[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I salute the flag of the State of the Mexico, the Zs symbol of perfect friendship among the United Cultures.
[0:32] As previously noticed, I immediately prior to today's meeting on July 11, 2019, at 5 p.m., this
[0:40] is a local bill of county commissioners convened as a committee of the whole in close session
[0:45] in the third floor conference room, county administration building to discuss models subject
[0:50] to the attorney claim privilege pertaining to potential litigation against the county commission
[0:54] and discussed bargaining strategy primarily to collect a bargaining negotiations
[0:59] pursuing two opinions, meaning not, in the same 1978-1511-H2M5.
[1:06] Now it's discussed in closed session, we're limited to those specified in the
[1:10] notice of closed session, and no action was taken.
[1:16] Okay, so introductions and announcements, commissioners, any introductions and announcements?
[1:25] Mr. Chair. Commissioner Block. Thank you, sir. Two quick things. Number one, I would like to welcome a special couple I just met from my adopted home country, the NATO Lons. They live in Placidas and they're here for an item on the agenda and it's a very honored to have you here. Sorry about that.
[1:49] the World Cup, the women, U.S. women beat the Netherlands to nothing, but
[1:55] Hapolland, as we say, correct? So welcome, appreciate it. Next Mr. Chairman, I just
[2:02] want to go over, I've been getting a lot of emails, as I'm sure some of you have
[2:05] regarding the VSV virus that has been going on. I just want to talk about a
[2:12] timeline real quick and then introduce Dr. Sandeval. I received an email as
[2:18] That's all the commissioners I believe that are maybe it was just myself and you, Mr. Chairman regarding this and this happened on Sunday, I received the email from the County Manager Diane Mays and we talked and I immediately contacted because it was an issue in Corralis.
[2:35] I immediately contacted Mayor Roke Sunday afternoon and the county manager, Ms. Ryan,
[2:45] the chairman and a couple of the people immediately decided to meet Monday morning because it was the issue was that serious.
[2:55] And we had to make sure the public was notified immediately. Melissa Perez was there as well from a PA perspective.
[3:02] And I will say, Mr. Chairman, the county came together along with the Mayor of Corralis and Dr. Sandoval, who is here today.
[3:11] It was picked up by the news media.
[3:12] I've had a lot of emails that are concerned about the spring.
[3:17] I know Dr. Sandoval can talk about a lot more, but we've had spring going on in Sandoval County for 26 years.
[3:26] I've released since 1993 and when it comes to public health of people and animals at a very serious
[3:35] issue for the county and I'm glad that Dr. Sandivall is here and I'd like you sir to come up
[3:43] and I'd like you to just explain a few things about what's going on at VSV into alleviate some
[3:48] concerns of the spraying and discuss publicly on video those who will watch this either live or later
[3:57] How people can opt out and whether or not you recommend them opting out. Thank you, Dr. Sandwell
[4:12] As you said, can you speak like you got to be close to the mic so it picks it up. Thank you, sir. Let me move there. Okay
[4:20] speaking with
[4:22] Or individuals that have been calling on this virus to preface where we are
[4:28] the virus
[4:30] I've been doing this 36 years. I've never seen one like this
[4:34] It's aggressive, it's contagious, and it's moving really fast.
[4:39] Dr. Zimmerman, the state health vet, he advised me of this.
[4:43] I've been doing this a long time.
[4:45] I didn't know what I was up against, and speaking with him this morning,
[4:49] he didn't realize what we were getting into either.
[4:52] So, he has his hands full, and I'm trying to contain what's here.
[4:58] At this point, what we're trying to do is keep the virus reduced
[5:01] just like we would, West Nile, Chicken Gun, all the insect flytuses that we spray
[5:06] for all the time. We're going to try and do the same with this virus and keep it
[5:10] closed. We're working targeted areas where we know the virus is at. Our most
[5:18] recent case is in the placidas area and of course we have a lot of people calling
[5:24] and wanting out. Some of them tell you the problems why they don't want to be
[5:29] sprayed some of those people are at the highest risk for the virus. I'm going to
[5:35] hope that we do not see anybody infected. I don't think we will, but I said I
[5:40] didn't think we'd see it in a Mercedes area either. It's just something I can't
[5:46] speak to because it's new for me, and I'm trying to play catch-up, and so my goal
[5:52] right now, which is control it.
[5:54] Try and keep it at bay.
[5:56] What's different from this for people
[5:59] that we've had the vector program for since the 50s here?
[6:04] What's different about that is the way
[6:06] that we, the vector we're going after, traditionally,
[6:10] everything else we're looking at from the public health
[6:13] standpoint is a mosquito.
[6:15] Here is all the bad viruses, nobody wants.
[6:18] No animals want.
[6:19] right now we're after everything that bites. So just think of any flying pests, the bites you,
[6:26] that's a concern, a midge, a nat, a fly, a deer fly. Anything that's around can vector this
[6:35] virus from one end to the other.
[6:40] As we've seen in Corralis, it's moved from totally one end to the
[6:45] together, it was vectored by something that flew around. We can quarantine the animals,
[6:52] but dad doesn't stop the pests that are in the air. Once they pick up the virus, it's
[6:58] airborne, and it's on the, it's on the move. So that's why we're out there to try and slow
[7:02] it down. And our goal is to reduce the infection rate among the animals, therefore hopefully
[7:09] to reduce the effect rate among humans.
[7:13] What we see at death from this, probably not.
[7:17] We could see some very sick animals.
[7:20] And if it's caught early enough, I think that that helps.
[7:24] So you just have some animals that may have some issues,
[7:27] but no death in the animals.
[7:29] Dr. Zimmerman referred to it as a nuisance virus.
[7:33] And for us, it is, unless you're what we call
[7:37] one of the at risk humans, and we're trying to manage for those also.
[7:43] The people that call and have concerns that I've talked to a lot of folks this week, most
[7:49] of the concerns are the spraying, is it dangerous plants, fruit trees, organic farms, no.
[8:00] We've been doing this the whole time.
[8:02] This is nothing new.
[8:03] We're just doing it a little broader based because of the pests that we're after now.
[8:08] So everything is the same, it's just actually a lot broader based of what we were before.
[8:15] We do a lot more serving now during the day that we didn't have to do in the past.
[8:18] I'm out now almost every day in a truck trying to figure out where our numbers are and then
[8:23] we attack those at night or early in the morning.
[8:27] It's just depends.
[8:27] But the safety is there, there's no concern of being sick to animals, humans, products have
[8:34] been used forever.
[8:36] And right now, the ones that we currently use in this county are mixed with water.
[8:42] And the rates that we mix is just strong enough to kill a mosquito or a fly.
[8:47] So it's not going to kill anything else.
[8:49] The concerns we have with bees, a lot of bee concerns.
[8:52] terms. We take every effort not to kill bees. If we know there's a hive or someone calls
[8:59] it in. There's a program called Drift Watch from the Mexico Department of Ag and they've
[9:06] been advised they can check in there, put in their address and that as soon as they do that
[9:11] that comes to me also. I get updated all the time as soon as that comes in. So we know where
[9:17] where those houses are at, where those bees are at.
[9:20] And sometimes we don't know, we'll just be driving
[9:22] and we see them and we just take a mental note.
[9:24] Don't spray there.
[9:27] So bees were watching.
[9:30] Is there gonna be a casualty of a bee or two?
[9:33] Probably most likely, yes, there's most likely,
[9:35] but we're trying to avoid it at all costs.
[9:39] Any questions?
[9:43] Dr. Sandoval, I know you've been working with Melissa Perez
[9:47] on the public affairs piece of getting the word out,
[9:50] but are you also going out to Corralis to talk to some of the residents there,
[9:58] or maybe even now up in Placidas, or some parts of Bernoulli along the river for these people?
[10:04] Most of the residents that are concerned right now about early animals,
[10:10] and Dr. Zimmerman was in Placidas last night with a group, and he got the same results that
[10:17] that we're getting from the county side is that we've they're concerned as a
[10:22] bee's and because I have a lot of gardens up there so we're watching for all
[10:25] that. Other areas a lot of people are stopping the truck at night so we don't
[10:31] we're not doing any group meetings with anybody but these communities are so
[10:35] small one person stops and talks to me and the whole block knows by the next
[10:39] morning and that's actually good that's small communities were great that way
[10:43] they can spread the word really fast.
[10:47] You know, Joe Smith down there doesn't want the place
[10:49] sprayed can you stay away?
[10:51] Sure, that's not a problem.
[10:52] We'll mark it down and call the county.
[10:54] Let me get it taken care of.
[10:56] We have a lot of questions.
[10:57] We have them on the emails that come in
[11:00] and I try and respond to some of those
[11:02] that are very a lot of questions
[11:04] and or someone stops us on the road.
[11:07] We answer questions there.
[11:09] And if we're called any groups or anything
[11:10] we show up to talk to folks.
[11:13] We keep it very transparent.
[11:15] We let them know it's going on and it's not a bad program and there's a reason for it.
[11:21] There are a lot of concerns.
[11:25] I'm sorry, yet Dr. Zimmerman was at the Horse Advisory Council on Wednesday so he was
[11:33] able to give us an update at that time but can you tell us where we are in numbers and which
[11:40] direction this virus is moving and then do we anticipate this is going to
[11:48] increase geometrically? I mean do we have that kind? I mean it was Sunday it was
[11:54] two and eleven on Wednesday so can you tell us where we are? Well as of this
[12:01] morning the numbers have gone up and we're waiting for another positive case
[12:06] in Rio Rancho which we didn't expect this at all so he's as soon as that
[12:13] comes in it is spreading what we're trying to do now as I'm working with
[12:18] public works obviously and the associations in the county and they're they're
[12:25] trying to manage the animals coming in like to the county fair when we get
[12:32] animals coming from all over if we have one positive in there and they drink
[12:36] think out of the same container, we've just contaminated all those animals.
[12:40] So then all those animals go back to their respective properties and it starts growing
[12:44] from those areas so it replants itself.
[12:48] And then once the flies or insects get to the animal, here it goes again.
[12:52] So it does multiply a lot.
[12:55] Dr. Zimmerman thinks it's going to keep going and I do to from what we're seeing.
[12:59] It's in some dry areas, I wouldn't expect it to be there.
[13:02] The Creole is property.
[13:05] If you would ask me how to say nothing would be there.
[13:08] And it's right in the middle of a place I'm not expecting.
[13:12] So if it's moving like this, I think we'll continue to see
[13:15] a move and grow.
[13:17] And we're just going to manage as much as we can, trying to be proactive.
[13:21] And then when we get a new case, then we worked that area,
[13:24] making a new plan for that area.
[13:26] Okay, and I appreciate you saying what you did about the impact
[13:30] of the virus, so I think if you could expand on that just slightly, we don't expect to lose any animals
[13:37] or hopefully no humans over this virus, but you know a little bit about the just how it presents.
[13:47] It presents initially, I'm not a vet, so this is what I've learned. It presents initially as a
[13:54] sore on the animal, it has to be tested to find out if it is this VSV virus, because
[14:01] it's similar to hoof and mouth, I believe is what he told me. A lot of people think
[14:06] it's that, but you have to test for it. It's right now the concern is horses, cows, and
[14:15] then on a secondary level we can look at llamas and maybe sheep, but usually they're going
[14:22] to be okay. But they could be the secondary. And along the secondary is a human's also.
[14:29] I don't think that the human infection can happen. I spoke with the Department of Health
[14:34] this morning. It's a very small risk. They don't want me to say it won't. But at the same
[14:42] time, we don't need to be worried about it. The contamination to human is direct contact
[14:47] to an animal. Without wearing gloves around an animal, they can get it on their hands and
[14:54] then their doctor has to give them whatever they do for that.
[15:00] The only way they can
[15:01] else they can get transferred by mechanical means through a vector like a biting midge.
[15:07] The midge picks up the virus that's shedding from the animal and bites a human that's maybe
[15:13] compromised immune system, once it breaks the skin, that's where the problem is. If a fly lands on the virus and
[15:22] then lands on my skin, but it doesn't break the skin, I'm going to be fine. But if a midge lands on the skin because it uses teeth to bite,
[15:30] it'll break the skin. And that's where the virus can transfer. That's why we're trying to reduce all this and keep the numbers down.
[15:38] That helped.
[15:39] Any other questions?
[15:43] You know, we're talking a lot about Corales, we're talking about Placitas, what about the Northern part of the county?
[15:48] Is there any spring or anything going on in that area?
[15:52] Yes, we're working Cuba.
[15:55] Cuba, we started working up there just because we've got some waterways up there and then I know the fair is coming.
[16:01] So we're going to, we've started heavily to try and keep the numbers down up there.
[16:04] Then, as far as that part of the county, that's really all we're working up there.
[16:10] Then you come down, saying, Cedro, he was public, we're working those again because the year...
[16:16] Irrigated fields are so strong. So we're trying to keep it down for we have humans, of course, a lot of water also. Because the area up there pretty much has the largest population of livestock in the county. Of cows, horses and everything else, even though they have all the fancy horses down here. And everything else, but up there is where they have the working horses and cattle and everything else. And I'm
[16:46] I mean, when ranchers have 400, 500 head of cattle and those
[16:51] issues need to be looked at very aggressively, right?
[16:56] We don't.
[16:56] I had any plans to go up there.
[16:59] As far as even the mosquito fogging past Cuba,
[17:03] we'd kept that pretty much as a pristine area before.
[17:09] We didn't worry about the mosquitoes up there either.
[17:11] It was just super clean area and hadn't
[17:14] have been tainted yet when I came on. So we haven't touched it. Now, if something happens
[17:19] up there, yeah, we will be up there quick. Okay. That's not a problem. Thank you.
[17:26] Any other comments? Mr. Chair, I'd just like to invite everybody once again to go to the
[17:31] home page of the Santa Law County government and look down on the left side. There's an announcement.
[17:41] You can click on the memo that was sent out. It's under public notices. The Vector Control
[17:45] program and has a lot of detail there and Dr. Sandivall thank you for helping us
[17:50] craft that message to the public to make sure the public understands the
[17:54] risk and that we're transparent as possible and lastly sir has there been any
[17:59] other animals affected besides horses that you know and if so what were they
[18:03] not that we know of the issue is like other viruses people are looking for it
[18:08] they don't know and they may not know it to the animal and stop eating for a
[18:12] a week or two, then they realize, oh, there's something wrong.
[18:18] And the other thing we have to think about is some people,
[18:23] the animals, it's expected to take an animal to a vet.
[18:26] So if they're really small, they may not see the vet
[18:29] until the last minute.
[18:30] So those cases won't show up until later.
[18:37] Thank you.
[18:38] Appreciate it.
[18:39] Any other introductions or announcements?
[18:43] I just want to kind of remind the community of,
[18:47] I was, this was kind of addressed at all last, I mean, it has to do with the community
[18:52] economic development and action strategy, which is in a sort of a, um, implement, um, we're
[19:00] doing this because Sanable County tends to be more of a bedroom economy, and that's not
[19:07] something we can afford to move forward with when you have a lot of our, um, residents
[19:13] having to go to other communities to work when having to go to other communities to spend money.
[19:21] It doesn't support our local services, et cetera.
[19:27] So we have committees that are heavily engaged in this.
[19:31] Very active in trying to address how we solve the problem.
[19:36] One of the big issues in solving the problem is having business development sites.
[19:41] We have an infrastructure committee, a site selection committee, and a community engagement committee that is out working with the community to help everybody understand what the direction of this strategy is.
[19:55] We can't continue to export our, the money that our residents make and spend it in other communities that doesn't support our roads, doesn't support our first responders, etc.
[20:10] So we're working hard on that strategy, you're going to hear more and more and more and more and more about it until you're probably
[20:16] Tired of hearing it, but it's something that we have to implement and we're
[20:21] Quickly in the process of doing that
[20:24] There are no other introductions or announcements? Could I-
[20:27] The motion to approve the agenda. Some moved. Do we have a second?
[20:35] Second. Madam Clerk.
[20:38] Come in, Mr. Brock. Yes, Mr. Meek. Yes, Mr. Iquil. Yes, Vice Chair Block. Aye.
[20:44] And Chair High. Yes.
[20:46] Moving on to public comments, we have a Jennifer Taylor from the Treasurer's Office.
[21:07] Jennifer, we're leading into that mic.
[21:14] Good evening, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. I'm here today to read statement from Treasurer, Laura and Montoya. It's unfortunate that the newly negotiated contract for the county manager and the change in the two spring break days came up when I am at the National Association of Counties. I was disappointed to hear that this body is considering taking away what they just gave to the employees.
[21:35] in December, in particular, when the consent agenda has a new contract for the county manager adding an additional four hours of annual pay period, with 26 pay checks per year, that comes up to 104 hours a year, with the salary of $125,000 as a pay increase of over $6,200.
[21:58] dollars. My question to this body is who are we valuing? Who is your priority? The county
[22:04] attorney just recently received a salary increase and now the county managers are receiving
[22:08] a pay increase by increasing annual leave. Our public safety personnel will be losing out on the
[22:13] two days of overtime if they become quote floating holidays. And if the commission is stating that it's
[22:20] because we don't have the money to pay it, then why is it that we have the money to give increases
[22:25] to the top two highest paid employees in the county.
[22:29] A floating holiday for smaller offices becomes a little complex with making sure there is appropriate coverage.
[22:36] None of our employees receiving a pay increase are receiving a pay increase or an increase in annual leave this fiscal year.
[22:44] Not even our unions were able to get an increase to contract negotiations.
[22:49] As you recall in December, this body did not give the newly elected officials coming in a salary increase either.
[22:55] Even though the legislature and governor approved the increase in all other class A county commissions approved
[23:02] This decision was just by by stating this body wanted to take care of the quote share of deputies and employees first and quote
[23:08] By proving the new contract with the county manager
[23:11] You are sending a message that does not equate to supporting or appreciating our county employees
[23:18] You are sending a message that this body is unfair and inequitable in their decision making
[23:23] I ask that this body reconsider the message they are sending in both the contract approval for the county manager and the floating holidays.
[23:31] If no one is getting any type of pain creases whether through overtime, salary or annual leave, then there shouldn't be exceptions.
[23:38] Madam Clerk, I would like my remarks reflected in the record. Thank you.
[23:44] Thank you, Jennifer.
[23:46] I'm moving on to presentations and proclamations. We have the U.S. Forest Service.
[24:08] So which one is Jennifer? Neither. She was sick today. Okay. Okay. Well, then tell us who you are. I'm Devon Black. I'm on the Forest Planner Vision team, the ecological lead. I'm Aaron Barton. I'm also on the Forest Planner Vision team, the socioeconomic lead. Thank you for having us today.
[24:27] Okay, as you said, we're from the Santa Bay National Forest and both from the Santa Forest
[24:35] Planner Vision team.
[24:37] So just to kind of orient us before we get started, you know, all of the light green on
[24:44] this map that you can see, I don't know if you can see it on the screen, that's the Santa
[24:50] Bay National Forest.
[24:51] It's 1.6 million acres and it covers six counties, including Santa Ball County, there's significant
[24:56] portion in this county here.
[25:00] And so our draft plan, it really aims to do three things.
[25:06] We want to restore resiliency to the land, provide clean and abundant water, and connect people to the land and their heritage.
[25:13] So we've been in this forest plan revision process since 2012 for about five years.
[25:26] for about five years, and we started this process because we really, so currently we're
[25:33] under the 1987 Forest Plan and there was some issues with management under this plan.
[25:40] It's been amended 17 times.
[25:42] The direction in the current plan for managing sustainable recreation is minimal and managing
[25:48] traditional and cultural uses is included but is also minimal in this current 1987 plan.
[25:56] Partners are rarely mentioned, and the plan is silent on the importance of forming and
[26:01] working with partners.
[26:03] The plan emphasizes timber production of a restoration and includes specific direction
[26:08] on fire suppression, which doesn't help us move towards desired conditions for fire-adapted
[26:13] ecosystems or vegetation resiliency, which is becoming increasingly important as we see
[26:18] There's been fires all over the Southwest.
[26:21] We really would like to reduce that from happening.
[26:26] The 1970s and plan also has watershed management,
[26:30] but that focuses on complex systems of road management
[26:32] objectives that have really been impossible for the forest
[26:35] service to implement in an economically efficient manner.
[26:39] And we also single species management,
[26:41] for threatened or endangered species.
[26:43] But this management is looked at instead
[26:47] of landscape scale management that really supports multiple types of quality,
[26:52] terrestrial, and aquatic habitat for a variety of at-risk species. So for all these
[26:57] reasons we started this plan revision process and we're looking at creating a
[27:01] new plan that really addresses those goals that I talked about in the beginning.
[27:06] So over this process we've really tried to focus on early and often strategy of
[27:12] public engagement. We've engaged partners, tribes, and the public in our planning process.
[27:18] We've had technical meetings with a core group of 13 cooperating agencies. These consist
[27:24] of official government entities including soil and water conservation districts, state and
[27:29] government agencies, digit associations such as the Lahara digit association, and the New
[27:34] Mexico land grant council. We've had regular meetings with 24 federally recognized tribes
[27:39] and four tribal councils, including Memorandums of Understanding, which results in quarterly meetings with about four to five different tribes.
[27:50] All of this has kind of resulted in over 250 public meetings, and we have managed to reach about 3,200 people through our engagement strategies.
[27:59] We've also had additional focus on youth engagement through field trips and hands-on learning to really try and bring people into the process and connect our upcoming youth
[28:08] youth with their public lands and understand how we're managing them.
[28:18] So some of the key things that we're addressing in this draft plan are supporting traditional
[28:23] communities and uses, delivering socially and economically valued products, including
[28:28] jobs and income, timber and forest products like fuel wood, range land and livestock grazing,
[28:34] and watershed and water quality.
[28:36] We're also looking to address sustainable recreation and maintain access, build partnerships
[28:42] and increase communication and collaboration, restore ecosystem resiliency, create and protect
[28:48] habitat to support our species, and recognize some of the unique and special aspects of the forest
[28:54] through designated areas and management areas. And all of these themes were gained from feedback from
[28:59] public, partnering agencies, forest service specials, and regional directives. So we've really tried to
[29:05] make sure these scenes address all manner of concerns from our publics.
[29:12] And how we got to some of
[29:13] of these concerns was through our draft environmental
[29:17] impact statement.
[29:19] So through this environmental impact statement,
[29:21] we analyzed four different potential alternatives
[29:23] for how this plan would work.
[29:26] The first alternative is the no-action.
[29:28] This is our existing 1987 plan, which would be updated
[29:32] to be consistent with the 2012 planning rule,
[29:34] but otherwise would stay with the management that we have now.
[29:38] The second alternative is our proposed actions.
[29:41] So, that's what I've been describing with these key themes.
[29:44] And this action really looks at emphasizing multiple uses of the forest and supporting
[29:48] healthy ecosystem for our providing for working forest and supporting local economies through
[29:55] this restoration work.
[29:57] Our third alternative emphasizes natural forces and it includes a heavier reliance on fire
[30:03] as a restoration tool to move vegetation towards other conditions and increases objectives
[30:09] to improve riparian areas, wildlife habitat, and watershed health, but also includes reductions
[30:14] in amenities and infrastructure for human uses. However, it doesn't actually reduce human
[30:19] use, just as the amenities and infrastructure that we'd be supporting.
[30:24] And then our fourth alternative is the human use alternative. And this really emphasizes
[30:29] our multiple use aspects of the forest and including heavier reliance on mechanical thinning,
[30:34] instead of fire for restoration, increased amenities and infrastructure for human uses,
[30:39] but fewer objectives for wildlife, habitat improvement, watershed, and riparian restoration.
[30:44] So alternative also has no recommended wilderness.
[30:50] So another part of our draft plans is our
[30:52] proposed action, which is sort of a new concept moving away from our current 1987 plan,
[30:58] is this idea of geographic areas. So we included seven geographic areas in our draft plan.
[31:04] And these areas reflect different local communities and their uses across the forest.
[31:10] Each geographic area highlights the ecological and socioeconomic features that characterize
[31:14] it, and I really meant to help communities identify more with the forest plan and show
[31:19] them that we've been listening to what resources, features, and uses are important to them
[31:24] in their particular area of the forest.
[31:27] Most geographic areas include desired conditions, specific to restoration and recreation, and
[31:32] these vary with each with each one. So you see in that map we're mostly in the
[31:37] Hema's Maces and Canions geographic area down there at the bottom of the dark
[31:42] blue. Then there's seven across the forest.
[31:47] And this map here, this is showing the
[31:48] management areas. So our old plan was all management areas. The forest was
[31:53] broken up into very specific management goals sometimes overlapping and these
[31:59] are really difficult for forest service staff to manage effectively, especially in
[32:03] in regards to fire management.
[32:06] Our new plan identifies unique areas
[32:08] that require special management.
[32:10] So these are areas that may be different management
[32:13] that can't be met through forest-wide plan components,
[32:16] which is what makes up the majority of our draft plan.
[32:19] Some examples are the Caja del Rio Wildlife
[32:22] and Cultural Interpretive Area,
[32:24] four different cultural interpretive management areas,
[32:28] the Canada Bonita Research Natural Area,
[32:31] and the oil and gas leasing area.
[32:33] That one is the largest one in there with the cross hatches.
[32:36] It's easiest to see on the map on the screen.
[32:40] And it's actually the only area in the forest
[32:43] that has oil and gas potential
[32:44] and has stipulations that protect other resources
[32:46] from activities involved in oil and gas mining.
[32:52] So kind of as we wrap up,
[32:54] we wanted to mention that,
[32:56] so the Santa Fe National Forest orders
[32:58] the Carson National Forest in the North
[33:00] and also is very close to the Siebel and National Forest,
[33:03] which is closer to around here.
[33:06] So one thing that we've really tried to do
[33:08] in our development of our draft plan
[33:09] is working very closely with these two other forests
[33:12] to create consistent plan components.
[33:15] And this is really meant to help our communities
[33:18] as they're moving through the forest using the forest,
[33:20] you know, they might not always be aware
[33:22] of these imaginary lines.
[33:23] You can move from the Santa Fe to the Carson
[33:25] and might not even notice it.
[33:26] So we really wanted to have consistent plan components that would help people in traditional
[33:32] communities especially be able to, you know, if they're gathering fuelwood on the Santa
[33:37] Bay and the Carson, we don't want, you know, really different management direction on
[33:42] how that works.
[33:43] So we've been working closely with all of them throughout this process and they will also
[33:47] have their draft plans coming out close to ours.
[33:51] so we've been kind of in segueing off that and our public engagement coming up so the reason
[34:00] that we're holding this meeting is because we are coming up in a new period, new comment period
[34:05] for our planning process and we're actually releasing our draft plan and draft environmental
[34:11] impact statement, the EIS, for the official 90 day public comment period.
[34:18] And so this is the plan
[34:20] that we've been working on through public comment will be released for as hard copies will
[34:26] be available at public libraries and we've actually already started distributing these.
[34:30] We currently have them available at the Bernalillo library, Rio Rancho, and the San Diablo have
[34:38] them so far.
[34:39] So you can go to these libraries and look at hard copies if you want.
[34:42] We also have online copies that are available now and we can tell you the website or the
[34:48] website right up there on the screen. If you go to that link, you can find those online
[34:53] copies to look at. And then in the coming weeks, we will be sending out information on
[34:59] the public meetings that we're going to be having during this 90-day comment period.
[35:03] And when the 90-day comment period starts, that will be officially announced in the Federal
[35:08] Register as well as in the Albuquerque Journal. And through our mailing list. So if you'd
[35:13] like to be on that mailing list to make sure you get alerts.
[35:16] You can also, you know, send us an email or call us and we can make sure you're all included
[35:21] on that mailing list.
[35:24] And then you'll get notifications as to when this comic period starts and also our public
[35:28] meetings.
[35:29] So these are starting August 20th.
[35:32] We'll be having 10 open house meetings in communities across the forest.
[35:37] I think these closest to here will be Rio Rancho, we'll be having meetings there.
[35:41] And these meetings are really meant to help people, you know, answer questions about the
[35:46] plan that they might have after looking at it online or at the library.
[35:50] Help people comment, understand how to comment, help them navigate the plans, these are
[35:54] massive documents.
[35:55] So maybe they only want to look at a certain section, we'll be there to help, and then find
[35:59] the sections that they're interested in, and then we'll also be having a three-force meeting.
[36:04] So as I said, we've been working to be consistent with the Seabullet and the Carson.
[36:07] So on August 20th, we will be having a meeting in conjunction with the Carson and
[36:13] C. Bull and National Forest in Santa Fe. We're all three forests will be
[36:16] in attendance. So anybody who's interested in all three can just come to one
[36:19] meeting instead of running all over the forest. And so that's kind of going to
[36:25] be focusing on the consistency between the plans and helping people who are
[36:29] interested in all three. We'll also be engaging tribes separately. We've started
[36:33] setting up individual tribal meetings for tribes that have been working with us throughout
[36:38] the planning process and are interested in knowing where we are right now and reaching
[36:44] out to counties to make sure they are aware of where we are on the process and giving them
[36:48] the opportunity to get their comments in and ask questions like that.
[36:54] So if you're interested in learning more or would like to get on our mailing list, you
[36:59] You can go to that website or call us 505-485-442 or we have an email Santa Fe Forest Plan at fs.fed.us and we'd be more than happy to take anybody's questions in that regard.
[37:15] Thank you very much.
[37:17] Thank you. Any comments or questions?
[37:20] Mr. Chairman, if I may, I have been communicating with Aaron, and the opportunity exists as well to have a one-on-one if any of the commissioners are interested in doing so.
[37:35] I look forward to seeing you guys tomorrow.
[37:38] Thank you.
[37:39] The other comments are crushed to chairman just a couple. I think I'm scheduled to see you as well
[37:49] Great brief by the way in the public engagement. I appreciate you doing that. That's extremely important to have that transparency
[37:55] Let them know what's going on
[37:58] How many acres of the Santa Fe forest are in Santa Valle County?
[38:05] I'm not sure of exact acreage
[38:07] We look at that map and
[38:13] see it's a fairly large portion, but I'm afraid we don't know the exact acreage.
[38:19] I'd be curious to see how much is located in Sandwell County.
[38:22] We can definitely get that number to you.
[38:24] And this is one of the oldest forces that we have in the state.
[38:30] This was established in 1915, three years after we became a U.S. state.
[38:34] And I'm curious if the size change that we increasing the national force or is it basically
[38:43] we stay in roughly the $1,15,000,000.
[38:46] 158,000 acres? It's roughly saying the same. There have land exchanges are possible, but there's been no significant increase in the forest land to my knowledge. Okay. And then you hit upon the economics a little bit, and that kind of peaked my interest. You talked about slide five. You talked about jobs. Can you tell us how many jobs you're talking about on slide five?
[39:14] Is
[39:19] that US government jobs, state jobs, contractor jobs, or is it other jobs that are based on people visiting and what's the economic impact of the forest in New Mexico?
[39:30] So the exact number of jobs can go get that number in a minute.
[39:35] But we're basing those numbers on so jobs based on recreation income.
[39:40] So people who have recreation businesses, drawing people in who will spend money in our communities.
[39:47] because tourism is extremely important in our state and I think it's important
[39:52] and I was looking prepping for this meeting I was looking to see what the
[39:56] economic impact is of the forest in our state and what it brings us and I was
[40:01] hoping you might have that info and if you don't have it now I'd like to get it
[40:06] later if that'd be okay yeah we can get it to you by that meeting and Devon can
[40:12] pull it up as I'm talking about some of the other things.
[40:15] So those jobs are coming, are from tourism,
[40:18] from grazing communities.
[40:20] We're working to help maintain AUMs on the forest
[40:24] and sustainable grazing.
[40:26] They're coming from things like hunting
[40:28] and fishing, which is part of recreation forest products.
[40:32] So we're looking to support local industries.
[40:36] So as we're doing forest management,
[40:37] you know that opens up the opportunity
[40:40] We can't guarantee that interestee will come, but we can say that we are creating opportunity
[40:47] through our management actions to help these industries thrive in the state.
[40:53] And I think those are some of the main ones.
[40:56] Do you have that broken out or is it just an inaccurate get number?
[40:59] We do have that broken out.
[41:02] Okay.
[41:03] I don't want to hold you up if I could just get that after I appreciate that.
[41:06] We can definitely get that to you, jobs numbers.
[41:12] And out of the three national force,
[41:14] can I assume that Santa Fe is your favorite?
[41:16] Yeah, I like it.
[41:20] All right.
[41:22] Thank you, Mr. Chair.
[41:23] I'm quite real quick.
[41:24] I can say that we're looking at a 16% increase in jobs
[41:28] from current, 14% increase in total annual labor income,
[41:33] user estimates.
[41:35] And so, jobs are really coming from timber products for local industries, traditional
[41:42] uses, grazing, and we're looking at as many as 1,413 jobs, and more than $53.5 million
[41:52] in the income.
[41:53] Can you email that to me please?
[41:55] Yes.
[41:56] Awesome.
[41:56] Can share that.
[41:57] Appreciate it.
[41:58] Thank you Mr. Chairman.
[42:00] I don't know if I want to congratulate you yet or not, but I see that you guys are on
[42:07] your presentation about forest management and just recently the Nanaho fire up in Cuba
[42:14] in La Jada area that just started as a lightning fire with four acres and with a forest management
[42:22] plant that they had went up to about a thousand acres or higher. It hasn't gotten away from
[42:28] you yet so that's why I'm holding my congratulations to you but the management of that watershed
[42:36] in that area is critical for this whole area and I'm hoping that it continues to be looked at.
[42:45] That forest management plan had to be done in a matter of days of what I understood
[42:51] because the lighting fire they could have put it out in a little while and they all suddenly
[42:56] ended up going about 10 days if I'm not mistaken. So I'm hoping everything goes well with
[43:02] you guys up there and I hope that you guys continue to do things like that. Do you
[43:08] did inform the community? I know that you guys had a meeting up there that was informative
[43:13] to the community so I appreciate that. Thank you.
[43:17] Other comments? Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[43:22] All right.
[43:23] We're going to move on to the consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Chair, second. Madam Clerk.
[43:34] Mr. Brock.
[43:36] Mr. Brock.
[43:36] Yes.
[43:36] Mr. Meek.
[43:38] Yes.
[43:38] Mr. Michael.
[43:39] Yes.
[43:40] Vice Chair Block.
[43:41] Aye.
[43:41] Chair Hyall.
[43:42] Yes.
[43:43] And to office the county manager.
[43:54] Good evening, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. I bring the next item to you as a follow-up from a topic that I brought in November of 2018. At that time, I was looking to adopt the resolution so that we could consistently adopt holidays every year. That would allow us to plan accordingly. And in the case of a department like Public Works,
[44:21] community services that has a lot of interaction with the community.
[44:25] It allows them to make plans from year to year and not wait till January until
[44:31] the commission adopts the holiday schedule. At that time I brought the request
[44:39] to adopt floating holidays. That would allow for the county to remain open and
[44:48] And people to choose the holidays or the time-offs that they would like to take based on their supervisor's permission.
[44:57] And there was a change at the time and we commissioned at that time then voted in favor of two spring break holidays.
[45:07] What that meant is that we closed the county and inadvertently I'm sure resulted in cost to the county for
[45:16] a double time and a half for our public safety employees.
[45:20] And so at this point in time, I, in the interest of trying to be efficient and address the
[45:27] kinds of spending that, of course, we all want to be very effective and efficient with
[45:33] our budget.
[45:34] I brought bringing this back to you for reconsideration of adopting one of two resolutions.
[45:41] One has the opportunity to then just add one floating holiday, and the other one has the option of adopting two floating holidays.
[45:53] And that way, our diverse population of employees can take those as they choose.
[45:57] So I'd like to request a motion to repeal the county holiday resolution number 12-13-18.10D and replace it with a new resolution based on what your preferences for one or two floating holidays.
[46:19] To ask for a motion for the repeal of the resolution with the idea of replacing it with one of the two options so you can get the item on the table.
[46:29] So, move, Mr. Chairman.
[46:31] Do we have a second?
[46:33] Second.
[46:34] I will have some public comment on this.
[46:36] Jose Romero.
[46:39] Josie pardon me.
[46:43] No, Josie, come up here.
[46:45] We don't want to miss a word of what you're going to say.
[46:52] Mr. Chairman, members of the body commissioners,
[46:56] I've been an employee with Sanable County for 18 years.
[46:59] It really meant a lot to have the two spring break holidays
[47:03] back to back.
[47:04] I raised my grandson who's three, his daycare was closed, so for me personally this meant that I didn't have to pay alternative daycare out of pocket.
[47:13] And I had the ability to stay home with him and celebrate the holiday with my family.
[47:17] I know that there are other co-workers that I am with as well in the county who felt the same way.
[47:24] They were appreciative of the two days that we had since we had not had raises.
[47:28] and we are strict on our schedule in the treasure's office because we do collections and we are not able to take off on certain times of the year due to that.
[47:40] This, again, was important to us. I wanted to thank you for approving that and for giving us the opportunity to have those two days off back to back for the holiday.
[47:50] We're asking that you reconsider that and allow us to keep those holidays as they are.
[47:55] I understand that it might be what you might feel not cost effective for the county, but for us as employees since we didn't get an increase, that means a lot to us.
[48:04] That means that we are important by taking it away and giving us floating holidays that's like we're given another personal day.
[48:14] And we are a short staff, so it is hard for us in the treasurer's office to all be off at the same exact time.
[48:20] We are seniors in there. We've had 36 years in there, 22 years in there, 18 years in there.
[48:25] So it's not like we're fighting for the days off. It's just nice to all have them off at the same time.
[48:31] So we're just asking that you just reconsider, reconsider that. And there are other county employees who couldn't be here this evening,
[48:37] who I know sent emails with their concerns, with the same address, and again, you know, we are hard working, we do appreciate the county, we do appreciate what the county gives to us, both for medical and working in a nice facility and so forth, but not having the opportunity to have an increase when everybody else gets increases and the world is increasing cost of living is extensive.
[49:04] You know, so I just wanted to again thank you for bringing that for passing that resolution when it was passed in December and to ask that you consider to keep it.
[49:13] And work with other departments they do have over time.
[49:17] I'm sure you know I've been married to a deputy before so I know that there's there's money there in certain places and I also wanted to show you your employee.
[49:29] I am getting emotional because this is important to us.
[49:33] It is important that we have these days off so that we can spend them with our family so we don't have to take time out of our annually or our sick leave or to take money out of our pocket to find additional day care.
[49:44] We can be there for them. We can be there for our families to help them so I would just ask if you just reconsider please and keep our two spring break holidays.
[49:53] Thank you for your time.
[49:53] Thank you, Josie.
[49:55] Jessica McPurley.
[50:03] Good evening, Mr. Chairman and commissioners.
[50:05] I would like to speak in opposition
[50:07] for removing the already approved spring break holiday.
[50:11] In accordance with the County Commission Meeting
[50:13] dated 12, 13, 18, a motion to approve resolution number 12,
[50:18] dash 13, dash 18, dot 10, D to adopt.
[50:21] And I quote, consistent annual holiday and observances
[50:25] and quote, it was stated that this was, and I quote, necessary since observed holidays
[50:32] have varied over the years and does not allow for consistency and quote. Consistency was
[50:38] mentioned several times as well as no need for an annual adoption. Keep in mind it has
[50:43] not been one full year since this has been put in place. During the last year's commission
[50:50] meeting there was a great emphasis on the morale of sandwell county employees with employees not
[50:56] receiving a monetary pay increase in five years and to possibly take away the two days it is a
[51:03] morale buster as a newly hired employee two consecutive and consistent days off is extremely valuable
[51:11] Any county employee employed from zero months to five years only earns 3.08 hours of annual leave a pay period.
[51:23] This takes these employees six weeks to earn one full day off.
[51:29] By taking away two consecutive and consistent pay days off, it takes away the opportunity for those employees to extend their annual leave without having to utilize
[51:39] a great deal of their banked time that is extremely difficult to earn.
[51:45] It would be appreciated if the commission would reevaluate Sendable Counties annual
[51:50] accrual rate and increase those tier levels.
[51:54] Other concerns about the proposed float holidays in Lewis Green Break are in the case of some
[51:59] offices who use a vacation calendar based on seniority and this puts a disparity when
[52:06] and non-senior level employees can utilize their days.
[52:09] In smaller offices, it may be hard to obtain
[52:12] supervisor approval when requesting the time off.
[52:16] Specifically, a concern in our office,
[52:18] the Treasurer's Office, would be during tax season.
[52:21] We have two tax seasons that extends 30 plus days
[52:25] where the employees are needed to be at work
[52:27] to provide customer service.
[52:30] This would minimize our window of opportunity
[52:32] to utilize the proposed floating holidays and lastly my concern would be the
[52:37] terms to obtain those floating holidays such as completing your
[52:44] your probation like you have to with the personal holidays or if those would be
[52:47] granted to you at the time of higher. Thank you for your time. Linda Gaegos.
[53:05] Hello
[53:05] Mr. Chairman and commissioners of course it goes without saying if we are going the
[53:10] the direction of adopting one of the resolutions
[53:12] between one holiday, floating holiday, or two,
[53:15] is the consensus of the assessor's office
[53:17] that they prefer to floating holiday supposed to the one.
[53:21] Of course that goes without saying,
[53:22] but just to wear wear, the office that employees do notice
[53:26] when these things are happening.
[53:28] And I think that there were some people
[53:30] that I know mentioned sent some emails
[53:34] to the commissioners and to the county manager.
[53:37] So, but again, just let you know the general consensus
[53:39] please if you're going to make that change to at least keep the two holidays
[53:44] rather than taking one away. Thank you very much.
[53:47] Thank you.
[53:49] No other public comments?
[53:50] So I'd like to open the floor to discussion from the commissioners. Any comments?
[54:00] We have two resolutions in front of us. One is the one day floating and the other has two day floating.
[54:07] and the motion on the table is to repeal the 12, 13, 18 in favor of one of those.
[54:17] Now, you caught the
[54:27] options and we decide whether we want to proceed with one of the two resolutions that are in front of us.
[54:34] Mr.
[54:40] Chairman.
[54:40] Mr. Mayor Black.
[54:43] Let me thank the county employees first of being here.
[54:46] I very much appreciate it.
[54:48] And especially Mr. Romero.
[54:53] Thank you as well.
[54:55] You definitely have shaped my thinking on this.
[55:00] Thank you for that.
[55:01] Same thing with Adam Abrayu in your office, Madam Assessor.
[55:08] I kind of like the tooth loading holidays, I give a little bit more flexibility, I think
[55:13] to the county employees.
[55:17] You know, if the county is having a budget crisis and we're under a physically constrained
[55:23] environment, which we are, you know, people like two things, they like time off and they like
[55:29] money, and I get that.
[55:31] And if you can't give them a raise here and there, and I think we actually, I don't think
[55:36] been five years correct me from wrong I thought we've given them raises whether it was some
[55:40] parachanges right but you know these county employees here work extremely hard and they support
[55:50] over 140,000 residents in sandable county every day whether they're patrolling the streets or at
[55:59] the firehouse detention center treasurers office public works is all over the place and
[56:07] For the most part, I think they love what they do, and I think they should be compensated
[56:11] for that.
[56:12] It's a tough job.
[56:14] The benefits, like Mr. Marrow said, are very good.
[56:17] I think you would agree with that.
[56:19] That's one of the reasons that I think some people are attracted to working here at the
[56:22] county level.
[56:25] But I'm willing to decide with what she said.
[56:29] I think she was exactly spot on, and there's a lot of family issues that people have, and
[56:35] And it's tough to take some time off to mitigate some of those family issues.
[56:40] So I really like what you said.
[56:44] So thank you.
[56:46] I'm going to support that.
[56:48] Other comments?
[56:49] Chairman.
[56:50] Mr. Michael?
[56:53] You know, last year we did, we were with floating calendar in January and we decided to,
[57:01] But this body decided to go ahead and give a two days of spring break to the employees
[57:09] and here we are in July and we're already talking about next year and we haven't even
[57:16] gone a year as one of the young ladies mentioned about how this resolution went about and we
[57:25] haven't given it a chance to see how it plays out as time goes on.
[57:31] During the time that this holiday went on, I don't know how many people came up and thanked
[57:38] me, and I told them, it wasn't just me.
[57:40] It was a commission as a whole to give you guys those two days.
[57:47] For a while there, they called it an Easter holiday, and we said, well, that doesn't work
[57:52] because we didn't want to make a religious implication there.
[57:55] So we went with a spring break.
[57:57] I think the employees really appreciated it and enjoyed their two days of time off.
[58:04] That it costs us more money, I don't know how much more money really costs us to be closed
[58:09] for two days.
[58:10] But I think the employees really appreciated it from the top down, from the assistant's
[58:16] office, from the treasurer's office, from public works, people like that that really benefited
[58:23] from those two days of spending time with their families and I think we should you know if we're
[58:31] going to do anything about repealing this I would favor a floating but I'm not crazy about the
[58:37] floating because some people can't take that time off on the floating and that way
[58:43] If we close, people are going to be off for those consecutive days. And two consecutive days is a lot for people to appreciate. So that's my comment on that. Thank you. Any other comment?
[58:59] Where's your book? Thank you. I really appreciate all of the employees who are able to come out today and express their opinions. And we did receive some emails. And that is helpful.
[59:14] when trying to figure out what's the best course of action.
[59:17] But I have to back up a little.
[59:19] I wasn't here when this original resolution was passed.
[59:23] And the feedback that I actually received prior to being elected
[59:27] was surprise that we were actually closed for business.
[59:34] And for many of us who've been in industry or in the corporate world
[59:38] that isn't exactly how it works.
[59:41] lots of us work jobs that, you know, where they run 24, 7, 3, and 65 days a year as our
[59:50] emergency services are in our public, all of our public safety officers do. So when
[59:57] I have public comment from, you know, my constituents saying, well, what's spring break for the
[1:00:05] government. I'm a little confused by that. So I just wanted you all to be aware that I strongly
[1:00:12] support not losing any days, but in terms of the philosophy, I do think that there being floating
[1:00:21] days is more appropriate for people of all ethnic groups, religions, et cetera, and our natives
[1:00:28] who are celebrating feast days might want to choose a different day versus the spring
[1:00:34] break day. So I just wanted us to be cognizant of the fact that not all of us think or
[1:00:41] feel the same way about this. And so we have to reflect on it very carefully in what's
[1:00:46] in the best interest of all of us. Thank you.
[1:00:49] And you look at me. This is the way I think we need to proceed on this. The motion is
[1:00:56] to repeal and replace so we would need to deal with the replacement if that's what we're
[1:01:03] going to do sort of an amendment to this motion. So the next step would be if you were
[1:01:11] someone who wishes to make a motion and one of the replacement resolutions that they would
[1:01:20] do so and there would be a second in any discussion on that one in a vote on that and after a vote
[1:01:26] on that, then there would be a vote on the main motion. So if the amendment resolution
[1:01:33] failed, then there would be a motion on the resolution. If that failed, then it would
[1:01:41] stay the same as the way it is today. So that's where we are.
[1:01:49] So for moving forward, someone
[1:01:50] needs to make a motion on one of the two resolutions.
[1:01:55] I move that we repeal the original resolution and replace it with the two floating holidays version.
[1:02:03] Do we have a second?
[1:02:06] Second.
[1:02:07] Any discussion on that resolution?
[1:02:12] Mr. Brock.
[1:02:13] County Manager Mays, can you clarify the question concerning would the floating apply to all employees?
[1:02:21] would all employees newly hired receive that and I'm somewhere in policy it seemed to me there might be something about if as you know if they can be allowed to do it is there is that in the wording anywhere.
[1:02:38] Commissioner Mr. Chairman commissioners this would not be changing any of our current personnel rules and regulations with regards to holidays.
[1:02:46] So, these would just simply apply the way that we have them in our current policy.
[1:02:53] Can you state what that policy is?
[1:02:57] I'm going to stand for a question that's been sent here.
[1:03:01] I believe that it's the once you meet your probationary period that you are entitled to holiday pay.
[1:03:11] Mr. Chairman.
[1:03:12] We should.
[1:03:13] County measure may, so for instance, I need to clarify that.
[1:03:16] For instance, if the two floating holidays is adopted, that's for the calendar year, is that correct?
[1:03:25] That would be correct.
[1:03:26] And for some reason, the employee has circumstances where he or she can't use one or both of those days.
[1:03:35] Does that roll over to the following calendar year, those days lost?
[1:03:41] You have the opportunity to retain 80 hours to roll over so if in fact you are over a certain amount of hours you can get paid out at the end of the year so they will not lose them.
[1:03:57] And the same thing happens for you sickly when you hit a certain bank you have the opportunity to cash that out as well.
[1:04:06] So when you're on probation, that's only applied to vacation time that you have to be off of probation.
[1:04:14] A floating holiday is automatically given to all new employees.
[1:04:20] It's a considered a personal day.
[1:04:23] All employees eat detention officers, deputies, fire.
[1:04:29] Exactly, but it allows the county to stay open.
[1:04:32] That's the difference.
[1:04:34] other comments? Madam Clerk, call the roll.
[1:04:39] That we're calling the roll on the two floating holidays resolution.
[1:04:45] Commissioner Brock. Yes, Commissioner Meek.
[1:04:49] Yes, Commissioner Eichel. No.
[1:04:51] Vice Chair Vlok.
[1:04:52] Aye.
[1:04:53] And Chair Heil.
[1:04:54] Yes.
[1:04:55] So now we need the motion to repeal in favor of what we just approved in terms of the replacement.
[1:05:02] So moved.
[1:05:02] motion.
[1:05:05] I just want to know if there's any other discussion. Any other discussion?
[1:05:10] Madam Clerk. Commissioner Brock. Yes. Commissioner Meek. Yes.
[1:05:16] Michael. No. Commissioner Block. Hi. Excuse me. Yes.
[1:05:23] Okay.
[1:05:23] And moving on to the office of the county attorney. It has to do with a settlement between the Department of Justice and Sanable County.
[1:05:38] Good evening, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. I'm here before you to ask that the commission approve a settlement agreement between the United States of America and Sanable County regarding the accessibility of pulling places as it comes as it applies to Americans with Disability Act.
[1:05:57] Accessibility for the selected polling places from Sandwell County.
[1:06:02] By a way of a little bit of a background on June 7th, 2016, on an election day for
[1:06:10] a primary election, the Department of Justice visited 26 of the county's 48 polling places
[1:06:16] and found that many of the polling places were not accessible to persons with disabilities
[1:06:21] and violated the American according to them and their estimation violated the Americans
[1:06:28] with Disability Act based on these allegations, the Department of Justice then in April
[1:06:35] of this year visited again and provided assistance to the county in discussing with polling
[1:06:42] locations about what could be done.
[1:06:43] So this, if this settlement agreement is approved by the commission, then the county would
[1:06:53] agree to work with the Department of Justice in ensuring that the selected polling places
[1:07:00] are in compliance with the Americans with Disability Act within three years.
[1:07:09] Thank you.
[1:07:10] Could I have a motion?
[1:07:12] Some moved.
[1:07:13] second. Second comments or questions?
[1:07:22] We have how many years for completion? Three.
[1:07:29] We call from our earlier readings. There's an action plan that we are engaged in to evaluate
[1:07:40] those locations that don't comply and see what we need to do to bring them into compliance.
[1:07:46] That's correct, Mr. Chairman.
[1:07:49] Many of the locations are not owned by the county.
[1:07:51] Several of them are, I believe, seven of them are on Pueblo locations.
[1:07:56] And there are also three locations on the Navajo reservation.
[1:08:01] And so we're working with the tribes and Pueblos to encord nation to make them their buildings in which the tribes and Pueblo's own and all the other governmental agencies as well as private agencies.
[1:08:15] own to become in compliance, because not only is it beneficial to the county on election day and all the electorates into voting access, which is
[1:08:24] up most important to the county, but it also benefits those people who frequent those buildings every, the 364 other days of every year.
[1:08:35] So I understand, too, that we have somewhat of a dichotomy here and that the
[1:08:40] problems are not required to be ADA compliant, but we are required to have ADA
[1:08:45] compliant sites even though they may be on the Pueblos. That's correct. And so
[1:08:51] we're asking for cooperation from our neighbors who live in Pueblos and tribes
[1:08:56] and their government and their leadership and so far we've gotten voices of
[1:09:01] cooperation from them.
[1:09:03] Any other comments?
[1:09:06] No, but well it is a brief one.
[1:09:09] Thank you for your presentation today on this issue as
[1:09:13] well as several others with the 10 Southern Poem loans today.
[1:09:17] I thought that it was a very effective meeting and I knew you had
[1:09:21] follow-up after that.
[1:09:23] Thank you.
[1:09:25] If no other comments, Madam Clerk?
[1:09:28] Commissioner Brock.
[1:09:29] Yes.
[1:09:30] Yes, come here for me.
[1:09:31] Yes.
[1:09:31] Come here for Michael.
[1:09:32] Yes.
[1:09:33] Vice Chair Block.
[1:09:34] Aye.
[1:09:34] And Chair Hyal.
[1:09:35] Yes.
[1:09:48] Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission. Before I get into item 11A, just some background, really quickly, this, to items on the agenda this evening are two of three professional service agreements that we have in the county and we have had for numerous years that help serve the unincorporated areas in the more rural areas of the county. These are going to be part, if you remember a couple meetings ago, talked about doing an analysis
[1:10:16] on the county, looking at all the costs and services we receive, and we provide throughout
[1:10:21] the county and having that information back to you. That is proving to be a pretty large process,
[1:10:27] so this will be part of that process as well. However, in the meantime, we felt it was important to go
[1:10:32] ahead and get these contracts for service approved so that those entities can continue to serve the
[1:10:38] populations in the unincorporated areas of the county. So that's just a quick little background.
[1:10:42] around item number 11a is a request for a motion to approve professional services contract renewal in the amount of $109,725 with Presbyterian Medical Services for ambulance transport in the unincorporated areas of Regina, Lahara, and the surrounding areas of the Northwest corridor.
[1:11:01] Could I have a motion?
[1:11:03] So I move to second comments or questions.
[1:11:08] Mr. Chairman.
[1:11:09] Commissioner.
[1:11:12] This is in regards to something you just touched upon.
[1:11:17] And I think Mr. Chairman, when last time I think you were in front of us, you had a piece
[1:11:22] of paper that showed various municipalities around the county that have not paid Santa
[1:11:29] of all county for services rendered regarding first responder services, is that correct?
[1:11:35] That was for E901 type costs.
[1:11:38] Right, right, and I've been looking for a total cost overall of how much the county is owed
[1:11:46] and I know Mr. Burpo I think is doing some agreements right now with that, but the question that
[1:11:54] maybe you might not be able to answer but for the county manager is where are we
[1:11:59] with those status agreements? And is there any discussion or negotiation on getting a lot of
[1:12:07] that money back to the county? I mean, that's the money that can go toward raises and other issues
[1:12:14] here in the county. Mr. Chairman, Commissioner, we actually were successful in receiving a good portion
[1:12:23] of the revenues that we were expecting for the E911 contracts this last
[1:12:29] fiscal year they came in kind of late in June but we did get a number of them
[1:12:33] in there is still one outstanding at this time that we are still working
[1:12:37] with on trying to get that who's that the village of Cuba so we are still
[1:12:42] working with the mayor up there to try and get that information or that check
[1:12:46] cut back to us so that we can go ahead and collect for last fiscal year and the
[1:12:51] new contracts, obviously, we would want to send them out very soon, but as I mentioned,
[1:12:56] we are really trying to do an analysis of all costs, all services provided, and received
[1:13:01] before we determine a true cost that we need to be associating with these contracts.
[1:13:06] Do we ever get that piece of paper on the website like I asked?
[1:13:10] Yes.
[1:13:10] Is that posted on the website for the public?
[1:13:11] Comments shirt?
[1:13:12] Yes, sir, I believe yes.
[1:13:13] And those costs was that just for a specific year were those costs that were over a period
[1:13:20] to time. That was for a one-year period, sir. So are there other years that the county was not
[1:13:25] getting paid? Yes, we can go back and reconcile and run a report basically to show what years we have
[1:13:32] been paid, what years we haven't been paid and where that is. So what's the total of that? Do we know
[1:13:36] what the title is on now? I know. Are we going to be able to get that total? We also in process of
[1:13:42] negotiating getting paid back that money from those different entities as well that owe the county that.
[1:13:47] Commissioner, I think that could be definitely part of the conversation.
[1:13:50] We have part of the analysis that we want to do moving forward with these professional
[1:13:54] service agreements and the E9-1-1 contracts is to sit down with the leadership of these
[1:13:58] different municipalities and tribes and try to figure out how to approach both that and
[1:14:03] us.
[1:14:04] I understand just from a fair, when you have taxpayers paying a lot of money in taxes and people
[1:14:12] are getting services that they're not paying for, there's going to be some type of negotiation
[1:14:16] to get some of that money back somehow.
[1:14:19] It's not fair to the vast majority of the people in this county.
[1:14:23] So I would like to kind of get a little bit more details on how far back this problem's
[1:14:29] been going, and why weren't we notified of that before, or the public certainly doesn't
[1:14:33] know that, and I think that's an issue, and that's something that should be worked out.
[1:14:39] It's only fair to taxpayers across the county, I would imagine.
[1:14:44] And, Commissioner, it is part of my analysis that I want to look at, and I will include that when we have those discussions with the leadership of those different communities to see if we can work on that and work on some backpacks.
[1:14:56] Yeah, because we work with these other communities on other projects that we give them money for, but yet when it comes to life-saving services, we're not getting paid back.
[1:15:09] But Mr. Chairman, Commissioner, one of the other things that we're looking at, though,
[1:15:14] too, is also what services have we received potentially in lieu of.
[1:15:20] So there may be an offsetting service there that you need to better identify and evaluate
[1:15:26] those costs as well.
[1:15:27] So it's a big picture, every community, and tribe throughout the county is a little bit different
[1:15:32] on how it operates right now.
[1:15:33] So, I agree with you and those situations need to be evaluated so that we can see what is owed but potentially what are we receiving to that may need to be offset via that compensate?
[1:15:45] I think the taxpayers wrote a lot of money that hasn't been collected over many years and when they see that amount of money that total amount of dollars that they're owed and they haven't been paid, they're not going to be too happy.
[1:15:59] Mr. Chairman and commissioners, if I may, to one of the important factors in all of this, is that, you know, we don't want to be robotically carrying on contracts with the same amount like we have tonight or robotically charging costs forward to the communities without analyzing them.
[1:16:23] I mean, it may be like Eric said that there are credits to be had or cost that have gone up or down, and we haven't looked at that.
[1:16:32] And so what we're trying to do is understand what the true value of all of these things are to be able to analyze it.
[1:16:40] It could go up or down in somebody's favor, that's very possible too, but we're just not doing business as usual.
[1:16:47] we're trying to assess what is the true cost of these things today and make sure that we are
[1:16:55] charging what should be charged. Mr. McCoy.
[1:17:02] Based on what I'm hearing is that we have two different
[1:17:05] situations that we're discussing here. One of them is a professional service agreement for ambulance
[1:17:11] services and not the not what is owed for emergency services that are being provided for
[1:17:18] to San Debalt County and for the Village of Cuba.
[1:17:21] The Village of Cuba, a lot of times,
[1:17:25] service not just the Village of Cuba,
[1:17:27] and even though it's not a county entity,
[1:17:29] they're out and about all over the county's
[1:17:31] servicing wrecks, fires, and everything else
[1:17:36] that they don't get compensated for.
[1:17:39] So a lot of people don't realize that these things occur.
[1:17:43] And yes, I understand that Cuba owes that money.
[1:17:47] Don't get me wrong.
[1:17:47] I'm not I'm not trying to alleviate them from their debt, but the fact of the matter is that it goes back not just
[1:17:54] This administration it goes back to the previous administration as to how much it was owed
[1:17:58] It was not just this administration that is is responsible for that
[1:18:03] But the fact of matter is that
[1:18:06] That you know a lot of times not everything is black and white up there
[1:18:10] You can't just say I'm going to charge you for going
[1:18:14] You know, five miles out of Cuba when you got it when I'll give you an example when that wreck happened with the fire
[1:18:21] Chief from or fire department from Bloomfield who took care of that wreck if it wasn't Cuba
[1:18:28] Cuba fire department a couple weeks ago. They were in the middle of 550 with another wreck
[1:18:33] It was Cuba fire department. Nobody else yet. They're there the ones that have to come out of their district in Cuba to go service the
[1:18:42] county. So a lot of times people don't realize that. And yes, we want to make
[1:18:50] sure that the taxpayers get their money. Well, I'm sure that when there is a
[1:18:54] rack or anything else out there, somebody needs to respond. And and a lot of
[1:19:02] times it is Cuba fire department or Cuba PD. So well, I think this is part of the
[1:19:12] dispatch, I guess we can track almost a minute by minute.
[1:19:16] And so this is part of the analysis.
[1:19:19] We had talked about changing these rates,
[1:19:21] et cetera, this year, and we said no.
[1:19:24] Let's continue these contracts, but over this next year,
[1:19:27] let's not go back and look at information.
[1:19:29] But let's track this forward, because one of the points
[1:19:34] that we made is we may find that on these things,
[1:19:38] we should be paying more.
[1:19:39] So let's go look at it and see what the situation is before we and Mr. Chairman try to quote Cuba is a very valued resource
[1:19:47] That entire northwest corridor and again, and I echo what the chairman and county manager said part of this analysis is to look at that
[1:19:54] See how many times are going out into the county?
[1:19:57] How does that impact the county and the citizens of the county and where does that
[1:20:01] Factor into the different costs and services throughout the rest of the region and with the other entities that are a part of it
[1:20:07] So that is part of the service and that is part of the analysis that we are looking at.
[1:20:14] Lastly, Mr. Mention, I got a call today from people from Presbyterian Medical Services and they wanted to meet in reference to is this contract finalized or with them or is there something still going on because they want to meet sometime in August and they said that you're going to be part of that meeting.
[1:20:32] that is on a separate note, there is we are discussing with them on some operational items that they have that we're working with them on, it does not have to necessarily do with this contract of this time, this is for them to continue providing services to the unincorporated areas of the county that is going to continue, we are trying to partner with them a little bit better and we have some ideas to enhance the services of that area that we wanted that we're exploring, that's what that is in reference to.
[1:20:58] Okay, thank you.
[1:21:00] Lastly, Mr. Chairman, I would say to Commissioner Eichwald, you know, we've had these professional service agreements for a long time, have we not?
[1:21:09] And I think it's completely appropriate to ask to make sure that it's going to be followed and the money's going to be paid.
[1:21:14] That's not asking too much, that's not out of context of this particular item.
[1:21:18] And I certainly appreciate what the Cuba Fire Department, Police Department does by responding outside Cuba limits.
[1:21:24] and if Cuba and the mayor in the town council up there want to have some type of service agreements with the county, some type of reciprocal thing, they can do that, but the question is totally appropriate because the taxpayers want to know where their money is going.
[1:21:39] So thank you Mr. Chairman.
[1:21:41] Chair, you're welcome.
[1:21:43] Mr. Chair, I'd just like to say, I think some of this is rectified by our last meeting
[1:21:49] when we gave the chief the authority to actually start supervising other departments and
[1:21:55] finding out what's going on.
[1:21:57] I don't think it's just Cuba, but I think there's other departments that may be responding
[1:22:01] to places they have no business going, not Cuba, but other outside ones.
[1:22:05] So I think it's his job as a chief to say, you have no business going there if you can't
[1:22:09] protect what's here. So those are some broad scope things that I think you have the power to
[1:22:14] take care of now. And I think you're doing a good job assessing it. And I think it's, you know
[1:22:21] what the given take is better than any of us up here, right? Because you're dealing with them every
[1:22:24] day.
[1:22:30] Last track and they didn't make a motion on this. And we just start talking about it. We did
[1:22:35] Okay, all right in the other discussion
[1:22:40] Manage clerk
[1:22:43] Commissioner Brock and yes, Commissioner meek. Yes, Mr. Eichel. Yes, vice chair block. Hi, and chair. Hi
[1:22:52] Thank commissioners, 11b as a request for a motion to approve professional services contract renewal in the amount of 100,000 with Hamas Publow for ambulance transport in the unincorporated areas of the Hamas Valley and surrounding areas. Same situation, this is just for Hamas Publow.
[1:23:21] Thank you. Item 12. Thank you.
[1:23:35] Door. Door to me, guest director for the, for business and economic development for
[1:23:41] sound of all county. Chairman Hyle, members of the commission, what you have before you today on the agenda is a matter of
[1:23:47] just process, following the enactment of the ordinance that approved leader project for ex-Novo brewing for the amount of 100,000 at the June 27th
[1:23:58] commission meeting. So what you have before you now is the project participation agreement which specifies and outlines the terms in which those funds will be dispersed on that project.
[1:24:09] Okay, thank you. Could I have a motion?
[1:24:13] So moved.
[1:24:16] Any comments or questions?
[1:24:20] Madam Clerk.
[1:24:23] Commissioner Brock.
[1:24:24] Yes.
[1:24:24] Mr. Meek.
[1:24:25] Yes.
[1:24:25] Mr. Iquil.
[1:24:26] Yes.
[1:24:27] Vice Chair Block.
[1:24:28] Aye.
[1:24:28] and share a hyal. Yes.
[1:24:30] Good evening.
[1:24:35] Good evening. I'm so happy to have the owners of our wonderful beast row. We refer to blades. So I'd like to invite Kevin and Anya up to give you a brief description of their restaurant and their history in the positive area. I know I'm.
[1:25:01] One of those folks that goes there kind of regularly, so I'd recommend it.
[1:25:08] Thank you.
[1:25:09] Good evening everybody, am I close enough by?
[1:25:14] We are Blades-Bee's truck.
[1:25:15] We've been in placidas for about 10 years.
[1:25:19] We have a full liquor license that we use, and after 10 years, we realize of a burden that
[1:25:27] I was on business money wise.
[1:25:30] 60 to 70% of our business is beer and wine and not liquor.
[1:25:35] But in the meantime, we still pay every month
[1:25:37] for that liquor license and the companies
[1:25:41] are coming with that.
[1:25:42] So last fall, we had a chance to think and talk about
[1:25:47] to see that we didn't have to take that liquor license anymore.
[1:25:51] The owners decided that they could actually sell it
[1:25:54] to somebody else and we could gather on.
[1:25:55] So that's when we decided after long thinking about it that this is the time to just apply for the beer and wine license
[1:26:02] for restaurants has been there 10 years and hopefully it will help us thrive a little bit more.
[1:26:10] We are thriving already and we're very thankful for our guests to come to blade.
[1:26:15] But so we ask you approval for that.
[1:26:18] Because we are in the unaccompanied part of Sanable County, we not allowed to serve liquor on Sunday.
[1:26:24] And because of that, we lose a whole day of sales.
[1:26:27] Did we have that sale?
[1:26:29] Then we probably would thrive a little better
[1:26:30] with that liquor license.
[1:26:32] But since we don't have those sales,
[1:26:34] that will be decided that we will have to go to a beer and wine.
[1:26:38] So rather than paying $1,600 a month for the liquor license,
[1:26:41] we will pay $1,500 for the year for the beer and wine.
[1:26:45] And I think that tells you it would save us a lot of money.
[1:26:48] And thanks for listening tonight.
[1:26:50] So can I have a motion?
[1:26:53] So moved.
[1:26:54] Do we have a second?
[1:26:55] Second.
[1:26:56] Come answer questions.
[1:26:59] And just like to say, it is a gem out there that you have.
[1:27:02] I go out there several times.
[1:27:04] I thought you looked familiar but I wasn't quite sure.
[1:27:06] Yeah, it's a very nice restaurant and you do a fine job there.
[1:27:09] I wish you luck.
[1:27:10] But that's a great place.
[1:27:12] Excuse me.
[1:27:13] My understanding is that you're selling your liquor license?
[1:27:18] Actually, we lease the liquor license and they sell it.
[1:27:21] So the lesser or yeah the lesser will sell the liquor license because we don't own it,
[1:27:30] we lease it and that's why it's car so it's already for sale or yes as I understand
[1:27:36] they are already sold it which you know puts us kind of a predicament because as soon as
[1:27:40] or six months are over we will find ourselves without any license period and if I'm not mistaken
[1:27:49] and this liquor license has to stay in San Juan County for that I'm mistaken.
[1:27:53] I'm not quite sure how that works with it with dear liquor license.
[1:27:56] That is something that they take care of, not us.
[1:27:58] Mr. Chair, Commissioner, I don't know the answer to that question.
[1:28:04] I'm sorry.
[1:28:05] I can get back to you on that.
[1:28:07] I don't know it right now.
[1:28:09] Okay, thank you.
[1:28:12] Well, I just hope one day we can rectify our situation with Sundays.
[1:28:16] that's one of our one of my goals that one day that will give you the
[1:28:22] opportunity to have mimosas with bunch but in the meantime I'm so glad that
[1:28:28] you're we're able to do this today I hope it'll be the right thing. Mr. Chairman
[1:28:33] one question. Do you make Harry? If I make Harry? Do you make it there? No. We do a lot
[1:28:43] of seafood. That's one of my specialties. Herring is, yeah, that's very particular to a certain
[1:28:52] part of the world of another lens. It's a seasonal thing. The salted herring. But I do love it.
[1:29:03] Yeah. I love it too. I mean, if you've not had herring, you've got to just put the whole thing
[1:29:10] in your mouth and just enjoy. It's an interesting thing.
[1:29:12] Wither without onions.
[1:29:14] Yeah, exactly.
[1:29:16] And let me just say, uh, Duncan Vell.
[1:29:18] Possibly.
[1:29:18] Let's believe for being here.
[1:29:20] And, um, very, very happy to have you from, uh,
[1:29:23] to Netherlands.
[1:29:24] So, thank you.
[1:29:25] Any other comments?
[1:29:28] Madam Clerk?
[1:29:29] Commissioner Brock?
[1:29:30] Yes.
[1:29:31] Commissioner Meek?
[1:29:32] Yes.
[1:29:32] Commissioner Eichel?
[1:29:33] Yes.
[1:29:33] Vice Chair Block?
[1:29:34] Aye.
[1:29:35] Chair Hyal?
[1:29:36] Yes.
[1:29:37] Good luck.
[1:29:39] thank you. I'll have to sneak up there and try it out. We're looking for another
[1:29:44] thing with the fish though. I'm allergic to fish. I swell up and break out in the
[1:29:48] hides. We have all kinds of other choices. They can send you a nice email every week.
[1:29:52] I get it and it tells you exactly what they have.
[1:29:57] Okay, item 14. Division of Public Works.
[1:30:12] Chairman and commissioners, which I have in front of you, is a request for a motion to award contract for construction and recreation center at the Senegal County Fairgrounds through a couple of construction in the amount of $619,000 to $68 on non-clean taxes and to approve the county management and negotiate and send the contract in any amounts upon final approval from the New Mexico Department of Finance. Any other motion? So moved. Second.
[1:30:38] Second. Second. I'm going to answer questions. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Kierman, my favorite subject.
[1:30:48] Single bidder, or is this an income bid? No, they'll see the award deal on there. List
[1:30:52] the ones that responded. So it died to be is received. Okay. And then it was not on the lowest
[1:30:59] price, and that is our couple. Okay. And the, what's the period of performance? Two years.
[1:31:06] Well, it turns to 60 days where we have in the contract, but that also lines up with our CDBG grant.
[1:31:12] Okay. Went through the appropriate source selection.
[1:31:14] Yep.
[1:31:15] And it says here that non-colleen taxes and approved the county manager to negotiate
[1:31:21] signed the contract.
[1:31:22] Is that what we normally do?
[1:31:24] County managers have you signed the contract?
[1:31:27] Okay.
[1:31:28] Yeah, and it's going to be approved by the state, the FAA, too, because it's the CDBG funds.
[1:31:32] So we have to send the contract to them for also for their approval, too.
[1:31:35] So I'm sorry, what funds?
[1:31:36] CDBG, Community Development, Block Grant.
[1:31:38] Gotcha.
[1:31:39] So thank you, sir.
[1:31:40] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[1:31:42] Mr. Chairman, I'm sure I grow.
[1:31:45] Mr. Chairman, this 619, that's not the entire amount.
[1:31:50] You're still getting some CDBG money, right?
[1:31:54] Well, no, that's the total amount of that.
[1:31:55] That's the total amount.
[1:31:56] With the building, the playground, everything.
[1:31:58] Everything.
[1:31:59] The only thing we'll have to pay for is we're going to do,
[1:32:01] we do the earthwork.
[1:32:02] and then we're doing the parking lots to reduce costs and public works is
[1:32:06] going to be doing that. So that's that's only part and then we're going to hook up
[1:32:10] the gas and electric from the utilities itself to that.
[1:32:18] Okay, let's see
[1:32:21] all the comments, call the roll. Commissioner Brock. Yes,
[1:32:26] Mr. Meek? Yes. Mr. Aikult? Yes.
[1:32:29] Vice Chair Block? Aye.
[1:32:31] And Chair Haim? Yes.
[1:32:33] Comments from commissioners. Chairman. Commissioner Mick. I would just like to thank the county manager for bringing up the issue with these holidays. The money is tight in the county. Everybody realizes that the manager identified an unexpected cost that was going to be handed down to all of us, which is affecting our decisions on this coming year. And she provided a way to minimize the cost of these and still allow everybody to still keep their two days off.
[1:33:03] I think if anybody's going to complain, it would be the first responders who are getting
[1:33:08] a double time and a half.
[1:33:11] Thank you very much for offering up a good solution.
[1:33:16] Thank you.
[1:33:17] Other comments?
[1:33:21] I have a couple.
[1:33:23] Okay.
[1:33:23] I know you have several, but really quickly on our little vector situation in our virus, I
[1:33:32] I just wanted to remind everyone that the virus does present as a lesion and so if you
[1:33:43] have animals, please pay attention if they're not eating because they're going to have
[1:33:50] especially horses problems around their mouth and gums and it's going to be difficult for
[1:33:57] them to eat and drink and they're going to lose weight.
[1:33:59] And this is why, you know, if you notice anything unusual about their habits, then you might want to get call your vet.
[1:34:10] Okay.
[1:34:12] Mr. Chairman, two quick things.
[1:34:14] Go ahead.
[1:34:15] Thank you.
[1:34:16] On a lighter note, I think my fellow commissioners will agree with me here.
[1:34:21] I'd like to talk about the governor of Colorado.
[1:34:26] I think he's got some serious issues to think that Colorado Chilli
[1:34:31] is by far more superior than what we have here in New Mexico and I'm sure my
[1:34:36] fellow commissioners agree that Colorado chili Mr. Chairman is really
[1:34:41] junior varsity chili compared to what we have in New Mexico so I just want to
[1:34:46] get that on the record. Lastly I'd also like to get on the record I'd like to
[1:34:50] thank Corralis for all the hard work that they did once again this year to have an
[1:34:55] amazing 4th of July parade it's probably the best one in the state and the
[1:35:00] businesses down there benefit greatly from that parade.
[1:35:03] It's crowded down there, the crowds are great,
[1:35:06] the floats are amazing, and everyone was safe.
[1:35:11] No issues once again, so I'd like to say hats off
[1:35:14] to Corralis for a great job.
[1:35:18] And there's nothing better than New Mexico chili,
[1:35:21] Mr. Chairman.
[1:35:21] Thank you.
[1:35:22] Thank you, any other comments?
[1:35:24] I've got to slide something in there, though.
[1:35:26] We have a duel going, but I just
[1:35:29] just read that hemp production, acreage of hemp is exceeding green chili production.
[1:35:39] So get ready. How quick is that going to happen? We here in the northern part of the state
[1:35:45] are going to have to start about how we're going to have a processing plant and not just
[1:35:51] leave it all to Donna Anna Canning.
[1:35:55] Okay.
[1:35:56] I have a comment.
[1:35:57] Yes, sir.
[1:35:58] In reference to Commissioner Block's comment on the chili,
[1:36:05] they mentioned Hatch Chili.
[1:36:08] That's the only thing that they mentioned.
[1:36:10] They didn't talk about some of the best chili in the world,
[1:36:12] which is the Chimao chili.
[1:36:15] In San Abal County, we have some of the best chili
[1:36:18] in the universe.
[1:36:20] members. Hemmist chilly. And those are never mentioned. We also have Limitad chilly, which
[1:36:27] is down in Socorro, which is a whole different strain. And it's a lot better and will always
[1:36:34] be better than anything that Colorado can grow.
[1:36:39] Okay. Any other comments?
[1:36:43] We will have a couple. First of all, the comments, the Community Treasurer's Office this evening
[1:36:49] were uninformed. Both of the employees that they chose to take a dig at are
[1:36:57] contract employees and their contracts happen to be up and we needed to deal
[1:37:03] with the issue now. Also, some of the comments were sound like sour
[1:37:10] grapes about not approving increase for elected officials and if you're running
[1:37:16] for elected office for the meeting, you probably should be doing something else.
[1:37:23] We are, in fact, working with, in fact, some of the closed sessions that we come up
[1:37:29] here and talk about, I think, for the past four months or four meetings have been about
[1:37:37] dealing with first responder issues.
[1:37:43] And lastly, I would like to make a comment.
[1:37:46] I know there's been some questions about raises.
[1:37:49] And we've talked about how what a difficult financial situation that we have.
[1:37:54] But I want to say that, first of all, some of the action that we took in the fourth quarter
[1:38:00] has postured us better in looking forward as to how we might be able to deal with something
[1:38:06] with regard to raises.
[1:38:11] Also we're in the process of doing a salary survey and expect a
[1:38:16] couple of months down the road that we could be in a position to deal with salary increases
[1:38:23] but we'll have to see how we get through that to do it. But one thing for sure is the
[1:38:31] only way we're going to get to be able to do increases is that we continue to manage
[1:38:35] expenses and doing something like proposed by the community management this evening and going to
[1:38:41] two floating days instead of shutting the place down and having to pay 80 to $100,000 in additional expenses.
[1:38:49] I think that's a smart move and those are the kind of smart moves that we need to continue to do so that we can
[1:38:54] even consider how we would do something with raises going forward.
[1:38:58] So thank you on that. Any other comments?
[1:39:00] We have a motion for number 16, so move to the second,
[1:39:11] stand adjourned.