ANIMAL SERVICE CENTER OF THE MESILLA VALLEY

Transcription

1 ` ANIMAL SERVICE CENTER OF THE MESILLA VALLEY 1 Bataan Memorial West Las Cruces, NM 01 Tele: --00 Fax:.. ANIMAL SERVICE CENTER OF THE MESILLA VALLEY BOARD OF DIRECTORS AMENDED AGENDA The following agenda will be considered at a regular Meeting of the Animal Service Center of the Mesilla Valley Board of Directors to be Held on Thursday, May th, 0 at am at the City Council Chambers, City Hall, 00 N. Main St., Las Cruces, New Mexico. I. Call to Order & Pledge of Allegiance II. Roll Call of ASCMV Board Members and Determination of Quorum III. Changes to Agenda and Approval of Agenda IV. Introductions a. Pet of the Month Introduction by Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock b. ASCMV Employees Introduction by Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock c. Volunteer of the Month Introduction by Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock V. Minutes a. Approval of the Minutes from the regular ASCMV Board Meeting held April th, 0 VI. Reports/Presentations a. Shelter Activities Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock (Statistics, Quarterly Report, Volunteers, Facilities). b. Committees Reports 1. Finance David Dollahon, Committee Chair. Executive Jess Williams, Committee Chair. Facilities Greg Smith, Committee Chair c. Educational Initiatives Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock d. Spay/Neuter Initiatives Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock e. Zero In Update VII. Action Item a. Resolution 0-0 Accept the FY0-0 Budget b. Resolution 0-0 Accept a Donation for the new Cat Room VIII. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE ANIMAL SERVICE CENTER OF THE MESILLA VALLEY WILL CONVENE IN CLOSED SESSION to discuss threatened litigation regarding Case No. 0-0, City of Las Cruces vs. James Mays (which is closed pursuant to Section --1-H(), NMSA ). IX. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE ANIMAL SERVICE CENTER OF THE MESILLA VALLEY MAY CONVENE IN OPEN SESSION to take action, if any, on the closed session items. X. Public Input XI. Chair and Board Comments XII. Adjournment If You Need an Accommodation for a Disability to Enable You to Fully Participate in this Event Please Contact Us Hours Before the Event at -00/v or 1-/tty. Posted Dated: May, 0. The agenda cover sheet and complete packet of information are on the web at: Copies of the agenda packet are available at the Branigan Library, City Hall and the County Clerk s Office.

2 ANIMAL SERVICE CENTER OF MESILLA VALLEY April, 0 at :00 a.m. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Jess C. Williams - Chairman David Dollahon - Ex-Officio Member Jack Eakman - Board Member Billy Garrett - Board Member (arrived :0) Gregory Z. Smith - Board Member John L. Vasquez - Board Member (departed :) BOARD MEMBERS NOT PRESENT: Kasandra Gandara - Vice Chair Julia T. Brown, Ex-Officio Member I. Call to Order & Pledge of Allegiance (:0 AM) Good morning and welcome to the April meeting of the Board of Directors of the Animal Service Center of the Mesilla Valley. It is :00 a.m. and we'll get underway, call to order, and begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please lead us Board Member Smith. ALL STAND FOR PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. Thank you very much. II. Roll Call of ASCMV Board Members and Determination of Quorum Ms. Baum would you please call the roll. Baum: Board Member Brown is not here. Board Member Dollahon. Dollahon: Here. Baum: Board Member Vasquez. Vasquez: Here. Baum: Board Member Eakman. Eakman: Here. Baum: Board Member Garrett is not here. Board Member Smith. 1

3 Smith: Present. Baum: Board Member Gandara is not here. Chairman Williams. I am here. And for the record Board Member Gandara will not be here today and Board Member Garrett said he will be running just a tad late. We do have a quorum. III. Changes to Agenda and Approval of Agenda Are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none. I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Smith: Move to approve. Eakman: Second. Motion made by Board Member Smith, second by Board Member Eakman. Ms. Baum please poll the Board. Baum: Board Member Vasquez. Vasquez: Yes. Baum: Board Member Eakman. Eakman: Yes. Baum: Board Member Smith. Smith: Yes. Baum: Chairman Williams. Yes. IV. Introductions A. Pet of the Month - Introduction by Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock That brings us to item four, introductions, looks like we've got the pet of the month here. Vesco-Mock: Good morning Mr. Chair and the rest of the Board. Who we have here is another one of vintage dogs. As you know vintage dogs has a very special place in my heart. This is an older German Sheppard that came in

4 and has made it several months at the shelter. Had an upper respiratory infection, went down to the infirmary, got treated, and is now looking for his forever home. We're working with From the Heart Rescue. They have pictures of him and they're trying to get him into their vintage dog. They have a grant for vintage dogs, so they're working hard to take him. They just took another vintage dog earlier this week that had a mammary tumor, already had the mammary tumor removed and she's doing well. But this is our older dog, so if there's anyone out there in our audience today that wants an older, slower German Sheppard, but still with the German Sheppard personality, this young man is available. Thank you very much Dr. Beth. He looks like a fine dog. And Paul is giving him lots of love. B. ASCMV Employees - Introduction by Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock That brings us to the ASCMV employee of the month, Dr. Beth. Smith: And I'm sorry Mr. Chair can we give this vintage fellow a hand. You may. Smith: Thank you. APPLAUSE. Smith: Thank you. I think that hopefully he will have a new home soon but certainly he's displaying great characteristics today. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I concur with your assessment. Vesco-Mock: All right for the employee of the month I think everybody knows Paul but I don't think you all know that he does a lot of the transports and that's what we want to focus on today is Paul. Not only does he do a lot of the kennel supervising, he's the population manager also, he's the euthanasia tech, he's our head euthanasia tech because our other euthanasia tech does a lot of the transports also and when you're going absolutely every weekend, they're four to five day trips, it's going to really implode on you that way on euthanizing. But Paul leaves his family to go on these trips. He's becoming a long-road truck driver. So I think it would be good for him to talk to you a little bit about those experiences. Richardson: Hello. Good morning.

5 Richardson: I'm doing all right. Don't know what to say. Smith: Paul, if I may Mr. Chairman, to help the ball get rolling if you'll share your first name and your last name for the record that will help us make sure we're accurately representing you. Richardson: It's Paul Richardson. I came back to work at the Animal Service Center last October. I've been doing a lot of the transports to Oregon, to a couple different rescues up there. Between the time I had left a few years back and then returned in October huge change in our transports. We're getting a lot more out that way. We've got the very nice vehicles that are a lot better on these dogs. We've got a really good system in place to get the dogs to a point where rescues will take them. They can be confident they're not going to break with illness as soon as they get up there. Thanks in large part to our infirmary system when a dog gets sick we move them down, we make sure they're healthy, everybody's healthy before they go on these transports. We've come a long way basically. Thank you Paul. C. Volunteer of the Month - Introduction by Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock And that brings us to the volunteer of the month, Dr. Beth. Vesco-Mock: Our volunteer of the month could not be with us this morning. She was very busy. She was in yesterday. It's Jackye Meineke. For everyone that knows Jackye Meineke is, you know her as, she used to own Enchanted Gardens and she's the big garden guru and the flower guru and everything. But what you might not know is she's also a huge cat person. Huge, huge, huge cat person and there is one part of the cat world that no one really wants to foster and help out with and that's the ringworm kittens and adult cats, and Jackye took that on last year, that she wanted to help, asked me "Where am I needed the most?" And I said the truth is Jackye you're not afraid of ringworm. We need you to take all of our ringworm cats. And she's probably, last year in 0 she probably saved I would say close to 0 ringworm cats. Maybe that's an overexaggeration but a lot of ringworm cats and a lot of them has gone to Oregon, has gone on to transport now. But she could not be here today, she was very very busy and she said if she came here she would be late for another meeting and she thought that would be rude. But I want to publically thank Jackye for all that she does for all the little ringworm kittens and adult cats that she takes in. I call her and she has never yet failed to say I couldn't come and get one. And she really helps, so that is a real niche. That's why in our annual report you saw very few ringworm cats euthanized because we do have a mechanism in place to save nearly all of them. So it's very very

6 good and I would encourage you all when you see Jackye around, because I'm sure you all do because she's out and about as much as you all are, that you all thank her for what she does for what we call our ringers. Thank you very much Dr. Beth. And Jackye if you happen to be watching, thank you as well. V. Minutes A. Approval of the Minutes from the regular ASCMV Board Meeting held March, 0 This brings us now to item five which is the minutes let the record reflect that Board Member Garrett has arrived and is at the dais. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes of March th? Eakman: I would move approval of those minutes as distributed. Smith: Second. We have a motion by Board Member Eakman, a second by Board Member Smith. Ms. Baum would you please poll the Board. Garrett: Mr. Chair. Board Member Garrett. Garrett: Just one thing Mr. Chair, in terms of the signature lines, I'm no longer the Vice Chair, so we just need, I ll scratch that on this one but just a slight correction. Okay. Thank you very much. Garrett: Thank you. Baum: Board Member Vasquez. Vasquez: Yes. Baum: Board Member Eakman. Eakman: Yes. Baum: Board Member Garrett.

7 Garrett: Yes. Baum: Board Member Smith. Smith: Yes. Baum: Chairman Williams. Yes. Well actually I'm going to abstain. I wasn't here, although I did watch it on TV. VI. Reports/Presentations A. Shelter Activities - Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock (Statistics, Volunteers, Facilities) That brings us to item six, reports and presentations. First item is shelter activities, Dr. Beth. Vesco-Mock: You will notice a new background. The City has requested that we use their background so we are all together now. So we can't use my funky colors any more. So it's all good though. We still got our beautiful dog pictures in. So our finalized February intake numbers for the City of Las Cruces it was, dogs, 0 cats. For Dona Ana County it was, with 0 dogs and cats. City of Anthony was, Hatch was two, Sunland Park was four, for a total of animals with dogs about more than the cats. The finalized February outcomes was finalized adoptions, dogs, cats, reclaim was 1 with dogs obviously heavily outweighing the cats, and 0 rescues with dogs and you can see our cat numbers are going up greatly in our transporting model. Euthanasia was animals were euthanized for a euthanasia rate of %. Dogs was below 0% at animals, cats was animals so that was 1%. Our live release rate was % overall. You'll note that that's % live release rate for dogs and cats was up to %. Dr. Beth before we leave that slide, does the number of euthanized animals include court ordered euthanizations? Vesco-Mock: Yes it would sir. How many court ordered euthanizations have we had in this calendar year? Vesco-Mock: There was three in February. There was nine already here in April, and there will be five this afternoon at :00.

8 And what jurisdiction are those coming out of? Are they equally split between the City and the County? Vesco-Mock: No sir. At this time they were all County. They're all County. Vesco-Mock: Yes sir. Okay. Thank you for that explanation. Vesco-Mock: Our February licensing, we had total licenses issued, PetData had 1, and the Animal Service Center did. Preliminary March numbers, total intake was 1, you're going to see those numbers going up because we are coming into the spring and summer, so those numbers are going to go up. They are still lower than last year, I'm really happy to say. Adoptions about 0 finalized, reclaim about, rescue about 0, euthanized about 0 which was under 0% again euthanasia rate, live release rate for March was about %. I believe we have maintained the 0% for dogs for the first three months of this year which is very very exciting that we are doing that. And hopefully that trend is going to be able to continue throughout the year and that we will keep raising the cats and raising the dogs and that's all very very exciting. Animal Control, the City of Las Cruces reported animals returned to their owners in the field and Dona Ana County Animal Control reported animals returned to their owners in the field in March. I will be doing the volunteering numbers. So for March we had approximately 00, that's a very even number. Total of 0 volunteers. We have a lot helping out with the cats at the Animal Shelter. Dog enrichment is where we need to improve. The County cats are being very well taken care of. The off-site adoptions are really totally funded or sponsored, or manned by our volunteers. The Pet's Barn and Petco cats teams, again takes care of those animals very very well. The photography team we have a great photography team with. The lost and found Facebook page was two. Transports was hours. We have a transporter that drives just to Santa Fe with litters of puppies, new puppies because we have a rescue partner up there and so he takes them up. He just took a mom and three little puppies this morning at :0 up to Santa Fe. Very wonderful gentleman. And then we had seven hours of volunteerism by our veterinarian. Foster families, we have families with animals, those numbers will go up greatly once we all start having litters of kittens at our home. Kittens are coming in very slow this year which we are all ecstatic about. We have two kittens on the adoption floor right now and that's very very exciting, so kittens are coming in much slower this year. It

9 seems to be across the entire country because Florida is reaching out to me for kittens last week. So it must, something's going on climate-wise, lighting-wise, that they did not come in heat as early this year. Something's going on because it's across the country. Two families in our surrender to foster program with two animals. So here is some of our fabulous animals from our fabulous photography team all looking to find their forever home. I think those eyes are just adorable personally. What can I say? That's how my kids looks at their dad to get anything they want right there. Thank you very much Dr. Beth. Are there any comments or questions from the Board? Seeing none. B. Committee Reports 1. Finance - David Dollahon, Committee Chair We'll move on to Committee reports. Board Member Dollahon did the Finance Committee meet? Saffell: Good morning Mr. Chair and Members of the Board. My name is Josh Saffell. And on behalf of the Finance Department I would like to present the unaudited financials as of February 0. On the balance sheet the general fund is showing about $,000 in cash and $,000 in receivables. The total liabilities in the general fund are about $,000. In operations the general fund is showing about $1. million in revenue and $1. million in expenditures. This gives us a net income of $,000. Total revenues are at 1.% of budget and total expenditures are at.% of budget. The budget target for this period was.%. Here we show actual revenues compared to budget. The actual revenue of $1. million is mainly due to Dona Ana and City contributions per the Joint Powers Agreement. In the expenditure comparison we can see that insurance expense is the only expense that's over the % budget parameter and that of course is due to insurance being prepaid, the premiums. For capital projects there's been no change from the prior month. And that will conclude the February financial report. Are there any questions. Are there any questions from the Board? Board Member Eakman. Eakman: Yes. Josh I'm sorry this didn't come to me during the Finance Committee, but for next month, not today, I wonder if you could give us the age of the receivables so that we can see if they're past 0 days, past 0 days, whatever, something like that. Would that be possible for next month? Satisfaction I ll look into it and hopefully be able to provide that information.

10 Eakman: Thank you. Thank you very much. Board Member Dollahon. Dollahon: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Board Members I wasn't here last month but you'll remember that we're a month behind because of the timing of the closing of the City's books and the Finance Committee had discussions on the budget at this month's meeting and it's an agenda item that I ll speak to later in the meeting. Thank you very much.. Executive - Jess Williams, Committee Chair The Executive Committee, I don't recall if we did meet. I think we did all our, did we, okay. Board Member Smith would you please remind me. I ran a fever much of last month. Smith: Thank you Mr. Chairman. We did meet. We discussed some personnel items, we also discussed the agenda and the question of I think, you can help me Dr. Beth, we talked about combining I think as Mr. Saffell just did, perhaps the finance piece and it seems like there was one other thing pertaining to the agenda but I'm not remembering exactly what it was at the moment either. Vesco-Mock: We discussed on how we was going to put the budget discussion, if we was going to keep it under the Finance Committee or we was making it a separate line item and you all decided to put it as a separate line item. Smith: Thank you Dr. Beth. I appreciate the refresher there. All right, and Mr. Chairman that I believe sums up the Executive Committee. Thank you very much and for the record we didn't vote on anything, we met. We're not allowed to vote in committees.. Facilities - Greg Smith, Committee Chair Board Member Smith did the Facilities committee happen to meet? Smith: We didn't actually meet as a committee because two members were unable to join us, but Dr. Beth and I met earlier this week, discussed the fact that we do have the finances to move forward with the improvements being discussed and we're going to see the plans for the facilities at the next Facilities meeting and bring then that forward to this Board at our next meeting in May. So we're hoping to have those things. And of

11 course ongoing discussions about the capacity of our facilities and the fact that basically our capacity is stressed given the large intake numbers and so once again its sort of the cycle or the circle of so many things being inner related, the more we can do to reduce the amount of intake, the better our facility, regardless of how up to date it is, we'll be able to function, but hopefully we'll be able to bring that up to a higher level here soon as well as hopefully reduce the numbers so that we're not stressing whatever system or facilities we have. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Board Member Garrett. Garrett: Thank you Mr. Chair. And just within the context of this facilities report, there was a meeting some time ago that I attended with the Mayor at which he expressed interest in the possibility of the City taking a role in more actively developing out the entire facility. There's a follow-up meeting, I believe it's scheduled for later this month. We weren't aware that he was interested and sees a possibility for doing more but I think just in the context of your comments about looking at full capacity and I think an evolving sense of function and operations at the center, we need to be aware as a Board that there's this possibility that the work that's been done might be transformed into something else. I just bring that up. I have no idea where he's going to go with this. Smith: If I may Mr. Chairman and I thank you Board Member Garrett. Certainly if you become informed before I do about any of that I appreciate knowing, so that we can work together as consistently and collaboratively as possible. Thank you. Thank you both. Dr. Beth would you please make a note to have a report on our discussion item the next meeting to discuss that meeting with the Mayor and what came out of that. That way we can keep everybody updated. Vesco-Mock: Yes sir. Thank you. C. Educational Initiatives - Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock That brings us to item six C, educational initiatives. Dr. Beth. Vesco-Mock: The visitors to the shelter was,. They are coming for many different reasons; some are coming to adopt they say,. Please remember that that can mean if they're coming in to adopt and they do adopt, when they bring the animal back for surgeries and all that kind of stuff, they're going to sign in that they're coming to adopt, that's what they're there for. So it

12 could be more than one time that they're signing in under that idea. So it's not like we have separate people coming in just to adopt. They could be signing in several different times. They could come in one day to adopt, don't have all their paperwork, don't have their stuff together, leave and come back the following day to finalize and do what they need to do, so there's a lot of different reasons that's coming in. And you need to remember that's how many people are coming in, not how many parties. So there could be a family of four or five that's one adoption but they're being counted as four or five people, so these numbers you know are very fluent. We have to really see what's going on. The reclaim and intake side is 1,00, both of those sides were low this year and looking for missing pet. Found a stray pet. I think this is a very good number that they are finding the animals, coming the shelter, having them scanned, putting them in a lost and found books that we have up there, doing all that those kinds of things, it's very positive that we have such a rapport with the public now that they're willing to come and have us assist them in getting these animals back. So that's very, very exciting. Animal licensing, I see people up there all the time getting their animals licensed. A lot of rescue organizations comes in. We assist the public in their euthanasia, about one a day which is what it really comes out to. So there's a lot of different reasons that they come to the shelter and do different things which is very good. Our outreach, we're on our radio stations, the Wilson Binkley advertisement campaign is going full steam. There was an interview with PBS. I am now part of the Animal Task Force Committee and working hard with them on different things with the City. We were at the home and garden show which was very positive. Dona Ana County Humane Society Senior Program. I do believe this is the wrong date, but the animals numbers are correct, it's dogs and two kitties that I just saw one animal go through that program just the other day. Dr. Beth if I could stop you there for a moment. Vesco-Mock: Absolutely. You mentioned the Task Force, the City Task Force. And I found about the Task Force recently. I ed Board Member Dollahon to get more information about it. He was very gracious and in inviting me to the next meetings but I would wonder Board Member Dollahon if you could briefly tell everybody what's going on with that initiative. Dollahon: Mr. Chairman, Board Members. So Kurt Fenstermacher who is the acting shelter director for the City of El Paso made a presentation to the Council at a work session in December 0 related to their strategic plan and all of the initiatives that they have undertaken. As a result of that work session, my boss, the City Manager directed me to establish an Animal

13 Care Task Force. It's not specifically related to the shelter or our Animal Control officers, it's just a general animal care task force that's looking at all things related to it. I'm the Chair, Councillor Gandara representing both the Council and this Board from the City is on there, Jess you are now representing the County. Dr. Beth is a member as is our City Attorney who wrote our animal control ordinance, Marcia Driggers, our Chief Animal Control Officer who is Gino Jimenez, who is not here today, and then Rene Waskowitz who is an employee of the State of New Mexico but is an animal advocate who does the training program for dogs out at the prison, she leads that effort. And so we've only had two meetings, one was a get to know our regular members and decide when we were going to meet and then we met in late March. Vesco-Mock: The last Friday at :00 p.m. Dollahon: Right. The last Friday at :00 p.m. is our standard meeting. We discussed at last month's meeting feral cats and there was great discussion and opportunities that we're entertaining at the City related to amending our ordinance to better improve our feral cat program. So there was great dialogue. We're meeting in April and we're working on our mission and next steps discussion items will be local adoption I believe, I'm still waiting for the committee members to get back to me. We will not be meeting the last Friday in May because that's the Friday before Memorial Day. We'll be meeting the third Friday in May, I think that's the th. The Committee Chairman has holiday travel plans that weekend. So we moved it ahead a week. But generally our meetings will always be the last Friday of the month at :00 at City Hall. We're barely getting started. We're anticipating once we better outline our mission that we will also have an open forum sometime this summer. Thank you very much Board Member Dollahon. I'm curious whether I would be interested in that committee or that task force bringing a monthly report to this Board since our missions are so closely aligned. I'm wondering what the rest of the Board feels about that. Dollahon: Can you give us a little time to get started? We can do that probably in May. Okay. Dollahon: Well, maybe June. It'll be May or June. Let's shoot for June. Dollahon: Okay. 1

14 Dollahon: Garrett: Garrett: Dollahon: Garrett: Dollahon: Garrett: Vasquez: Vasquez: Navarro: That gives you some time. But I think it would be good to add that item to the agenda as a regular presentation. Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair. Board Member Garrett. Since we've been paused on this particular slide I'd like a clarification about why we're using the City's PowerPoint background. Mr. Chairman, because it televises better on the television. I have struggled over the time I've been on this Board at times to make sure that it was clear that the County was an equal partner and yet there continues to be changes every so often, we've had a problem with the website, as far as I'm concerned it's a City website. It does not look like an independent entity that is a JPA base organization. I noticed that the financial report was simply a blue background. There were no City identifiers on that. I would ask that the City reconsider their I guess request for use of this kind of thing because I think it sends the wrong message. And I would greatly appreciate that that happen by the next meeting. We'll remove the City's logo and background, but the blue with the white looks better on television. We'll remove all references to the City. I appreciate that. Thank you. That brings us to Chair. Pardon me. Yes, Board Member Vasquez. If I could add, I mean would it be just so hard to add the County logo. I mean you could have the City logo and the County logo on one side and I mean. I could certainly provide the County logo to Bernice are you putting the PowerPoints together with the background? Yes, the background was already

15 It was already provided to you. I ll work with Mr. Dollahon to see if we can incorporate the County's logo somehow onto here so that we can represent that this Board is comprised of both entities. Vasquez: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you. And any further Board comment? Seeing none. Dr. Beth. Vesco-Mock: A 1 animals is in our foster to adopt program. Adoptions has been on an uptake the last couple of weekends, so we are getting them all ready to be spayed and neutered. D. Spay/Neuter Initiatives - Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock Vesco-Mock: Affordable surgeries in March was, general public was, we did one for Cherish K-, SNAP had one, APA had one, the Humane Society of Southern New Mexico had one, Broken Promises had and there was for the Community Cat Program. Our cats are now outranking our dogs and there was no shows or cancellations throughout the month. Total surgeries in March was actually with 1 being adopted and for the shelter. Extra surgeries that was done was cryptorchids, pregnant, one eye enucleation, and a hernia, and there is a very very large hernia repair being done today also. So it's very exciting that those animals get to get fixed and move on rather than being euthanized. It's awesome. So we have new little kitties and if any one does not think that Oliver is cute then we need to talk, because there's nothing cuter than that little grey tabby right there. Nothing cuter. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. E. Zero in Seven Update And that brings to item number six E which is the Zero in Seven update. Look's like Ms, Gilbert is coming down to do that. Please proceed. Gilbert: Yes. I'm Jean Gilbert, the secretary with the Coalition for Pets and People. The Coalition has adopted a new mission statement and this is it here. The reason we adopted a new mission statement is because members felt they wanted a stronger statement with a directive for reaching zero in seven by 0. And this of course reflects work roles and teams which I ll be talking about and that's in comparison to our past mission statement which had more of an emphasis on advocacy and networking. And here's a listing of the member organizations. Here are

16 Gilbert: Gilbert: Gilbert: upcoming events. This weekend Tails from the Shelter which is the rescue division of UNcaged Paws has events on Saturday and Sunday, and Safe Haven an Easter photo booth, and Paws N' Hooves, SNAP is having a couple of clinics one on the th and I guess the other one is in May which isn't shown here. And then of course APA pet adoptions, Safe Haven pet adoptions, HSSNM a fundraiser at Red Brick Pizza, and again APA pet adoptions. If I could interrupt you for just a second. Sure. I got a flyer yesterday from Safe Haven that they're having a donation drive on the nd at Tractor Supply. Yes, I'm sorry I got that too but I didn't have time to add it in the slide. Okay, let's just make sure that it's on the record. Thank you Jess. This is, I got kind of a summary of our recent meeting of the Coalition and one of the items of business was that we adopted the new mission statement which you saw earlier. We've established work teams and I just passed out and gave to Jess the document that goes with our work teams. I'm referencing it as a digest. And also at that meeting, oh I wanted to say that the digest is based on the ASCMV, the Animal Shelter, Dr. Beth's 0 report and then identifying, the Coalition has identified what are our impediments to Zero in Seven. And then we looked at what our major initiatives are going to be and other considerations and we're still looking at some type of emphasis with felines. And we've established work teams. And we also discussed at the meeting a special project fund agent, whether we're going to establish as our own 01(c), that is still under consideration or if we're going to go with a member organization who will be our fiscal agent. And you know that the community foundation is no longer carrying us under their umbrella, so this is why we are looking at another special project fund agent. Our next meeting will be April th. And here are the work teams. Intake and population analysis which will identify specific recommendations for implementation to decrease the number of animals that are taken to the shelter. And team two, spay/neuter, identifying a performance model to increase the availability of spay neuter appointments and looking at the cost/benefit of contracted veterinarians. Team three, saved by the chip, we're identifying groups that can provide microchip services and develop a sustaining program with method for registering and recording and then work on defining communications so that we can promote this to the public. Rescue transfer programs, identifying rescue organizations that are registered and already pulling

17 Gilbert: Gilbert: Gilbert: Eakman: Eakman: from the shelter with goal to increase rescue participation with all available local groups and also to increase out of state. Team five, visiting and marketing, using the 0 report and onsite interviews identifying reasons why over 1,000 people come to the shelter with a total of the report for 0 was around,00 animals with positive outcomes. And team six, reunited in the field. The highest intake comes from Animal Control picking up and bringing in animals from the community, so it's necessary for us to identify barriers that are causing this, looking at ordinances and policies for greater return of these animals. Can I interrupt you there? I think that team six, I would ask that you look at not only reunited in the field but as Board Member Garrett has said many times, not picked up in the field. There are many animals that are coming into the shelter that it's arguable whether they should've been picked up in the first place. Right. And if we work on that as a community I think it could inform both the City Council and the Board of County Commissioners in terms of revisions to the ordinances and direction to Animal Control about how and when it is appropriate to pick up an animal. If it is not posing any threat to public safety or darting in and out of traffic, what have you. Right. Okay. Thank you. And of course we know with Vic Villalobos is investigative journalism that he did for the Dog Cruces Magazine that there are animals that are not tagged, chipped. Okay. Thank you. Okay and this is a slide of ACTion Programs for Animals and you see that they're intake from March Excuse me Mr. Chair. Could we go back to the previous slide and the mission statement? Because I'd like to express confusion. Board Member Eakman, by all means, let's move back. I'm wondering if the mission statement which is now saying that the "Coalition for Pets and People is there to reduce the number of adoptable animals euthanized in the Animal Service Center" and I was thinking that that was this Board's responsibility rather than a group that will be working on this perhaps without the information available to them. And then also these various committees I see here where they want to review organization charts which is a decision made by this Board and a decision made by our Executive Director and I'm confused about the role that the

18 CfPP now wants to take and until and unless I can better understand how it works inconformity and conjunction with this Board and understands this Board's role and responsibility, I'm going to be very skeptical of what the group intends to do. I wanted to express that. Thank you. Thank you Board Member Eakman. Any further Board comment? Board Member Garrett. Garrett: Let me take a stab at this. The Coalition for Pets and People is a community-wide entity, coalition, that includes the participation, coordination with ASCMV. One of the things that we realized a number of years ago is that the effort to deal with reducing the number of animals who are healthy and treatable that were being euthanized, that was bigger than what this Board could do by itself. A very good example has to do with the ACOs. They are not under the control of this Board. The various animal advocacy groups are not under the control of this Board. So in order to work toward the goal of reducing euthanasia of healthy and treatable animals at the shelter this Coalition was put together and so we are part of it, but we are not all of it. Okay and so that's a very important part of this. They are in a positon to advocate for and speak to other entities and groups. One of the things that holds us all together is that the City, the County, and this Board have all endorsed by resolution the Zero in Seven initiative. And so going back and looking at that if that needs to be done we have a common base of policy of working together to do that. So it seems to me that one of the things that and I actually had asked that the Coalition start working on giving presentations to us because they are in a sense the keepers of the overall perspective on whether we're getting to Zero in Seven. We're getting data from Dr. Beth and that goes to the whole community. What happens at the shelter is the benchmark of whether we're being successful or not. But in terms of actually doing strategic thinking and working on other things that aren't just about what this Board can do and what the shelter can do, that's what the Coalition can do. I think a classic example going back to the beginning was that we identified, I think number six actually should simply be "Return Home." Gilbert: Instead of "Reunited in the Field." Garrett: Because there are so many ways of getting animals back home and some of it's returning in the field and some it is community member finding an animal, taking it getting it scanned and then you know making sure it gets home and you know the whole thing with volunteers now and the Facebook, there's a bunch of different ways we're getting animals back home. But one of the things we realized really early was that the ACOs didn't have chip scanners in their cars and they didn't have a way of relating that to find out quickly where does this pet go. So that's not

19 Eakman: Garrett: something this Board has any control over, but members of the Coalition working with the ACOs were able to, actually they helped raise money and find laptops and get scanners and so forth and then that became part of what the ACOs could do. That's a good example of how the Coalition works. So I hope that that helps clarify to some degree. I appreciate it Board Member Garrett, however it does not take away my anxiety for authority without any responsibility for what is happening here. This is the agency right here sitting on this dais with the responsibility for what happens right or wrong and we're going to be, I'm all for getting advice and intake and things like that, but this looks like a usurpation. This looks like a take over. And if I were part of the management staff and volunteers at the Animal Service Center, I'd be demoralized that what we're doing with all these great reductions over the past years and all the improvements taking place, I'd be demoralized that we would sit here and just say, "Oh all well and good. We're not doing it right. Why don't you try to help us do it better." And I'm sorry that's how it looks when you're going to be looking at the very organizational chart of the Animal when you're going to be advising them on how rescue happens and how that goes to other states and when you're going to be looking at what breeds are adopted and which ones aren't and things like that, that to me is invasive. That is not being a partner. Thank you. I can simply say as somebody who's been involved with this from the beginning that, and I'm not involved with this particular effort right now. I don't read it that way. And I think that this is as a matter of fact maybe another way of looking at what you're expressing is that it's very important that this Board not abdicate it's responsibility and that what we do is to engage and work with the public. There are people here who have a lot of experience working with animals and with the shelter. They can provide us with good information and good advice. Any changes in policy, any changes in how things are organized would have to come through this Board any way. So I look at this as broadening the base of decision making and actually I have challenged. I've gone back and talked to the group time and again. They have to look at the data that we get and it helps to have a whole bunch of eyes looking at that data and saying "Where can we make the reductions in the number of animals that are coming in that are being killed that shouldn't be killed." And that does get down to breeds and it gets down to species. I mean I was going to comment on it and I will later on, but it helps to have some others looking at this and say "My gosh how many pit bulls we're killing." That means we need, we as a community of effort need to be working together with ASCMV and everybody else to reduce that number in that particular, it gives us a way of focusing. So I can understand you're concern. I hope that that's not the way that Dr. Beth or the staff take it because I don't believe that that's the way it's intended and that's never been anyway that

20 Gilbert: Smith: Eakman: I've intended for that to be. It's broadening the base of support for this initiative. Broadening and maybe fine tuning too because you know our previous mission statement as I said when we compared them, but it still does not exclude that we are all about networking, resource building, but also relationship building too. And so I would urge you if you do have, continue to have concerns to please, you know we can set up a meeting, talk about any specific concerns. Board Member Smith. Thank you Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank Board Member Eakman for bringing up the question because I think what happens is we sometimes forget that as new people join this Board some of the history has not been shared with them and so I want to; one commend Board Member Garrett because back before I was on the Board there was a significant amount of contention about what should be happening next and who should be in charge of what and that sort of thing and so his efforts with the Zero in Seven and the Coalition for Pets and People actually helped bring a lot more unity. There's still obviously differences of opinion and that sort of thing but I think that effort was a historic piece in helping us move towards a greater public and private collaboration. But I think the discussion needs to go on, you bring up very valid points and concerns, and so I'm thankful for the opportunity for us to sort of revisit that and re-clarify on that. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Board Member Eakman. Mr. Chairman my final word on this is that the tone and tenor of this report in my opinion is disrespectful to the Animal Service Center, to the manager, to the staff, to the volunteers. And I believe if we are going to continue to get these reports, the tone and tenor should be altered to not so adversarial, no so "You need us looking over your shoulder." I could spend an hour going through this report and telling you where my thoughts are coming from, I won't do that at this time. But you can tell this upsets me. This upsets me greatly. I take this responsibility very seriously and I want to make sure that we continue to provide the ever-increasing good service that's being done there. So I just want to make my feelings very clear. Thank you. Thank you Board Member Eakman. And while we're on this subject, and while we have this slide on the page, earlier in the meeting I asked Board Member Dollahon, I wish he were here, to tell us about this City Task Force that the City Manager has convened. Let me tell you what their agenda is: Adoptions all types; rescue groups, low cost spay and neuter,

21 Gilbert: Gilbert: Gilbert: pet retention, volunteer programs, redemptions, I don't know what that means, public relations and community involvement, and foster care. So essentially the Task Force is doing exactly the same thing as the Zero in Seven Coalition. And we certainly need all of us don't we, working on this. So I can understand the reflexive nature of your reading the report and getting it. Where I am personally having been through this for the first five years of the Zero in Seven and I was actually at the very first meeting when it was formed with Commissioner Garrett and Mayor Miyagishima and several others represented from the Humane Society and, gosh there were just so many people there from all the different groups. The idea was to bring people together and to try to assist the shelter. Like you I take this responsibility very seriously and there will be, while I'm Chairman, I'm not going to let anybody set policy for this Board except this Board. And it would be, I don't know why this is happening to be honest, the Task Force is happening, but I'm going to participate in it to the extent that I'm able. And hope that what comes out of both groups, the Task Force and the Zero in Seven initiative is a different way of looking at the issues that we face as a community as we pursue common goals. That's the best I can do with it. Thank you. Ms. Gilbert please proceed. Okay, this is the start of summary of, or some highlights from APA, their intake was in March and their adoptions were 1, and transfers were. And I'm sharing this on the slide just to show you what can be representative of a very good day for APA. APA as we know is a really heavy lifter in the community and they have amazing support from the community. Hennessey the little Chihuahua, I don't know how well you can see him, because he's up against the girl's blue, her denim shirt, but he was adopted and then another dog, not pictured, they went on sleepovers and I assume they were adopted. And then a medium sized dog was adopted. Santos the cat and River a kitten were adopted at APA on the same day which was March th and they had great donations at Sam's club as well so. And you had mentioned Renee Waskowitz and there she is pictured on the far left. And this, I actually have the slide prepared and then later saw it in the newspaper, so I don't know how many of you caught that but Ms. Gilbert I'm going to ask you to pause. We have lost our quorum for a moment. Oh okay. And Board Member Smith has returned. Please continue. 0

22 Gilbert: The P.A.W.S. program, Prisoners and Animals Working Towards Success started in 0 and APA is now handling the dogs and they started that in January and providing dogs for the program, dogs that are rescued from the shelter, and then finding them homes when they graduate. And the program has been so successful that dogs have been adopted so far. And this is one of the posters of APA and Michelle says that they always have what are less adoptable dogs and cats because those are the ones that they primarily rescue from the shelter and they are of course uniquely individual animals seeking forever homes and there's the contact information and the facility for APA's adoption center here on the slide and their hours of when the facility's open. HSSNM, here's a picture of Linda Small who's a youth volunteer and she's pictured here with a pet ferret. We do take all different kinds of animals; turtles, ferrets, rabbits, dogs. And we haven't had any cats lately but to our humane education programs and those would be the critter connection sessions. And so we've had about humane ed. sessions for the month of March. The BFF are Books for Fur'ever friends are on request sessions and the teachers get books. We usually present a book or a story and then follow it with an activity and the teachers get books. Here's an example of some of the books that they get; "Are you ready for me?" This is basically an A to Z on responsible pet care and being a pet guardian. And then some of our other books "Kamie Cat's Terrible Night" is about a cat who gets lost so the emphasis is on identification and microchipping. And I wanted to point out that we also do environmental education and we've been doing Soft Child How, it's a Toto Odem story how a rattle snake got his fangs. And interesting that in the next slide there's Frank Bryce, he's of course the President of the Humane Society and he's also a herpetologist, so Frank will rescue snakes, a lot of them come through out pet help line, and then return them to the desert. Bill Smith is the primary person who answers our pet help line. And our largest category was calls received for information and then the next category was found pets, and rehome. People seeking to rehome their animals, calls for animals. And I just want to say here that we do encourage people, we try to keep the accountability with the individual and of course our objective is that they do not take them to the shelter to help reduce the intake, so we encourage them if it's an animal, even though they want to rehome, if they're in a position to hold on to the animal for a while and then we, of course with the animal resource guide, and we offer a service where we will post the animal on our website as well as circulating it through the pet network as well. Adoptions were 1 for the first quarter for us, for HSSNM and our microchip numbers for those that we have facilitated and that we've registered are at around,00 now which we started that about four years ago. And our Cans Critters program, March was a really good month because we had some cash donations too and so part of our chip-ins for the month included $0 that went to APA because they do rescue dogs 1

23 Gilbert: Gilbert: Gilbert: from the shelter and we know that the heartworm treatment is expensive, so we donated money to go to a heartworm positive dog. Total donations now are over $,00 and we've helped approximately - animals since we started the program in 0. Broken Promises, their first quarter, they're reporting cats TNRed from colonies. And in parentheses are some of the communities where those colonies are located. And then you'll see a breakdown of the numbers of cats that they've TNRed for the first quarter with their contact info. I thought this was funny because there's Joe Miele, he is their TNR project coordinator and I thought this was too good to pass up. Tommy is a cat that was trapped by Broken Promises on March th and the colony caretaker is TNRing her other cats and doing a really, Joe says a really terrific job with the recommended equipment that they've asked her to get. And Joe points out here that TNR does consume a lot of time, effort, and money and if our community wants to reap the benefits and I know Zero in Seven, we're looking at doing something for cats and perhaps feral cats with the realization that we have got to build resources because Broken Promises is the primary, call it service, but organization that offers this service to TNR cats. And Joe talks here about, it was on this slide or it's in my notes, but they had someone who was waiting on them since last October to help TNR their colony. So their chipping away at their list, but just like he said, we've got to build our numbers. And Joe does offer training sessions too for people that are interested and his contact info is there, phone numbers are there. Can you go back to that slide please? Just for people who might be watching at home, clearly this cat, the picture was taken before it was taken to the vet, otherwise one of the ears would be tipped You're right. To make sure that the Animal Control Officers Right. In the field could identify it as a TNR and not bring it to the shelter. So just want to clarify that. Cat's Meow, this is Kegan, a distinguished 1- year old cat and Cat's Meow of course is cats rule at their adoption center and there are their location and their hours. They offer a seniors for seniors program that if you're years or older you can adopt a senior cat who is nine years older or more for free. And I've selected this picture just to show you what the really nice enclosures they have for the cats. It's a beautiful adoption center. It really is.

24 Gilbert: Gilbert: It's almost as nice as the County's Kitty Condo. You know when I saw this Jess it reminded me of the County's enclosure, yeah. Very nice. And more about the Cat's Meow adoption center. Michele Corella gave us this report. They adopted 0 the first quarter and she notes that many of them were not cats that were at the facility, a lot of them were cats they had featured on Petfinder who were awaiting space at the adoption center, so they were in foster care. And Michelle notes that if things continue as they are now they're on tract to exceed last year's adoptions of 0 felines. Big Kitty Fix facilitated feline spay and neuter surgeries during the first quarter and they do have monthly clinics scheduled through August. Safe Haven had a large group of volunteers come from the University of Massachusetts at Boston for a working spring break and this is a picture of them. I mentioned last month that they had contacted the Coalition and other organizations for literature because they created, and you'll see there on the table, those are their VIP bags, Very Important Pet bags. And here's another slide with a closer up picture of their volunteers. They worked at the thrift store, they helped with adoption events, they held a vaccination clinic and a dog wash. And their T-shirts say "Learn, Serve, Travel. UNcaged Paws, their rescue division is Tails from the Shelter and they're a 01(c) animal welfare organization working for shelter reform and while solutions are being developed in communities, lives are being saved from New Mexico shelters through the partnership with Tails from the Shelter. And there is their address and at our table at the volunteer fair and I ll have a slide next month on that, but the Coalition participated in the community volunteer fair that was held on the downtown plaza and one of the cute little guys here came to the table with Kelly and we got quite a bit of attention because of the dog too. And I actually had this slide last month but I wanted for you to make the connection that it is UNcaged Paws, here's a picture of one of their fosters. Give you a minute to read it. And before I conclude I wanted to say that, and it was too late to get a slide made for Kitty Glitter and I know Dr. Beth mentioned Jackye Meineke on fosters and helping with ringworm cats, but I also wanted to say that not only is Jackye a heavy lifter that way but she Jean please stay with the mic. She's really an awesome person for fundraising and Kitty Glitter raised over $,000. And the proceeds went to benefit the Cat's Meow adoption center, Big Kitty Fix, Broken Promises, and other organizations.

25 Gilbert: And now I'd like to mention that Ron Comeau is here, he's an associate of Kurt Fenstermacher with the Animal Services Center in El Paso. He has some information to share briefly with the Board that's related to the Coalition's mission and work teams. You know what, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me finish with the spay/neuter ACTion Program. They had 0 spay/neuter vouchers with a dogs and. These are vouchers that have been redeemed, dogs and 0 cats for January and redeemed vouchers for February are dogs and cats. I like the spay it forward. And SNAP is proud to announce that they were awarded a $,000 life saving grant from PetSmart Charities and that's going to help fund one of their April clinic and their May clinic. I don't know how to get that off, so sorry. And FCaMP, Michelle Corella reported that three campus kitties during this quarter, one of them was an elderly female who was sick and had to be euthanized, Chikita, they think, she was originally trapped in 00, so that would make her age at the time she was three to four years old, so that would make her age at the time of her death at around years. And Michelle notes that this is testament that feral cats can have long lives and it certainly is a testament to their care there at FCaMP. And I guess a typical feral cat's lifespan is five to six years, so Chikita certainly well exceeded that. FCaMP TNRed a juvenile female kitty and rescued a tame cat, presumably abandoned, a Clementine and she was spayed and chipped but despite attempts to contact the owner they were unable to so she's in foster care awaiting a home. Cherish K-s, another one of our rescue organizations, holds adoptions on a regular basis and recently they were at Pet's Barn. Carla Baker is their director. Hearts Paws, here is a picture of some dogs that they've rescued. And I just wanted to comment on this dog Angel because it goes to show you what rescue groups go through sometimes in their expense and hard work that they do. But Angel they had issues with her when she was spayed, that's the mom dog there, because she got to her stiches and staples on three occasions, and one of the trips had to be to an emergency clinic which was expensive. And because of eating her staples and getting sick, they had to reschedule her leg surgery which also included the removal of cancerous growths. So this I just wanted to show is an example of, and in some cases really representative of what our breed organizations do to help animals and of course to help reduce the intake at the shelter. Hearts Paws is located in Radium Springs. Okay and now Mr. Comeau come up. Thank you. While he's making his way up Jean Yes.

26 To speed up this report from the Zero in Seven Coalition in the future, could we maybe highlight one organization that's within the Coalition each meeting and maybe even bring their Executive Director or some contact person so we're not going through, I don't know, I can't even count how many organizations (inaudible). Gilbert: Yeah I could try to cut the slides and we could talk some more. I'm not sure about, because I think it's nice for the organizations to be represented but maybe just one slide or cut down on the number of slides. You know when we first started doing our PowerPoint for the Coalition my effort as secretary was to try to get even a rotation of you know Amanda presented it, Ann Markman has presented the PowerPoint, I mean we've really tried, but it's hard to get people to come at this time of day. Right. Gilbert: Yeah. And then we also don't know specifically on the agenda what time the PowerPoint is going to be given so. Perhaps we could also, if you can cut down the number of slides Gilbert: Yeah I will work on that. But if you have the information that we can put in the packet, if you can get that to Bernice a few days earlier we can have more information in the packet and a shorter presentation. Gilbert: Okay. Yeah I ll work on that. Great. Thank you very much. Gilbert: Thank you. Vasquez: Mr. Chair. Yes. Vasquez: If I may, I'm going to have to leave. I have another appointment at :0 at the County Building. I understand there will not be a problem with quorum. There will not be a quorum problem. Vasquez: Thank you sir. Thank you Board Member Vasquez.

27 Comeau: Comeau: Comeau: Comeau: Comeau: Comeau: Comeau: Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for your time today. For the record state your name please. My name is Ron Comeau and I'm actually here representing Lucy's Dream rescue which is me. Please speak into the microphone. There you go. I am with Lucy's Dream rescue. I just want to bring forth some things. I'd like to start off on a positive note. One of the things animal services has implemented is the thing called "Finding Rover." Finding Rover is a free application which does facial recognition of the dog. Pretty much most of your people here have phones with all your little goodies, pictures and internet and all you do is you go on-line, you download the Finding Rover app which is free, and I emphasize free because I think there's a lot of problems with what we have with microchipping with people, they don't want to pay the money. This free app allows you to take pictures of your dog and if your dog is lost this app assists us in finding the owners. It's free. It costs nothing. It's an application you download. It's very important. It's another tool to get your pet back home. Second thing, not really on a happy note. I want to speak as a rescue and a person that has talked to your Director and as a concerned citizen. Okay, if this isn't related to the Coalition for Pets and People Yes it is. Report. Yes it is. This is this Okay. What this is, is a conversation about how we can better serve the community and outer lying communities to help you with your pets. We have rescues that have been trying to help you retrieve pets from your facility. We do not get greeted with the same type of conversations and the pleasantries that you have here today. One of the successes of El Paso Animal Services is due to the people that are there running it and the

28 mangers and the people representing El Paso Animal Services. They have implemented a lot of things for us as rescues and for adopters to make it easier to do things to get pets adopted. They go further than they should or, I shouldn't say that, they go further than they're needed to because that's not part of their job, where they notify us if an animal's been there too long. They notify us if there's animal there that's been hurt or injured so that we can get on it. We as rescues can go pull these pets, get them the attention they need, and get them to the specialized rescues that deal with the problems. One of the problems that we have is when we contact your facility we do not get the assistance, we do not get the information, and we get treated like second-class citizens. Which as me as a rescue, I've had one conversation with your Director and I will not have any more. Now me as a one rescue. That hurts all of us because I'm not able or willing to pull from your facility because of the treatment at your facility. I am not the only rescue that feels this way and I hope you people understand that I'm trying to bring to light an issue. El Paso Animal Services is dealing with rescues from here to Maine, here to California, here to Florida, and they do all their own transportation. All we do is we supply information on Facebook, we get notified from the rescues and then we make arrangements for the dogs to be pulled, put in foster until transportation can be made. This is all done because animal services is allowing us to work with people. I am allowed to go in and video tape dogs. I can bring the dogs out to the play area. I can video tape them. I can go into the kennels. I can video tape them. I get on my Facebook page. I had an injured Sheppard I put on my Facebook page the other day;,000 views. I had people come forward trying to take care of this hurt dog because I was allowed to go into the facility and take the video pictures of this hurt dog. We had a Chihuahua that was abused and they beat the eyes out of the dog. One of our rescues stepped forward, pulled the dog, animal services removed the eyes, we picked the dog up, we transferred the dog. The dog went to a rescue that specializes in blind and deaf dogs. This is the reason why El Paso is so successful. It works hand-in-hand with all the rescues that contact that facility. They treat all the rescues that contact that facility as partners. They do not treat them like second-hand citizens. You need to change the attitude of your shelter on how it deals with rescues in the outlying communities. We are here to help not hurt, but we can't if we're not allowed. And again El Paso Animal Services is so successful because of all the things they've implemented and I hope you guys take good note on what they're doing because that facility has come a long way since Kurt took over. We had the same issues, and the conversation I had with your Director, was the problem is the community. Well let me explain. Our former director used to give us the same thing to the committee we had, our problem's our community. Our problem's our community. Well guess what? El Paso Animal Services is dealing with the same community and

29 Comeau: Garrett: Eakman: has more than doubled its live release rate. So where was the problem really? Was it the community I appreciate your input. I would point out that we are not in a competition with the El Paso shelter. We have a fifth of the budget of the El Paso shelter. And we have way more than doubled our live release rate. That said, if we can do a better job of working with area rescues, that's certainly something that this Board can consider and we can work with our Executive Director to identify what the issues are and move forward. Your message has been heard. I appreciate it. And we're going to move on with the meeting. Thank you for your time. Are there any Board comments or questions? Board Member Garrett. Just one. This is a policy making group. And something that we have relied on and one of the reasons I have supported the Coalition is because we are deliberately not looking for adversarial relationships, we're looking for collaborative relationships and we're looking for information. So to me just in terms of putting this particular presentation in context, I'm personally very happy to see the development of the work groups, this one clearly fits into one that has to do with rescues. I think that having a report to this Board about areas that could be improved and ways of addressing enhanced rescues that have been based on conversations with the shelter and with other rescue groups, makes a lot of sense. This is not a place to criticize any one particular group or entity, nobody's been prepared to defend or to counter, offer alternative information. There's no context for this. And so I just want to say I understand the point of view, I respect that. What I'm looking for and what I'm really hoping is that as we continue to have the reports that part of the report will actually be maybe a little less about all of the stuff that's being done by the organizations. That's important stuff and it's important for people to see that community activity and the volume of that. But we also need to be kept abreast on certain parts of the work that you're doing on these work groups in terms of things that we need to consider in terms of policies and staffing issues and you know budget issues. That's where it can be helpful to us. So I just would ask that that be something that you take into consideration as the organization continues to move forward and in terms of continued presentations to this Board. Thank you. Thank you. Board Member Eakman. I did not see some of this presentation on the agenda and so I wonder if we should deal with things that are on the agenda so I am better prepared

30 in the future to respond to some of these alligations and some of this divisiveness. Thank you. Board Member Eakman, I'm in complete agreement. That I think we strayed pretty far from the Coalition report. And I would ask that the Coalition in the future, if you want something on the agenda related to a specific topic, contact me or Dr. Beth or Vice Chair Gandara and we can arrange to have a work session to discuss specific issues or we can arrange to have an agenda item that is put on the agenda. I don't think this was appropriate as part of the Coalition report. That said, we've got the input, we've heard it, and we'll continue to move forward with addressing a wide variety of issues before this Board at future meetings. Board Member Smith. Smith: Thank you Mr. Chairman. And I want to point out that we still have a public input session at the end of the meeting at which time the kinds of comments that we just heard have often been shared in the past and certainly are welcome. We do listen to them. We don't always respond as quickly as sometimes people would like, but nonetheless that is an appropriate time to share something that's not on the agenda. So I would suggest that if there are those kinds of comments, there is a time in the meeting for them. Thank you Mr. Chair. And to follow-up on that I would point out that often items come up in public input where we're being asked to respond and we can't because it's not on the agenda. We can address those issues at future meetings or we can have the Director , there are ways that we can respond, but we can't do it in an open meeting when it's not an agenda item. I see somebody back there shaking their head, but I ll defer to past Chairs of this and other boards to verify whether what I'm saying is accurate. Board Member Garrett. Garrett: Thank you Mr. Chair. I'd actually like to go back to the purpose of the report which was a Zero in Seven update. And based on the 0 annual report that we got at our last meeting, it looks to me very much as though we have, and I think this was pointed by Dr. Beth, plateaued to a certain extent in terms of how we're dealing with the outcomes relative to adoptions from the shelter, returning to owner, and transfers to rescue. And return to owner is from the shelter, not the field returns. That's partly because we have a lower number of animals that we're dealing with, but it also has to do with, so just as a matter of percentages, but there have also been other dynamics that are going on. The very presentation that we saw shows how many other animals are being adopted, they're not even coming to the shelter and they're being adopted. So there's an active and I think a pretty aggressive effort to find homes for animals without them having to come through the shelter, and that's a really positive thing.

31 We did have an uptick in terms of the strays that were being brought in by ACOs, just looking at the overall numbers in terms of intake. We are pretty close on target for the strays brought in by the public, seized was a little higher but that's a relatively small number, returned adoptions was high but it was also a small number. Surrenders, that number has been somewhere around 1,00. And so when I look at this and I look for the areas that we need to focus on in order to get down to Zero in Seven. It has to come out of the big big number which is the number of animals being brought in by ACOs. That's just, there are thousands there and looking at the trajectory of the numbers, the scale of the numbers, in order to get to the Zero in Seven in one year, eight months, and days, we've got to reduce the number of intake by a total of probably 1,00 or more. And we need to do that quickly. We're already into this year. The largest category that makes no sense to me are the number of timid animals that are being killed, that's about 00 I think this last year. We also have issues with the timid, we've got statistics on timid and feral cats. I do not believe that these animals represent a threat to public health and safety, and that's why we need to be working very aggressively with our City Council and County Commission to advocate for either changes in the way that the ordinances are being enforced or changes in the ordinances themselves if we can't get it done by some kind of directive. But if we're serious about this we need to do that. I just want to add one other thing and the cover sheet for the handout talks about the number of animals that were killed and euthanized and it's the total number. I don't see any indication here that allowances were made for very ill or unadoptable animals and the Zero in Seven target has to do with healthy and treatable animals not being euthanized. The idea of what's treatable and what can be dealt with in terms of socialization is an elastic number. It depends on how much time and money you've got to put into individual animals. As a public shelter we have to take every animal that's brought in. So I've resisted from the beginning the idea of saying this is no kill because that sets the wrong public message. There are animals that come in that are already dead and that are included in the statistics. There are animals that are brought in that are seriously injured and there's just no way to save them, that die in the shelter; not for any lack of care or attention, and when you've got some due triage and you're concentrating on saving as many lives as you can you get into these hard decisions. There's going to be a percentage and just the numbers that I've been using and I think the Coalition has accepted over the years is that something like 0.% of the gross are going to be things like stolen or missing which is small number, expired in the shelter, arrived deceased, or wildlife. There's a category and that's all in our report. This last year that number was 1,0 animals. We also then have to say "Well what was an acceptable number in terms of very ill or they couldn't be adopted for some reason, mostly socialization," and that number generally we've been 0

32 lowering that percentage because we have more time and money to put into working with the animals, but we're working in terms of our projections now with about % of the gross. We can reduce that if we don't have the intake. But that means that close to % of the number of animals that are coming in are in these two categories, and then what we want to focus on is making sure that all the others that we hope are healthy and treatable and adoptable, that's the group we want to concentrate on. So I want to put this effort in perspective. I think it's wonderful to put the emphasis on increased transfers and rescues and returning animals in the field and all that, we've already got a pretty good system going and yeah we can wrap it up a little bit; we've got to not lose any momentum, but I'm just saying that when we actually look at trying to meet that target which is a policy for this Board, we've got to figure out a way with the other entities that we have to work with to significantly reduce the number of animals being brought in and that's more than a few hundred, and we went the wrong way last year. So I just want to ask that the coalition and anybody working on the Animal Task Force keep those statistics in mind. One of the reasons we asked for statistics is so we are not running blind. We actually have data that will guide what we're trying to do. So thank you for the report and thank you for the organization that you're taking and the initiative that you're taking to move forward on things. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Board Member Garrett. Seeing no further Board input. VII. Discuss Item A. FY0 Budget We will move onto item number seven which is the budget. Board Member Dollahon. Dollahon: Mr. Chairman, Members of the Board. Copies of this PowerPoint has sections broken down for your preliminary draft of the FY proposed budget for both operating and capital. There should've been two sheets, one for Fund 0 which is the general operating fund for the Animal Service Center, and Fund 1 which is the capital fund. These are preliminary numbers that are based on discussions with staff from the Animal Service Center and our budget office. On the screen before you are the projected resources and revenues that are anticipated for FY in the collum on your far right in yellow. You'll notice that our projected beginning balance is $0,000 in fund balance, and then we go through the normal revenue projections for everything. Pet licensing is proposed to go up from the projected which is lower than where we are on the budget, difference will be about to $,000 off what we had budgeted in FY for FY. Vaccinations are clearly on the uptick. Pet microchipping 1

33 is balanced out. Adoptions are down. Clearly this FY book projected to pickup next year. Return to owner are holding pretty steady. Spay and neuter is increasing. And we're holding the projection of contributions from the City and the County to be the same at this point based on the preliminary budget. All things considered with the beginning balance and other revenues, we're looking at about $. million and some change for our revenue. The next slide talks about expenditures and you will notice two major changes and we want to talk about those today and we discussed this with the Finance Committee on Tuesday. The differences between personnel and services. You'll notice that personnel is going up by a little over $00,000 and then services is going down by about $0,000. Primarily that's attributed to how we account for temporary services. Previously the City and its financial management system counted outside temporary help through an employment agency to give us temporary help as a purchased service. We've changed our accounting practice and we count that as a personnel expense. So a majority of that is coming from moving that expense line item because Dr. Beth and the staff out there, due to turnover and other things, do rely on temporary services to fill the much-needed gaps as they occur throughout the year. The other thing is, that also reflects increase in our labor expenses associated with health benefits in that personnel line item. The City, who is the healthcare insurance provider for the Animal Service Center, is projecting starting in January a % increase in our health insurance premiums, so that is reflected in the budget. So that gives us a $. million expenditure line item total for fund transfer to 1, the Animal Service Center capital fund, we're projecting to move $,000 of their unrestricted fund balance for our capital project that is designed underway. That gives us the proposed $,000 fund balance, subtracting the required one-twelfth reserve, that gives us an unrestricted ending balance of $,1. Before I turn it over to Dr. Beth, and we continue the discussion on capital funds, which is fund 1, I think she has some very good news that will impact the information on the capital fund. Vesco-Mock: As you know we are looking for people to help raise money for the new addition and for the new cat room. And as you know Ms. Kapner is a huge proponent of going out and getting support. She's the one that goes up to Santa Fe all the time, her and Ms. Susan. And Ms. Kapner was able to locate a citizen who was willing to donate $0,000 to the cat room and they have contacted the City now and the stocks will be coming through, Mr. Dollahon's taking care of all that, because I have no idea how you sell stock, but I would like to share with the Board that we do have $0,000 pledged to this project for the cats, for the improvement of the cat space. Ms. Kapner was able to find that person and I was able to meet with them and move forward on this, so that's a very positive situation that the

34 Dollahon: Dollahon: community, this project you know is really being funded by a lot of different people from the community and that's a very positive situation. Well let's give a round of applause to Ms. Kapner and the donor. Mr. Chairman, so to add to what Dr. Beth so humbly eluded to, I think you owe her a round of applause because it's her efforts to talk to this individual that really made the difference in getting this donation and there are some complexities that are associated with this donation, this is a little bit new territory for us as the City as a fiscal agent, because it's an actual stock transfer. The individual for whatever reason is prohibited from liquidating the stocks themselves to turn it into cash for us. So it will be turned as a stock transfer to the Animal Service Center with restrictions and we're waiting on the lawyer to provide us with a donation letter and then we will secure the donation and the stock transfer, and then we will proceed to liquidate the stocks to turn it into cash. We will have to absorb any costs associated with that liquidation out of the donation. I have talked to their lawyer. If that is an issue with the donor, then we'll have to resolve that issue and the Animal Service Center will have to cover those expenses. Just to follow-up on that. I spoke yesterday with the Board's attorney about this matter and he said that they're very close to everything being finalized and that the transfer will take place. Right and we're anticipating that we will be bringing forward to you Board action related to the acceptance of the donation and that it will clearly give Dr. Beth the authority to sign off on the donation and acceptance. And the reason I say that is because Dr. Beth doesn't have the ability to amend the budget, that relies on you. But as we're going forward with the FY capital budget things are going to change but I don't want, and we're not prepared to present to you this is just a discussion and we wanted you to be aware of this because this happened relatively quickly. So before you on the screen is the FY proposed budget. We have $,000+ beginning fund balance. That's based on previous fund savings and the transfer in F that was made from the operating fund balance. We're proposing to pull $,000 this next year out of operating fund balance to contribute to this capital project and then the $00,000 is the bequest from the previous donor that is currently held in the City's gifts and memorials fund. We're going to propose to do that transfer this year. That bequest started out in the $0,000 and by leaving it in the City's gifts and memorials fund restricted for the Animal Service Center, we've pushed that based on investment earnings, over $00,000. So that number is going to change between now and when we do the actual transfer, but this is a planning document as the budget so we're making our best estimates, and so that gives us total resources of $1.1 million.

35 Garrett: That doesn't account for what the gifts and memorials fund will actually turn out to be, and it doesn't reflect the donation of the $0,000. So those numbers will change, but this is our preliminary budget for discussion so we can have questions and dialogue with you today. And then our anticipated capital expense for the improvement is $1.1 million, and we're still waiting on those final numbers as the Facilities and the Executive Committee will be working through that process over the next couple of months with the City's facility staff and the design firm. So based on that that leaves us with an $0 fund balance in the capital fund. So it is very fluid at this point, but I think it's a sound budget. I think it's based on realistic numbers. We have changed our budgeting process this year for FY on the City's side. Kudos to Bernice as always and Steve as always because they had to learn how to do budgeting in our Enterprise software, along with the rest of City staff. The nice part about using our Enterprise software, it gives us a more accurate projection of personnel experiences based on real salary and real benefits. So we feel like those numbers are fairly well this year. Those fund balances, not accounting for the increase to the gifts and memorials, and the $0,000 donation that we just talked about, the Board's going to have to make a decision sometime in the future when we have tighter numbers. It will probably be in July or August, all things considered, that we can tie up those numbers and we may not need to make as big a transfer from the operating fund balance to the capital account, but once we know the price tag on the bidding of the construction documents it'll all come together miraculously like Jell-O. Thank you Board Member Dollahon. Any Board comments or questions? Board Member Garrett. Thank you. First of all let me just say I'm on the Finance Committee and I would have preferred to have been at the Finance Committee rather at the very very long Commission meeting. But that's the way it is, so I was not able to get there. At the last Board meeting I requested that Dr. Beth bring forward for consideration by the Finance Committee and potentially by the Executive Committee, if you will sort of supplemental budget requests and justifications in the amounts of $0,000, $00,000, and $00,000, to address things that aren't currently being done but that would be helped if we had the funds. And a classic example of that is the increased emphasis and a robust program to deal with spay and neuter. We have over the last five years been talking about trying to get to 1,000 a year primarily through the shelter. We've had other increases by some of the support groups and we need that, but in my opinion at least and I haven't really had anybody on the Board say "No, that's not right." We are in a unique position as a government entity to be able to provide low cost/high volume spay and neuter and we know that there are issues in terms of getting the vets, getting all the support that's necessary, scheduling, facilities, and so forth, in order to reduce the total number of animals that

36 Dollahon: are out there in the population that just are unwanted. We have to get those numbers down and we've got to do that through an aggressive spay and neuter program. There could potentially be other things that have to do with enhancements to adoption programs or the licensing programs could be more aggressively advocated for, for both the City and the County through ASCMV if there was a budget for something like that. The numbers just in terms of total numbers have really not been where they need to be if this is a key educational technique. So I see this and I understand where we're going with this and I appreciate the thought behind it, I just think as a Board we need to understand what some of the other options are relative to the $,000 that's being proposed to be transferred out of operations. I think it's also important to recognize that the amount that we're planning on for the City and the County has remained flat and again as Members of the Board I think we need to understand when we need to go back to the City and County and say "We need more funding for X," if we do. And this is the time when we need to have that conversation. So I would just start with getting some additional information in terms of the additional programs that we've been looking for action on. I also would like to have some kind of report out in terms of the salary levels for staff. We know that there's a certain amount of turnover and I'm not sure how much of that could be stabilized by raises and also in terms of recruitment for any vacancies. I just want to make sure that we're not in the interest of being so fiscally tight we making it hard to recruit and retain good staff. And so I'd like to have an assurance that that's the case. The last thing really has to do with the relationship between operating and capital, and I thought it was brilliant for Board Member Dollahon to be able to see how this could all be put together so we can in fact have a major capital project. I'm still not clear exactly what the total scope of that is and I'm curious as to what the Mayor has in mind and how that relates to the budget. So we need to get that discussion with the Mayor resolved as quickly as possible. And I would hope that as soon as we have that information that before we go too much further we actually have a work session about the facility. It's going to take time to actually have the discussion about what the requirements are, what's being left out, whether everything's included, and make sure that we understand how all that works. And so I'm just asking that, I don't know what the timing of this is relative to the budget and so it's tough but these are all moving pieces and we need to be able to deal with that. Mr. Chairman, I ll try to address most of Board Member Garrett's points. I was not aware of the meeting with the Mayor. I was not aware, and that's something that I can work with Dr. Beth and we can follow-up on and try to address. We had to make certain assumptions. We made the capital assumption based on I believe it was the January and February meetings where we talked about the phases of the construction and that the

37 direction we received is "Let's do an all-in on the proposed three-phases of one project," which includes the two additions out the front and out to the front on the west side and the interior room model to account for the cat room, but we also had to work with our facilities staff to say realistically what can we do to accomplish that and some other issues because we know we have an HVAC issue that we want to make sure we also try to fix at the same time while they're out there and realistically give a capital budget to them to work from. So that's where the $1.1 million came in and so that's what we're working from. There has not been any discussion presented to us at the City level as to increasing the City or the County's contribution. That would need to come from this Board in a request to your respective governmental bodies. I can't do that. So I would have to wait on you. However we need to adopt a budget in May and we're in April. We can have a work session with the Facilities Committee. We can have another with the Finance Committee before our May meeting and we can come back to Jell-O again and make some changes. The other thing that I will point out to you is, you are correct, we do need to look at our personnel and our pay and our turnover because there are a myriad of factors that contribute to that. However, that has really been the key issue along with Dr. Beth's frugalness in her budget management, that has allowed us to create an increased unrestricted fund balance and I would anticipate for at least the first six months of FY, that we're still going to have a little bit of fund balance build up potential, until we get a handle on a myriad of these things. And by the way we'll be knee deep in a construction project some time after August, I anticipate out there. So that's going to make the work environment really fun for the staff and the public. So we will have those discussions. I will work with Bernice, Steve, and Dr. Beth in looking at supplemental budget issues, but by State law we can't bust the budget, we would have to identify additional revenue sources to address those issues and we can address that over the next couple of months, but if truly supplemental funds were able to come in. We will work on that before the Finance Committee meeting in May for your Board meeting for adoption of the budget in May as well. This is pretty sound numbers, not accounting for the fluid items we've discussed today. So we'll get working on the supplemental information. I think the capital's really good. I think we'll recognize some savings both from the gifts and memorials fund, we're thinking that by the time we're ready to do the transfer we're hoping we'll be at $,000 and we can contribute that plus the $0,000 for the recent donation that's not before you, that's not presented in this preliminary budget at this point. So that will help, that'll give us some fund savings and that'll give us some flexibility to do some other things. If there's any other questions I ll be happy to answer them as well.

38 Any other questions from the Board? Seeing none. Thank you very much Board Member Dollahon. That was very informative. And that is not an action item. VIII. Public Input That brings us to item eight, which is public input. Yes Marlyn, come on up. Zahler: Good morning. I'm Marlyn Zahler, champion for animals. I have a brief report which I think some people are not going to like but that's okay. I'm waiting to at least two gentlemen stop. Thank you Mr. Garrett, you did a great job today. I appreciate it. And Mr. Eakman, I don't know you and you don't know me but I promise you I will call you next week and you think you can speak for one hour, I can speak all day about the shelter, about the Director, about this Board, because I've been here close to years and I was on the committee that hired Dr. Beth. In fact I'm the one who really recommended her because most people there didn't know anything about shelters. And I've been on shelter boards, both in Florida and in New York and I have worked very diligently to see that things got done for the animals. And I know Jess, and Jess I like you're new haircut, or hair way. Well thank you. Zahler: Looks great. So you really do need an education and I think you need to remember this is a democracy in this country and we should work together with animal groups. I've worked with the shelter. I've worked with the shelter in Florida and in New York. I'm a New Yorker. So I don't take any BS from anybody. Okay so I want to tell you something. This Board and I know about the Board for a long time because I was involved with it, and so were several other people. I really think you should be embarrassed, the whole Board should be embarrassed, everyone, okay, including the people who left and the lady who I guess never shows up. And the reason I say you should be embarrassed is you're really on this Board for the animals, for the animals at that shelter, for the animals in the community. Don't worry about your Director. I've been involved with the shelter. I worked with Terrance Moore when he was the City Manager. Thirty seconds. Zahler: I'm going to keep going. And I managed to get that director fired okay, because we had a committee called "For the Love of Animals." So I know a lot about the shelter. Okay and the reason you should be ashamed is you don't seem to care about the animals really. I don't know if you go on

39 your own, I think every Board Member should have a key, should be able to go there /. Thank you Marlyn. Zahler: Not get permission from the Director. I'm going to keep going. Marlyn I ll cut the mic off. Zahler: Go ahead. I can still talk. You won't be on the record. Everybody knows that public input is limited to three minutes. You could have prepared. Zahler: But it isn't for MIC SHUT OFF. Smith: Mr. Chairman. Board Member Smith. Smith: If I may. If we could go ahead and perhaps allow Ms. Zahler to have three more minutes today I think that that would be helpful. We're about to lose our quorum. We've lost our quorum, we cannot proceed with the meeting unless we have a quorum. AUDIENCE MEMBERS SHOUTING OUT, NOT AT THE MICROPHONE. That is the law of the State of New Mexico. I don't get to make that determination. AUDIENCE MEMBERS SHOUTING OUT, NOT AT THE MICROPHONE. Smith: And if you have something you would like to share, it really is better if it's at the microphone. Yelling from the audience is not recorded, but it's also rather disrespectful to the people who've come here to participate. AUDIENCE MEMBERS SHOUTING OUT, NOT AT THE MICROPHONE. We have got our quorum back. Is there any other public input? Mr. Bryce. MS. ZAHLER SHOUTING OUT, NOT AT THE MICROPHONE. We always look forward to seeing you Marlyn. Oh, start over Mr. Bryce. I'm sorry.

40 Bryce: Bryce: Frank Bryce, President Humane Society of Southern New Mexico. I've got a prepared statement that would've taken three minutes to read. I'm very disappointed that this Board did not discuss the investigative TV report and I do discuss it in this prepared statement. But I'm going to go through that just really really very sketchy and you can read it. I would like the answers next month. I am very disappointed with the way you did not address the issues brought up by the TV investigative report and I do address that. There are misstatements in it by the Director. There are implications that are not, they're misleading in that interview and I don't know that any of you folks went out and checked what was going on at that "infirmary" down under. The infirmary down under, the down under has been a problem for a long time and I thought this would be a brutal meeting, but it's even got more brutal because now in addition to this statement which I want you to read, I want you to answer, there are other documentation that can be provided by a current employee, the pictures that were provided were by a non-employee supposedly, one that's been there before, gone. We've got an employee that says they have other information but they can't bring it forward because of the fear of retaliation. I would like this Board to guarantee any employee that brings information forward that is accurate and true, factual, will be protected from retaliation. This is absolutely unacceptable behavior and I am truly embarrassed today much like Marlyn said, you should be embarrassed. I'm embarrassed what came off of this Board. Trying to shut down the information going out to the public as to what the community is trying to do. One of the things that your shelter has said repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, the community has to be involved, the community has, and you just now said, cut your presentation. Well there's probably a way to do that with what Ms. Gilbert said, but just to say have one at a time come up here and if we have groups you got one a year to have a chance to tell them what they're going and how they can get involved, Stay involved. My last statement on that and then I ll quit because I am embarrassed, I am really embarrassed for this Board. Thirty seconds. The last statement says "We strongly recommend the Board arrange a meeting as soon as possible with our new alliance of animal organization, individual participation and the ASCMV Executive Committee to create open communication and assessment concerning shelter issues. I did not know about this Task Force being formed and being started, but I can tell you right now just from what I heard about the formation of it, there's nobody on there that's going to do less than protect status quo and that's not acceptable. Maybe they won't be doing that but I have very serious reservations about it. And I would certainly like to see this Board work

41 Bryce: Bryce: Bryce: Krueger: Shaner: better with the community. And the individual that come up here from El Paso. Mr. Bryce. That individual that came up here from El Paso was trying to provide information to bring this Board Thank you. Together and it didn't. Thank you Mr. Bryce. Thank you. Do we have further public input? Susan Krueger. And I volunteer mostly Saturday's at the Farmer's Market where we adopt out animals and do a lot of community service. I did notice that on Sunday the sixth of April the report came back in the paper about adoptable animals and an article by Dr. Beth, so people have been asking to see this in print and I think the Sun News listened to them, so good. I also am in I think my third year of participation in the Coalition. When I first participated in the Coalition the groups that were doing spay and neuter, for example, specifically spay and neuter, would give their statistics and then talk about what they needed. So everybody always needed money and then they would talk about available grants and how to work with that. The other thing the groups needed that were specifically doing spay and neuter was volunteers. So recently, and I got an , but recently among the upcoming events was the April th SNAP effort. This is specially spay and neuter and they were looking for volunteers to help with a whole list of things and I really appreciated getting that specific and I signed up to do anything that I could to help with spay and neuter. This is a target project and I could make a target contribution. So thanks. Hi. Good afternoon you guys. I'm Ashley Shaner and I'm a concerned community member. I came last year and we had a little bit of a discussion. I ended up meeting with wonderful Ms. Kassandra and we discussed some of the concerns that I had about some of the issues that were going on at the animal shelter. And let me just say that it is not improved. I'm actually a little bit sad to see the way that this is going actually. I'm going to go off of kind of what Ron said from the El Paso committee and I'm going to be honest with you, Dr. Beth does not 0

42 communicate with the public. I have reached out to her, per Kassandra, she told me that as long as I reached out and I made an attempt to talk to Beth about the issue, that we should be able to go in the right direction. I have tried multiple times to get in touch with Dr. Beth. The only thing I didn't do was be rude and go down to the animal shelter and demand to be seen. Well once I did not receive any follow-up from Beth I actually reached back out to Kassandra, your Board does not follow through with what it says and this is ridiculous. She said that if I had a problem that I could turn around and I could go back to her and I can address it, which I tried to, Ms. Kassandra gaffed me off. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves. These animals need us and you guys are not doing anything. To have her step up and work with community members. Thank you. AUDIENCE MEMBERS SHOUTING OUT, NOT AT THE MICROPHONE. Smith: Mr. Chairman, I would ask that the people in the audience please refrain from yelling at each other. It is not helpful to our discussions. When you come to the podium we would like to give you full respect and listen to you, but when you're yelling at each other in the audience it is not at all helpful. Thank you. Baker: My name is Carla Baker. I'm the director of Cherished K- All Breed Rescue. I did not come to speak but what I just saw Mr. Jack Eakman do is BS. This is a Board. You guys do not get pissed off, walk out, and make it no longer a quorum. Where are all the rest of the Board members? So you make it so the public cannot come and speak with you. I have had issues with Dr. Beth. I will tell, I will not pull an animal from this shelter. If I have a request for a specific animal, I go to El Paso, I pull what I want and I adopt it out. I had an issue with her a couple of years ago. I pulled a momma and nine puppies. She had vaccinated the momma dog. I asked to speak with her. I thought I was going to speak with her on a level basis to talk to her, I walk in with her and four employees for her to proceed to speak to me like I'm a two-year-old. This is ridiculous. You guys, I have people that work at that shelter, that send me pictures of shit that goes on at that shelter. It's BS. There are untreated animals. Just a month ago she vaccinated, no she didn't vaccinate, she had a tech., not even a real tech., a person that works there vaccinate four-week-old puppies who all went into convulsions so they had to put them down. You guys want to see what's going on at that shelter, go get a hold of her video tape. It records for three months back. You walk through, you see what's going on. It's BS you guys. Don't stand here and act like you guys know what's going on. Don't act like you care. If this Board really cared you wouldn't get up and walk out. It's BS. I run a rescue in this town. I work my but off to keep animals out of her shelter. You guys want to see what goes on. Get your butts out there when you're not invited. Go out there and get, right now, today, go ahead 1

43 and get that video tape, look at the last three months. See what goes on in that shelter. You want to see what goes on, come hang out with me for a while. From the second I get up to the second I go to bed I'm dealing with animals in this community. They're not my animals. I pay with my own money. I pay with donations. But you know what, you want to see the heart of this you talk to the rescue groups. Because I deal with the animals. I have over 0 animals in my rescue right now. And you're so disrespectful Mr. Eakman, getting up and walking out to try to shut this down. You should be ashamed of yourself. And the ones Thirty seconds. Baker: That are missing should be ashamed of themselves. And you know what, I have passion for the animals in this community. I don't see it from this Board. AUDIENCE MEMBERS SHOUTING OUT, NOT AT THE MICROPHONE. She had three minutes just like you did. Graham: Hello. My name is Patricia Graham. And I was a former employee there with the groomer. And she fired me. They are breeding dogs there and they're fighting dogs there nonstop. And that's all I'm going to say. And it shouldn't be happening at a shelter breeding all day long and fighting. Gilbert: I wanted to ask on the agenda when it comes to reports and presentations, I think in the past there has been opportunity for comments and questions related to Dr. Beth's report. And so what I'm going to say right now is related to, is that right, is that sometimes on the agenda but it isn't showing on the agenda this time? I've got two past Chairmans here who can help. Smith: If I may Mr. Chairman, typically what we do is when there's a report or when there is a resolution we ask for public input at that time. So you're right Ms. Gilbert, that is something we typically have done. It is the Chair's prerogative often times, it's not specifically written into the agenda, but typically at a meeting like this I would say what you're describing is what we typically do. Gilbert: I guess I'd like to ask then if there could be a question segment and I know it'd be brief following Dr. Beth's report on shelter activities because I think prior to that she has her reports for other areas. But my question is about surrender to foster. And as you know with the Coalition, we're certainly watching all the numbers to see where we can help. And to me shelter to foster relates to intake and I know that's public and I know Mr. Garrett said

44 and we said in our report that the highest amount is with Animal Control, so we do need, that needs to be a priority as well. But anyway with the shelter intake surrender to foster, I'm not real clear on what that is except that my understanding is that it's animals that people are trying to relinquish and they've been talked into keeping the animal and keeping it till there's a spot open to foster that animal. And if that's the case my question then would be, what is the program, is there a past program positive alternatives to shelter surrender and are we counseling and working with people to keep their animals or to offer resources? So I guess it's a two-part question, in that what is the program and does it tie-in with counseling and talking to people about alternatives. We all know who you are but for the record if you'd state your name. Gilbert: Jean Gilbert, Secretary with the Coalition and Board of Directors with the Humane Society of Southern New Mexico. Thank you Jean. Dr. Beth would you like to respond about the surrender to foster program. Vesco-Mock: Yes Mr. Chair I most certainly would. The surrender to foster program was started about four to five years ago with the intent that when people brings in litters or single animals that they need to give up, if we can help them keep them in their home until they can find another alternative. They are microchipped to the shelter, they are vaccinated, we give them food, if it's cats we give them litter. We also do the heartworm test. Whatever testing they do, we treat them just like an animal inside. They take them to the off-site adoption events on Saturdays if they are able to. If they are a litter of puppies, we continue with the second vaccination and whenever a transport goes out, it goes directly onto the transport, it never comes into the shelter. That's the whole purpose of the program. I have mentioned this program quite a few times here at this meeting, saying that we need to get other entities also involved to try to prevent them from coming in through other ways. Every single animal that is owner surrender at the front counter is asked "Are you able to keep this animal if we assist you?" We'll take ownership of it. We will help you get it out of your home, but we offer that counseling to every single citizen that brings their animals in. Thank you Dr. Beth. Vesco-Mock: You're welcome. Any further public input? Mr. Gail. Gail: Gary Gail, volunteer at the shelter and other facilities. On the owner to foster program that Dr. Beth just brought up, I just recently just got a cat

45 Barker: adopted through that program. I did my best with a friend that had a cat that didn't want it any more. Instead of dumping it at the shelter I offered to take it and took it to the shelter, got it registered, got the shots, got the FIV checks and everything else that was needed and took the cat home, gave it training, worked with it for a while and Saturday's took it to Petco and we found it a good home. So the program does work. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of fun. But the idea of saving a life without having to find a cage for this animal that would bump somebody else out, so it's kind of a two-for-one I look. So it is a program that does work. I've known about it ever since Dr. Beth started it years ago and it did pop into my lap and I did handle it just the way that the shelter talks about it and it worked perfectly. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Kelly Barker. I'm the Executive Director of UNcaged Paws and of Tails from the Shelter. I too did not plan to speak today but I do think that I've had some recent experiences at the shelter that sort of run this parallel. As a rescue I've also done a lot of spay/neuter. In 0 I did clinic days that I hosted. Our vets fixed 0 dogs and cats. Four of those clinic days were in Las Cruces. As part of what we do in every spay/neuter, we fix, we chip, and we vaccinate, it's a bundle program for $0. It's paid for by the owners. There was a dog in one of our programs back in August that ended up in the shelter just recently because I am the second registration on the chip, I was notified that it was there. The owner decided to surrender it to the shelter. I put our rescue tag on it and I went on day two to pull that dog out of the shelter. Not my responsibility, but it was a pit bull and those have a high likelihood of not making it out. The experience for myself and my team member that went to the shelter was really despicable. We were treated like we were trying to steal a dog. We were forced to sign off on things that were not true; that the dog wasn't altered, it was; that the dog didn't have a microchip, it did which was how I was called. The front desk staff was totally disrespectful. And I would normally not have even gone myself, I sent a team member to go and take a look at the dog and get a picture and she was denied access to the dog and she was denied the opportunity to take a picture to even see what we were about to pull out of the shelter. It was only because of her call to me that I said "I ll come there." And I was not treated with any more respect. I was given the dog. I signed off on documents. Walked out of the place with the dog but with documents that clearly were not true and the front desk gal just continued to say "Sign NA" not available. Not applicable. Not this and that. Bad experience all the way along. I do not pull dogs from the shelter. Not that I haven't tried but once again I am a local rescue that gets no respect from the shelter at all. We have no idea what's in there. There is no way to find out that your pet is there. And I

46 think that the is Board truly needs to look at best practices that are going on in El Paso, in Colorado, in other places. Thank you Ms. Barker. Barker: Thank you. I appreciate your input. AUDIENCE MEMBERS SHOUTING OUT, NOT AT THE MICROPHONE. Graham: (inaudible) and I just wanted to say the reason that they don't have employees is because of this lady. She's a racist, bigoted pig. That's why. Marlyn I ll give you three minutes. Zahler: I don't want the mic. You have to do the mic because we have to have it on the record. Zahler: Okay. If you'd like to sit down at the table and use that mic, if that would be easier for you. Zahler: It's just hard getting up. Okay, I'm Marlyn Zahler, champion for animals. Okay I forgot to tell you and I guess April nd is going to be a big day at Encantada Park where I live on Solano, is going to be Earth Day and Animal Protection of New Mexico is going to be there to talk with the audience about animals and what happened and the legislation which hardly anything happened good for animals okay. I really think there is a problem with the animals down below and for you sir, just so you know that Frank Bryce and I did get an anonymous letter plus pictures and it was disgusting to look at. And I ll tell you, if it hadn't been for Frank and I, the infirmary was loaded with rat feces, mice feces, and dogs there which were sick, were treated horribly. Now this was several years ago. So anyhow we complained enough that Dr. Beth got volunteers, got money and redid the place. I don't know if it's still good. The other thing that I'd like to say and real quick like is that if you're going to use money, I have asked repeatedly for a desk audit to see, do you need more employees or not. If you do, fine. But that you're going to build offices for more staff instead of taking the animals from down below and bringing them in where they can be comfortable. They don't have air conditioning, they don't have heat. What kind of life is that? I'd rather see you put those animals down if they're sick then there's no harm in putting

47 down a really sick animal all right. And I did volunteer for a no kill agency in Florida years ago, so that's nothing new. What happened about a licensed vet? You know I've been thinking about Dr. Beth and if I had my way when we interviewed her we should have requested of the City Manager, Terrence Moore and the County Manager that added to the contract should have been that within 1 months Thirty seconds. Zahler: She should've gotten licensed in the state of New Mexico. She is still not a licensed veterinarian okay. And I understand, third party, that she does things with the medicine and with the animals. She doesn't want a licensed veterinarian there because she wants to be the total person in control, then she should be licensed. And that's all I have to say. Thank you again, I appreciate it. Thank you Marlyn. Any further public input? Comeau: I'm Ron Comeau from Lucy's Dream in El Paso. I just want to bring up one final note. I have kind of a question to give you. I only had the report given to me on Monday from the shelter and it shows a % on DOA. I find that kind of interesting, El Paso has almost three times the intake and has a.% DOA in our facility. So how could your facility have you know double the amount with a third of the intake? Thank you. Thank you. Barraza: My name is Jessica Barraza. And I just wanted to, it's really disheartening to hear all the information that we're getting here today and I too did not anticipate coming up here and sharing my concerns, but I have heard from, I work with different people and I have heard some concerns that they have. I just thought it might be a good suggestion that sometimes in places where you have a service provided that you are able to put in place a procedure where the community can give some feedback; for example a form that they can put in a box or something where they say, they can rate it, you know what was the, was your goal met, what can we do to help, what did you like, what you did not like, or what changes do you think would be appropriate? So that's just a recommendation. That's one way of evaluating and getting more accurate information of what is happening with the community when they go to the shelter and what their concerns are. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Any further public input? Seeing none. IX. Chair and Board Comments

48 Smith: I will move to the next which is Chair and Board comments. Are there any comments from the Board? Board Member Smith. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I think in today's meeting as the Chairman has pointed out earlier, we don't have the option to talk in depth about things that aren't on the agenda. However, I think that at this particular meeting we've gotten a lot of input that gives us the opportunity to pursue a number of questions. And so I do thank the members of the public for sharing that input. Certainly always appreciate the reports that we get and the difficulties sometimes of course is to reconcile all different sides but I appreciate the fact that this community has a lot of caring individuals and that the private sector has stepped up as well as working in the public sector. And certainly look forward to us finding other ways to resolve some of these concerns that have come up. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Any other Board input? That brings it to me. Dr. Beth, going forward could we, when you do the euthanization part of your report I'd like to break out court-ordered euthanized as opposed to the ones that are not court-ordered, just so that we have two sets of numbers there. Because I think that that will, we shouldn't be including court orders with our percentages. It artificially increases our percentage because we don't have any choice in the matter when there's a court order. Finally I want to echo what Board Member Smith said and I do appreciate what the public has brought forward today. I appreciate the comments. I appreciate the passion with which you brought forth your input. There was at one point the statement was made that You don't think that the people up here have passion." And I would like to assure you that we do. I myself have rescue dogs. I don't have seven at this point, I only have four. One of them is from the shelter, others were found on the side of the road. One of the things that I've said since the beginning when we first started the Coalition was the value of the Coalition was to bring us all together and to bring us all together as a group to talk about the things that matter to us, as one person said so eloquently, "For the animals." I think it was Marlyn. I'm sorry she had to leave. The animals are at the forefront of our minds. And we see some new faces here but it's normally the same faces at these meetings. Frank is always here. Marlyn comes a great deal of the time. Rick Hahn is almost always here. Our two star volunteers are always here. Gary is often here. There's a lot of passion in this room. There's a lot of knowledge in this room. There's a long way to go. But we've also come a long way. And I give a lot of the credit for that to Dr. Beth. When she came we were killing 0% of the animals that came into our shelter. You saw the numbers today. We're nearing 0%. If you're a member of the Coalition, that's good news because it means that we are getting closer to our goal of zero healthy, adoptable animals

49 having to be killed. Part of the reason we're seeing fewer euthanizations is aggressive adoption efforts. These two ladies sitting up here in the orange are at the Farmers Market every single Saturday, weather not withstanding, helping to adopt out dogs. We've got the cat programs that are out in the community. We've got educational outreach out in the community. We're spending money on marketing to encourage responsible pet ownership, licensing, and spay/neuter. And we've got the most, I'm guessing, aggressive rescue component of probably any shelter in the nature. I just don't think that you're going to find another shelter that has two huge vans. I see some people shaking their heads, so I ll back off the exaggeration and say one of the most aggressive in the nation. We've got these two big vans that we got with legislative funds, thanks again to the heros in orange, and we are moving animals out of this community every single week to communities that want animals and don't have the intake problem that we have. We get compared a lot to other shelters. We were just talking about the budget today. We're operating at less than $ million. The last time I saw the El Paso shelter's budget it was $. million. The fact that we can do what we do with the resources that we have available to us is pretty remarkable. We can continue to progress together or we can go back to where we were eight years ago where none the groups worked together. They all staked out their territory. The Coalition which I give great credit to Board Member Garrett acting in his role as a County Commissioner and Mayor Miyagishima for putting together the Coalition, because it forced us all to come to the table together. And now we're moving. And the numbers tell the story. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is, there always is. Is everybody going to be happy about everything? No, that never happens. I've been in government years. I was in private industry years before that. I can tell you that any time that you're dealing with employees some are going to be unhappy with you. You can't be a supervisor and make everybody happy. But you have to be able to meet your goals. We were told by two different people today that we should be ashamed of being on this Board. I'm quite the opposite. I'm proud to be on this Board. I've been on it for a long time. And I'm going to continue to serve because I do have a passion for these animals. I appreciate your time. X. Adjournment (:0 AM) Seeing nothing further on the agenda, we are adjourned. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jess C. Williams, Chairman

50 1 0 1 ATTEST: Scott A. Krahling, County Clerk Kasandra Gandara, Vice Chairperson Jack Eakman, Board Member Billy G. Garrett, Board Member Gregory Z. Smith, Board Member John L. Vasquez, Board Member

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