I want to be sure that if this cat does get stolen.

Good evening, everyone.

It's August 18th, 2025.

This is the 36th meeting of the 26th Council, and we will come to order.

All counselors are present this evening.

We're going to begin with a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance in English and then in Spanish.

The video recording of this and all past council meetings will remain available for viewing at any time on the city council's website.

Council staff is available via telephone if members of the public need assistance finding the videos online.

Please call 505 768 3100 for assistance during business hours Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

The council will take a break at approximately 7 p.m.

this evening if needed.

With regard to decorum in the chambers, we want tonight's proceeding to be as civil and respectful as possible.

Please do not make any personal attacks and please no applause, snapping, or other outbursts during the meeting.

Upon the second or continued disruption, that individual will be asked to leave the chambers, and if necessary, security will be asked to escort that person out of the chambers.

Such removal from the council chambers will be effective for the remainder of the meeting.

If continued disruptions occur, I may recess the meeting until order is restored, and if necessary, may clear the chambers of persons participating in the disturbance.

Thank you, Madam President.

Good evening.

Welcome.

Thank you all for uh coming down.

And um we appreciate having it.

We'll uh read a proclamation here for you.

Was there somebody else that was gonna leave this one?

Okay, all right.

I don't know if there's someone who's gonna read it with me.

Were you Renee?

Okay.

Yeah, I'll start it.

You started, okay.

I'll start it.

Glad you all are here today.

Whereas the High Desert Mustang Club has been a cornerstone of automotive enthusiasm, fostering camaraderie, community spirit, and a passion for the iconic Ford Mustang.

And whereas the club has provided an invaluable platform for Mustang enthusiasts to come together to share knowledge, engage in events, and celebrate the legacy of the Ford Mustang.

And whereas the members of the High Desert Mustang Club have demonstrated commitment, perseverance, and dedication in promoting car culture, supporting local events, and contributing to the community through charitable efforts and active active participation, and whereas a high desert Mustang Club has consistently been a source of pride for the High Desert Region, contributing to local businesses, tourism, and the overall positive image of the area.

And whereas the High Desert Mustang Club encourages all residents and visitors to join in celebrating the automotive heritage ingenuity and camaraderie that the club exemplifies and to recognize the club's positive impact on the community.

And whereas the High Desert Mustang Club is commended for its continuous efforts in building a vibrant community of car enthusiasts, organizing successful events, and further furthering the appreciation of American muscle cars.

That was the my favorite line.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the council, the governing body of the city of Albuquerque hereby proclaims August 23rd, 2025, High Desert Mustang Car Club Day.

So I'm just I'm just a huge fan.

And uh I I owned a 68 Mustang uh when I was in college.

I didn't go to college in 1968.

It was a it was a vintage car by the way when I owned it.

Um but uh but I'm just a big fan of your club, and I know you do a lot for the community.

Uh and a lot of the community is involved uh in the club.

So would you all like to say a few words?

Anyone sure?

Well, thank you for having us.

So my name is Chris, I'm the president of High Desert Mustang Club, and uh High Desert Mustang Club was founded in 2024.

Our mission is to encourage restoration, preservation, and fund of the Ford Mustang as a family with respect and unity for all newer old, original, modified, pristine or primered.

All Mustangs are welcome to join the High Desert Mustang Club.

My vision for High Desert Mustang Club is simple.

Everyone has a voice, and we treat each other like family.

My goal was to create a Mustang Club that allowed all members to express their opinions and collaborate to make the club the best it can be.

I wanted a Mustang Club that people not only enjoyed but are proud to be members of.

When joining a car club, the goal is to have fun and share experiences with one another, whether it's hanging out at car club events or with other club members on a personal level.

Our club offers members the opportunity to create those family like bonds.

But participating in club activities, members get to know one another, which then adds to the value of the car club.

As part of my mission, I wanted to also create a Mustang Club that would participate in providing support to the community of the car clubs and charitable organizations around New Mexico.

It takes a team to make all this happen, and I believe you will find that with the High Desert Mustang Club.

Well, thank you all so much.

I think Councillor Sanchez.

Uh Counselor Sanchez.

Thank you.

I just want to thank everybody for coming today.

Um, this is actually my Mustang Club.

So take a look.

So and it's really, really nice to be part of this organization.

One of the things that's really really pulled me in is the family atmosphere.

Um, also the uh fact that we actually help with very, very good events and give back to the community, and I think that's what makes us all very, very proud to be part of this Mustang Club.

And we've we just we just have a great time hanging out and joining each other's company.

Um, and anyone that has a Mustang, feel free to come out and enjoy it with us.

Um, this is just uh an amazing group of people.

So again, thank you, Counselor Lewis and Grout for the proclamation, and thank you all for being here.

Totally appreciate you.

One more thing.

Uh, this Saturday, uh this Saturday, we're having our our inaugural car show, uh, supporting the veterans administration uh veterans integration center.

Uh so the proceeds that we raise from this car show on Saturday will go to them.

So if you guys are free on Saturday, we'll be at the Albert Zones on Lomus and U Bank for Lomus and Wantevo from 8 till I think 2 o'clock.

So come by say hi Saturday or Sunday.

Thank you very much.

Counselors, any other questions or comments?

Saturday.

Any other questions or comments, Counselors?

Counselor Grout.

Thank you.

I'm glad you're here today, and I love what you do, and and it's nice to see the camaraderie that you all get have with each other and the family atmosphere.

Question for you is what is the oldest uh Mustang in your club, and what is the newest Mustang in your club?

The old oldest one we have is a 65 vertical blue, and the newest one we have is 175 editors.

Dark horse mustang.

Which one?

2025.

2025.

Very nice, very nice.

And how many members are there in your approximately 41?

Very nice.

42.

Right, hopefully more after today.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I I hope that you do grow, and thank you for all that you do for the community.

And I'm glad that you have uh a place to do what you love.

Thank you.

Thank you, counselors.

Anything else, Councilor Lewis?

Well, thanks so much.

Uh, got a proclamation for you, so we'd love to shake your hands too.

Thanks.

Thanks a lot.

Appreciate you.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I wish I still had it.

Yeah, you're right.

Counselors, we're gonna move on to Counselor Sanchez with the second proclamation of the evening.

Thank you.

Um this proclamation is actually recognizing Crime Stoppers for its incredible run and doing really amazing things to help prevent crime and encouraging people to report crime and then actually rewarding those individuals who've reported crime.

So if I can have everybody that's representative of the Crime Stoppers organization, please come up.

And this evening we're recognizing the 50th anniversary of Crime Stoppers.

Um accepting the proclamation this evening is going to be Tim Sheehan, uh chairman of the Crime Stoppers Board.

And uh I'm gonna go ahead and read the proclamation and then I'll have you say a few words, Mr.

Sheen.

Whereas Crime Stoppers was founded in September 1976 in Albuquerque, New Mexico by Albuquerque police detective Greg MacAleys, whose innovative approach to solving a brutal homicide created a new model for community policing.

And whereas this model offering anonymity and cash rewards to citizens who provide information resulted in the swift arrest and conviction of the suspects in the first case and inspired the creation of the first official crime stoppers program right here in Albuquerque.

Whereas the Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers Program brought together law enforcement, media, and community to create a powerful public safety partnership that has since become a global model replicated by over 1,200 programs in all 50 states and more than 20 countries.

Whereas, since its inception, Crime Stoppers has helped facilitate over 600,000 arrests and aided in the recovery of more than four billion in drugs and stolen property, with the Albuquerque Metro program contributing more than 2,000 arrests, 7,300 closed cases, and over 500,000 rewards paid out to tipsters.

And whereas Crime Stoppers remains a vital tool in community crime prevention, upholding the principles of anonymity, civic participation, and collaboration between the public and law enforcement.

And whereas the Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers program will host its 50th anniversary fundraiser, the annual Heroes Luncheon on Wednesday, August 20th, 2025, at Embassy Suites, Albuquerque, to support the continued success of this life-saving initiative.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the City Council of Albuquerque hereby recognizes and celebrates the 50th anniversary of Crime Stoppers, honors the legacy of its Albuquerque roots, and calls on all citizens to support the mission of the community of community-led crime prevention.

And I would like um Mr.

Tim Sheehan to go ahead and say a few words.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor Sanchez for the proclamation.

Thank you, the council for all your support because you guys are the ones behind us also through the city of Albuquerque to the police department.

Um providing staff that helps assist us in getting those uh people out there on the road that we really want to get locked up.

So, but on behalf of our board of directors, this is the kickoff of our 50th year.

So 50 years will be next September, but we're gonna have a big celebration throughout the year.

And uh we are really proud to be the first one in the world.

And uh we really appreciate everybody's support, so thank you very much.

Thank you.

One more thing that I like to say is um this is a major event that we're having here in town.

And what I'd like to do is I'd like to encourage more people to show up.

So if there's anyone that's listening, um please contribute to the Crime Stoppers event.

If you can buy a table, please do.

If you can buy tickets to come to our event, please do, because it all goes to help crime fighting initiatives, and that's what we need, and that's what we're here for is to make sure that Albuquerque is a safer place.

So please, please, please contribute if you just want to contribute, you can do that as well.

And is there a phone number or a website that we can call to contribute?

Our website is Crimestoppers NM.com, and we are more than welcome to take any donations at all.

We are sold out for Wednesday.

We have 330 people coming.

Thank you.

Awesome.

And you can still donate.

Absolutely.

We'll always and if you wouldn't mind, come on over and shake our hands.

Before that, please, Councilor Sanchez, is there any other questions or comments from the other counselors?

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you, President Basan.

I just wanted to say thank you for your work.

I learned a lot about Crime Stoppers working on the Don Perkins statue.

And I know he was a huge champion for it for that, so we're gonna be working on that at the trial triangle square in Knob Hill.

And his family always talks a lot still every time I meet them about uh crime stopper.

So thank you for for what you do.

Thank you.

Counselors, any other questions or comments?

Thank you all very much if you'd like to see you.

Thank you.

Councilor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'd like to move that the rules be suspended for the purpose of allowing uh one other proclamation this evening.

There's a motion and a second to add uh another proclamation to the two that are in our rules.

Counselors, all those in favor of the rule suspension, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on an 8-0 vote.

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'm gonna ask my colleagues to help read the proclamation, I believe, starting with Councilor People Court.

Thank you.

Yes, Madam President.

Uh, whereas our shared humanity is the foundation for a more peaceful, compassionate, and connected world, and counselor Sanchez.

Sorry.

Second one.

Um, whereas the purpose of Humankind Day on August 15th is to pause, reflect, and act with intention to spread empathy, kindness, peace, and generosity in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces, and thank you.

Whereas be kind to humankind week and humankind day, August 25th through the 31st, encourages the residents of our communities to recognize the importance of unity through diversity and the power of simple acts of kindness to uplift in individuals, bridge divisions, promote emotional and social healing, and whereas humankind day provides an opportunity to celebrate our common humanity, encourage civic engagement, support community organizations, and inspire individuals to lead with love, compassion, and whereas this observance aligns with the values of respect, inclusion, dignity, and the belief that we all play an essential role in making our world a better place and whereas be kind to humankind week is a week-long celebration founded in 1988 by teacher and humanitarian Lorraine Chara or Yara, depending on what part of country you're in.

And humankind day initiated by Brian Johnston, founder of Saludable America, to encourage everyone to take partake in spreading kindness, fostering empathy, and building a more united world.

And whereas throughout the week, participants are encouraged to engage in daily acts of kindness, such as Motorist Cyclist Consideration Monday, patience or practice patience and consideration while traveling, touch a heart Tuesday, show love and appreciation toward others, willing to lend a hand Wednesday, offer time, help, or advice to someone in need, thoughtful Thursday, and be thoughtful and considerate in all interactions.

Forgive your foe Friday, practice forgiveness to release anger or resentment.

Uh speak kind words Saturday, use positive kind language to uplift others, and sacrifice our wants for others' needs Sunday.

Do something selfless for someone else.

Whereas the city council supports the call for the city of Albuquerque to observe humankind week.

We encourage everyone to actively participate in spreading kindness, fostering empathy, and building a more united world, one small act at a time.

And accepting this proclamation for us is the founder of Solitable America, Bryant Johnson.

And he'll come up and say just a couple words.

And thank you, Counselors, for reading that for me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

I know some of you probably thinking to yourself, well, it's common sense to just be kind to each other, but the truth is there's not much common sense right now.

All knowledge is learned in our past experiences to tell us that human kindness is something we ought to practice every single day.

Certainly more than just one day or one week a year.

We can take Valentine's Day, for example.

It's nice to show your partner a significant other that you love each other, appreciate them just on February 14th.

But through my own experiences and common knowledge, I can tell you that one day is not enough.

I strongly suggest that you all show your significant others more than just one day or one week of the year that in their relationship that they are appreciated.

So with that being said, back to humankind day, the reality is we have to take baby steps when it comes to human kindness.

So today I challenge each one of you to set an example for our younger generation coming behind us by practicing three simple but powerful actions.

Recognize, understand, and respect.

You don't have to agree, but at least respect.

If we can all live by those three principles, maybe one day in our lifetime, human kindness would be second nature in afterthought rather than something that requires a proclamation just for one day or one week.

Lastly, let me share this.

That's the vision behind Salubal America.

So to celebrate our differences while honoring what makes us one.

So follow along with us as we discover America, and it's no passport needed, just your stories.

Is Sala Bowl America is a platform to tell your stories?

And finally, I want to thank Councilor Councillor Rogers for recognizing, understanding, and respect in my vision.

Thank you, Madam President, and other council members for your support and helping me bring my vision to reality.

Counselors, any questions or comments?

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you.

I just want to say thank you and thank you to the council staff because today in our staff meeting we talked about kindness and rolled out an exercise where we could give kindness to each other in the office for the rest of the month.

So we'll be sharing more and hope all city employees would join in and giving each other and and our communities some random acts of kindness.

And I think the re reason it matters is that UNM we did a research study that showed the not only does the person receiving the random act of kindness, it improves their immune system, it improves the immune system of the person giving it, and also of those that witness the random acts of kindness.

So this is really boosting immune systems and of course our mental health and just all the things we need more of right now in today's world.

So thank you so much, Mr.

Johnson, for bringing this to my attention.

And thank you, Counselor Johnson.

If you want to go ahead and come on up, thank you.

That would be nice to be moving on the agenda.

Counselor Rogers with your presentation.

Thank you, Madam President.

And we have a presentation from Dr.

Charlie Verplow, Deputy Director of Health, Housing, and Homelessness, who will provide an update on Councilor Grout and I's uh housing voucher task force.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thanks.

Uh thanks, President Bassan and City Councillors, thanks for having me here.

Glad to talk about this.

I'm here to tell you a little bit about the work that we've been doing in our housing voucher task force.

This is supporting the resolution R24109.

The purpose of this task force is to improve transparency, accountability, and access to housing vouchers across the city and through our city administrative voucher programs.

We created a task force in January 2025 that was staffed by Health Housing and Homelessness staff, other cross-departmental staff like ACS and council staff, obviously, and then nonprofit representation, which is really cool.

The task force looks over motel vouchers, rapid rehousing vouchers, permanent support of housing vouchers, and project-based vouchers.

And in order to create and accomplish this work, we broke out into several subcommittees a policy subcommittee, a coordinated entry subcommittee, and a data subcommittee.

In these different subcommittees, we worked on different things.

Policy was really to try to create clearer rules so that we could be more consistent for clients, for providers, and for staff.

We in the coordinated entry subcommittee, we wanted to improve how people got matched to vouchers and how they got matched to housing.

And then in the data subcommittee, we wanted to be able to better track progress, share data across departments and for constituents and for council, and then also to show real outcomes over time.

This slide here that you're looking at talks a little bit about some of the timelines that we've been working on.

So for in April, we submitted an implementation plan to you guys.

In May, we did a provider engagement survey.

So we went out to all the nonprofits and said, Hey, could you give us some feedback on our policies in way things that work good for you and things that don't work well?

Um, so that we weren't just getting feedback from the nonprofits that were on the task force, but from all of our providers that are providing vouchers.

Quarter two and quarter three is really about policy drafting, looking at the coordinated entry system and creating an RFQ.

And then quarter four will be about finalizing those policies and then selecting a tech vendor, which will be really exciting, and then ultimately towards the goal of implementing and launching a new data platform.

Finally, if you go to the next slide for me, I just want to tell you a little bit about what we're doing in the different subcommittees, and I know my time is short here, so I'll try to be brief.

But in the policy subcommittee, we've done a lot of things.

So if you look at the quarter two report that should have been before you today, it talks a little bit about some of the things that we want to include in our current internal voucher process.

So rent reasonableness, some invoicing timelines to make sure people get paid on time, providing some flexibility around homeless verification, and then making sure that we're following the same grievance procedures across provider.

We're in the process of looking over our project-based voucher policy.

So we'll give you guys some updates on some challenges and things that we want to make clear in that process.

In the coordinated entry system, we worked with our coordinated entry system provider, the coalition to end homelessness, and talked about some of the challenges and why they exist, and then talked about some of the things we wanted to improve that.

This is all outlined in the quarter two report, but thinking about streamlining referral processes, uh broad training for stakeholders, and then creating a housing resource center.

So that's pretty cool.

We're just uh we have a RFP that's been drafted, it's gone to council staff, so they'll get a chance to review that, and then we'll release it and create housing resource center that will hopefully be a central point of access for people who are unhoused and housed be able to access services better.

And then finally, our data subcommittee.

So this they've done all kinds of really cool things, but validate validating baseline voucher data in HMIS and also people soft data, mapping out the process that funding happens in the city, and then being able to identify voucher types and guide that system design, finally creating an RFQ and integrated platform that is ready for release.

So that RFQ will go out here shortly, and then we're gonna hopefully bring in a tech provider that can do things like public voucher dashboard, electronic reimbursement portal, a client feedback module, and secure API links to data systems.

So we're working on all of those things, and um, you know, happy that we got the opportunity to work on this together, both with council and with staff, and you know, stand for questions if you have any.

That was great, Dr.

Burklew, in a nutshell.

Thank you.

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you so much.

I just have to say, just sitting in on these meetings periodically as many times as I can.

It's been really great to see innovation and like people are empowered to think differently, even though we don't do it that way now.

Like what would it look like if we had a good system that we all could know what the impact was for the dollars that we're spending, and we know that we're connecting folks to the housing that they need.

So for me, I'm super excited about this, and I think this is really gonna help us just continue to get better.

You know, I'm always very hard on HHH, but you guys are doing a really great job with this being innovative and thinking outside the box.

So just want to say thank you and kudos and keep going, keep the innovation because we can help change change things for you if you just help us understand what the barriers are so that we can remove them because that's our job systematically.

So thank you so much.

Counselor Craig, I don't know if you had anything on the uh thank you for that.

Counselor Sanchez.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, Dr.

I had a couple of questions.

How did a person receive a voucher?

Just want to make sure that the public understands it.

Absolutely.

So, President Bassan, Counselor Santos, thanks for the question.

Uh, people receive a voucher by going through what we call our coordinated entry system.

And those access points are opportunities for anybody to go either to the coalition or to one of those access points and receive an assessment, call it a VI Spadat that really assesses their acuity level, and then sends that along to the coalition so they can be put in a priority order in terms of their priority in needing that voucher, and then that's essentially creates a wait list.

And so once they're put in that order, then we as soon as vouchers come up and become available, we identify that client, talk with them, and give them a voucher.

We've talked a little bit about in this report and with the coalition about how sometimes the challenge is really understanding the system, that it can be complicated.

And so we've created some cartoon graphics that hopefully make it a little easier for both the constituents that you guys have to understand, also even elected officials and the administration and other departments to understand how do people access the voucher and get to that process in a way that makes sense for them.

And Madam President, how do you determine who is actually eligible for a voucher?

Because the way I see it, there's thousands and thousands of people that are out there.

And how do you determine who is eligible, who gets the voucher, and do you track everybody that needs a voucher?

President Bassan, Counselor Sanchez, yes, we do track everybody that needs a voucher.

They're on a waiting list that gives to the coalition and then they create keep track of that system.

It really depends on what type of voucher you're looking for.

So if you get a motel voucher, then you would have criteria that you would have them motel voucher for whatever reason that that motel voucher has been created for.

So for example, if someone needed to get into a motel because they needed a medical respite, or maybe they're waiting for a housing placement and they just need a short-term stay for two weeks, or maybe they've been discharged from an unsafe hotel.

So there's a variety of reasons why you qualify for a motel voucher as opposed to rapid rehousing.

So rapid rehousing is higher acuity but lower than a permanent supportive housing voucher.

So that would be someone who has a lower level of acuity but needs a little bit of assistance to get to being stabilized in their housing situation, and that can go up for two years.

So the criteria for that is slightly different than a permanent supportive housing voucher where you have a disability, you have chronic homelessness, and you're a higher level of acuity.

And if you were thinking about permanent supportive housing voucher as an example, you would do that via SPDA assessment with your access point provider, and then that would rate you on a scale of a point scale to be able to determine who's eligible.

So we want to give it to people that are most acute that really need that right away, down to people who need it less but still need it, right?

And if we had more vouchers and if we had more money, we would want to give you know support it support to many more people than we can give support to currently, and we do our best to prioritize the people that need it the most.

Madam President, also do you hand the voucher physically to this person to the person?

President Basan, Counselor Sanchez, my staff talk to me about this all the time that a voucher is actually not something that you physically hold.

A voucher is essentially rental assistance.

So what happens is they get identified as qualified to receive that support, and then the provider gives that support to ultimately to the landlord.

Often that individual, if they're on, for example, a permanent supportive housing voucher, they would provide a portion of their income to that landlord, and then the access point would provide the rest of that assistance.

Okay.

And then, Madam President, another question, and I'm just asking these questions so that the public can understand what's going on with the actual voucher and how it works.

Is there rules and regulations?

So let's say if somebody violates the rules, um, they use drugs or they commit a crime in that location.

Are they subject to keeping the voucher, or do we revoke that voucher?

President Basan, Counselor Sanchez, yes.

If someone, there are rules that people need to follow to remain housed, and if they break those rules, sometimes you might give them a second chance.

You might say, hey, like what's going on?

How can I better support you?

Can your case manager provide some services?

Maybe it's related to having difficulty paying rent or something like that.

They would work with that client, but if they were not able to comply with the rules, uh, yes, they would be discharged from the program.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor Grow?

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you for your presentation.

I know that I have really enjoyed uh listening in on the on the meetings as well.

Um it's it's like um question, every question we get an answer, but it we have another question.

It it's just so complex.

And so this has been a very good committee, and I like the subcommittees.

I think I think you're doing leading it very well, and so I appreciate that.

My question that's for right now is uh I know that we don't we're um getting ready, you're getting ready to have the um RFQ for a data analyst position.

Um, and it's being released tomorrow, and you uh your final vendor selection will is planned for October 17.

Um because you don't have a data analyst position right now.

I know that the HMIS reporting is um paused a little bit.

So my question is the final vendor selection is October 17.

How soon will that data analyst be working after October 17 to get back going?

President Basan, Counselor Grout.

The RFQ that's going out is going to be for a data platform.

So we're putting it out to get a data technology system to be able to build out a system that can report this in real time.

There is a component that we need to do, which is funding a data analyst to be able to do the first phase of data reporting that DTI had decided on, and that first phase is really taking data manually out of HMIS, cleaning it, and making sure that it gets reported to you guys.

So we're not waiting till the completion of that data platform to get you guys some data.

My intention is to work with DTI to determine a way where we might be able to give you some data.

We have data now, so let's get what we have out there now.

And then as we move forward, and once we get that data analyst in place, then we can get an even cleaner and more detailed version of that data out of HMIS.

But I think that there's some ways that we can get some up on the website, so you feel like there's something that's real and tangible to be able to report to your constituents now.

That data funding that we've created for the analyst and for the data platform, we are seeking from the state appropriation.

So we just need to identify with the state the user agreement and the notice of obligation, and once we have that, we'll be able to spend that money down.

And did you answer my question about when would that go that guy or gal will be um hired and starting working?

President Bassan, Counselor Grau, that is to be determined when we find the funding.

So the funding for that data list is $27,000.

Yep.

As soon as I can identify that funding, I will she's actually already been on contract and was funded through the appropriation for 25 that you guys allocated.

Yeah, but that funding went away at the end of a fiscal year 25.

So now we need to find that funding and um bring her onto contract again.

That funding is allocated by the state, but going through that state appropriation process is complicated and timely.

So we're we're working through it.

And if there's other funding that we can identify in the meantime, we'd be you know excited to bring her on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's it.

Counselors, any other questions or comments?

Thank you, Dr.

Appreciate it.

Moving on, Council Champagne, you have a presentation.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh, yes, August.

We're in August still.

August is uh national aircraft laser incursion month.

Uh and for people out there, um, basically it's uh little pointing lasers that we can buy at the store, and they use them for um pointing them at aircraft and the dangers thereof.

So I had asked uh officer Nick Pearson to come, who is with uh APD's uh air support unit to come kind of give a little education and presentation of it.

Good evening.

Good evening, Madam President, councilman or council men and women.

My name's Officer Nick Pearson with the Albuquerque Police Department Air Sport Unit.

I'm one of the pilots.

Um instead of throwing numbers at you, I'm gonna tell you a true story.

We fly our aircraft at a thousand feet, about a quarter mile offset when we're searching for something in residential areas while searching for an armed subject one night who is wanted for a shooting call.

Every time I turned on a northwest corner of an orbit, my cockpit illuminated with a blue light.

This was identified as a laser that was coming from approximately four miles away.

As we continue the orbit, the light went away, but every time I turned on that northwest heading, the cockpit illuminated.

As we continue to do this, we could not leave the call because we were looking for an armed subject in somebody's backyard.

As we continue to fly, put down my night vision goggles, which filters out natural light and just uses a synthetic vision style.

As we continue to orbit, we relocated the subject and we went hunting for the laser.

Unfortunately, that night we were not able to locate it.

But a couple nights later, as I was on patrol, I heard a Southwest 737 on about a quarter mile final, thousand feet above the ground, flying into Albuquerque International Airport, report a blue laser from the same area.

We were able to locate that subject that night, identify them and report it to the FAA.

Unfortunately, we do not have a state statute or city ordinance where we are able to charge that subject.

When we're in the helicopter, it's two people over a populated area.

A Southwest aircraft with over 200 people on board is a different story.

Brought a couple examples.

Think of the little ones that we use when we play with the cats.

These actually cause temporary light sensitivity, incident headaches, and flawed vision while we're flying.

Last year, 12,840 incidents were reported nationwide.

Of that 304 were in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area.

Out of 17,700 that were reported from 2005 to 2013, only 134 people were charged and 80 convicted nationwide.

This is a hazard that's not only to us while we're flying, but to you and everyone in the city and everybody in the country when they fly commercially and try to just get to see their loved ones or home from a work.

I stand ready for any questions.

Council Champagne.

I know firsthand the difference in the colors.

And what the effects thereof.

But to bring awareness to the regular public thinking that just using laser as a toy and seeing how far it'll go and striking a police helicopter is one thing with two people in it, like you had mentioned, but a completely different incident when you're talking about souls on board of a plane.

So I want to thank you for bringing this in in the education and the information on a much bigger scale.

When I was struck with mine, it was instant and it was just the two of us.

We landed and I had a headache for five days.

So I could only imagine the pressure it would be for a commercial airline pilot to face that same incident uh with a bigger plane.

So thank you for this.

Counselors, any other questions or comments?

Officer Pearson, it's oh counselor Sanchez.

Thank you.

Officer, I just want to say thank you for hard work that you do.

Um, I know it's not easy to be up there.

I've I was actually part of Albuquerque's air unit as well for for several years, and I do understand the amount of stress, and people don't really realize that when you're orbiting a scene down below that you are actually in a constant orbit, and you still have to decide which direction that individual is fleeing the offender.

So when you're turning, that helicopter is moving in an orbit, and while it's moving in orbit, you still have to have that wherewithal to know which direction that individual is running or fleeing.

You have to know what street you're on and all your directions.

So what you guys do up there is extremely extremely difficult.

It's not like being on the ground.

So I just wanted to say thank you so much for that hard work and dedication that you do day in and day out.

Thank you, sir, for being here.

Next, we're going to move on to a presentation from Miss Christine Berner, our city economist, who's going to provide an update on the gross receipts tax.

Good evening.

Madam President, members of council.

Oh, this is fine.

Thanks.

So we did receive the June GRT, uh, but not till about 3:30 this afternoon.

And so that wasn't enough time to put together an analysis of the revenue.

And so what this is is just a couple quick slides regarding uh May GRT.

And so uh for May, GRT growth based on the 1.225 was actually 15.2% growth, and that brought our cumulative growth to 3.5% for the year.

Um, however, there was a reason behind this.

Um May of the previous year, there was a tax refund to a business, a five and a half million dollar tax refund.

And so consequently, by comparison this or last month, the growth uh looked to be outsized.

My estimate last month was that maybe our growth from May was closer to three and a half, three three point three percent.

Um, but that said the revenue was higher than this time last year, and so we did um we did experience that that growth.

Uh the majority of the reduction came from you can switch to the next slide if you wouldn't mind.

Um the majority of the reduction last year came from administrative support, waste management, and remediation, and so on this slide.

I believe it's the top line.

You can see the outsized growth that that sector had last month by comparison.

Uh and then retail trade showed modest growth last month, about 2.2%, but there were a few categories that were negative.

Arts and entertainment, accommodation and food and construction were all negative for May.

Uh counselors have requested some information on cannabis revenues.

I I we stopped reporting on those when they started being uh diverted to the marijuana equity and community reinvestment fund, but I did put together some information for you.

Uh year to date, which would be July through May, revenue was 3.3 million in FY25.

And this I don't have a slide for this, this is just here.

However, year to date revenue for the same period last year was 4 million approximately, and that represents a decline in FY25 of about 17% from last year.

And normally we wouldn't expect that.

Um but but every month uh since August, we've experienced a decline in revenue uh most of the time in double digits.

And I did speak with the tax department about this, and the cause for the decline at this point is unclear.

Uh it was very much off the record when I spoke with them, but they do believe that a lack of compliance and tax reporting is behind it, and they've told me that they will speak up step up enforcement.

Hopefully, we'll see a correction of some sort.

Uh but 17% is is quite a bit of a decrease.

Uh and so that really that concludes my quick report tonight.

And I'm hoping tomorrow or at least this week I can get you information on June, which would give us the final year to date for FY25.

Thank you.

Counselors, any questions or comments?

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you for bringing cannabis members for us.

I would just ask that you bring them on a slide so that the public can see them.

This is exactly why we want to track what's happening.

Um, because we we have some appropriations to make from cannabis revenue.

This helps us know what we can plan for, especially for things that we've already approved, like basic income, right?

So for me, this is extremely important to know what's happening with this these specific tax dollars, so that we're planning programs, we don't plan them with the 17% decrease, right?

Um, so if we could please next time bring that.

And then I know that our council rules say that this this happens on the second meeting, um, but it's not working where we get the data in time.

So I would like to explore how we change that in our rules so that we can get a report that's up to date.

Not it's not her fault, right?

I I went back and understood a little bit more about that.

Um, and so thank you for for bringing those numbers and maybe we can think about doing that as a team so that when you come, you actually have more up-to-date data.

Thank you, madam president.

Any other questions or comments, counselors?

Thank you, Ms.

All right, thanks a lot.

Counselors, we're moving on to the journal.

I move approval of the August 4th journal.

There's a second by Madam Vice President.

All those in favor of approving the journal, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Uh anyone opposed.

Did you get it all?

Okay.

Moving on to commission communications and introductions.

Are there any changes to the letter of introduction?

I'll start with that I move the rules be suspended for the purpose of placing EC469 on tonight's agenda for action.

EC469 is the Uptown Transit Center Joint Development Partnership Agreement.

Increase reimbursement six supplemental.

Second.

There's a second by Councilor Feblecorn.

Any well, we're just motive on the rules for suspension.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on a 9-0 vote.

Council Champagne.

Yes, Madam President.

I move that the rules be suspended for the purpose of placing R 181 on tonight's agenda for action.

R 181 is rescinding R25154, which established a moratorium on fiber internet installation permits and established a working group to re-evaluate permitting criteria and other requirement standards.

Second.

There's a motion and a second by Councillor Sanchez.

All those in favor of suspending the rules to put R 181 on this agenda tonight.

Raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on a 9-0 vote.

Councilor Baca.

Thank you, Madam President.

I move that the rules be suspended for the purpose of introducing R 182 and referring it to the land use planning and zoning committee.

R182 is approving the adoption of the downtown metropolitan redevelopment area plan.

Downtown 2050 and repealing the downtown 2025 metropolitan redevelopment area plan for the downtown metropolitan redevelopment area.

There's a motion and a second by Councilor Grout.

Counselor Grout, all those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

No one opposed.

That passes on a 9-0 vote.

Counselor Lewis.

Madam President, I move the rules to be suspended for the purpose of introducing R183 and referring it to the September 8th finance and government operations agenda for action.

R183 is established in emergency parks, grass and turf replacement funding source to address the dying turf grass and parks citywide.

Second.

There's a motion and a second by Counselor Sanchez.

I do want to say that it's the September 3rd council meeting that week.

Madam President, I just a moment ago I was just uh just reminded that it does it it should go to finance just because it requires two hearings, and so I we actually just changed that a moment ago.

Okay, the September 8th FGO agenda.

Okay, this okay.

So then can we go ahead and clarify the record then that we remove that the motion is to suspend the rules instead of placing it on the council agenda, it needs to be set on the FGO agenda, please for the record.

Thank you.

There's a second, Councilor Sanchez, you're okay with that?

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on a nine zero vote.

Any other changes to the letter of introduction?

I move approval of the letter of introduction.

There's a motion and a second by councillor Rogers.

All those in for approval of the letter of intro, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

That passes on a nine zero vote.

Reports from committees, Council Champagne.

Yes, Madam President, the Finance and Government Operations Committee met on Monday, August 11, 2025, and reports out the following items.

In the matter of EC 419 that it be received, receipt be noted in the matter of EC428.

Uh that a without recommendation, and in the matter of O91 that it be without recommendation as substituted.

And make a motion to accept the committee reports.

There's a motion and a second by Madam Vice President.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on a 9-0 vote.

Council Peoplehorn.

Madam President, the land use planning and zoning committee met on Wednesday, August 13th.

It um reports out the following items in the matter of AC 433 and AC454 that they be confirmed in the matter of 088, 089, and 090 that they do not pass.

In the matter of O 92 that it do pass is amended.

In the matter of R 167 that it failed.

In the matter of R 169 and 170 that they do pass, and in the matter of R 175, that it be without recommendation as amended.

Make a motion to accept the committee reports.

Second.

There's a motion and a second by Councilor Champagne.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on a nine zero vote.

We'll move on to deferrals and withdrawals.

Counselors, are there any deferrals or withdrawals at this time?

Seeing none, we're gonna move on to the consent agenda.

Are there any changes to the consent agenda?

For those individuals on tonight's consent agenda who will be appointed to serve on a border commission.

Thank you for your willingness to serve.

I move approval of the consent agenda.

There's a motion and a second by Madam Vice President.

Moving on to announcements, Councilor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

Sorry.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on a nine-zero vote.

Now moving on to announcements.

Councilor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

There will be a local government coordinating commission meeting on Thursday, August 21st at 5 p.m.

in the Brunel County Building, Ken Sanchez Commission Chambers.

This will be a hybrid meeting.

Moving on, we don't have any financial instruments or appeals.

So we're gonna start public comment from the general public.

Members of the public can provide live public comments to the council in person or virtually if they have signed up for public comment per the instructions published on the agenda and on our website Friday.

Here are the public ground rules, the public comment ground rules.

Each participant has two minutes to present.

Comments are to be addressed to the counselors only through the council president.

Any disruptive conduct will result in the removal from the meeting.

There is a two-minute time limit, and a bell will ring to indicate your time is up.

Mr.

Cornelius, please call the name of the first speaker.

And if you are on deck after that, please start working your way down to the front.

Thank you, Madam President.

Our first speaker is Lisa Christofferson, followed by Janet Sayers.

Apologize.

Thank you very much.

President Bassan, City Council's due process was included in the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights to protect people from and against government decisions that deprive due process is needed to ensure fairness in all of our legal matters.

So the first and the 14th amendments explicitly state that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law under any circumstance.

The government is required to respect due process before it can take actions that affect a person's life, liberty, or property.

Fifth Amendment gives protection from federal government.

It's explicitly against or for protections against the federal government, regardless of where an American lives in this country, including Albuquerque.

So my question to us why are we all allowing federal agents to kidnap and abduct without proving the detainment or the deprivation of liberty is lawful.

Aren't you all supposed to be for the rule of law?

Albuquerque City Council is the government, and Teddy Burkinias voted in at one time to be the governing body to represent it.

So a governance to ensure our constitutional rights, that's what you all are here to do to uphold and protect our constitutional rights.

The fact that enough of you refuse or cannot vote on an ordinance that says simply law enforcement operating in the Albuquerque area must have a legal badge visible.

I don't understand why that's a problem, and why can we not say that a legal warrant has to be signed by a legal judge produced before the human is detained?

Please, can we not ensure we have we can bring you video after video of unarmed?

I mean, they have plain clothes, can't identify, had to call four different agencies to find out who they were.

Calling 311 does not work, calling ICE does not work.

We have people abducting folks.

We need help.

Janet Sayers, followed by Francesco Artist.

Good evening, Madam President, members of the council.

First, I do want to uh thank you for your service, giving your time, energy, um, and commitment to making our city a better place.

Um, I'm here on behalf of the library board because five months from today, or around today, the New Mexico legislature will start meeting.

And that means capital outlay, and that means uh lists that are being prepared right now by city administration to um to be considered.

And I want, on behalf of the board, uh, I want to bring to you information about a very important capital need, and that is the main library, which opened in 1975.

But the uh the system, the cooling the cooling heating system consists of pipes, valves, ducks, fans, and filters that are the original system of that building.

So um, so I am asking uh the city administration to put on uh the capital outlay request, 2.14 million dollars.

All right, now that sounds crazy as a loon, but here we go.

You might say, well, the main library is in Councillor Baca's district.

Why should other people care?

It's because of all it's a branch library.

Uh second, it is the administrative hub for the entire library system.

25 plus employees that do maintenance technology, shipping and receiving of all the books.

Um let's see.

The maintenance staff, the delivery staff.

And I firmly believe that fixing this system, which fails, and when it fails, the oh my golly.

Anyway, when it fails, we're in big trouble because it's too hot and it's too cold.

So this is my plan.

I am hoping that some 30 representatives and senators from the legislature will each give a hundred thousand I know.

May I finish my uh if you finish that real quick?

Yes.

That upwards of we're gonna ask upwards of 30 uh of our legislators to each contribute a hundred thousand dollars.

Um I'm hoping that each one of you from the 25 bond issue might give upwards of 20,000 from your council set aside.

I'm gonna ask the Bernleo County Commission to do the same.

And working together, we can come up with two million dollars for this 50-year-old system.

Thank you very much.

Francesco Artist, followed by Ilsa Beale.

We practically doubled this year's budget, almost half a billion dollars for public safety, and I feel less safe today than I ever have.

A premeditated violent attack landed me in the emergency room.

Then they firebomb my house.

Recently, the same people trespassed onto my property in anger again and refused to leave when I demanded to get off my land.

I called 911 emergency, but APD didn't show up until about an hour later.

Fire rescue never showed up.

You know who they are, you know where they live and what they did, but you did nothing about it.

Nothing.

Someone showed up to a local politician's houses in anger.

Nobody died.

Nobody ended up in the emergency room like I did.

But he was arrested and prosecuted in a heartbeat.

This week he got so much jail time, it is a life sentence.

I was supposed to die that day.

Later, burn alive by setting my house on fire with me inside of it.

I stand before you terrorized 24-7.

By some miracle, I didn't lose an eye, or both, when they try to blind me.

They don't make stitches to give you back your eyesight.

And that's not the worst of it.

The royalty in Albuquerque have shown no remorse and trivialized my trauma as frivolous.

My blood is on your hands.

The killer administration is on record of being above the law, and the Constitution doesn't apply to them.

When you won't protect us, and we have to fend for ourselves out here, we want our half a million dollars, billion dollars back.

We don't have a crime problem in Albuquerque.

We have a leadership problem in Albuquerque.

Followed by Madam President.

Council Champagne.

I would like some sort of response from the administration of the fact that the AFD didn't show up.

Mr.

Whelan.

Madam Chair and Councillor Champlain, we can definitely look into the situation.

This is the first time I've heard of them not showing up.

And Madam President, just not AFR not showing up, but the whole incident itself.

Madam President, Councilor Champai, we will definitely look into the information.

Councilor Sanchez.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just like the administration to actually communicate with Mr.

Artist so that they can get his information and give him the follow-up that he needs and he deserves.

Let me know how that follow-up goes.

I will help you monitor it.

Thank you.

And I'm sure you know Mr.

Whalen, just please make sure to include us all.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Protocols are there to organize things.

Also to protect people who need some extra protection.

I would wager that there are few people in this city that are more vulnerable than the people who are left to make do outside.

The displacement policy was changed last year, implemented in December, January, whenever it was, after some input, after going to MRAC, etc.

So I'd already previously told you about how the protocol had been changed without any input, without any transparency, any notice to the public, etc.

With regards to just people feeling workers feeling they can just take some stuff and put it in storage.

And during my getting these interviews done, and just in general dealing with folks, I do direct outreach.

I keep on hearing about this city, sometimes it's APD, mainly it's solid waste, who are telling people they're allowed to take one bag.

When people then try and take more than one bag, they are told by the workers, choose one.

Now that amendment is just being used on the street, willy-nillily.

It's not thoughtful.

It makes no sense.

It is really suppressing the people, oppressing the people even further.

And the result is that folks are so traumatized they don't know what to do.

And I would very much like to hear how is this possible, please?

Thank you.

Councilor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

I would just like to can we get the updated displacement policy that she's speaking of sent to us.

Um Councillor President, Madam President, Councillor Rogers, first of all, there's no displacement policy.

There is a policy for addressing and handling encampments within the city.

I would be happy to get that to you.

And just for the record, please send it to all of us.

Thank you.

Mr.

Thank you, Madam President.

Anami Das, followed by Brick Jonasy.

Hi, all Madam President, Counselors.

Last year, APD was the deadliest uh police force of the 50 larger largest US cities.

Um that was in part because of the 13 officer-involved shootings that took place for the full year of 2024.

So far in 2025, we're at 11, meaning we're on track to uh have that number exceed any year previously.

Um APD also set a record of the most uh use of force incidents in a single month in April with 76.

That's more than two a day.

Um they actually got close to getting the exact same number in June.

Um in the data, I've never seen a number higher than 21 for a single uh level of force and a uh like single area command, and there were 31 in the Southeast area uh in June.

Um it is not a coincidence that those numbers started going up when uh the bayonet brigade, the National Guard, uh got deployed in the city.

Um, not saying that they're doing it, I'm saying that they've allowed resources so that there's more cops, and it's not really helping with the tension, even with crime down in every single category.

Interactions with police are getting more and more violent, and it's of grave concern.

Um thank you.

Brick Jonasi, followed by Let's Otvo.

All right.

Um so I'm really happy that uh counselors and council president that people are showing up to talk about their issues.

Um I really wish that more folks in the city would actually show up.

Um so I definitely encourage that.

Um, your horse-mounted units um and a few other officers that haven't identified them yet.

I've got the recording.

Um they'll be involved in litigation soon enough.

Um four other officers of yours definitely already are.

Um, you know, you already got your warning.

You said a while back that you uh uh you wanted that warning before it happens.

Well, you got it already, so accept that.

Um, you know, you got your your downtown area where your horses like to run people over.

Uh yeah, they ran me over just this past weekend.

Uh your bright lights with the lumens.

It's interesting, your airmen, your your officer patrolman uh was talking about blinding people with lights.

Well, guess what?

The people on the street right downtown are being blinded by your uh lumens by your officers.

Um was threatened many, many times to leave a public area.

Uh essentially your officers are out of control.

Um haven't committed any crimes.

Uh, but I guess you guys don't look don't mind losing the money.

Um, it's really ultimately down to the uh Terry versus Ohio grab up and harm people without you know any crime being committed, that style of tactics, uh, you know, where it's like stop at risk, grab them, then figure out if they committed a crime, you know, that that sort of thing.

Um, you know, that's that's not okay.

You know, that that's not respect.

Uh and and the whole thing with the the kindness, I'm really happy that that proclamation uh was talked about today because you know that that respect thing, uh your your officers don't respect us.

Uh they don't respect our rights, and they don't respect the constitution.

Um, in fact, as I've said it many times, uh Medina said that he doesn't have to sign the oath.

Let's opt on, followed by Tad Numinsky, Madam President, Council members.

You know, maybe maybe at some point in the future, Lord Willing.

I won't be coming here and having to give you all the problems that I see in your city.

You know, I usually try to come with a solution to some of the problems.

Some things are just out of my hands, some things are out of other people's hands.

When I talk to the police, they say, oh no, we have to be down here blowing the sirens because the council wants to have this the the uh the the people that congregate from the bars leave the area.

Well, last time I knew that that's still a city private pro sidewalk.

And when you have officers that are standing in front of the establishment with a with a light that's that big that's got 15 cells with seven lights in each cells, shining it in the people's eyes as they're leaving the building.

They've only got one, two places to go.

They're gonna go to the light, or they're gonna go left or they're gonna go right.

Well, if they can't go left and they can't go right, now you've got people that are banging into each other trying to leave.

Now it's gonna cause issues in itself.

Now you've got an officer that's blinding the individual, and he's trying to just get out of the bar, and he's visibly trying to feel his way out.

He might touch an officer that's got that flashlight, but that officer, he's not saying, Oh, excuse me, sir, I was just lighting your way to your car.

No, he's looking at it as like you put your hands on me, and now he's jumped by four people.

He's sitting in the back of the cruiser for almost two hours, and I walk around and I see piles of horse shit on the corners.

A guy in a wheelchair is trying to get by.

Why are the horses up on the sidewalk?

Why are the horses on the sidewalk?

Tad Niminsky, followed by Mervin Pilvel.

My name is Ted Numisky.

Here is Abikorky, New Mexico.

Oh, politicians, door are locked up.

You can get it inside.

Bulletproof glass.

Now we have to see screenings.

When you go to City Council meeting, you cannot pass security.

Now let's talk about dictatorship.

Russian style with American flag above.

That's where we at exactly.

Politician.

Selling city, selling county, make a deal.

For example, Debbie O'Malley.

She was doing here when she was in West Council.

Now she working for the state.

She's selling making deal.

Well, here is how Kenya.

Ruiz Property.

Sponsor sale.

You can go on and on.

How dirty politicians are here in this city.

We thought that's just talking of the leadership.

You can I call also said about time to cops.

No, just report it.

Thank you.

Mervyn Pilv.

Pilvim, excuse me, followed by Adeo Harrick.

Good evening, counselors.

My name is Mervyn Tilden.

I want to talk about uh some of the issues here that you discuss.

One of them is the uh uh Albuquerque Native American residents.

Um they fall into the uh people who are uh they face potential evictions with no recourse from this city or any uh departments.

Um I also want to uh uh say that uh I've been placing a position where my economy has been stopped.

I want to read three names.

Kayla Landingham, Chuck Melagadi, Rosanna Bruniger.

All three were employees of the Albuquerque Esperanza Bicycle Safety Education Center.

All three were killed riding bikes here in Albuquerque.

On February 15th of this year, there was another individual who was pinned down under a city coach.

Um, and he was killed.

On uh May 30th, 2025.

I was nearly added to this preventable number.

There was an Albuquerque Journal edited up ed on August 3rd, 2025, that stated these deaths that I just mentioned were preventable.

There have been nine in New Mexico.

But I want to to say that mine was caused by a city of Albuquerque's solid waste employee who was parked at a red light, who was parked in the safety zebra zone crosswalk.

I ride on the south side on the on the oncoming because of what I seen that people getting hit from behind.

Recently, uh an employee with uh one of the national labs here.

Uh well as I was crossing, I was clearly in front.

I had to ride away when that solid waste management employee ran me over and pinned me underneath.

Chief uh uh uh Michael Durgent from Dimetric Security could not pull me out because I was pulled underneath.

He had to tell the guy pull me back.

During that time, those three employees were laughing.

They were laughing at what they were watching, which I took it, they must have filmed.

I've turned in paperwork uh to uh counselor.

I've sent all you this notice, but I want you to remember um there's people out here that need the city council to take order ordinances with bike safety and pedestrian safety.

Thank you.

Adale Herrick, followed by Steven Verczynski.

I didn't know if it was solid waste or not.

Um, but my neighbors have uh said that they have had been they've been rousted.

They've been uh they've been stolen from uh by uh city employees and masks.

Um I want to also get on the record here that this is a medical mask.

This is uh neck gator.

Um I can wear behoth, um, but uh ICE agents are supposed to have a responsibility to the public, these federal administrative officers.

Um they uh they have some they have uh a much much monopoly of violence given to them.

Um I think we can all expect to see their faces.

We can all expect to see eye to eye.

Um the police, um, the Burnley or Sheriff's County, uh Bisco.

Um I was sitting on uh I was sitting on the sidewalk with my feet in the gutter with a friend at uh Trumbull Park and uh two cars.

Um uh two big, you know, uh Berncoe SUVs or Burncoe Sheriff SUVs.

Um they revved by um I saw sunglasses, I felt smoke.

Um you're over policing the international district, that's for sure.

Um there's if they've got time to drive up and down and side to side and loud every time.

Um then the budget, the budget's gotta the budget's gotta change.

Thank you very much.

Stephen Verczynski, followed by Teresa Garcia.

Okay.

Madam President, uh counselors, thank you.

My name is Steven Virginski, I'm a longtime resident, former president of the Classic Uptown Neighborhood Association.

Uh resolution before LUPS on August the 13th, R25-167, the opt-in process for legislative zoning uh conversions.

I submit that this is outside the IDO process, and I'm in opposition.

Our neighborhood just fought an attempted subdivision on the edge of our neighborhood.

It was lengthy and it took a lot of time and money.

Uh while there are loads of vacant properties uh citywide.

You know, we don't need to go ahead and do any major changes.

The zoning conversions by legislation remove neighborhood oversight, a key component to quality of life in our comprehensive plan.

It offers no real protections for those, for example, like myself who have filed solar rights under state law and uh have to go ahead and then monitor everybody in the neighborhood.

Uh we don't have any signage that ends up going up.

It takes away due process notification again to the adjacent property owners, urge no votes for affirming this process uh by legislation.

Um the second item I have is state legislator state representative Liz Thompson heads our state legislative health committee.

There have been no hearings on COVID 19 and other GMO shops and their impacts.

It's been impacting our community.

We shut down businesses uh citywide with regards to this.

I think that it's time and way overdue that the legislature uh be told by this uh group that we have a need for having hearings on this and to even look at the state uh public health emergency act, which is I mean, uh I can be put away for five days if I test positive with no due process.

Sir, before you go, I just want to make sure to clarify that as of reporting out of the committee tonight.

O sixty one sixty seven did not pass that committee and it failed in committee, just so that you know.

Okay, I understand if you correct me, but if there's an affirmative vote by this council by four members, you can bring this back.

Sir, that moment has passed, but it's not QA.

If you want to go ahead and talk over here to one of our staff members, they can go ahead and clarify the process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Teresa Garcia, followed by Ava Montoya.

Good evening, Council President and members.

I'm a mother of two students at a Trisco Heritage Academy.

I'm here tonight because our children are sitting in classrooms that are over 90 degrees.

Teachers are being forced to teach in unbearable heat because the chiller at a Trisco Heritage keeps breaking down, which cools several buildings.

Speaking to the staff, this isn't a new issue.

It's been happening since 2009.

It's now 2025.

They have purchased window units, but not all classrooms have windows where it's a band-aid and the system should prop should be fixed properly.

This is not just about comfort, it's about safety, health, and our children's ability to learn.

I have already contacted APS board to raise these concerns, not only for Trisco, but the district wide.

Um, but I know that this is not something that APS can do alone.

And so if we work together across the board, city, county, APS, and state, and truly allocate funding where it's needed.

Um, starting with our schools, we wouldn't still be talking about basic needs like safe classrooms, working AC, and a healthy learning environment for our kids.

This also includes sidewalks for accessibility and proper school lighting for safety while crossing 118th, which is a busy intersection.

At the same time, I want to emphasize another critical issue facing our families, the safety of our immigrant community.

We cannot ignore the reality that ICE is targeting my community and immigrant workers who are not criminals right here in Albuquerque.

I'm a proud daughter of an immigrant, proud of my culture and where I come from and being indigenous from the Tatamata tribe.

We need to stop detaining kidnapping members of our community where they're simply trying to work and provide for their families.

We cannot allow city resources to be used in assisting ice, and most importantly, create policies and protections to unmask ice, properly identify themselves and hold them accountable for the violence inflicted on our community.

District three is vibrant, hardworking community filled with families, immigrants and non-immigrant alike who deserve safe schools, safe workplaces, and a city that protects them, not one that looks away.

Yes.

Thank you.

Eva Montoya.

Councilor Rogers.

I'm sorry, thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just wanted to point out for the record APS's capital budget is 473 million dollars.

The city's capital budget is 180 million dollars.

And so I'm grateful that you also took that to this to the school board, but they have a very larger budget than for capital improvements to their schools than the entire city of Albuquerque.

Their operating budget is 2.3 billion dollars to R 1.7.

So I agree that we should push our uh counterparts to use their capital dollars, which are way higher than ours, to actually do the things that they need to do in our schools.

So I'm happy to carry that on, but they have a bigger budget for capital than the entire city of Albuquerque, and I just have to public has to know that.

And please go to city to the school board, and we should all be raising our voices there.

Thank you.

Mr.

Cornelius.

Eva Montoya, followed by James Freeman.

Uh good evening, Madam President, Council members.

Um I just want to sprack express some gratitude towards um Council Fueblecorn and the mayor for showing up to um address the situation.

My niece, Kayla Van Landingham was killed like about three weeks ago.

And uh I just want to talk about follow-up with that, I guess, just to make sure.

Like I just see a lot of issues with um public safety.

I mean, Kay was one at the time of her death, just like one of 19 pedestrians and cyclists killed in the city, and it just feels like a very dangerous place for everybody.

Just our enforcement here in the city is very lacking, and you see it all around you.

Like I drive every day, I see cars without tags.

I see cars that are in dangerous condition, I see people swerving, I see people not stopping at red lights.

I mean, Albuquerque has a well-earned reputation for having horrible driving, and our insurance rates reflect that.

Um, I have a lot of people that I know who moved into the city, and they always complain my traffic, my insurance has gone through the roof, and it's because it's just we have a poor culture, and just I just feel like since COVID, our enforcement of basic rules and regulations as far as um being on a street is is bad.

Like I don't know.

I don't know if APD is lacking resources or what to be able to do that.

I mean, you all probably you all drive these streets, you see it yourselves.

You see cars that are shouldn't be on the road, you know.

And if you get hit by a vehicle, there's a 50-50 chance they probably don't have insurance.

And I don't know, that just feels like there's a lot of of a lot of those items are making it very difficult for us to have like safety for cyclists or pedestrians and just drivers just making our city very unsafe for everybody, and our quality of life is really suffering, and people are dying like for no reason, and it shouldn't happen.

And I hope there's enforcement with the Hawking installations, and we have cops forcing like speeding and red light violations there.

Thank you.

Council Brown.

Thank you.

Ma'am, I would like to um offer my condolences to you and your family.

I'm really sorry, and I also thank you for coming to speak up.

That's that's very brave.

And I do agree, we need to be enforcing the laws that are on the books.

There are a lot of them, and I see a lot of laws that are broken as well, and I agree we need to slow down, enforce laws, and um watch out for bicyclists because you guys are very important.

Mr.

Cornelius.

Thank you, Madam President.

James Freeman, followed by James Shanley.

Good evening, y'all.

I'm still James Freeman from District 4.

So to Miss Keefe's point, we all know it's not called the displacement policy, but there is a policy that went into effect in November of last year.

It's what created the priority, the priority um where okay, if you're one block north or one block south of central, you can be displaced within two hours.

You're a priority one displacement, and then there's a priority two and a priority three.

Yeah, the policy definitely exists.

I talked up here last year about it.

There's 17 characteristics that define what a priority one encampment is, and that it can be displaced very quickly.

Um, I wanted to share uh Dr.

Verplot's uh housing voucher task force.

I've had the opportunity to serve on that, and it's been a great experience.

My biggest fear at the beginning that this is going to be uh a tool get to be used against the nonprofit providers to show that they're they're not getting people in housing fast enough, or the money's just really sitting around.

But I think after these months of collaboration, I no longer have that fear.

And what a the other point I really want to make, a city employee actually corrected me in a meeting last week that it didn't go from 12 million to 8 million.

It actually went from 16 million.

The housing budget, the housing voucher pool was 16 million like four years ago, and then it went to 12, and then it went to eight.

Now, all the work that we've done on the task force is only meaningful if we significantly increase the resources in that pool.

We have to get people housed.

This is the most effective way to do it.

That's why we've invested so much time in this task force.

Uh the CEOs show up, Ms.

Ms.

Rogers, Ms.

Grout show up.

You know, we're we're all doing this work, but we really need the resources.

We only have the funding for 596 vouchers, and we know there's a lot more than 596 people on the streets.

So we really need to increase that funding.

Um thank you.

James Shanley, followed by Nicole Finch on Zoom.

Madam President, counselors.

Uh, my name is James Shanley.

I'm president of the Mark Twain Neighborhood Association and Vice President of the District 7 coalition of neighborhood associations.

The city has been investing in the gateway system in various locations since before 2021.

Aggregate total spending commitments to date exceed 300 million dollars.

In the evenings after the buses to the west side shelter have ceased running.

Any observation of East Central and areas of the International District or First Street under the I-40 overpass or elsewhere along most of our major corridors clearly indicates that if there was ever a goal of the gateway system to eliminate the need for our streets, sidewalks, alleyways, and other public spaces to be the last refuge for thousands of people, it has failed to be met.

Members of the public who may wish to know quantitatively how many people have been effectively transitioned by this expensive system into permanent housing, will not locate a report card beyond generalized meaningless numbers of people impacted or excuses like 75% refuse services.

In the corporate world where I spent my professional career, the lifespan of failed strategies is measured in quarters, not in years.

As the ultimate spending authority of the city, I urge you to demand more quantitative, qualitative spending, and schedule accountability of the gateway system.

You are being asked, I believe, this evening to rubber stamp $36,000 per bid per year for management of the men's and women's housing navigation at Gateway East.

For that amount of money, there should be targets and mandated commitments by the contractors to a rate of success.

Thank you.

Nicole Finch, followed by Justin Rogers.

You are muted, Nicole.

Thank you.

Good evening, Madam President and Counselors.

My name is Nicole Finch, and I'm a member of the Library Advisory Board.

I want to congratulate the Albuquerque Bernleo County Public Library on a successful summer reading program.

And I want to express my gratitude to the friends of the public library for funding summer reading.

I got to visit almost every library branch this summer, and I saw tons of people of all ages enjoying the various summer reading activities.

One thing I heard at some of the branches I visited was that the staff of other libraries were so grateful to have the extra help from the international district staff during that period when the library was closed to get their air conditioning repaired.

They felt bad for the international district patrons, but the extra staff really gave them some breathing room and helped them stay on top of things.

Our library staff across the system provides incredible service to the community, but they're at a point where they simply can't do more with less anymore.

So it's time for us to seriously start talking about increasing funding specifically for staff at the library.

Thank you.

Justin Rogers, followed by Janice Herrera.

Okay.

Hello, President and Council.

Um, this is the second meeting since you came back from vacation, and the second time I'm here to ask you to do what's right and protect our people from ice.

Um it's great to declare this, be kind to human kind week, but how can you permit this violent force to operate and terrorize people in our city?

Um I want to thank counselors Baca, February, Corn and Rogers for being on the right side.

Everything you said in your op-ed about ICE is spot on.

Uh, but we also need action, not just correct words.

Every day the ICE continues to operate this way, it subjects people to permanent harm.

Um, I know that counselors Champagne Grout and Lewis want to give federal immigration more access in the city, specifically allowing us in the booking facility, where in their words, criminals are taken when arrested.

You should also recognize, however, that non-criminals who should be presumed innocent are also taking the booking if they're arrested.

Our criminal system is plenty tough.

We don't need additional fears based on someone's integration status.

If you have a minor domestic dispute, someone may not call 9-1-1 if they think it could lead to deportation.

Or conversely, if I have a dispute with a neighbor who I think is undocumented, someone could could get them arrested and get them deported.

Um I don't think that's the right use of our systems here.

Um the three remaining counselors, President Basson, Vice President Payne, and Councillor Sanchez.

I hope that you can join the three who wrote the op-ed.

I hope that you can join the three who wrote the op ed, even if you don't support the mayor's actions, you can show some leadership and do some things to help.

Here's some things you can do.

Require federal agents to wear visible ID and notify, be verified by local authorities about their activities in the area.

Train city contractors on how to protect workers and respond to ICE activity.

Restrict enforcement in our schools, churches, shelters, hospitals, courtrooms, and other such places.

Some of these are hopefully being done already, but giving it into the city ordinance would be great.

Do you know what we call Germans who didn't support the Nazis racism and hatred, but just thought thought some law and order could make them safer?

We call them Nazis.

Please take action to be on the right side of this moment.

Janice Herrera, followed by Adam Silverman.

Good evening, Council President Basson and members of the council.

Um I wanted to touch on again the community bridges incorporated, who is the proposed contractor for the Gateway East Men's Expansion.

Um, I was trying to get a little into the numbers last time just to reiterate, and I did send numbers out over email.

Um there are uh eight different positions who are listed at 0.02 full-time employees, which is less than one hour per week in their personnel contract, the highest of whom, if you uh prorate the amount that he's paid for that less than one hour per week, uh she or them uh it's more than a million dollars per year for their CEO.

So I just wanted to point that out to you all that uh a vote yes for the community bridges contract is in support of a millionaire CEO overseeing uh our local housing program.

Um other things I wanted to touch on.

I'm glad that the topic of vouchers came up today.

Um I recently worked with several different people who had received vouchers and were having trouble actually getting a um rental unit located, approved, and through the process in the amount of time that is specified by the voucher contract.

And so I'm wondering if there isn't some kind of a way to add a mechanism where someone, uh, if they had gone to see apartments, if they had put in requests to their case manager uh for certain units to be inspected, and it had not gone through for whatever reason, they're able to get an extension.

Um that would greatly alleviate some of the stress on people who are trying to utilize our public transit, who may or may not have a phone uh to help facilitate the process, um, and are feeling really pinched um by the way that the process is designed.

Um and then finally, uh in my own personal life, I had a gas leak where I live, and my utility bill came out more than four times the amount that it should have been per month.

That's how the leak was discovered.

I'm a renter, I have no control over the aging infrastructure where I live and ask you consider policy to defer that over to the landowner.

Thank you.

Adam Silverman, followed by Rosemary Blanchard.

Uh good evening, counsel and madam president, thank you for letting me speak.

I just wanted to come on and thank all of you for all of your hard work and stewardship.

What you do for our city.

Uh sometimes goes unrewarded.

So, first I want to say thank you.

And second, I also want to come in here and thank you for your efforts on uh O 95, which you'll hear later tonight.

I believe that's a really good start to making the process a little bit easier and continue the positive flywheel for more development, create more housing opportunities in our city for both private, or excuse me, both for-profit and non-profit developers.

Uh, I really appreciate all of your work, and I hope you all have a good evening.

Thank you.

Rosemary Blanchard, followed by Alex Applegates.

Good evening, Madam President, members of the council.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Oh, good.

My name's Rosemary Blanchard.

I'm a resident of District 2.

I want to thank counselors Backa, Fablecorn, and Rogers for the opinion piece in the Albuquerque Journal this Sunday.

Respect for all members of the community makes us safer.

Ice shadowing our local law enforcement activities make us less safe.

It's an interesting coincidence that this issue is something we're exploring around the time of national kindness week.

It may sound counterintuitive, but a culture of kindness is the most effective means of maintaining safety and security in any community.

After 9-11, we all learned the phrase, if you see something, say something.

But counselors, that advice only works if everyone involved can trust the people to whom they say something.

ICE is a terrorist presence in our community.

As counselors black up Eeble Corn and Rogers State in their opinion piece.

Unidentified mass agents are targeting our neighborhoods at Walmarts, detaining workers on their way to work and tearing people from their families who've been here for years.

I know they are making people afraid to go to church, for goodness sake.

The vast majority of people being targeted have never committed a crime, and yet they are being denied due process.

This situation is bad enough under our existing setup.

But if this council should ever change our laws and protection of our residents from ICE harassment and authorize use of our city law enforcement resources to collaborate with ICE, we will all be in less safe.

Let's not import the culture of bullying that is corrupting our national life.

Hold ice to the due process standards required by both our federal and state constitutions.

Counselors, bullying is not bravery.

It's actually a mark of cowardice.

Let's have the courage to take care of our city.

Hold the line against ice predations against our markets, schools, hospitals, churches, and against our neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Alex Applegate.

Madam President and City Councillors.

My name is Alex Applegate.

I am the chair of the Greater Albuquerque Active Transportation Committee.

I am heartbroken to be speaking tonight because of yet another cyclist death.

Kayla Van Landingham.

Another one that could have been prevented by the city, but was not.

Nancy's requests for transparency have not been answered.

It is this lack of transparency that I wish to focus my comments on today.

Would it be of great interest to the community to know where and how money allocated cyclist is spent?

We need the information on the city investments to be able to adequately judge the so far poor performance that has been demonstrated.

The city has a bike and trailways plan, but we do not have a means of tracking progress on this plan.

Again, this lack of transparency does not allow us the information we need to see.

The city has both a complete streets and a vision zero program.

These do not seem to be enforced or used by the city on a regular basis.

I understand they are understaffed and underfunded, but we need more transparency here too.

We need to see the numbers.

What percentage of street construction projects involve cycling infrastructure?

I know from personal experience that unless the Act of the Transportation Committee organizes, which can take years of effort.

Complete streets is often ignored.

This must change.

We have to come here to discuss with you.

I do not do not know about you, but I've had a hard time sleeping since her preventable death.

Thank you.

Madam President, Kay Schaefer and Rudolph Sarano are not president Zoom, so that concludes general public comment.

Thank you.

Counselors, we're going to move on to approvals.

Approval uh approval A as EC442 revenue and expense report for third quarter fiscal year 2025.

I remove a receipt be noted.

There's a second by Madam Vice President.

Let's go ahead and go to public comment.

Thank you, Madam President.

Eva Montoya has signed up to speak.

Sorry, I think I said that twice recently.

Can I still speak?

You're so if you want to speak on the revenue and expense requirements, then my bad.

No problem.

That was our only speaker, Madam President.

Thank you.

All right.

The motion is for receipt be noted.

Counselors, any comments or questions?

Counselor Grout.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, I know that this these are just projections, and until we get the audit, we'll find out the true numbers.

Um, but it says that we the general fund is overspent by 6.7 million.

Um the second quarter we were at 12 million, so we're coming down.

I know you can't speculate on the final um year-end expenses yet, but do you anticipate a negative fund balance for fiscal year 25?

Council President, Councilor Grout.

Uh no, we don't.

We started taking measures during the year to make sure that we were able to come in on budget, and that's why you've seen the number drop from the second quarter to the third quarter.

So we're pretty confident we'll we will make budget.

Thank you.

What were those measures?

Um, Madam President, Councillor Grout.

Uh, we did several things.

Uh, our office of um budget management started looking at every requisition over 25,000.

We started looking at all of our journal entries to make sure that the things we were buying were things that were necessary.

We started to approve positions that were only deemed um not uh that were deemed um critical.

And so we kind of slowed down some of our hiring.

So we were posting positions for two weeks.

So and then we just worked with each department director to make sure that we are going to come in under budget.

How did you work with the department directors to do what?

Um Madam President, Councilor Grout.

Well, each director manages their own budgets.

So we worked with the director to find out where could they possibly have some savings?

What could they do?

And so that we can make sure that each department did make their budget.

Did you instruct and madam president?

Did you instruct department heads to cut budgets?

Madam President and Counselor Grout.

We had savings that we needed to obtain so that we could make it into budget.

So we worked with the departments to make those budgets.

Were they um were thank you for all these answers?

Were they um did you instruct them to find salary savings and program savings in the amounts of millions of dollars?

Uh Madam President and Councilor Grout, every department does have salary savings annually, it's something that happens every year.

Um and then we did look at programs that possibly were being overspent so that we can make sure if it was a critical program, we would keep it, but if it wasn't maybe adjust it.

Okay.

Um why did city support overspend?

Uh Madam President and Councilor Grout, that is due to our early retirement program.

So that number is about the same number every year uh for every all of our people who are retiring early, mainly when it comes to uh AFR, APD, and then a lot of our support staff.

So that's a a number that is there.

Okay.

Um if if it's every year, then why is it overspent?

Uh Madam President and Counselor Grout, it's uh the journal entry number that we have to do at year end because we don't know how many people are going to retire.

We don't know how much paperwork is going to come in.

It trickles in throughout the year, and then you get a big push of early retirement kind of in October.

So we don't know that number.

Okay, thank you.

Um, why did planning overspend?

Uh Madam President and Councillor Grout planning was due to the Tyler system upgrade.

Okay.

So that was a new system that we had to put in in order to continue the planning department's processes.

Was it not funded at the right level before?

Well, I mean, obviously it wasn't, but um why wasn't it?

Um Madam President, Councilor Grout, some of the expenses went up throughout the whole year in many departments and many things, so we have to adjust as we're getting it implemented and as we're getting it put in.

Okay, thank you.

And then my final question why did AFR overspend?

Um Madam President, Counselor Grout, AFR was pretty almost fully staffed throughout the year, and so they um have a lot of costs, they have a lot of medical supplies costs, and that those costs continue to rise, and they have to have that critical supplies in order to be able to fulfill their duties to the general public.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all Madam President.

Council Papelcorn.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, Mr.

Whalen, can you speak to how much was raised with the increase in IDOH?

Uh indirect overhead that we've talked about a lot overall, how much was raised and how much um was was you know taken into operating from that?

Um Madam President, Councilor Grout, I don't have the exact number or Council People Corn, I apologize, but I can get you that information.

Okay.

Um, Madam President, I'm interested in how much was raised overall and then by department, and then I'm also interested in when we decided to take it back down to the level that it's at now and what the justification for that was.

Thank you.

And please make sure to send it to everybody, Madam President.

We will do that.

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just had a question about risk management being above how so above um their budget.

Do we know why?

Yeah, um, Madam President and Councillor Rogers, the risk fund is a fund that just kind of is fluid throughout the year because we don't know what kind of tort claims we're gonna get.

We don't know what payments we'll be making out.

All we can do is just work through it and have our estimates.

Thank you.

Counselors, any other questions or comments?

Counselor Lewis?

Thank you, Madam President.

Um can you just give me an overview of where parts and recreation is at as far as um on track with our budget?

Uh Madam President and Counselor Lewis, they are tracking to come in on budget this year.

So they're on budget this year.

Um and I'll I'll just bring this up now because this is uh um you know during our budget year, and we often talk about this.

Uh you know, we we spend time you all start the budget, you give your recommendations.

Um, this year is a 1.5 billion dollar budget.

It increased from the year before overall pretty significantly.

Uh, and then one of the questions that we often ask is um is to the directors is do you have a sufficient amount of money uh to operate um and and give the city the best services possible uh back?

Um we did that with parks and recreation, and we specifically um had uh you know conversations with the director with the administration um asking if this budget was enough uh to maintain a high level standard of quality of parks in our in our city.

Um the director said yes it is, and so um I think even the question was do you need do you need more money?

Um we saw some concerns about some of the parks in the in the city and uh back then, but now I mean this is August, and it's pretty evident uh that many of our parks around the city are just um in disarray.

I mean, just in and I I mean I I have um pictures, I know my my analyst um, and we actually actually asked a lot of people from the community in Ventana Ranch uh around Cottonwood uh to send in pictures of neighborhood parks right now.

Um I I would admit and say that there's some disaster parks you know all over the city and certainly in my district.

Um the statement was made recently, you know, from the administration that it is a budgetary issue.

In fact, to my constituents, um it was clearly stated that this is a budgetary issue.

And so I guess I would ask um do we need more money?

Is there a budgetary issue?

And would you explain that when it comes to parks and recreation?

Mr.

Whelan.

Um Madam President and uh Councilor Lewis, I think when it comes to the budget, we have to operate with within what we bring in for the general fund in our grocery seas tax.

Uh I know for the parks that there was some staffing issues, but uh there's been weather and there's been other issues at some of the parks that we're addressing.

Now, when it comes to staffing, I spoke to the director today, and we are actually going to due to some shortages in staffing, we're gonna start using some outside contractors.

We've done this in the past.

I remember three years ago when it was a lot of rain, our medians had a lot of weeds, and so because the staffing level we had could only address so many medians at that time, we started using a contractor to help us get caught up.

And once we get caught up, then we scale back.

So that's the condition with parks and rank.

So, madam president, and so that there are some parks right now in on the west side in the district, and I know and I'm and I know in parks parts of the other rest of the city.

Um, and if they don't have some immediate care to them right now, um if we don't spend some money right now, uh then the process is gonna be um you know to have to wait, you know, all throughout the winter, and then we're gonna have to start over on the turf for these parks completely.

We're gonna have to completely start over with them, which I imagine you know, spending some money now uh to repair them and to get them where they need to be before winter is a lot less expensive than replacing entire parks in the in the springtime.

But that's my understanding of what needs to happen that there's got to be an infusion of cash and money to be able to hire those contractors right now.

And by the way, um that you your your constraints are your constraints are not the revenue that the city brings in uh to the parks department.

Um your constraints are the budget that you proposed uh back in the spring.

So the administration, you propose a budget, the council changes it very little, um, but you propose a budget, and those are your constraints.

You don't have any constraints.

In fact, your constraints are you can't spend the money because uh you put it into gateway, health and human services, other priorities of this mayor, and so um, and it was again it was my understanding during the budget that uh that the parks and recreation department had everything it needed uh to be able to maintain a high level of parks in our city, and that is clearly not the case right now.

It is absolutely not the case, and the one of the reasons given to me, not only the uh the personnel, there was personnel reasons, like that, but specifically to my constituents, what the the reason was a budgetary issue, a budgetary issue.

So, how could you explain that we would have a budgetary issue uh with not being able to take care of our parks right now?

Madam President, Councilor Lewis, we are addressing the situation at the parks.

It's one of our priorities that we're taking care of.

And in where are you getting the money to address that situation?

Uh Madam President and Councilor Lewis, it's a brand new fiscal year.

So, you know, we budget according to what we feel we're going to need, and that's where we're at.

And so it's the summertime, and it's parks will require more attention right now, and that's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna address it from a deaf from many different angles.

Madam President, one of the resolutions that was introduced tonight, I'm not discussing that right now, but it's uh um it is to capture some of the reversions and to ensure that that happens.

Because again, you know, this council, you know, um uh uh you know approves a budget, and then um when when the department says we don't have the budget to do this, and there's some serious problems, um, then people look back on the council and go, you know, why didn't you why didn't you fund this?

You know, why didn't you budget for this?

And uh and then uh well we didn't budget for it because the mayor uh administration didn't ask for money.

Uh they said they had an adequate amount, and so um I do I do we do need a plan, and I think it is right for this council to allocate some reserves um to ensure that you have the money for it because you said you did in the spring and now you don't now now apparently you don't because you also said that you don't.

And so I I think it's appropriate for the council to uh reserve, take some of those reserves, give you some money for it, um, and then also to have a specific plan, uh a rehab, uh renovation, whatever you want to call it, uh, to be able to take care of these parks now before we have to redo them in a year from now.

Um and if I have to bring pictures next week and we'll we'll show them, we'll show all of them.

Um, and uh um and and get a real perspective on what's going on in our parks right now uh because it's pretty honestly, it's pretty devastating.

We have a lot of brown bread, and not just brown grass.

I mean, we have dead grass dead dirt, you know, on parks that used to be many of them for 15, 20 years that I've seen that have been pristine, you know, for a lot of years.

And so you look at this and you go, no, there's you know, what's the reason for this?

It's not a drought.

That that's not the difference right now between this year and last year and five years ago and ten years ago.

Um, and again, it's these are not my words.

This is this is coming from the administration that it's a budgetary issue.

And so if that is the case, then I want to fix that and make sure that um you know, and make sure that you know next year that you you request enough money to be able to take care of our parks.

Thank you, Madam President.

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

I was reading some more while I was listening to other and so I thought of a couple more questions.

So just looking at revenue categories like interest permits and this one that's miscellaneous, they're trending well below expectations.

Are we making any adjustments to the FY26 forecasting models based on this?

Uh Madam President, Councilor Rogers, we are always forecasting and adjusting as we need to, even when it comes to our gross receipts tax and how what we think is gonna happen and then what actually does happen.

Thank you, Madam President, and it just makes me think of like so.

How are we as a city managing one-time revenue windfalls like in our automatic speed cameras line that I'm looking at right now versus recurring funding?

What how do we how do we manage that?

Uh Madam President and Councilor Rogers, we just meant we manage each thing as we build our budget.

So we have a certain percent that we know is gonna come in through gross receipts that we set there, and then when it comes to these other funding sources, the money is just uh allocated within that portion.

So for instance, um with swimming pools or things you pay for, those things go into the general fund.

Um you have the solid waste department, which is an enterprise fund, so it's all allocated through our budget.

Thank you.

Last question, Madam President, is just thinking of cross-departmental spending and duplication of efforts.

How do we look at that as a city across departments?

Just for just to make sure we're not duplicating efforts and funding and what we're spending in certain departments for certain things.

How do we evaluate that across the whole city?

Uh Madam President and Councillor Rogers, we're always looking at how we can do things cross-departmentally so that we don't have to double efforts.

I know our environmental health department works with our solid waste department so that they don't have to spend money for contractors out at our landfills.

So we're always with our directors working and looking for ways that we can be um more innovative on how we're doing things.

Thank you, Madam President.

That was just a little hot button one for me and our poop bill, but we'll we'll keep it on moving.

Thank you, Madam President.

Council Champagne.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just have one question based on some of the comments tonight.

Um why would someone from the department um say that it's a budgetary issue when as you said we are a month and a half into our budget?

Why would there be a mix of communication?

Uh Madam President and Council Champaign.

Um we have hundreds of employees, they don't control the budget.

Budget is controlled through our office of budget management.

So I don't I can't speak exactly because I don't know exactly what was said.

I know what um we've been told has been said, but uh I can't control what an employee would say, so we will have to talk to the department.

Thank you.

Counselors, the motion is for a receipt be noted on EC442.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes unanimously.

Moving on to EC469, Uptown Transit Center Joint Development Partnership Agreement, increase reimbursement, six supplemental and move approval.

Second.

There's a second by Councillor Feeblecorn.

And let's go to public comment, please.

Thank you, Madam President.

We have Dale Herrick signed up to speak.

Pardon me, what are we on?

This is the Uptown Transit Center Joint Development Partnership Agreement.

Yes.

EC469.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Um last time I last time I went there, the public bathroom was uh locked up.

Um I have used that place as a park and ride.

Um and I'm I've heard a little bit about it through the uh Albuquerque True, the transit riders union.

Um some of us uh like riding the bus enough uh that we're willing to make a whole organization about it.

Now uh I think that um the plans I've seen look very good.

Um and then uh also you know there uh there is another catty corner um uh lot that is uh full of you know weeds and um uh cracks in the concrete um it's it's near the APS and the total line.

I think that uh that would be another uh excellent place to look at for these sort of pretty awesome projects.

Thank you.

Madam President, that was our only speaker on this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counselors, any questions or comments?

The motion is for approval of EC469.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on the nine-zero vote.

Councillors, we're gonna move on to final actions.

Oh 95, Councilor Backa.

Thank you, Madam President.

Amending the public purchases ordinance to simplify and streamline the process for affordable and transitional housing development projects.

Uh this is an update and clarification on our existing procurement code.

And essentially, we are clearing the red tape to get housing built now.

I urge your support.

Counselor, before that, do you have a motion?

I move due pass.

There's a motion.

Is there a second?

Second from Councillor Rogers.

Counselors, any questions or comments?

Let's uh sorry, I got ahead of myself.

Let's go to public comment first, if that's all right, Councilor Grout, and then we'll come back.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Lisa Christofferson, followed by Tad Numinsky.

Dr.

Christofferson is passing.

Mr.

Nemensky.

Tad Newiski, followed by Roy McNat on Zoom.

Thank you.

My name is Ted Numisky.

Well, here is uh public purchases in ordinance and simplified.

Well, how can you trust it and simplify it to contractor builders contractors, vendors, etc.

etc.?

When there we have in this government, no accountability.

I've been told over and over.

Why when the money goes to for the example, not profit, uh and so on, contractor.

They have no power.

They can do whatever they want.

Whatever they want it with this money.

What is some kind accountability?

No issue.

Housing.

And for uh right here uh line 13.

Very low income renter.

Well affordability.

How about five billion uh affordability when government charging for apartment twice more than close the street uh private little guys?

That's that's it's corrupt that how corrupted is system nine hundred versing five hundred private also account accountability luck, Roy McNat on Zoom.

Roy, if you'd like to speak, can you please accept promotion to panelists?

Roy, go ahead.

I've given you permission to speak.

You want to go ahead?

You can unmute sorry, maybe some technical difficulties.

Roy, if you would like to speak, please accept promotion to panelists.

Mr.

Cornelius, we'll go ahead and go to Councillor Grout.

If he does accept, then we can come back before we vote on the bill.

Thank you.

Councilor Grout.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just have a couple of questions.

Um is this process limited to affordable housing projects or purchases uh with state funding, or will this now apply to any project?

Councillor Grout, is that for Councillor Backa?

Sure.

Councilor Backa?

Actually, I'd like to ask uh uh our staff, uh Ms.

Bradley or Ms.

Cooled on to answer that.

Okay, uh Madam President, Councillor Grout.

Um, so portions of this bill would apply to uh just the affordable housing development piece, but the request for qualifications component would be a new process that would apply um to other um uh procurement of tangible personal property services or construction.

Okay, thank you.

And then one more question.

Will this method include a cost proposal?

Ms.

Bradley, Councillor Grout, would you repeat the question, please?

Yes.

Will this method include a cost proposal?

Um chairman, um or madam president, uh counselor grout.

It really depends on which one you're using for these.

So uh the the request the uh exemption that's specifically to streamline the affordable and transitional housing uh would have to have as part of it the MFA affordable housing qualifying grantee, and that has a huge list of um items in it that that shows that the what the project's about, how much it costs, how much they're leveraging, and a lot of that information.

So it would be included in that.

In the um request for qualifications, um you ask when you ask for request for qualifications, it's based on experience and qualifications, um, but it is you would want to know how much you know they're they're um that they're going to propose.

Um it is not based like a request for bid on low bids, but neither is a request for proposals, right?

Okay, that makes sense.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's it.

Mr.

Cornelius.

Yes, we have Roy uh McNat signed up to speak.

Go ahead, Roy, if you could unmute.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, sir, we can hear you.

Please go ahead.

Uh good e good evening, Councilman Lewis.

You know what my priorities are.

Uh as far as it goes back.

Uh I'm not gonna try to collaborate on what I think what I think about this session, but I am interested in this current conversation.

I thank you very much.

I will address that at a later date as the projects go forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam President, that concludes comment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilor Bacca to close.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh, one quick oversight.

Uh Councilor Rogers was supposed to be a co-sponsor on this.

Is it possible to that's my fault for not getting her on there?

Is it possible to get her added?

Staff is indicating yes.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

Um, we housing, as we all acknowledge, is one of the main issues we have right now, the root of quite a few of the issues in our city right now.

And this this is you know a result of you know, funding that became available this year, both in HB 450 and HB2, and and an analysis of how are we going to get those out because both of those bills had critical deadlines and like well, you know what?

Actually, we can we can streamline some of this.

We can make things quicker, we can't get things done.

Uh government can be a solution.

So I urge everybody's support.

Thank you.

The motion is for a due pass of 095.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

That passes on a 9-0 vote.

Moving on to R 181, Councilor Champagne.

Thank you, Madam President.

R 181 rescinding R 154, which established a moratorium on a fiber internet installation permits and established a working group to reevaluate permitting criteria and other required standards.

I move for a due pass.

There's a motion for a due pass and a second by Councillor Grout.

Counselor Champagne to open.

Madam President, this resolution rescinds uh R25154, which required the city council which required city council to enact the recommendations of the working group to update the city processes for installation of fiber internet throughout the city uh by September 1st, or a moratorium on all residential fiber installation would be imposed.

Uh as it turns out, September 1st is a holiday, and so the first point of action would be September 3rd.

Um I'm just making that adjustment, and this is the best way to do it.

Let's go ahead and go to public comment and then we will come back for counselor questions and comments.

Thank you, Madam President.

Adeo Herrick, followed by Tad Newski, followed by Carlos Rossas on Zoom.

Sorry.

Good evening, counselors.

I'm just here to say that I like uh fiber internet um and uh like it a little bit more than I like Starlink.

Thank you for your time.

Tad New Minsky, followed by Carlos Rosas, followed by Richard Estrada.

Thank you.

Again, my name is well, select on the head.

This contractor never stop construction.

That's all I got to say.

Thank you.

Carlos Rosas, followed by Richard Estrada.

Good evening, Madam President, the members of City Council.

My name is Carlos Rosas and I serve as SVP GM for the C Fiverr here in Albuquerque.

I appreciate the opportunity to address City Council this year.

I will be brief.

Easy Fiverr is proud to have collaborated with CDF Albuquerque, Council members, and other critical stakeholders as part of the broadband working group.

We know these are complex issues, but as we read the deployment of critical infrastructure with neighborhood concerns, requires thoughtful and practical solutions.

The program working group has already developed meaningful recommendations and easy fiber is committed to continuing that work in partnership with administration and city council.

I thank you for what you do, and I thank you for your attention.

Thank you.

Richard Estrada.

You are muted, Richard, if you're trying to speak.

There we go.

Can you get oh I'm sorry?

Thank you, guys.

Madam President and members of sitting council.

Thank you for your time to address you this evening.

Easy Fiber supports Councillor Champagne's resolution to rescind the moratorium so that the community-driven process can continue.

Over the past months, we've worked closely with the administration, council, and other members of the broadband working group to develop pragmatic, meaningful solutions to real challenges.

That work has shown what collaboration can accomplish, and we look forward to continuing on that path together.

Our commitment is to the people of Albuquerque.

We know this isn't just about building infrastructure, it's also about doing it in a way that respects neighborhoods and strengthens our city.

We're ready to continue working in partnership with stakeholders to move forward responsibly.

Thank you for your time this evening.

Madam President, that concludes comments on this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counselors, any comments or questions?

Councilor Feblecorn.

Thank you, Madam President.

I um I got a lot of questions about this today from constituents, and so I was just wondering if if it would be possible to have the broadband um program manager give us an overview of where we're at with this process so that we all know that we are not just rescinding but actually still moving forward.

Thank you.

I believe Ms.

Nicola is back there.

I guess I should say if that's okay with you, Madam CAO.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Good evening, Madam President, Councilor February.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity.

We, as a working group, um, we met six times.

It was a total of 10 hours that we put in together.

Uh thank you, counselor, for creating this working group.

We've had some really wonderful conversations, but as mentioned by Carlos Rosas, the SVP of Easy Fiber, these are complex issues, which is why we still have a digital divide, in this case, an urban digital divide in the year 2025.

But to give you an update, um, after meeting six times, having about 10 hours together, some was at over Zoom, some was in person.

Resident engagement of the fiber projects has increased in the sense that residents are telling us that they feel empowered.

They know what these rules say, they've read them for themselves, they're aware.

There's been an uptick in positive calls following concerns, letting the broadband office at the city know that companies have responded quickly and effectively, that they're verifying that residents are satisfied that it's going the that that everything is they're closing the loop.

Residents have become aware, as I mentioned, of the city's broadband rules, and they've actually expressed some appreciation for that oversight.

Um, and this is engagement that we have not seen in the past.

Um, also, interestingly enough, the time from concern to resolution of a situation by the fiber companies has become much faster.

And that speaks to sections 7.1 and 7.4 of the broadband rules.

Um, signage and notification has become standard and measurable.

That's section four of the broadband rules.

Emergency repairs are actually being completed quicker.

That's what we're noticing.

Just in general, things have improved.

Thank you, Madam President.

One last question.

The broadband rules are online, so folks can read it.

Can you tell us where to get those?

Absolutely.

They are the City of Albuquerque has a broadband page.

Um, it's the broadband office page.

If you can what I do sometimes is in Google, I'll just type in City of Albuquerque broadband, and when that page pops up, you go there and it'll take you to there's several other links that'll take people to the rules.

It's also on the city clerk's website.

Um, if anyone has, we know I'm sure we can get it out there in other ways too.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Counselor's any other questions or comments.

I will say that as with anything uh large and fast, which I think is exactly how this happened in Albuquerque, uh, it made a lot of ways.

I mean, it's to be expected there's uh wrinkles that happen in anything we do.

I am guilty of never leaving a positive Yelp review.

Never done it.

I've actually reached out a couple times and left a negative one.

So I will say that Miss Nicolau and Miss Zakovek, uh Zachabek, Zakovich, sorry.

Thank you.

Have been so responsive to my inquiries from constituents.

They're happy.

I think all but one, and even then that one I think has found resolution, but they are satisfied, happy, and it is happening to where there is positive turnaround for the city of Albuquerque to come out of the dark ages and have some of this broadband.

Uh so I really wish myself included, I would start leaving positive reviews or emailing city counselors or whoever else it needs to be with something positive every once in a while, because for all of the negative things that have happened, and they've been significant when it comes to the fiber optic installation in Albuquerque.

I have a feeling there's been a lot of positive interactions and a lot of people who have been really happy and satisfied and had a seamless experience with the installation of that in their neighborhood.

So I am grateful to the two of you for your responsiveness and and professionality that you have the professionalism that you have with the constituents as well.

And I say thank you, and I'm I'm very much looking forward to I really want fiber optic at my house because it is really bad.

My internet's really bad.

And I know I'm not the only one.

Madam President, Council members, thank you, and we appreciate that.

Councilor Champagne to close.

Thank you, Madam President.

I don't know how I could close better than what you just said.

That was great.

Uh yes, this resolution, it doesn't take away from what 5154, the work that was put in by the group, uh, the the countless meetings and hours and such.

Um, all this is is basically based off of the working group and the administration's submission um of those of the results of that and the timing of the first of the month and the third of the month meeting uh is what this is.

I would hate to uh realizing that the first is gonna be a holiday uh and what the resolution states is if it's not turned in and approved by this council by the first uh that the moratorium goes into effect based on the work that they put in and obviously uh the amount of effort from all parties have shown uh I don't want to penalize not only the citizens of Albuquerque but also the the uh um the parties that that uh uh have provided so much information and guidance and collaboration.

So with that, I urge your uh support on just making this slight adjustment on the timing.

Counselors, the motion is for a due pass of R181.

All those in favor, raise your hand and say yes.

Anyone opposed that passes on a nine-zero vote.

We're done with final business.

There is or final actions, there is no other business.

We're moving on to administration QA.

Counselors, any questions for the admin?

Counselor Grout.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just have a couple of questions for our ACS director.

Uh Director Escabel Director, thank you for being here this evening.

Absolutely.

Um I recently learned that the ACS Street Outreach Navigation Program has a 78% success rate placing clients into stable housing.

Congratulations.

That's good.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

What has made the program so successful?

Council President and Counselor Grout.

Um first, just thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you for asking the question.

This program and the success of this program is so special for ACS and the and our community.

I think one of big um one of the biggest reasons on why it's so successful is the responders.

Um our responders actually really care and really understand that everything is so complex, and we have these street navigators that are um part of our street outreach team, and this is Jen Martinez, she's the leader of this team, which we're so thankful for her.

She brings 18 plus years, 20 years of experience in this in this world, and so we're so thankful and and would love for her to speak to some of the programming also.

Um, but partnerships, partnerships with landlords, partnerships with um our street medicine team, which is absolutely amazing.

We're able to meet people where they're at on the street, prescribe medications, um, start antibiotics.

Um, we have a psychiatrist that responds with the team as well.

Um I think that understanding that these issues are so complex and the stability that this team is offering helps people make better decisions and helps people understand that we're there and there's somebody there that that cares.

And so I really want to say thank you to our responders and this amazing street outreach team.

Thank you.

I want to say thank you too.

I my favorite, everything you said was wonderful, but meeting people where they are in the streets, that that brings warmth to my heart.

That's where we need to be.

Um meeting them where they are, because they're not gonna come to us.

We need to go to them.

For the record, um, how many people have you placed so far through this um program that we're speaking of, which is the two navigators programs through the street outreach?

There's been 62 um folks placed in in long-term housing.

Okay, thank you.

And then are you guys following up to see how they're doing?

We are, and I will have Jen Martinez speak to that a little bit.

Perfect.

If we can, counsel, if that's okay with you all.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Good evening.

Can you guys hear me?

Yeah, you can move over to this podium, please.

Thank you.

Okay.

Sorry, good evening.

Um, so I think the beautiful thing about having navigation within our department is that we get to follow them as long as they need us to.

Um, we walk with them from the beginning to the end.

We have continued to walk with them even when we have housed them, which is great because only five out of those 62 people have fallen off housing and that's back into homelessness or because of substance use, whatever that looks like.

So we're still averaging about an 84% housing retention, which is huge, even considering the most acute individuals that we're serving.

Those are the hardest to house, and we're making sure to keep up with that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I I applaud what you're doing.

And this is just exactly what we need to be doing is meeting them where they are and helping them and following them.

We can't just put them in a house and leave them alone.

We need to follow them.

And that's that's when we know we're gonna what we're doing is successful.

Thank you.

Okay.

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you, Madam President.

Mine's a different question, but I I'm also love your outcomes.

And why I ask for more voucher money and more housing money to go to ACS because I know they can do it well.

Um my question is for AFR, and I'm sorry, I didn't send it ahead of time in all disclosure, so I know no one's here from AFR.

When I first took office and I went to go see Station 11, I noticed that the bunks in station 11, the living quarters, um, are um an open room, which means all of them sleep in the same room.

Um we have an issue where female firefighters won't bid on my did on that house because they don't want to sleep in the open bunks with everyone else.

I offer to help pay for the bunk remodel so that we can fix that.

And I just would like to get an update on where we are with that remodel because I I has it's been a year and a half, and I would love some women firefighters at station 11.

Madam CAO, Madam President, um, Councillor Rogers, um getting a live update as we speak.

Um they've been making progress uh and DMD is in the process of picking a contractor.

That's like the most bare minimum F date, but I can get you more um uh a detailed update for you.

Thank you, Madam President, especially with the other issue there.

Definitely want to push this up if possible.

Thank you.

Councilor Champagne.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh, just a handful of questions.

Uh Madam President, I learned that the citation enforcement division is moving across the street, and I was kind of curious on why.

Madam Ciello.

Madam President, um Councillor Champagne.

I think I'll have to look into it to make sure I uh answer your question accurately.

Which uh are you speaking of the code in the case?

Parking's the ones that's literally across the hallway.

They're moving into the building across the street.

Okay.

Is there a reason that we moved them out of the basement?

Uh Madam President and Councilor Champagne, we have um talked about accessibility and access for individuals paying both parking and um speed tickets and ensuring that the it's easier for them to find uh the location, and they also have asked have wanted additional space, um, but I will get you our exact reasoning.

I we went through a full space allocation, and then I want to make sure to give you a full answer.

Thank you, madam president.

Um question two.

Yes, Madam Cal, will you please make sure that we all receive that information?

Yes, thank you.

Uh Madam President, the uh and this is for the administration again.

The the Shield Unit of APD, which was made up in 2018 assisted with case preparation.

Uh does it also do tracking the cases and such?

And I know that I didn't submit these, so APD is not here, but Madam President, Counselor Champagne.

I'd actually think it'd be great to get you a full update related to the SHIELD unit.

I think all of the counselors would benefit from hearing.

This has been a significant discussion that we've had related to prosecution, um, both uh officer prosecution as well as DA's prosecution.

We've had lots of conversations and data tracking related to where cases sit um uh in the city, or I'm sorry, city uh cases brought forward by the city.

Um, and so I just would love to give you a full update, but I'll also get that specific answer for you.

I think there's real value in us understanding um what the shield unit does to coordinate.

Perfect, thank you.

Um my last question, Madam President.

Uh it was brought up several times tonight about the HVA systems uh that are failing city wide.

Uh libraries, I know in my community center and up there, is there a reason why we have so many HVAC systems failing within the city um facilities.

Uh Madam President, Councilor Champagne.

And the fact that when we have as much infrastructure as we have, um, that we in the uh hundreds of thousands of square feet that we have, you always have something that is at its life and we uh or at its place of it's in its repair season versus uh anything else.

Uh we actually do um through our general services department uh effective inventory, I think, of all of our systems, and they are tracking that.

And I'm not gonna remember the name of that system, so I'm gonna allow CEO Montoya, who has specific experience to speak to that.

Mr.

Montoya.

Uh Madam President, Councilor Champagne.

So let me begin by saying that uh funding for most of our HVAC systems, electrical, uh, anything that has to do with the general operation of a building comes out of our geobond program.

So every two years we allocate a portion of uh whatever we were afforded into general services department.

We have an inventory of all of our buildings and the conditions of all of the buildings themselves, and in many cases, uh the director and his staff will look at the the different stages of the system itself.

The library, the main library is uh Ms.

Sears spoke tonight, um, is an older building.

That one is actually up for repairs at this point.

We're getting pricing on both the HVAC system and a portion of the electrical system.

I might also say that we also depend on capital outlay from the state.

So a lot of the funds that come in for upgrades to libraries, community centers, fire stations, we count on the state for that money as well.

But I just want to assure you that you would we have a little over 200 and some buildings throughout the city.

Uh if we had enough money to do all of them, it'd be you know upwards of close to a billion dollars probably just to do everything.

So um staff with facilities monitors that on a regular basis, and we look at what where the needs are and which one is gonna go first.

Thank you, madam president.

So, director or sorry, CAO, Montoya.

So it it's it's a balance between money, but you guys are and in timing wise, I guess it would say, because you guys are tracking the life of all the equipment throughout the city, and in basing the needs of those equipment and the lifespans of say a refrigerated air unit and such like that, or a boiler.

Is that correct?

Um, Madam President and Council Champagne, that is correct.

The system that we currently use is the brain out of uh uh safes group.

We're able to monitor all of the systems throughout the city.

That gives us a clear picture of where we are as far as the day-to-day operation, how much uh utilities are used and the conditions of those of that equipment.

Um the other big expense that we have that we just can't seem to get a handle on.

I mean, it's an ongoing problem is roofing.

We just spent roughly six and a half million dollars to do only a portion of the convention center.

If we were to do all of the convention center, we'd be upwards of about nine million dollars.

We just finished Alameda Community Center with roofing, so that's another we never have enough money to do everything that we need, so the department prioritizes those.

There is an in there's a listing.

We have a um you know an individual that tracks, and we have a list, a category of which building would be next, which the building would be after that, which we would do in 25 and 26 and 27.

Um it's just based on funds.

Thank you, madam president.

I and I bring it up and as you were saying it with the air conditioners that came to mind.

I was recently at an isotopes game, and there was a little R2 unit in the the suite that we were in because the air conditioner was out.

Uh and I was advised by people there that the offices below were sitting at 92 degrees for the entire summer.

So at Isotope Stadium as well.

That's only 20 years old, I think.

So I want to look at our list for that one.

Yeah, Madam President and Councillor Champagne uh we'll bring that to Mr.

Artencho's uh attention as well.

So I appreciate it.

Thank you, Madam President.

Counselor Lewis.

Madam President, uh so Council Champagne uh referred to the parking division.

In which division is um or which department is the parking division housed?

Uh Madam President, Councilor Lewis, uh parking division had been residing within uh DMD.

Um we recently evaluated the type of work and uh the association that it has with um uh both parking enforcement uh because based upon their work and uh metro security, and so we have now um adjusted them and moved them into the general services department under the deputy director there that oversees security so that we have the opportunity for the coordination of security and parking enforcement together.

So you moved the parking division uh from DMD to GSD.

When when did you make that decision to do that?

Madam President, Counselor Lewis, it was in late July, I believe, that we finished the assessment and did and made that decision.

So and I mean it wasn't in the it wasn't in the FY26 proposed budget, but it sounds like you made that decision before the budget started.

Um did you has there been any memo, any executive directive, any internal communication to formalize that transfer?

Anything signed or unsigned.

Uh Madam President, Counselor Lewis, uh it occurred at the um end of July, which was not before the budget went into effect.

Um and uh I believe it's been communicated formally within the departments.

Was it communicated to the council?

Um Madam President, Councilor Lewis, we we have not officially communicated that they were in the process of working through uh exactly what that uh organizational structure would look like.

Our um teams are looking at what the impact is related to the budget specifically, um, and we would provide you all with an update.

So, Madam President, which so which department is currently managing the personnel, the contracts, and revenues all tied to parking operations.

Um Madam President, I will ask um uh Mr.

Whalen to give that specific response.

Uh Madam President and Counselor Lewis, I do believe that most of the those items are being done by the GSD department.

There is some crossover that is happening as when we combined other departments.

So it's still in, I guess, transition.

Is the intention to move all of that administratively under um GSD?

Um Madam President and Councilor Lewis, that's the goal as we continue to work through this.

Okay, and how was it communicated internally?

How did you all communicate internally of the change?

Uh Madam President, Counselor Lewis, as we do with any decisions related to organizational structure, the department directors and deputy directors work with staff.

Okay.

Um so I mean, has there been any discussion of using parking revenue to address shortfalls in other GSD functions such as security services, other things that GSD does?

Madam President, Councilor Lewis, um parking is an enterprise fund, so as you know, within the budget, enterprise funds are uh contained within their own uh financials.

So this is a pretty big division that was moved.

Um I guess I would say is you you you expect the council to simply uh accept you know, kind of a post hoc administrative reorganization without notifying the council or given any opportunity to notify the council or to legislate something like that.

Madam President, Councilor Lewis, um staffing is the uh function of the administration.

Uh this is a staffing alignment based upon talent within our team we have and capacity, um, and it's important that we have the ability to utilize that talent and capacity to ensure that we can uh maximize the value of uh parking and metro security working together.

Um that isn't a we're not making a budgetary decision because we're not changing the budget in the sense that uh that you legislated.

We're organizationally operating it, moving it around for the most effective way for us to use the talent we have.

So, madam president, I I wouldn't say this is just a staffing issue.

I mean, this is a major division that was moved from one department to another department.

Um I guess the other thing I'd ask is what you know, are there some mechanisms that exist uh to ensure that I mean this this division has an enterprise fund with revenue and are there some mechanisms in place that would ensure that um you know that revenue like that's generated from parking is not being used to prop up unrelated general fund obligations in USD or GSD?

Madam President, uh Councilor Lewis, uh as an enterprise fund approved in the budget as it is, uh that fund would does not change without your legislative um authority and because it is a budget matter.

And so we um there the protection is is that it's an approved budget, um, it's approved as an enterprise fund, and the dollar the funds generated go into that enterprise fund and are used for the purposes that uh that enterprise fund is is established for.

And then Madam President, I guess lastly, I mean why why hasn't the council been formally briefed?

Um when was the decision made again?

And who made the decision?

Madam President, um, counselor Lewis, I made the decision.

Um, and we are in the process of making the dis uh moving uh all of the operational impact and thinking through all of that, not moving it meaning uh in the financials, but thinking through all of that and allowing for the deputy director to do the work to for the organizational um benefit.

Um I'm happy to provide you all a memo once we have a clear picture.

It would it's it's prudent on our behalf to have it fully worked through before we report out um halfway through it.

Well, I think it would be prudent on your behalf to have formally briefed the council on such a big change.

It's a pretty big organizational change between divisions, and so um if you could do that as soon as possible, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you, Madam President.

Counselors, any other questions or comments?

Seeing none and there being no further business, the city council meeting is adjourned.