This work session of the Los Alamos County Council was held on July 14, 2026, at Fire Station No. 3 in White Rock, with a hybrid format allowing remote participation. The meeting included presentations from the Historic Preservation Advisory Board, the Board of Public Utilities, a demonstration of the new Community Dashboard, an update on the Comprehensive Plan revision, and an overview of the Operational Excellence focus area. The Council also voted to suspend its rules to allow formal action, approving the consent agenda (including a multi-year disaster recovery contract and a road project agreement) and a major three-year Microsoft Enterprise Enrollment Agreement.
Historic Preservation Advisory Board (HPAB) Presentation by Chair Patrick Cruz
Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Presentation by Chair Robert Gibson
Community Dashboard Demonstration by Dave Krueger and Tara Mariano
Comprehensive Plan Update by Elias Isaacson, Danyelle Valdez, and consultants Peter Lombardi and Thomas Eddington (czb)
Operational Excellence Focus Area Overview by Deputy County Manager Juan Rael
Possible Action to Suspend Council Rules for Work Session
Okay, I'd like to uh welcome everybody to the uh July fourteenth, twenty twenty six county council work session. Um so we'll have the same format as meetings we've had recently. So we're gonna be having the meeting in hybrid format, meaning we're gonna have some uh counselors and uh presenters and public participation here in person or remotely. We'll be taking uh public comment at the beginning of the meeting for items that are not on tonight's agenda. And um when we take uh public comment, we'll want to make sure that uh people have their uh name on Zoom, so they may properly addressed. Um then we want to make sure also that people limit their comments to three minutes or is otherwise directed. And uh also ask that uh comments be directed towards the chair and focused on the topic being discussed. So our goal is to end complete the meeting no later than ten PM. And if we're still meeting at nine, we'll check on our progress at that point in time. So I think we're ready to go on to item number one. Um so we do have counselor on uh Zoom, so uh we'll do a roll call. Councillor Call. Here Councilor, we go right. Counselor Hand here. Counselor Haviman here. Counselor Herman, here counselor Neil Clinton here. Counselor Riley. I'm here. We have seven counselors present with Councillor Haviman remote. Okay, like we're show that all counselors are present. Uh, Counselor Hadman is joining us remotely tonight. Uh so now we're on to item number two, which is pledge of lynches. If you're willing to please uh join us in fledging. So now we're on on to item number three, which is a statement regarding the closed session. Is there counselor um have that up? Council Henn? The matters discussed in the closed sessions of County Council held on July 14, 2026, that began at 4 p.m. was limited only to the topics specified in the notice of the closed session, and no action was taken on any matter in the closed session. We requested this statement. Okay, thank you, Counselor Hand. So now we're on to item number four, which is uh public comments. Again, this is for uh items that are not on tonight's agenda. Do we have any members of the public that would make uh I can make public comment tonight in person? Yeah, so um please come up to the microphone here and uh just ask you to state your name uh for the record. And uh to be audible, you'll have to press the little person looking thing and have the green line coming. Right. Hi, I'm Catherine Bourne, uh Jusoma Foundation. I think I have three minutes. Uh I want to create a local Los Alamos AI policy group outside of the lab. Um, based on what we can see on Facebook, Nicole O'Daniel, who I mentioned months ago in the same fire station, has not yet had her baby. She is the pregnant woman who was the catalyst of uh starting public outcry about LAMC closing down their LD ward. Here we are months later, still wanting change, still wanting women in labor to not have to do the harrowing one hour drive through the canyons in the middle of the night and risking a roadside tragedy of which this county would not recover from. What does this have to do with AI? Simply, we are not going to fix these issues and do adequate research if we don't use AI. When we as a community have been fighting for this issue, we, the DuSoma Foundation, have been helping people understand everything from policy to health care rules to budgets, all to understand the um for-profit health care system. In addition, our AI research has unearthed anchor health, a massive not-for-profit that is literally $500 million. It's supposed to be going towards New Mexico Health and really isn't. There's no oversight and scrutiny as far as I can see. We have used AI to generate reports and we'd be happy to share. I, on behalf of the DeSoma Foundation, ask that we begin creating a committee that can find a balance between AI skepticism and AI usefulness, and outside the lab.