:13:51
	All right, we're going to my daughter's dance club. You have to make choices.	00:13:54
	They're paid, they're on and they are.	00:13:59
	They have a duty to respond.	00:14:01
	So there's a very different dynamic between volunteers.	00:14:03
	And and paid.	00:14:06
	And paid responders.	00:14:09
	So the other thing about our job?	00:14:11
	Is at very high stress.	00:14:15
	I worked for 20 years frontline before I retired.	00:14:18
	I'm still trying to catch up on sleep.	00:14:23
	I have many physical injuries. I have 3 back injuries. I blew a bicep tendon.	00:14:27
	And I have a severe PTSD from my job. The reason I finally retired is I had my 14th dead kid.	00:14:33
	That was a small community. I knew most of those kids.	00:14:40
	And when 12 of the 14.	00:14:43
	And this one.	00:14:46
	Broke me, it couldn't go back.	00:14:48
	And that happens to all of us.	00:14:51
	We have a higher rate of depression, both EMT's, law enforcement and firefighters, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide.	00:14:55
	And like I said earlier, it takes a long time.	00:15:03
	To be good at this job.	00:15:06
	So moving on.	00:15:11
	With regard to volunteer departments.	00:15:13
	Recruitment and retention is very challenging.	00:15:16
	So it's not just in our career departments.	00:15:20
	There's even the training that they get now.	00:15:23
	As I mentioned, I feel is inadequate.	00:15:27
	It's still significant, it's still a huge time commitment our volunteer departments are making.	00:15:29
	To protect their neighbors.	00:15:35
	They're paid $15 a call.	00:15:38
	Even if it's a 2 hour fire.	00:15:41
	Of $15.	00:15:43
	And it's been really challenging for us to engage young people.	00:15:47
	And being interested in this work.	00:15:51
	So Magdalena Fire Department.	00:15:55
	You have the mayor who's running the aid car.	00:15:58
	And the one EMT is in his mid 70s.	00:16:01
	And that's it.	00:16:05
	When I met with the Battle fire department after I moved here.	00:16:06
	There was the Fire Chief who was in his 30s.	00:16:10
	Everybody else was 60 or older.	00:16:14
	So we have to find a way to engage our young people.	00:16:19
	And one of that is to make this a desirable job.	00:16:23
	That's compensation.	00:16:26
	So the county does step up to help out with Socorro Fire Department, In fact, Midway.	00:16:29
	Has sent almost all of its responders.	00:16:35
	To EMT class. I happen to be that instructor. I'm an instructor for the University of New Mexico.	00:16:39
	I am just finishing up my 5th.	00:16:44
	EMT basic class in two weeks.	00:16:47
	So I've turned out 70 EMT's and Catherine and Coral County.	00:16:50
	In the last three years.	00:16:55
	Wait, wait, are you, are you saying they're right on our ambulances to help us?	00:16:59
	We do not have that agreement yet.	00:17:04
	They they're certified and they've taken the class.	00:17:07
	But that's we're talking about the city.	00:17:10
	Right. And I've also trained some of your city fire.	00:17:12
	Who are running on your aid cars?	00:17:16
	But the county doesn't.	00:17:19
	Staff, our city, the county is not able to do emergency medicine.	00:17:20
	At this point because they do not have a Department of Health agency license.	00:17:26
	I do believe that that is going to change in the very near future.	00:17:31
	I'll get into that in a minute.	00:17:35
	So Midway fire is Socorro fire is basically back up.	00:17:37
	They have a mutual aid agreement.	00:17:42
	They show up on fires, they roll on motor vehicle accidents.	00:17:45
	And their group of volunteers, but they're very devoted.	00:17:51
	And I think the other volunteer departments are.	00:17:54
	Can be as well.	00:17:57
	But this is this is what you guys have got to work with right now.	00:17:59
	So in order to get licensed by the state, each EMS agency needs a medical director.	00:18:03
	Which is an ER doctor and a consulting pharmacist.	00:18:08
	To go over what drugs we carry, even at the BLS level.	00:18:13
	We're carrying albuterol, Epipens, Narcan.	00:18:17
	Aspirin. So nothing really scary, no narcotics.	00:18:22
	But we still have to be inspected quarterly by the state Department of Health.	00:18:27
	So next.	00:18:32
	So I did an analysis of three years 20/21/22 and 23.	00:18:36
	This data was given to me wrong by Chief Bacon.	00:18:42
	If you can see the left side, the left columns represent.	00:18:46
	Medical calls, EMS calls.	00:18:50
	2516 and 21.	00:18:53
	2590 and 22.	00:18:56
	And 2566 and 23, so pretty consistent.	00:18:58
	What is staggering is the number of fire calls which are represented in red.	00:19:03
	Almost 200 calls a year.	00:19:10
	Let's not mine this time.	00:19:14
	200 calls a year my department.	00:19:17
	Was a community of 10,000. It was on an island outside of Seattle, so very similar. We had long transport times. We had to take a	00:19:20
	boat.	00:19:24
	Transport our patients. There was only two firefighters and two fire.	00:19:28
	Medics on at a time.	00:19:31
	Than we had were supplemented by volunteers.	00:19:33
	We ran about.	00:19:36
	Wanting house fires a year?	00:19:37
	These guys here in your community.	00:19:42
	Are running over 100. Not all 200 of these are.	00:19:44
	House fires. Restructure fires, as we call them.	00:19:48
	There's some wildfires in there. There's some you know.	00:19:51
	Garbage, campfires, whatever.	00:19:55
	The amount of structure fires your guys are fighting is extraordinary.	00:19:57
	See how many of you have done this year.	00:20:03
	What was that structure fires? How many this year?	00:20:05
	Which year? Yeah.	00:20:08
	Over 30, right?	00:20:10
	Yeah. So last year when I gave this this presentation to the county Commission.	00:20:12
	They were at 60 in May.	00:20:18
	60 structure fires.	00:20:22
	These are dangerous and they're long and they take a lot of personnel.	00:20:24
	So I'm just I'm blown away by how many structure fires.	00:20:28
	Your crews here have to fight.	00:20:33
	So moving on to the next one.	00:20:35
	I also did an analysis of the data that Chief **** gave me.	00:20:38
	Which is how many calls this Coral Fire Department responds to within the city.	00:20:43
	And within the county?	00:20:48
	So if you look at 2021, it was 28%.	00:20:50
	Were in the county the next slide.	00:20:54
	36% in 2022.	00:20:58
	And 30% in 2023.	00:21:02
	I have not reworked 2024's numbers.	00:21:05
	And I'm not sure I'm going to.	00:21:08
	It's not necessarily not just kind of help.	00:21:10
	So if you go to the next slide.	00:21:14
	And you look at the city's fire department budget.	00:21:16
	So just about $2,000,000.	00:21:20
	So what? I informed the county Commission.	00:21:23
	Is they're getting $650,000 worth of service?	00:21:26
	And contributing $40,000.	00:21:31
	Worth of cash.	00:21:34
	And I think that that's a disparity that I'm sure you're all sensitive to as City Council people.	00:21:36
	And the county commissioners were actually.	00:21:44
	Very sensitive to it as well.	00:21:48
	Not very sensitive.	00:21:50
	It was a year ago.	00:21:52
	Let me just say that they were receptive to this presentation.	00:21:55
	So I'm glad to hear that.	00:21:59
	So my recommendation, oh, here you go. If you go to the next slide, Chief Baka and his team.	00:22:01
	Hey, just go there for a picture.	00:22:11
	That's printed without his permission, by the way.	00:22:14
	OK, so as I mentioned, the interfacility transports are a major time set for Socorro fire.	00:22:18
	I have talked to Adrian Morris of Sephora General Hospital.	00:22:27
	About how inappropriate it is in my mind to take frontline fire and EMS crews out of service.	00:22:30
	To transport stable patients.	00:22:37
	And Socorro General Hospital agrees.	00:22:40
	Socorro General Hospital is putting together a critical care unit so they can take over those transports.	00:22:42
	And they are the ones who've been funding these five EMT courses that I've been teaching for the University of New Mexico.	00:22:49
	They have a donor who's totally on board.	00:22:56
	Each EMT class cost between 18 and $22,000. We do 2A year.	00:22:58
	And like I said, I've trained 70 people to be EMT basics.	00:23:04
	And part of that is an investment vice pro General Hospital to be able to free up.	00:23:08
	Chief Bacchus people to not be doing these stable transports.	00:23:14
	So I commend Socorro General Hospital and their.	00:23:18
	And they're working on this and they're, they're working with the state.	00:23:23
	Department of Health and the state Legislature to fund.	00:23:27
	Their acquisition of apparatus and to put together the program.	00:23:31
	Yes, Sir, question.	00:23:36
	When did Socorro General Hospital give you this information?	00:23:38
	About two years ago they told me they were working on this.	00:23:44
	Well, I'm on the Finance Committee.	00:23:47
	And we fought like tech to get.	00:23:50
	A transfer ambulance.	00:23:54
	The state will not allow the coral to transport certain drip systems as you know.	00:23:57
	The head shed in Albuquerque would not.	00:24:06
	Come up with the money.	00:24:10
	To bring on war or end nurses that have that certification and bring its own unit down.	00:24:11
	And that was.	00:24:21
	Six months ago.	00:24:24
	So, well, there are definitely some political issues to be overcome.	00:24:26
	I just know that the hospital is working avidly.	00:24:29
	To bring this to fruition.	00:24:33
	And part of their funding, the training program for EMT's is in that context. So thank you for your input, Sir. I appreciate the	00:24:34
	work that you did.	00:24:39
	So in terms of the next slide?	00:24:44
	Squirrel fires funding issues.	00:24:49
	I'm not an expert on your budget.	00:24:51
	How you do things.	00:24:54
	But I do know that.	00:24:55
	Revenues that are generated from those transports are billed to insurance and go into the general fund. They don't go to the fire	00:24:58
	department.	00:25:02
	In our we did bill for transports.	00:25:06
	But all of that came back to the fire department's bottom line to help with our staffing costs. So that's something that you might	00:25:09
	consider.	00:25:12
	I also think that, you know, as the mayor mentioned.	00:25:15
	The fire department is running into Catching County. At least now that might change.	00:25:19
	But I think there's the opportunity to engage Katherine County.	00:25:24
	In fees for service when your people show up.	00:25:28
	That their county also kicks in.	00:25:31
	To cover those expenses. I don't think that that's unreasonable at all.	00:25:34
	I'm I'm the kind of guy.	00:25:38
	Call me crazy.	00:25:41
	I believe in government and I believe in paying my taxes. I believe people like roads, public safety, education.	00:25:43
	Safety Nets.	00:25:49
	And I think the people of Katherine County would agree that with the lack of EMS service, if they're going to be getting it from	00:25:52
	you guys.	00:25:56
	That they should be able to pay for it and shouldn't be.	00:26:00
	Surprised when asked to do so.	00:26:04
	Listen, there's two parts to that, though.	00:26:06
	One is free for service.	00:26:08
	One is.	00:26:11
	The ability to have that service which is we call standby.	00:26:12
	We do in those water stores.	00:26:17
	Its base rate for.	00:26:19
	Having the privilege of having that service available.	00:26:21
	And so.	00:26:25
	You know, with your presentation what I'm saying is.	00:26:27
	We've approached the county for several years.	00:26:31
	And we got $40,000 out of them.	00:26:34
	That the services and you.	00:26:37
	Pointed it out very clearly.	00:26:39
	25 to 30% of the service.	00:26:42
	Is out of the city limits.	00:26:45
	We're giving that.	00:26:49
	Because we're good guys.	00:26:50
	Just like we are with a Senior Center.	00:26:53
	Or that guys. But at this point, the budget is under so much stress.	00:26:55
	That we've asked them to staff 3 positions.	00:27:00
	Without any strings attached.	00:27:04
	To put into their recurring budget.	00:27:06
	To cover that 30% which not only just includes the service.	00:27:08
	But instead of them setting up a certified ambulance service for the county, which would cost at least a million or two.	00:27:14
	We would be the base for that, but we're asking for three staff people.	00:27:24
	And the.	00:27:28
	Response we got from them lately for Mr. Lot Rich, the county manager, was.	00:27:30
	That number one, it would not be.	00:27:35
	Constant that might sunset.	00:27:38
	#2 They wanted us to go to the jail to take care of their prisoners.	00:27:40
	#3.	00:27:44
	They were talking about two staff people instead of three. So that's the that's the. If I'm wrong, Donald, let me know.	00:27:46
	But.	00:27:53
	That's the that's the response we got, which is inadequate.	00:27:54
	Sure. And you know with with that, said Mr. Mayor.	00:27:58
	When I gave this presentation to the county manager.	00:28:01
	His response was we'll have to wait until the new fire Marshall is hired.	00:28:05
	I am pleased to say that.	00:28:09
	The new Fire Marshall emergency manager is hired as of two weeks ago.	00:28:12
	He happens to be here Mr. Fred Berger.	00:28:17
	He and I have.	00:28:20
	Talked about this information.	00:28:22
	And seemed to be of a very similar mind. So as he gets his feet under him, I'm sure that you'll be hearing from him.	00:28:24
	And I think that that response might in the future change.	00:28:32
	Right, we can't wait.	00:28:36
	As I said, we've already gone.	00:28:38
	To a department transportation now runs the ambulance, right? Well, I'm not I'm not in a position to do anything but to share	00:28:40
	information. So going to the next slide.	00:28:46
	So we do have some dispatch issues that I think are not difficult to fix, but absolutely need to be fixed.	00:28:52
	There is not currently a contract between the county and the city's dispatch.	00:28:58
	As a result, there is no regular or formal communication.	00:29:03
	In terms of addressing dispatch criteria.	00:29:08
	Dispatch does not know that I've trained these EMT's.	00:29:11
	So they might get a car wreck.	00:29:16
	I'll give you an example. One of my firefighters who's now paralyzed because he was ejected from a rollover accident in San	00:29:19
	Antonio.	00:29:22
	I had two EMTs in San Antonio less than 1/4 mile away who were not dispatched to.	00:29:26
	Can transport, but could have provided initial treatment.	00:29:33
	For this young man who's now 19 years old, has a brand new baby and is paralyzed from the waist down.	00:29:38
	So. But there's no way for us to talk about.	00:29:44
	Changes in staffing.	00:29:47
	And what are dispatch criteria should be?	00:29:50
	So my recommendation?	00:29:53
	To the county has been that they engage.	00:29:55
	The city and a formal contractual agreement with regard to dispatch. So background on that, the city.	00:29:58
	Approached the county five to seven years ago and they decided again that they would not pay for our dispatch to have an extra	00:30:05
	dispatcher.	00:30:10
	To cover the extra work there might be.	00:30:14
	And they went to Las Cruces. So they're being dispatched out of Las Cruces.	00:30:16
	And not the city of Sakura. Again, it's a matter of budget and.	00:30:21
	You know.	00:30:26
	Be strained under county workload to the city. But I'm just giving you an answer for what what happened and I think I think that	00:30:28
	you know it's helpful to.	00:30:34
	Know that history, but I also think that it's more helpful to look forward.	00:30:40
	Well, it is if you're if it's not your checkbook.	00:30:44
	Well, we're doing this together and I see Mr. Burger out there. I didn't, I didn't say hi to him. Mr. Burgers out there.	00:30:47
	In terms of other issues with dispatch.	00:30:55
	Like I said, there's no legal agreements, there's no formal agreement, there's no ongoing dialogue.	00:30:58
	And they have little or no medical training.	00:31:03
	So in the dispatch system that I come from.	00:31:06
	The dispatchers have a very high level of medical training.	00:31:09
	So when they're asking questions, they're asking the right questions.	00:31:12
	And they know who to dispatch, whether it's going to be an EMT, basic or a paramedic.	00:31:16
	Based on the answers they received to those questions. So I think there's some opportunity for growth there.	00:31:21
	So next slide.	00:31:28
	Again, as I as I prefaced, my intention is not to be critical, but to raise awareness.	00:31:30
	I had suggested.	00:31:37
	To the Commissioners, and this is what they were receptive to.	00:31:40
	Was commissioning a study between the City Council, the mayor's office?	00:31:44
	The manager's office and the county Commission.	00:31:49
	To look at these issues to develop some data.	00:31:52
	Make sure all the stakeholders are involved.	00:31:55
	And to put forward a plan.	00:31:57
	To make things better.	00:31:59
	We can make things better without.	00:32:02
	You know some of it's going to be financial, absolutely, but there are other things like talking to dispatch and having a formal	00:32:05
	monthly meeting.	00:32:08
	Would make things better, so not all of it's going to cost money.	00:32:13
	And they were very receptive to the idea. In fact, it was unanimous.	00:32:16
	That they support a study.	00:32:20
	I'm going to go a little beyond that right now.	00:32:25
	If I had.	00:32:29
	All the money in the world.	00:32:31
	And I had the ability.	00:32:33
	To make these changes.	00:32:35
	What I would recommend is that the county.	00:32:38
	In a very similar model to my model. So in Washington state, and I'm not saying you need to be like Washington, I'm just going to	00:32:41
	share.	00:32:45
	The information.	00:32:49
	The cities, the municipalities are responsible for fire and BLS which is EMT basics.	00:32:51
	The county.	00:32:57
	Took it upon themselves to take on paramedics.	00:32:59
	And they fund that throughout the county with a levy.	00:33:03
	So I'm not suggesting that there are $650,000 necessarily come to you.	00:33:07
	There's $650,000 a year it could be invested in.	00:33:13
	Term medicine outside of the county.	00:33:18
	Which would relieve a burden on the city. So if I had that magic wand, I would have a paramedic firefighter unit.	00:33:20
	Staff for north county, probably near Abathis.	00:33:27
	That would be 24/7 365.	00:33:31
	They could respond to ALS calls and if they have a fire call, one paramedic can take the engine, the other paramedic.	00:33:34
	Could take the aid car.	00:33:41
	Then the volunteers can respond right to the scene instead of to the.	00:33:42
	To the station.	00:33:48
	And then?	00:33:49
	I would also put another one in West County.	00:33:51
	Probably somewhere between Magdalena and the VLA.	00:33:54
	If there was going to be an opportunity to serve Katherine County, then that would they would be asked to pitch into.	00:33:58
	That would be my vision.	00:34:04
	So for whatever that's worth.	00:34:06
	And who is it that you're saying is going to get the 650,000?	00:34:10
	To fund it, well, what I'm saying, what I'm saying is.	00:34:14
	What I'm you mentioned a #150 thousand.	00:34:19
	Are you recommending that to the city or the county? No, I'm saying that that is a model that the county, if they wanted to pay	00:34:23
	their fair share, right, that is something that they could do. So you know, I I know that Chief Burger here.	00:34:31
	He's going to have his own vision.	00:34:39
	That is just what I've come up with in three years.	00:34:42
	And I don't even work here. That's just what that's one.	00:34:45
	Solution that I could see.	00:34:49
	There are going to be other solutions and I'm going to defer to him.	00:34:52
	I will say that I'm very optimistic.	00:34:55
	About the meetings I've had.	00:34:58
	With Mr. Berger and.	00:35:00
	His commitment to saving lives and property.	00:35:02
	In this county and in this city.	00:35:06
	So I'm going to support him and his vision.	00:35:09
	Any way that I can, but my intent here was just raise some awareness with you.	00:35:12
	Let you know that I have shared this information with the County Commission.	00:35:16
	And I think that if we work together, which.	00:35:20
	I've been warned, you guys don't necessarily work together that well.	00:35:24
	If we can work together, I'm not sure about the comment. OK, well, that's just I'm just you've been warned.	00:35:28
	You know, warned that we're giving all the services, they're not getting compensated from them and so you, I'm sorry.	00:35:35
	Sir, I'm just, I'm just been told.	00:35:43
	When I've been talking to people about this, that.	00:35:46
	Communication between the city and the county is not always.	00:35:49
	I'm healthy.	00:35:53
	Let me say it that way. Well, I don't know who's telling you that, but we've had lots of Mr. Latrich has met with us.	00:35:54
	When you throw out that kind of a comment, this hearsay, but if you specify as to how it is that we have not communicated.	00:36:05
	That would be more specific.	00:36:13
	And and and communication to me is.	00:36:14
	Asking a county to participate in the care of their medical needs, I agree, just as.	00:36:18
	They asked us to commit to participate in the needs of the senior citizens when it comes to and we're also serving the Gita.	00:36:24
	Right, but.	00:36:32
	The thing is and and their cash reserves are like $22 million.	00:36:33
	Cities, I'm telling you that you haven't heard that. I'm saying it out front. It's not a hearsay.	00:36:38
	Their their money from their investment is about 1,000,002.	00:36:45
	A year.	00:36:49
	The county has the money.	00:36:51
	The communication has been very direct and I believe in being direct.	00:36:53
	And it has to do.	00:36:58
	With what you just presented, which is unbelievably important and helpful.	00:37:00
	Thank you, It's very important.	00:37:05
	But as you said, the communication that you had with them a year ago.	00:37:07
	Hasn't produced any kind of.	00:37:11
	Offer to us as to.	00:37:14
	Handling the problem.	00:37:16
	Well, I think that part of that is now is leadership changes.	00:37:18
	OK. And I think that leadership is in place.	00:37:22
	And.	00:37:26
	What I what I was told by many people when I started vetting this as a draft.	00:37:27
	Is that the city and the county quote don't play well together.	00:37:32
	Now I don't know.	00:37:36
	How you guys actually county and Tacoma, Seattle?	00:37:37
	I know, I know, Sir. I'm not asking you to be. I'm just telling you.	00:37:41
	That if you and the county can work together.	00:37:45
	On this issue I am confident.	00:37:49
	Their lives will be saved and that well as you throw that part out but.	00:37:51
	The working together means.	00:37:55
	Taking your share of the responsibility of funding projects.	00:37:58
	The city has been good enough to continue doing this through the county and.	00:38:03
	Basically, we're the doormat because they don't.	00:38:08
	They don't think we're going to pull back.	00:38:11
	But at this point, we're have to pull back because.	00:38:13
	If we have people going to Walmart.	00:38:16
	Because they can't. The salaries at the fire department aren't sufficient.	00:38:19
	We've got to increase their salaries by decreasing.	00:38:23
	Our load as far as covering the whole county is concerned.	00:38:26
	Ambulance right now is costing $300,000.	00:38:31
	They're paying $40,000 of that.	00:38:36
	They actually should be paying 2530% of them.	00:38:38
	Fair enough. And so those are the things that are obvious that I've communicated if you look through the minutes here.	00:38:41
	I've communicated that.	00:38:47
	Trying to communicate with the previous manager, Mr. Hawks.	00:38:49
	I've worked with Mr. Lotrich, have worked with Ray Martinez.	00:38:53
	I guess who's the new chairman is Mr. Secretary.	00:38:57
	As a new chairman of the Commission, you know.	00:39:01
	I think so. So we have communicated and I'm not sure.	00:39:04
	Where the Well, that was before, that's when Mr. Hawks was still here. When I for this, I started this work three years ago. The	00:39:08
	only reason I bring that forward and I don't know if it's true or not.	00:39:14
	And I don't know if it's relevant or not.	00:39:20
	But everybody has history, and not all of its good.	00:39:22
	If we're going to fix this, we need to move forward together.	00:39:25
	That is the message I'm trying to do. There's a good message. A good message.	00:39:29
	And thank you again for the tremendous work you've done in putting this together.	00:39:33
	And some of the things that you.	00:39:37
	Recommended. I think those are this very positive. Well, thank you, Sir, and thank you, commissioners. I'm over my time, but I'll	00:39:39
	entertain any counselors, not commissioners. Oh, excuse me, yes.	00:39:43
	Jason, thank you for the report, but.	00:39:50
	Do you know how many paramedics are in Socorro County?	00:39:52
	Zero. No there isn't. There is one sitting right behind you.	00:39:57
	Oh yes, are you? He cut his teeth at Sakura party.	00:40:01
	And then joined Bernalillo County and worked at their most active station.	00:40:07
	At Rio Bravo and tourist, right, But he's been working in a different county and he's his licenses are expired.	00:40:14
	Mr. Vata, did you have Chief?	00:40:22
	No, no, I'm finished. I'll entertain the first question.	00:40:25
	Appreciate. OK. Thank you all.	00:40:28
	All right.	00:40:31
	Thank you, Sir.	00:40:34
	Mayor, Council, I just wanted to clarify a couple of things. When he came with those three years ago, we were having issues	00:40:35
	keeping people. We all know that.	00:40:39
	But the city's done a great job.	00:40:43
	Raising our pay to make it competitive.	00:40:45
	Where we're at right now, we're very competitive, so thank the city for that.	00:40:47
	When we talk about the 30% of our calls, 35% of our calls are out in the county.	00:40:51
	That's just EMS. That's not fire at all. That's EMS.	00:40:56
	The bottom line is.	00:41:00
	What I'm concerned about, what the mayor's concerned about.	00:41:01
	Is we don't have enough staffing.	00:41:04
	To staff the department covering the area that we cover.	00:41:07
	Not only doing this counting but in a facility transfers.	00:41:10
	There's time, there's times that we.	00:41:13
	We have two ambulances at the same time and ambulance in Albuquerque. We have nobody in the city limits to man.	00:41:15
	The city.	00:41:22
	In case of a, you know.	00:41:24
	Somebody gets sick, fire, whatever. We have nobody to man. And that's what we're trying to avoid and that's why the mayor is	00:41:26
	trying to ask the county to help us out with hiring more people.	00:41:30
	And it distilled. It distills down.	00:41:34
	To the city taken care of.	00:41:38
	Our mandate to take care of the city people.	00:41:41
	And we could have better communications. I'm glad Mr. Berger's here.	00:41:44
	And maybe we'll have a meeting with Mr. Latrice. I think the county even made a.	00:41:49
	Just recently may have talked about having us to dispatch.	00:41:54
	But those are things that come along but has been.	00:41:57
	And unfortunately, I've had a long history, Jason so.	00:42:01
	How about a long history here?	00:42:05
	And I have a perspective on the horizontal.	00:42:07
	Work.	00:42:10
	Between the county and the city.	00:42:11
	And it's always been the county has, whether it's the library.	00:42:13
	Or the fire, whether it's recreation, whether it's.	00:42:17
	Senior Center.	00:42:23
	That had been dumped on our budget.	00:42:25
	And it's time that we now start making some.	00:42:27
	Actual.	00:42:31
	Movement towards.	00:42:34
	Protecting the city.	00:42:36
	As far as the ambulance is concerned and a minimum of three staff.	00:42:37
	Is what we mean. And we've already made that presentation to them and that's a minimum that's not even going to fix the problem.	00:42:41
	We just had our ISO inspection we.	00:42:45
	We just learned a bunch of you know, we get, we have this 85 foot ladder truck that we pay.	00:42:50
	Almost $1,000,000 for that we don't get credit for.	00:42:54
	Because the minimum staffing for that truck to get credit for, you have to have at least six people on that truck for every fire.	00:42:57
	That's just for that truck itself. We don't even have that in our department.	00:43:03
	So Mr. Burgers said a long time ago to me, I think it was. Suppose it.	00:43:07
	When did you go 25 years ago? Get some paramedics.	00:43:11
	Fred always said that.	00:43:16
	But again, you know, I have to watch the budget and I have to staff every ambulance call with a paramedic.	00:43:18
	Otherwise the person who doesn't get a paramedic and dies.	00:43:23
	That's our responsibility. But.	00:43:26
	I think staffing around this county with paramedics is great idea. There's a great idea cost money though paramedics are not	00:43:29
	achieving.	00:43:32
	Fred knows that.	00:43:36
	Mr. Sir, we had a conversation about the village of Maguena.	00:43:38
	And supporting.	00:43:42
	Supporting our efforts in that way and there was some discussion about what they were going to provide or.	00:43:44
	They were. They're not a certified EMS.	00:43:49
	They got the benefit of a brand new ambulance when I was.	00:43:53
	Trying to get an ambulance.	00:43:56
	And at this time, they use it when they can.	00:43:58
	When they have a volunteer group but they're not a.	00:44:01
	24/7 as as Jason said.	00:44:04
	Dedicated to.	00:44:07
	Picking up the phone.	00:44:09
	So when we have volunteers.	00:44:10
	And.	00:44:12
	Bless.	00:44:14
	They're volunteers and sometimes they don't.	00:44:16
	You know they're not available for calls.	00:44:18
	Mr. Clark, Mr. Mayor, we also discussed.	00:44:21
	You had mentioned that you're going to start, and it sounds like it is. Just to clarify that you're starting the process to look	00:44:25
	at.	00:44:28
	Reducing the coverage area for our EMS staff and fire staff and that has you have started looking through we've already put in the	00:44:31
	application to.	00:44:36
	Disengaged from Katherine County.	00:44:40
	And now Department of Transportation.	00:44:43
	Is the one that is the umbrella, not the PRC anymore.	00:44:46
	So that's what we do.	00:44:49
	If that does happen, and it does, sounds like a process to disengage accounting.	00:44:50
	If they decide that they wanted to come to the table.	00:44:55
	Reengaging that county, if that's something we want to do, is that a lengthy process or I have to do something?	00:44:59
	In black and white, so they understand, they don't understand they're going to lose that coverage and I can't do it just.	00:45:06
	By.	00:45:12
	We're going to start that process and.	00:45:15
	They will not have coverage.	00:45:17
	At the rest stops when they have something happen on the Interstate.	00:45:19
	They will not have courage in.	00:45:23
	Outside the city.	00:45:26
	Now the Gita the the. It clearly shows that we need some support from.	00:45:27
	Jason presented a year ago.	00:45:34
	We definitely need some help.	00:45:38
	Sounds like Chief Buck, I need some help to.	00:45:39
	That's, that's my, that's our biggest concern.	00:45:41
	Hey, the phase where we wanted to be no competitive but.	00:45:45
	We don't have enough staffing, sure, you know, to leave the city on man like that. So they have the equipment, they have equipment	00:45:48
	and we got too many ambulances coming in July or August.	00:45:52
	You know, that's a lot of help from the governor. That's another speech.	00:45:57
	And that's the other cost to that the county is not.	00:46:01
	Covering, you know, it's not just staffing, it's the.	00:46:04
	All the wear and tear that we go to Begita, you know, 4-5, six times a day and all that stuff, you know, and I think Mr. Everett	00:46:07
	didn't talk about this, but I know he's very.	00:46:11
	Involved with that, is that the amount of money that the EMS gives you compared to the fire fund?	00:46:15
	Are not equal.	00:46:20
	And some of these areas are not being able to buy ambulances, although it went from 25,000 to 100,000.	00:46:21
	For us to put in 25,000,000 at the last legislature, and I testified for that.	00:46:27
	But the amount of money that the.	00:46:32
	That the fire fund.	00:46:35
	Were equipment for fire compared to what they did for ambulances?	00:46:37
	Way Askew.	00:46:41
	Yes, last question for me, Miss Murray, you also said that there was issues with like reimbursements.	00:46:56
	From some of these areas, does that still seem to be a problem? Medicare. Medicaid.	00:47:01
	Then you go to Vegeta and there's 80% refusals, they'll call you. But then when you go there to, well, I'm not coming, I'm not	00:47:06
	going in the ambulance. So we called, well, we had to go.	00:47:11
	See the lies The lie is the as a as a licensed, certified ambulance service, we have to be able.	00:47:16
	Available to respond to 911 calls.	00:47:23
	And we do, and we can do and we do, but that's what we're trying to avoid.	00:47:25
	And you know, two or three ambulances out of town at the same time, we have nobody in town understood so.	00:47:30
	Thank you and I'm sorry for everybody for taking all this time, but.	00:47:36
	As Mr. Edwards, it's a very important issue and.	00:47:40
	Lives are lost.	00:47:43
	Lives are lost and if we don't talk about it.	00:47:45
	We're not. We need to come to an answer for this.	00:47:48
	For the city and the county.	00:47:51
	Maybe.	00:48:13
	Thank you for your comments.	00:48:16
	I think certainly appreciated.	00:48:17
	Thank you.	00:48:20
	Thank you. Have a safe trip, Mr. Mayor. OK, Mr. Monett, before we move on to the next public forum item, can we hear from the	00:48:21
	Warrior golf team so they can go? Warrior golf team, OK.	00:48:27
	I see. They brought, did you bring guys here? They brought gifts or something like that? Carlos, come on.	00:48:34
	Mayor, Council, we just wanted to.	00:48:42
	Thank you guys and we really appreciate the support you give us as we start our season.	00:48:46
	And they're here to just present you guys with some of our sponsor shirts.	00:48:51
	That do have our shield on there, but they also have the city of Sapporo on the sleeve. Commending your support. How'd you guys	00:48:55
	do?	00:48:59
	We're just starting our season, but the outlook is good and we hopefully bring home 2 state championships this year. What about	00:49:03
	last year?	00:49:06
	2nd place both teams.	00:49:10
	So yeah, you want to introduce that.	00:49:12
	Wait, wait, wait. Don't want to introduce everybody first.	00:49:15
	We'll get we'll get a picture out here. OK. We do have our senior, Andrew Henrich.	00:49:19
	Umm, Junior Natasha up a doctor in.	00:49:26
	A freshman, Abigail Munguia.	00:49:29
	And then?	00:49:34
	Of course, Kristen.	00:49:34
	With his dog Coach.	00:49:37
	OK, come, come with my. Let's get.	00:49:42
	Everybody.	00:49:45
	Thank you guys.	00:49:49
	Congratulations.	00:49:59
	You're welcome. We'll let you know how we do this.	00:50:02
	For sure come back.	00:50:04
	Good luck, guys. Thank you. Thank you.	00:50:06
	This weekend.	00:50:12
	Yeah.	00:50:12
	They turn them. Here we go.	00:50:16
	OK, we have score county extension.	00:50:21
	Thank you for being so patient.	00:50:23
	Good evening, mayor councillors.	00:50:28
	We appreciate the opportunity to present with you this evening.	00:50:30
	You were generous in giving us some financial support, so we felt we needed to come give you an update on our program. I'm Emily	00:50:34
	Bruton.	00:50:39
	This is Jamie Facet.	00:50:43
	Together we, we oversee the 4H program, which I'll get to in just a second. And the purpose of this is just like I said to give	00:50:45
	you a program at programmatic update of where we are, what we're doing and what we're planning going forward.	00:50:51
	So, um.	00:50:58
	You can go the first time. Thank you.	00:51:00
	If any of you are unfamiliar, a quick overview of who we are. We work for the New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension	00:51:02
	Service, so New Mexico State University is the land grant institution.	00:51:07
	Of the state of New Mexico and therefore have an extension arm and we fall within that.	00:51:13
	So they have an office in every county.	00:51:19
	Where's the Coral County, obviously.	00:51:21
	And we provide.	00:51:23
	The people of New Mexico with practical, research based knowledge and programs to improve their quality of life. That's our	00:51:25
	mission statement.	00:51:28
	So we do programming in many areas.	00:51:32
	This evening we came to talk to you about youth development. SO4H is our flagship program. I know many of you have heard of it.	00:51:34
	Many of you have.	00:51:41
	Have kiddos participating in it.	00:51:42
	But this is the extension youth development program that we oversee.	00:51:44
	Next slide, please.	00:51:49
	So really quickly.	00:51:51
	Kind of an overview of what 4H is. Mostly. We aim to provide opportunities to learn life skills.	00:51:54
	Being knowledge while having fun and and grow. Grow kids into productive adults. That's our main mission.	00:52:01
	You will see four agents, Soccer County and several places.	00:52:09
	We have community clubs that are ran by leaders. That's our traditional enrollment system that we work off of.	00:52:13
	But we are also in school enrichment programs within the schools and we work in after school and specialty programs. And so in the	00:52:20
	last year we have brought Jamie on so we have a full time second agent now. It used to just be myself.	00:52:26
	And she primarily focuses on these special interest groups in schools because we felt like there were many kids in within the city	00:52:33
	and the county who were not benefiting from.	00:52:37
	What 4H has to offer. So she's done a wonderful job in reaching more kiddos and we'll talk about that as we move forward.	00:52:42
	So what have we been doing?	00:52:51
	Quick overview of what we've been up to lately.	00:52:53
	On February 4th, we were able to take 12 youth from the county and the city.	00:52:55
	Umm, to for each day at the Roundhouse. So this is a really fun and cool opportunity where we take kids.	00:53:01
	And teach them about the legislative process within the state.	00:53:08
	So we go to the Rain house, they listen to different speakers.	00:53:11
	We were able to get kids on the floor in both the House and the Senate and visiting with those representatives from us. And so	00:53:15
	this is really just a.	00:53:18
	An opportunity for them to see that in person. Many kids don't don't get to get in the Roundhouse and see, you know, our	00:53:22
	legislative process in action.	00:53:26
	And it sparked interest in were able to answer questions and get that in front of them. So this is a citizenship building.	00:53:30
	Type opportunity for those kids that we just went on. We do this annually.	00:53:36
	And so.	00:53:42
	I think next slide.	00:53:43
	I'll let I'll turn this over to Jamie.	00:53:45
	Hey, umm, I'm going to talk a little bit about the outreach that we are doing now. This first one, kind of our flagship, just	00:53:48
	getting my feet wet, but aquaponics.	00:53:54
	This program I've brought to about 5-6 schools reach over about 200 youth.	00:54:02
	And it sounds pretty simple, but there's a lot of lessons that I'm able to teach and help tag on to science classes.	00:54:10
	Umm, plant needs a plant nitrogen cycle. I even have some lessons with career goals within agriculture, within nutrition and a lot	00:54:18
	of STEM stuff. A lot of agriculture based careers are.	00:54:25
	Our STEM, lots of STEM, lots of building, really interest middle school. Get some of those kids that aren't very excited about	00:54:32
	being there.	00:54:37
	Getting excited, I'll go to the next slide.	00:54:42
	And again, I'm just highlighting some of the programs that we've done this fall.	00:54:45
	This one leadership development, this as a next step program.	00:54:50
	Like it says 8 weeks we I went into the classroom for an hour every week.	00:54:56
	Really great skills built on they.	00:55:02
	Learning styles. They learn their learning styles they talk about, we talked about study skills, strengths and their personalities	00:55:08
	and how that that.	00:55:12
	Really ties to what they're going to be, how they're going to do in high school and beyond.	00:55:18
	And this one's really cool because we actually got a paid trip for these 20 students.	00:55:23
	To have a 2 day campus tour down at NMSU.	00:55:29
	So, and I'm hoping to expand this into Seracino next year. We're working on those relationships right now.	00:55:33
	Next slide.	00:55:42
	Is that the moon challenge? This one we did starting in the fall and engaged with the Mesa team at Saraceno. And then I also have	00:55:46
	a small group of great and non 4H members into the office every Tuesday.	00:55:55
	This one was a.	00:56:04
	Based challenge thing.	00:56:07
	Spent eight weeks growing crops. They had to design the entire experiments.	00:56:10
	We had chili growing and wheat growing in 80% lunar soil.	00:56:18
	And it was very successful. That's not.	00:56:24
	The kids enjoyed that character. You really got some research, some data, they got some skills that.	00:56:27
	Hands on, doing it the whole time.	00:56:34
	Where'd you go to the moon to get that?	00:56:37
	Regulate. It's not even called cereal, so it is simulated, but it was it was quite a unique project.	00:56:43
	And then our last slide.	00:56:53
	Yes, just.	00:56:55
	Oh, the Youth Center and this one. I do spend an hour every week at the Youth Center working with those students on Mondays.	00:56:57
	Umm, we do everything. So everything that I'm doing in the classroom, plus a lot of advocacy, science, STEM, those kids, those	00:57:05
	guys get to experience that every week.	00:57:12
	It's amazing program and those kids are super excited to have that hands on experiential, you know, get dirty but also learn a lot	00:57:19
	to it.	00:57:24
	One of my favorite stories is if you guys ever visit make sure to ask them the difference between a dairy cow and a beef cow and	00:57:31
	they will tell you for like 15 minutes the difference which I'm super proud of.	00:57:37
	Congratulations. That's great.	00:57:45
	I think the city has been sponsoring we.	00:57:47
	Yes, give me a fairly.	00:57:50
	And.	00:57:53
	Appreciate that because part of.	00:57:55
	All of this learning and what makes it so great is kids are always have their hands on something they're building, they're getting	00:57:58
	them dirty and that that stuff takes.	00:58:03
	Of that support and I truly appreciate it. It is making a huge difference.	00:58:09
	Fantastic. You know, I hear they're renting chickens so you can have eggs at home.	00:58:15
	Within a month we will have chickens or eggs incubating in four different locations, so.	00:58:21
	Hopefully.	00:58:28
	It will help with a small portion of that issue.	00:58:31
	Next, this has a list. Go through it. This is just a few of the things that we have.	00:58:34
	The senior leadership retreat, the youth giveaway, those are more traditional 4H, but they are leadership development. They have	00:58:41
	camps.	00:58:45
	That we take groups of kids to Egg Explorer D is a huge day where we have all of the schools, city and.	00:58:50
	County come into the fairgrounds for morning.	00:58:59
	And then finally, I really want to highlight that we are the host of the Southwest District contest this summer. We will be	00:59:02
	bringing in about 200. That's probably a little low.	00:59:08
	And they will be here competing through those all kinds of contests, livestock, archery, lots of shooting sports.	00:59:15
	So they're fantastic. Did you guys do the horse?	00:59:24
	School also last year or was it?	00:59:28
	We did horse school two years ago and they're working on that, moving around the state. The state office does that. They are	00:59:31
	looking at Socorro again for this year. I I don't know what their final decision will be, but it is.	00:59:37
	OK, we've got another group, Friends of the Library, Peggy Lowen.	00:59:48
	Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council, how much to see you all again? It's been a while since I've been here.	01:00:15
	It's really good to see it.	01:00:21
	I'm here tonight.	01:00:23
	As the president of the Friends of the Socorro Public Library.	01:00:24
	This is Judy Kurtz. She is the vice President of our group.	01:00:28
	And you know, Chucky John, who is the library director, she's our boss. She tells us what we have to do every time.	01:00:32
	We are here tonight to thank you all.	01:00:40
	For our new.	01:00:43
	It is the most wonderful space.	01:00:45
	We were in Finley Gym for many many years. Little bitty tiny place with no heat, no air, no anything. We moved to Zimmerley which	01:00:47
	truly was the most perfect place for us and.	01:00:53
	We were very upset to hear that we had to leave there.	01:01:00
	But the mayor very kindly offered us a new building.	01:01:03
	It came in and was remodeled to fit our needs.	01:01:07
	I got the keys to it on January the 10th.	01:01:11
	We moved shelves.	01:01:14
	We have moved boxes of books.	01:01:16
	I want to thank.	01:01:19
	The RISE crew from the detention center.	01:01:21
	We had over 230 boxes of books.	01:01:24
	That we moved, they moved.	01:01:28
	They we have pickup trucks. They moved. We just said put him here, put him there, put him there, you know.	01:01:30
	But we are now unpacking all of those boxes of books.	01:01:34
	And we are hoping to have our first book sale.	01:01:38
	On March the 1st.	01:01:42
	So.	01:01:44
	The friends group will be 40 years old this year.	01:01:46
	Its purpose is to support the programs at the library.	01:01:50
	We pay for such things as.	01:01:54
	Summer reading program.	01:01:57
	We pay for reading as fundamental.	01:01:58
	That gives books to every child in kindergarten through 3rd grade throughout the county.	01:02:01
	We pay for family yoga, which is every week.	01:02:08
	We pay for a lot of little things that aren't included in.	01:02:11
	The city budget for the library.	01:02:15
	So we are.	01:02:17
	A valuable part of this community.	01:02:19
	And we truly appreciate that you recognize what we do and that you support us.	01:02:21
	So as I said, our next book sale is Saturday, March the 1st.	01:02:27
	I hope to see each and everyone of you there that day for our brand new building.	01:02:32
	And thank you again, Mr. Clement.	01:02:38
	Where is this sale going to be? It is in the parking lot at Zimmerly.	01:02:40
	We Zimmerly School is over here we are across the parking lot in this beautiful beige and orange modular. You will see us when you	01:02:46
	drive in there.	01:02:51
	With a big sign, Yeah, we'll have a sign out in front.	01:02:56
	But again.	01:02:59
	Honey, why did people donate books? Do they bring them to you all? They bring them to us. The donation spot. We take donations.	01:03:02
	We're there every Wednesday morning from 10 until 12. That's our regular work day.	01:03:08
	They can also bring donations on our sale days, which it's usually the first Saturday of every month.	01:03:14
	And we get tons of donations. It's it's.	01:03:20
	I can't explain how many thousands of books we get a year.	01:03:25
	That I don't know where they all come from. You know, I haven't figured that out, but.	01:03:29
	We have just a ton of books and.	01:03:33
	We are very appreciative of our community and everybody that supports us and we make.	01:03:36
	Around I'd say 5 to $6000 a year, which all goes back to the library. Every cent we own goes back to the library.	01:03:42
	So I want to congratulate the volunteers and yourself.	01:03:52
	The vice president.	01:03:56
	For being proactive and pushing the city to make sure that you had a room.	01:03:57
	So that's all on you. I think you guys have done a good job and.	01:04:01
	Being advocates for that and.	01:04:04
	People doing it.	01:04:07
	Thank you.	01:04:10
	Most important thing in the world to me and always has been.	01:04:12
	Guys being so active.	01:04:16
	Thank you.	01:04:19
	This is part of the public comment because I.	01:04:24
	Meeting with somebody.	01:04:27
	About what they thought that I was planning to put a.	01:04:29
	Marshall Water Park in the.	01:04:32
	In the in the gravel pit.	01:04:35
	I won't live to see it.	01:04:38
	So just want to put that out.	01:04:39
	The main reason we got and we're in the process of getting that pawn.	01:04:43
	Is for the EPA super fund.	01:04:47
	And for the Conservancy diversion in case there's flooding in the ditches.	01:04:50
	There is no commercial water park.	01:04:56
	That's going to happen.	01:04:58
	Other than we're going to clean up the lagoon.	01:05:00
	And it can be used for.	01:05:02
	Water aerobics or whatever you want to do in there.	01:05:06
	That's the last thing on the list. So I just want to and I'm seeing this in public comment because somebody.	01:05:11
	Came and told me that in my office.	01:05:17
	So I'm speaking for them just to let them know that that's not something that.	01:05:20
	Is going to be slides and.	01:05:25
	And all kinds of stuff out there, but.	01:05:27
	The first two things are the most important.	01:05:31
	Which is EPA Superfund site.	01:05:33
	To clean up the groundwater.	01:05:35
	And also for Conservancy to have a place to put the.	01:05:37
	Water when they have a.	01:05:40
	2 inch rain that fills their ditches and as you know our ponds pump into the ditches.	01:05:42
	And if the dish has water in it, it's full. We can't pump that water in there.	01:05:48
	So we would divert it into that pond.	01:05:52
	And Lord has spoken with them about.	01:05:54
	Doing that project.	01:05:58
	So that's under public comment.	01:06:00
	OK, we have Mr. Gita. I call it Mr. Gita, but it's MRGEDA.	01:06:02
	It's a discussion.	01:06:07
	Christie, you want to come up and.	01:06:09
	Talk to us about your Mr. Martin. I think from the last from the last meeting, I think there was some some question as far as what	01:06:11
	mercy was doing and how much the city contributes and.	01:06:16
	And I asked Kirsten to come and, and I know you're, you're on all the e-mail lists that.	01:06:21
	That all the emails that Mercer does. So I'm sure you're pretty aware and this Donald is also involved with Kirsten as well too.	01:06:26
	So he's pretty aware of what MERS has been up to.	01:06:33
	But I think it's a good idea that the Council also sees two and one of the biggest things here is this.	01:06:36
	Site readiness.	01:06:41
	Report through the Working through the Economic State Economic Development Department.	01:06:43
	And.	01:06:48
	Let Kirsten kinda.	01:06:49
	Talk about what the city has contributed to Merza.	01:06:51
	And what? What we're, what the organization?	01:06:55
	Does and how it involves the whole region.	01:07:01
	And promoting the whole region for the betterment of everybody.	01:07:04
	Yes, Hello everybody.	01:07:09
	Thank you for taking, I'll try to be quick. I know it's getting late. So they're getting paid for this.	01:07:11
	OK, so everyone, I wanted you all. I wanted to kind of kill two birds with one stone here tonight since I'm here.	01:07:18
	The New Mexico Economic Development magazine that's earmarked that you will be receiving.	01:07:25
	Is a collaboration that we are in our third year. We have a partnered with Saguro County.	01:07:30
	The Sierra County, Spaceport America, Facebook and Valencia County and this is our third year and I'm really proud of the	01:07:36
	collaboration because.	01:07:40
	Without that partnerships, we would not be able to afford the ad. The ad is $14,000.	01:07:45
	And it runs for the entire year of 2025. And so these magazines are given at.	01:07:50
	Site selection, events to showcase our region and I'm really proud that we are in the front of the magazine. That's a really big	01:07:56
	deal.	01:08:01
	And so.	01:08:05
	We did receive $1000 grant this year for merge DE and I would like to request that because every partner paid 2600 and merged that	01:08:07
	covered the remaining 3800 that the $1000 grant that we received this year go towards the magazine.	01:08:15
	Which word is the which the magazine ad that runs for the year of 2025? I thought that would be an easy way to.	01:08:25
	Get that line item out of the way so.	01:08:31
	Back to the other things I I handed out, we did do a brochure for also for site assessment, site of visits and also the merge the	01:08:34
	newsletter and it showcases what we've done in 2024.	01:08:42
	So to give everyone.	01:08:49
	Because some of you may not be aware of what mergers been doing.	01:08:51
	I've been hired.	01:08:55
	I was contracted in 2018.	01:08:56
	And I wanted to give a little overview of some of the things that we've accomplished and so.	01:08:59
	Merge that in 2016 was created and they were they received quality plan recognition through the for their economic development	01:09:03
	plan.	01:09:08
	In 2020.	01:09:13
	To the present, we received 32,800 annual recurring legislative funding for rural economic development.	01:09:15
	In 2023, we received the USDA RDBG grant for 90,000 for phase two of our economic recovery projects.	01:09:23
	And in from 2020 to 2023, we did economic recovery phase projects one and two for Sakura and Sierra counties.	01:09:32
	And 2324 and 25.	01:09:41
	Murder to receive New Mexico economic development leads funding to upgrade the Socorro regional commercial kitchen and that amount	01:09:45
	total of 43,720 and that funding has been able to provide.	01:09:52
	Umm stainless steel tables, convection ovens, commercial microwaves, 3 refrigerators installed a new AC.	01:09:59
	Repaired concrete steps, conducted repairs to the building and we also have created 4 jobs through this initiative, which I think	01:10:07
	is really important.	01:10:11
	In 2022 and 2023, I was the presenter at the New Mexico Economic Wasted course at Western University and our topics were the	01:10:16
	economic.	01:10:21
	Recovery projects that we conducted.	01:10:27
	In 20 and I just spoke on the New Mexico Economic Development Magazine partnership.	01:10:29
	And in last year, in 2024, we signed an MO U with Spaceport America.	01:10:35
	And we hosted our first annual New Mexico Tech.	01:10:40
	Tour of Spaceport America, which will be an annual event.	01:10:43
	In 2024 and 2025 we have Co sponsored legislative priority meetings with the South Central Council of Governments.	01:10:47
	And in November of 24, we worked with Donald Monett and in Economic Development department on a site assessment evaluation, which	01:10:55
	was really fun for Donald.	01:11:00
	And 2024, I was invited to the Department of Transportation and thriving community, community stakeholder group that meets monthly	01:11:06
	with city stakeholders and the COG as well.	01:11:13
	And in 2024, we were the title sponsor for the Show of Hands project.	01:11:20
	Through the Truth or Consequences Chamber of Commerce for assisting small businesses.	01:11:24
	And this year will be our first year of collaborating with the county managers for the tri-county Day.	01:11:30
	Which will also include materials from the city of Socorro.	01:11:37
	And in 2025, in May, we should, we received the green light, but considering how things are at the federal government.	01:11:40
	Fingers crossed that we did receive $150,000 for UMM.	01:11:48
	To support small businesses in the Middle Rio Grande Valley.	01:11:53
	And in 2023 and 2024, we've attended the Governor's Conference on Economic Development. We've presented to multiple organizations	01:11:57
	including the TRC rotaries, the Coral Rotary SW Workforce Connections, and New Mexico Economic Development Department.	01:12:05
	We've organized multiple tours in court, including Spaceport America Business Development team tour of New Mexico Tech.	01:12:12
	Made it meta tour which is Facebook.	01:12:20
	Valencia County Workforce Training Center tour and multiple space support American tours.	01:12:22
	Our membership includes Meta Village of Los Lunas, NM Tech, Socorro County, Sierra County, City of Socorro, City of Tier C.	01:12:28
	City of Elephant Butte, Spaceport America, Sierra Vista Hospital, Socorro General Hospital, C&K Auto Agitator Coffee and the	01:12:36
	Socorro Regional Commercial Kitchen and many other individual members. That's if the city renews our membership, right, of course	01:12:42
	and I did a little research and wanted to find out what the city.	01:12:49
	Had provided to merge the just for my.	01:12:55
	Knowledge and to update the Council that may not remember.	01:12:59
	In 2018, the city of Socorro paid merged at $10,000 and I think the previous.	01:13:03
	Executive Director had this set up with every county except the Coral County.	01:13:10
	So Coral County's invoice was 500.	01:13:16
	But Sierra County was 10 and the city of Sakura was 10, so I'm not really sure why that happened.	01:13:18
	Umm, but that was the last time the City of Sakura donated $10,000.	01:13:27
	And now what we received from the city is the $1000.	01:13:32
	Annual membership fee.	01:13:36
	And of course, how much are you asking for?	01:13:38
	1000 for the membership, but I just wanted to clarify too because I think there was some misconception.	01:13:40
	On the last meeting, thinking that with cities contributing a ton of money and they're not getting anything out of this. So I kind	01:13:45
	of took that at the heart.	01:13:48
	And I just wanted to make sure that everybody's aware of what's going on and.	01:13:52
	And it was time. It was time when I came to update everyone since you brought that up.	01:13:55
	What what? What's the economic development impact in Socorro?	01:14:04
	Citizen koro FMRGDA.	01:14:08
	We created 4 jobs with the commercial kitchen last year.	01:14:11
	Before the site assessment, that's never been done on the. That's a very good positive thing and, and.	01:14:14
	We did the commercial kitchen.	01:14:22
	And we've also learned on the issues that need to be addressed with the industrial park which merged. That can help.	01:14:24
	I would like to help the city get a feasibility study.	01:14:32
	For the industrial park.	01:14:36
	Well, yeah. And then we'll want to do that. But on the commercial kitchen, there's four full time jobs over there.	01:14:38
	Well, I I can't clarify whether they're full time or part time, but their jobs nonetheless. And we all know that there's a huge	01:14:43
	workforce gap in this region and I have to take the little wins even though 4 jobs doesn't seem like a lot.	01:14:50
	To me it's it makes a positive impact.	01:14:58
	That's a great thing. It's just like when you brought up the kitchen.	01:15:02
	I've just been looking for who's the manager and who's running it.	01:15:05
	Darla Darla Broughton is the manager. Who Darla Broughton?	01:15:09
	Is that who you've been dealing with down Delina?	01:15:14
	I think they deal with me mostly now.	01:15:17
	I've kind of been.	01:15:21
	Yeah, spearheaded person at the kitchen, which has taken a lot more time than I really intended, you know, but.	01:15:23
	It's it's a good thing and we are in our third phase with the kitchen. This is hopefully the last phase. I think I'm going to move	01:15:29
	on to other areas that need assistance and so.	01:15:34
	Umm, they do have a lot of new equipment, which is great and that the idea behind that was because.	01:15:40
	The Sierra County kitchen closed and the Valencia County Commercial kitchen is so much more expensive. We wanted to make this a	01:15:46
	regional kitchen because people could drive from Albuquerque and use the Socorro kitchen and say even save money because it's so	01:15:52
	much more expensive. Just real quick too, just so people refresh them on the community kitchen as well, too. So if you have a	01:15:58
	product that you want to produce, whether you're a farmer or you have a business or whatever you have to have.	01:16:05
	A certified kitchen in order to produce a product, and that's what this kitchen would be able to do for people.	01:16:12
	That do not have the money or the accessibility.	01:16:17
	With their own kitchen to produce the product that they that they want.	01:16:20
	The site assessments a great addition.	01:16:25
	We were talking to Senator Sanchez last week at the legislature.	01:16:27
	And he mentioned that.	01:16:32
	MRG. EDA.	01:16:34
	Could apply for some state money.	01:16:36
	To help us with say, site clearance.	01:16:39
	That was one of the grants and I was wondering if you would get.	01:16:42
	Get with us.	01:16:46
	To see if you could because we have money to put a building up.	01:16:47
	There's money available that's not been used.	01:16:51
	Very much for site clearance. Yes Sir, that is a new one.	01:16:54
	And it was representative now that said she added language to the.	01:16:58
	Current budget, we're always used to just say municipalities or.	01:17:03
	Yeah, but now it has. Yeah. She texted me today, actually. Yeah. And this is how it's another three. She's like.	01:17:07
	Whirlwind so, but did she text you about the specifics? I said that she put in language for merge though that we could help apply	01:17:14
	for so if you would.	01:17:19
	I think those are a couple of salient things that you could help us with.	01:17:24
	Is this site clearance and the other one?	01:17:27
	I'm trying to think of the other I can't think of, but anyway they mentioned that that there's some state funds being made	01:17:33
	available that are not being used.	01:17:36
	And this one thing is really a.	01:17:40
	At the industrial park is to put up a building because we're trying to move that money from the Superfund site.	01:17:43
	To industrial park, but the site.	01:17:49
	If we could get that and.	01:17:51
	That would give us more funds to build a good spec building. This means we have the green light to get the membership.	01:17:53
	Oh absolutely. Thank you. I thought you already got it.	01:18:00
	You already applied it to the well, I submitted an invoice, but the link the check was written last week already, but I wanted it	01:18:03
	on for discussion for your yeah for your concerns and just to let the action item No, no Sir is an action on. Thank you Donald.	01:18:10
	And also I would just like to mention that I would like to really work with Donna and Donald and Lena and Polo on you know fixing	01:18:16
	some of the the air the.	01:18:23
	The issues that we have at the industrial park because like you said, what is economic development, economic development would be	01:18:30
	to make sure that industrial park is ready for site selection.	01:18:35
	And at this point of the game, according to the site assessment, we have not had a due diligence study done.	01:18:41
	And it's in a floodplain and so there's issues we need to address and I would really like to work with the city.	01:18:47
	To get the industrial park where it needs to be so we can start advocating. There's a grant process that we can get the planning	01:18:53
	grant. I'm gonna.	01:18:57
	Work on, I'm pretty sure we can get it funded to the finance room. Sure. Great. OK.	01:19:01
	Thank you.	01:19:06
	Thank you. He's very thank you. Yeah, very, very good.	01:19:07
	And airport got airport title 6 plan.	01:19:12
	For approval, Mr. Mayor, that's a required a new requirement from the federal government to apply for federal grants for the	01:19:18
	airport.	01:19:22
	And it has received approval from the Aviation Division of New Mexico Department of Transportation.	01:19:26
	So I will have brought it to the Council's consideration.	01:19:32
	I think we should probably approve it.	01:19:39
	2nd 2nd the discussion.	01:19:47
	On to Aye Hogg City Vijay agreement.	01:19:50
	You know, they're asking us for.	01:19:54
	How much 22,500?	01:19:56
	To manage A to manage a CDBG project this year.	01:19:59
	And we ended up trying to get it on that. We got us on our own.	01:20:03
	We did she. I'll let Polo answer that question because he deals more with the CDBG project.	01:20:08
	Yeah, they they actually handle.	01:20:15
	Pretty much all the paperwork.	01:20:17
	It's worth it, yes, because I get it one year and it's a lot of work.	01:20:19
	Well, for 23,000 you can hire somebody to do that.	01:20:24
	Anyway, OK, well.	01:20:29
	I've got other things that we can talk about the Cog later on, but I think they need to help us a little bit more.	01:20:31
	And there are.	01:20:36
	But you know me.	01:20:39
	But anyway, so agreement.	01:20:40
	Shall we do it because we need the CDB project done?	01:20:42
	I'll make a motion that we approve.	01:20:45
	The COG agreement.	01:20:47
	Now moved and seconded discussion.	01:20:50
	All in favor, aye?	01:20:52
	So the map project we're trying to get.	01:20:54
	The road in front of New Mexico Tech fixed up again. Leroy.	01:20:57
	So if everybody would agree on doing that, it's time for it.	01:21:01
	And then next thing is going to be El Camino real, I mean we.	01:21:06
	Our roads are starting to deteriorate again and we'll just keep working at it.	01:21:09
	Mr. Fleming.	01:21:14
	Road situation.	01:21:18
	So we've been taking that discussion.	01:21:20
	All in favor, aye, the local governments rockfront project. There's a whole bunch of roads there.	01:21:22
	That are by the courthouse.	01:21:27
	In that area that we want to clean up and make sure it looks nice after we get Finley done.	01:21:30
	So we'd like to get that put into the.	01:21:34
	Enter the program.	01:21:38
	There I make a motion that we.	01:21:39
	Approved resolution 25-2-18B.	01:21:43
	So moved to 2nd.	01:21:47
	All in favor.	01:21:49
	OSHA certainly has been working with us on this risk protection program and guide. Lena, what is that?	01:21:51
	For wastewater treatment plant.	01:21:58
	We did not have a plan for the respiratory system or respiratory.	01:22:01
	And so Ojas helped us that.	01:22:06
	They could be exposed to and so.	01:22:11
	You have to wear a respiratory mask and all that stuff. So that's something that.	01:22:14
	We need to get the City Council to approve.	01:22:17
	So moved and seconded All in favor, aye?	01:22:23
	OK.	01:22:27
	We've got appointments for the police oversight committee.	01:22:29
	I'm just reappointing them.	01:22:33
	Yes, Sir, I.	01:22:35
	Into our attention last week that they were all.	01:22:37
	Expired when Marianne.	01:22:41
	SharePoint and Peggy Lopez.	01:22:44
	So she'll be Peggy Lopez, already appointed, last meeting for the Northeast quadrant.	01:22:47
	So these people would like to be reappointed similarly. SE Quadrant. David Naranjo.	01:22:53
	Southwest quadrant. Joe Daniel Sadra, Northwest Quadrant.	01:23:00
	And Fred Berger.	01:23:05
	Remember at large.	01:23:07
	As you know, as you know, we have a police oversight committee that's and it's also it's run by a lawyer from Albuquerque, not	01:23:10
	that has to do with the city.	01:23:15
	So this is what this committee is for.	01:23:20
	All in favor, aye?	01:23:23
	Job description.	01:23:29
	New business.	01:23:32
	Anything from that? I know you guys have been here for a while, but.	01:23:35
	Add anything.	01:23:39
	Have a quick question for Ruby. There's been some discussion on.	01:23:42
	That's reserves for.	01:23:50
	Government agencies and things of that nature, and I think it's important.	01:23:51
	I have every confidence that this administration.	01:23:56
	Custodian.	01:24:00
	But I think it's.	01:24:03
	The good idea to Let's share with the public.	01:24:06
	How those cash reserves that the city has.	01:24:09
	Invested.	01:24:12
	Thank you.	01:24:15
	OK, Mayor Council. So we do have reserves of.	01:24:20
	We have about $1,000,000 in reserves. That's actually for loans that we have.	01:24:23
	And then we do have money at.	01:24:27
	Mexico at the.	01:24:29
	New Mexico.	01:24:31
	Investment Council, we have about 6,000,000 in there and we did move it from First State Bank.	01:24:33
	It has grown in the past.	01:24:39
	I don't know, seven years maybe since I've been in there. You know, it was like 1,000,000 and now we're up to like.	01:24:42
	6,000,000 But you know, with GRT movement with the mayor last.	01:24:47
	We're going to have to be a little more conservative and watch GRT did go down like 50,000 this month compared to last year.	01:24:51
	So what happens is once we need money in general fund, we will move money from investment to cover general fund.	01:24:58
	So we have been kind of fortunate that.	01:25:05
	And Max Investment Pool has been paying a really good interest rate.	01:25:08
	So we've been getting at least.	01:25:11
	$30,000 a month just on that interest.	01:25:13
	Which we have a million in First State Bank and we're getting like $80.	01:25:16
	A month so that money is budgeted in general fund.	01:25:20
	So even though the money is put away, it is still budgeted. So we need to move that money we do put it in back into general fund.	01:25:24
	You're welcome.	01:25:28
	Any other question, Miss Dean?	01:25:35
	Many reports Committee of course. Committee. We have committees.	01:25:37
	Yeah. So the zoning committee met and we discussed several things.	01:25:42
	We thought it was time to update the map, obviously.	01:25:48
	And then we talked about.	01:25:52
	Taking some of the verbiage to include some of the.	01:25:56
	New concepts like people are using.	01:26:00
	Storage sheds and turning into small homes or.	01:26:03
	Shipping containers and it's not real. There's no wording in the in the zoning. So we thought we needed to add that.	01:26:06
	We talked about expanding the notifications in the rural areas.	01:26:12
	When someone's requesting a special permit or something to maybe 200 feet instead of the 100 feet we're doing right now.	01:26:17
	And we'd like to try to figure out a way to work with some of the property owners that they marked some of their properties,	01:26:24
	whether it's private property or no soliciting or something kind of like Smith's, that's kind of one of our.	01:26:30
	Problem areas, but if we can work with them to put some signage, we don't have to deal with it.	01:26:36
	What else? What else, Christy?	01:26:42
	I would be thinking about.	01:26:45
	Update our.	01:26:50
	Eight to 10,000.	01:26:51
	Try to put that in the budget.	01:26:55
	And then and then and then.	01:26:57
	Are you talking about?	01:27:00
	When you add this to the ordinance.	01:27:01
	Or do we do this as a resolution into the ordinance?	01:27:04
	Ordinance I believe we have to approve the gain as an ordinance once the changes are made to the 30 days of advertising out of 15	01:27:11
	days of advertising have the two public hearings and.	01:27:16
	And vote. He had this in.	01:27:21
	I can watch it.	01:27:23
	Are we getting there? Yes, Sir, we're working on it. We're also doing that with the personnel manual.	01:27:26
	Finally.	01:27:30
	Yeah, the marijuana. The marijuana.	01:27:32
	For all your division heads.	01:27:34
	It's going to come up.	01:27:36
	So we're trying to work our way around it. I've already.	01:27:37
	Had people come in that are medical marijuana and.	01:27:40
	I've said we're not going to fight him.	01:27:44
	Unless there's an accident and we test them.	01:27:46
	So we're kind of using Bernalillo County.	01:27:48
	Manual as to how they put in it.	01:27:51
	It's a work in progress and.	01:27:54
	You guys are going to be probably.	01:27:56
	Have employees that.	01:27:58
	To have this happen.	01:28:01
	So we're going to have to figure out a way to deal with this.	01:28:03
	Well, then the other committee is the Finley, the Finley remodel.	01:28:07
	So we also get last month and we.	01:28:11
	We decided that instead of installing a playground equipment, we'd rather have something like a water feature or.	01:28:15
	A water. A water fountain of some sort in that.	01:28:22
	Outdoor space.	01:28:25
	Want to vote on that?	01:28:29
	You know my my question. I heard that.	01:28:31
	And I know we don't need another park. That's what you guys said.	01:28:34
	But I'm just saying.	01:28:38
	A water feature is a real You know what a pain.	01:28:39
	Because it has, you know, I had one at the hotel. I had to get rid of it because.	01:28:43
	So slimy.	01:28:48
	People were throwing stuff in it.	01:28:49
	The kids are definitely going to play in it.	01:28:51
	And so it the maintenance of it is going to be a problem.	01:28:54
	Well, we were just finding out. Ideas. No, but I mean.	01:28:58
	But if you want to have more of a.	01:29:00
	Interactive feature in there and not interactive but a decorative feature in it.	01:29:03
	If you can make it into some sort of a landscaping thing, but if you want to put a fountain in.	01:29:09
	It's like.	01:29:14
	It gets to be a mess. I think Boyd and Dave are still trying to figure out what might work.	01:29:16
	Don't listen to Lloyd. I don't listen to Lloyd.	01:29:23
	What?	01:29:26
	Maybe a cascading? I mean, that's great, but not a fountain.	01:29:34
	The architect you're working on it already, not?	01:29:40
	There you go. Yes, I missed. I missed that train.	01:29:43
	But no, that's great.	01:29:48
	Yeah, it's just better fountain, you know where you have.	01:29:50
	Right.	01:29:53
	Anyway, thank you. Anything else, guys? Yes, I have the animal shelter committee. Animal shelter. So we met last month and we're	01:29:56
	gonna meet again this month.	01:30:01
	We're reviewing all the policies and procedures for the animal shelter and stuff, so the girls that we picked were had a lot of	01:30:05
	good ideas.	01:30:09
	I think we can work together to come up with something.	01:30:14
	I don't know. Did you give them an article that I gave you?	01:30:18
	Did you see the article with the closing animal shelter? Was it in?	01:30:21
	Bernalillo.	01:30:26
	For different reasons, but anyway, great.	01:30:27
	And any other committees that you guys have?	01:30:29
	No state wrestling championship this weekend. Wrestling championship? Where is it at? Real wrench Event Center.	01:30:34
	I know that would be nice.	01:30:43
	The arena, let's get over there and we can do a tournament.	01:30:46
	Good. Well, good luck. Thank you. You guys got some state championships.	01:30:49
	Yeah, I think we can.	01:30:55
	Every year we have hopefully can do it again and get someone seeds and.	01:30:56
	Should be good all right.	01:31:02
	And own business.	01:31:04
	Executive session.	01:31:07
	We're getting sued by anybody.	01:31:09
	You know, we did. We did get a, we did get a lawsuit.	01:31:14
	Two people came into the police station.	01:31:18
	Started taking videos.	01:31:20
	And they're in a restricted area that should not have been.	01:31:22
	But not as soon As for keeping them out.	01:31:27
	To me, that's just.	01:31:31
	Doesn't make siblings, huh? Seems a little frivolous.	01:31:32
	Seems frivolous to me, but frivolous but as people want. And then of course.	01:31:36
	We're going to end up having to buy them out.	01:31:42
	Can I be saying this or no?	01:31:44
	No, I don't get printed anyway with that up here.	01:31:48
	But that's just not right. I'm sorry.	01:31:51
	But I'm not the negotiator, So what the hell?	01:31:54
	Anyway.	01:31:57
	Yeah, You know, you're saying, Mr. Mayor, no good deed goes unpunished. Some of you'll find a way to turn that around. But that's	01:31:58
	why we don't have executive session. We just say everything out here in public.	01:32:03
	So anyway, no, I got to go through a job description.	01:32:09
	Somebody's trying to be a director of the Recreation Center or something like that.	01:32:12
	This is the administrative assistant director of recreation. Who is that?	01:32:18
	What's this?	01:32:23
	Huh. Looking for someone you guys see that?	01:32:25
	No, it's not she at least her job, but.	01:32:34
	It's Pete Lopez. What was.	01:32:36
	Huh. Well, come up here and tell us a little bit about it.	01:32:39
	You keeping the mirror in the dark? I've already made my I've already put my foot in my mouth. I don't have any more room left.	01:32:43
	So we're going to hire Pete Lopez full time from.	01:32:50
	I'm going to train them how to do the youth sports to kind of take over that like focus on some other.	01:32:54
	Things for the gym, you know, these guys are doing a great job and I thought we're just trying to fill those positions, so if you	01:32:59
	guys are OK with having a.	01:33:02
	Administrative assistant firms, I think.	01:33:06
	So thank you, thank you for your.	01:33:10
	Testimony.	01:33:14
	Oh, OK, we got personnel changes.	01:33:18
	Garrett White Library circulation assistant, new hire.	01:33:21
	Antoinette Lopez.	01:33:26
	New hire at the library, Polo Panetta.	01:33:28
	Administrator. He got a, he got a certificate.	01:33:30
	What is that tilapia? What kind of a? What kind of a?	01:33:33
	What kind of certificate is it?	01:33:37
	When we we get federal funding. OK PLPA. I missed the I and I thought it was tilapia.	01:33:39
	OK, Victor Salvador, administrator, completed probation.	01:33:49
	Pete Lopez, that's the one we just did temporary to full time.	01:33:53
	And Kyle Jillian has resigned.	01:33:56
	Motion Make a motion to pass personnel changes as follows.	01:34:00
	All in favor.	01:34:04
	Then I have.	01:34:07
	Under.	01:34:09
	I forgot my glasses.	01:34:11
	Piano 1. Deanna Way.	01:34:13
	I am thinking Anyway LLC Martin Lee. He's a software developer.	01:34:15
	Make a motion to approve the business registration to ZED.	01:34:21
	Moved. Seconded. Anything.	01:34:24
	Aye, Mr. Mayor.	01:34:27
	Before you announce the next meeting, you want to discuss the municipal elected official salaries. Oh.	01:34:30
	Just give you a heads up. Just the.	01:34:37
	County commissioners and this is going to affect you guys because unless you get reelected or me and then.	01:34:40
	But I think we need to adjust our council salaries.	01:34:46
	And so I am going to make a presentation as an ordinance to.	01:34:50
	Change.	01:34:54
	The mayor's salary and the city councillor salary.	01:34:56
	To match the inflated.	01:34:59
	Inflation.	01:35:03
	That would just be for the new.	01:35:04
	Councillors after the election, yeah.	01:35:06
	But we want to do it before the election but.	01:35:09
	I think we want to keep up with people's interest in running.	01:35:12
	And also to make sure that.	01:35:16
	We keep up with the county Commission.	01:35:19
	We don't want city good city councillors to run for county Commission just because the compensation.	01:35:21
	OK. Thank you, Donald.	01:35:27
	That's it. Then I.	01:35:30
	Beg your pardon? The next meeting is March 4th, 2025.	01:35:32
	Yes.	01:35:39