Regular Governing Body Meeting - Last Wednesday
Wed, Mar 26, 2025 · Governing Body
https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/270

== Executive Summary ==
The City Council meeting covered a wide range of topics, with a significant portion dedicated to reviewing the successful allocation and impact of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds on human services, particularly in early childcare, homeless services, and violence prevention. Councilors praised the city's innovative approach and the positive outcomes of these programs, emphasizing Santa Fe's commitment to social welfare. 

A major point of discussion and public comment revolved around the proposed micro-housing site for the homeless at 1300 Agua Fria. Numerous residents expressed strong opposition to this specific location, citing concerns about safety, proximity to schools and residential areas, potential impact on property values, and a perceived lack of transparency and public involvement in the decision-making process. While acknowledging the need to address homelessness, many urged the city to find more suitable and equitably distributed solutions. The Mayor clarified that no vote on the micro-housing site was being taken at this meeting, but public input was welcomed.

Additionally, the council approved the purchase of traffic barriers and moved forward with the process to announce the sale or lease of eight parcels within the Midtown site, outlining plans for extensive developer outreach and a commitment to affordable housing and community development. Employee anniversaries were celebrated, and new legislation was introduced, including resolutions for a regional wastewater treatment plant and designating a Midtown Local Innovation Corridor Overlay District.

== Key Decisions ==
- Agenda approved (6-0)
- Consent agenda approved (6-0)
- Purchase of traffic barriers from Meridian Rapid Defense Group LLC for $233,286.79 approved (Councilor Faulkner, Lee Garcia, Lindell, and Mayor Weber voted 'Yes')
- Announcement of sale or lease for eight specific parcels within the Midtown site approved (Councilor Lee Garcia: Yes, Councilor Lindell: Yes, Councilor Castro: Yes)
- Motion to amend the agenda to address appointments immediately approved
- James P. Sullivan approved for appointment to the Ethics and Campaign Review Board, term ending July 2026

== Motions & Votes ==
- Agenda approval — Passed 6-0
- Consent agenda approval — Passed 6-0
- Approval of traffic barrier purchase from Meridian Rapid Defense Group LLC for $233,286.79 — Passed (Councilor Faulkner, Lee Garcia, Lindell, and Mayor Weber voted 'Yes')
- Approval of the announcement for sale or lease of eight specific parcels within the Midtown site — Passed (Councilor Lee Garcia: Yes, Councilor Lindell: Yes, Councilor Castro: Yes)
- Motion to amend the agenda to address appointments immediately — Passed
- Appointment of James P. Sullivan to the Ethics and Campaign Review Board — Approved

== Public Comment ==
The public comment period was dominated by strong opposition to the proposed micro-housing site at 1300 Agua Fria. Residents raised significant concerns about safety, particularly for children, due to the site's proximity to residential areas and schools. Many speakers highlighted fears of increased crime, aggressive behavior from some homeless individuals, and a potential negative impact on property values. There was a perceived lack of transparency and public involvement in the site selection process, with calls for more equitable distribution of homeless services across the city and a map of all city-owned lots for alternative site consideration. While acknowledging the need to address homelessness, speakers largely criticized 'pallet homes' as an inadequate solution and urged for more comprehensive and community-supported approaches. One speaker supported considering the Agua Fria site, citing the success of a similar micro-community and emphasizing the importance of community agreements and 24/7 staffing. Concerns were also raised about traffic, parking, and the absence of a neighborhood planner.

== Topics ==
- ARPA Funds Allocation
- Pallet Community Proposal
- Human Services Programs
- Community Engagement for Funding
- Homelessness Solutions
- Neighborhood Concerns (Pallet Community)
- Meeting Procedures
- Remembrances and Condolences
- Public Speaking/Petitions from Floor
- Town Hall Meetings

== Full Transcript ==
hearing me. We're not quite live. We are live. Very good. Thank you. So, I will call the regular meeting of the governing body for March 26th. I will call it to order. It's 5:06 p.m. We'll start with a Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilor Chavez, salute to the New Mexico flag led by Councilor Faulkner, and invocation and remembrances led by Councilor Lee Garcia. Please rise as you are able.

One of the greatest gifts that we can give to our divine Lord is our willfulness. We often want what we want when we want it. Our will can become stubborn and obstinate. This can easily dominate our whole being. And as we reflect on this, I just want to reiterate that yes, we are one community. We as governing body, elected officials, and administration are here to serve the public. And always keep in mind that we work together and we hash out our concerns and differences, that we can always come to a compromise and do the best job that we can. Be good neighbors and good citizens and good leaders. Amen.

Thank you, Councilor. Are there remembrances?

Councilor Faulkner: To remember my primo, Craig Faulkner. He passed away last week and he was such a kind and sweet soul. We're going to miss him very deeply.

Councilor Castro: I want to remember the two folks that we lost, pedestrians in particular in the city. And I want to take the opportunity to remind my neighbors today that we can be kind and loving, even when we disagree. Thank you so much.

I'd like to extend my condolences to the family of Harley Smith, who lost his life in a tragic accident on Monday while waiting at a city bus stop. He was one of our regular riders and someone who was really well-liked and well-thought-of by all the drivers and all the people who offered transit. And it was a tragic accident that took him and it affected all of us in the city and all of us who are working for the city. And we really want to express our sympathy to his family in their time of loss and know that we share in their feeling of real sadness that this happened and extend our condolences. And also, we also feel the pain of our longtime employee who was involved in the accident and wish healing for him as well. For those in our community who are struggling for whatever reason, health, well-being, feelings of loss, or feelings of being at risk, everyone in Santa Fe is the beneficiary of our thoughts, our prayers, and our hopes for a better time in the future. Let's take a minute and keep our family members, our friends, our community members in our hearts. Thanks, everybody.

Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll?

Councilor Cassett is excused. Councilor Castro is here. Councilor Chavez. Councilor Faulkner, here. Councilor Lee Garcia. Councilor Michael Garcia is excused. Correct. Councilor Lindell, here. Councilor Romero Wirth is excused. Mayor Weber, present. You have a quorum.

Thank you. Councilor Lindell, I will try to look up frequently to see if you have your virtual hand up, but if I miss you, would you please just let me know that I've unintentionally ignored you and you wish to be heard on a matter?

No problem, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor. Madam Clerk, are there any changes to our agenda?

No, Mayor. There are not.

Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved to approve.

Second.

There's a motion and there's a second. Is there discussion? Madam Clerk, could you call the roll?

Councilor Castro, yes. Councilor Chavez. Councilor Faulkner, yes. Councilor Lee Garcia, yes. Councilor Lindell, yes. Mayor Weber, yes.

Motion is approved. We've just approved the agenda. I know both the City Manager and Councilor Castro spoke a little bit earlier before we convened the meeting. Just to be clear, there is no item on this agenda for a vote or a discussion about a pallet community. There will be a time for anyone who wants to speak to the governing body about pallet communities at large or the one specifically that I know many people are here to talk about. It's absolutely appropriate to do that during petitions from the floor, which typically we try to have at around 7:00 p.m. But if you're expecting a vote tonight or a discussion among members of this governing body to take up a pallet community specifically or anyone in general, the answer is, I'm sorry to have you learn now that that's not on the agenda. And I hope you'll stick around and speak to us at 7:00, but don't anticipate a vote on anything regarding that from us tonight because it's simply not on the agenda and never has been.

Madam Clerk, is there anything taken from the consent agenda?

No, Mayor.

Move to approve.

Second.

There's a motion to approve the consent agenda. Is there discussion? Madam Clerk, can you call the roll on that motion, please?

Councilor Chavez. Councilor Faulkner, yes. Councilor Lee Garcia, yes. Councilor Lindell, yes. Councilor Castro, yes. Mayor Weber, yes.

Motion is approved. Thank you. Take us then, Madam Clerk, to item 8A, if you would.

Item 8A, presentation, strengthening communities leveraging state and local recovery funds for human services. And here to present is Julie Sanchez, Youth and Family Division Director, and Emily Auster, Finance Director.

Director Auster, are you going to kick this off for us while we get the technology queued up for a presentation?

Absolutely. Mayor, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this evening to speak to you about the city's use of ARPA funds. I am delighted to be here at the side of our amazing Youth and Family Services Director, Julie Sanchez. And we have some really wonderful things to share with you this evening about work that Julie's team has been doing. I think we may need the screen switched here in the chamber so we have the presentation, please. We'll go ahead and get started while we're working on that. Michael, if we could get the screen. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Perfect.

So, I am Emily Auster. I'm the Finance Director for the city and my piece of this presentation is just going to be to take you back a little bit to 2022 when the city received its allocation of ARPA funding. ARPA is the federal American Rescue Plan Act and that was part of the federal package of COVID-19 relief. And the city received an award of $15 million.

Hang on one second. We're getting a lot of background noise from the hall. I don't mind folks having a visit, but if they could take it outside of the chamber so we don't get a lot of interference with the presentation, I'd be very grateful.

Thank you, Mayor. So, ARPA, the American Rescue Plan, is part of the federal Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, which is federal funding that's being administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury. The SLFRF program, which is a mouthful, is intended to provide support to state, territorial, local, and tribal governments in responding to the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19. And so this is a direct award that the city received back in 2022 of $15 million through the ARPA program. In April of 2022, the governing body approved a total of 16 projects funded with that $15 million of ARPA money. Those 16 projects fall into four primary investment categories. There is a little bit set aside for administrative expenses. Those four investment priorities were community health and safety, economic health, public infrastructure, and children and youth support services. And today we are going to be taking a deep dive into the human services projects deployed through the city's Youth and Family Services Division under Julie's leadership. So really, I'm excited to tell you where we started three years ago and Julie is going to tell you about all the amazing things that her team has done in Youth and Family Services with these ARPA dollars over the last three years. The last thing that I wanted to add is we would like to make this a series. We would also like to come back to you and present on the city's use of ARPA to support economic recovery and other infrastructure investments in our community. But tonight, the focus is on Youth and Family Services. Over to you, Director Sanchez.

Thank you. Thank you, Director Auster. So, just to take folks back just a little bit, when we developed—

Hang on one second. Is there a way to make the presentation as full of screen as possible? And while you're working on that, I do want to add one thing to your preface, which is part of the reason I believe we're doing this now is that we were required to have completed the commitment of those funds by a date certain. And that having been done, it's now very timely to review the ways in which the funds were deployed so that everyone can know that not only did we meet the deadline for getting the funds encumbered, but we also have a lot to show for the way in which our team took those four priorities and implemented them across the board. But there is a time-specific element to this.

Mr. Mayor, that is correct. Thank you so much for bringing that up. So, the deadline, the federal deadline for getting the funds encumbered was December 31st of 2024. And I'm pleased to share that we met that for all of our dollars. So we did not have to send back any of our federal ARPA dollars. And that was a lot of work. The contracting and the procurement phase took a lot of effort from Julie's group and from Economic Development and many other folks throughout the city. So that was a big accomplishment for us to get all of our ARPA dollars fully encumbered by that December 31st, 2024 deadline. We are now in the period where we are expending those dollars in accordance with the contracts that we entered into throughout 2022, 2023, and 2024. There are already quite a few projects complete and a lot of dollars finished, which Julie will talk about. But we have until December 31st of 2026 to complete the expenditure of the funds, but we now know because we have contracts in place and everything fully encumbered. We now know how those dollars are going to be spent.

Thank you. And here's the presentation full screen if anybody wants to follow along as Julie walks us through it.

Thank you very much. Thank you all. It is a pleasure to be here. I'm Julie Sanchez. I'm the Youth and Family Services Division Director for the City of Santa Fe. And I just want to take folks back just a little bit because I want you all to know how we came to the conclusion on investing in human and social services. And really what we did in my office was we contracted, well, we found out we were going to receive this quite sizable allocation of COVID relief funding. And so one of the things that we did relatively quickly was contract for services to get a voice from the public on how we wanted this funding spent. We reached out to our partners at the public schools. We reached out with some of our community partners. We did a community survey. We did some community listening sessions and then at the end of 2021, we captured information from petitions from the floor during two governing body meetings. So folks had the opportunity to speak on what the city's priority should be for this large allocation of funding. And the voice was overwhelming. Community health and safety was the number one priority along with children and youth support services as well as programs for economic health. So, a lot of folks, and you can see some of the quotes we pulled from some of our session attendees, folks were really worried, folks were scared. Folks were, you know, we are a hospitality community and a lot of folks were already feeling the impacts of the first wave of the pandemic and were really looking for ways to feel supported.

and ways to acknowledge their struggles and the affordability of our city. So, it was a fantastic opportunity for us to hear the community voice, but also have the governing body respond in a way that was really intentional. From the respondents' feelings on this funding, we actually decided on four priority projects: early childcare, homeless services, community and youth violence, and our cash assistance programs.

Towards the end of 2022, we received an allocation in funding for administration, which we won't go into depth too much, but we did fund a few evaluations as well as some contractual support for each one of these priority projects. Just a breakdown of our ARPA funding: we as a division received roughly $7 million of that $15 million pot. We also received about $1.1 million from the county for some of the cash transfer programs and direct cash funding, as well as a small investment in our youth and community violence work.

Some of the big things that came out of this funding were really community partnerships. With our funding, we covered a total of 24 contracts working to address some of the city's most pressing issues. We were able to be new and innovative with our programming. Not only were we able to continue our cash transfer program, we were able to open that up to the entire community. We also partnered with the public schools to develop a work-based learning program that you'll hear a lot from economic development, but we also were a part of that funding pool to help support it being launched. Of course, we also initiated our first micro-community at Christ Lutheran Church. We also developed a pre-apprentice and apprenticeship program in partnership with the Santa Fe Community College to address issues of early childcare gaps. And then, of course, our youth violence interruption pilot project and our domestic violence response team, both of which have had presentations to Quality of Life and I think to the governing body as well.

We were also able to develop and cultivate some new partnerships. We worked really closely with the Office of Economic Development, at the time Rich Brown, in helping to address some of these gaps, as well as the public schools and that was the work-based learning program. And of course, we partner deeply with our public Santa Fe Police Department for our youth gun violence and domestic violence work.

You can see the breakdown of how we spent this funding. We had roughly about $900,000 invested in early childcare, $2.3 million in homeless services, $1.1 million in community and youth violence, and then $2.5 million in our direct cash transfer programs.

Mayor: Can I interrupt one sec? As you go through these different programs, could you, when you start walking through the actual allocations, highlight the ones that are where we were either the first or the only? Put an asterisk next to those because I do think the track record of leadership and innovation that is present in all of these categories can easily be obscured by the overview, but in the details, there's so much leadership, creativity, innovation, and community outreach that if you can highlight that for everybody's benefit, I think it'll draw particular attention to those amazing first-time leadership elements that really pioneered Santa Fe in this effort.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, that's a great segue to our first project, which is our early childcare pool, in which the City of Santa Fe was one of the very first cities to invest fully in a pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship program based on getting individuals into the early childcare field. And this is our appren. Our partners were going to come this evening, but they are on spring break. So, go figure. Same with their student parents.

Students enroll in this program as a pre-apprentice. They earn a certificate, join an apprenticeship, and earn an associate's degree. Since this program launched at the end of 2022, we've had 65 pre-apprentices in the program and 38 apprentices. And that was since fall of 2022. 812 children have been served by this program. 50% of those identified as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. 46% are from low-income households, and 35% are from dual or dual language speakers.

The classes, so this program is really unique in a number of ways. One, it is very centered around the student. And so the classes are available in both English and Spanish, which is a huge challenge for folks who are Spanish-speaking only who want to get into this field, but all the classes are in English. And so this was a very innovative approach to working with the population who is Spanish only. Students are paired with a mentor teacher, which again is something that's very different for these kind of programs. And then, one of my most, we love cash assistance. As students are in this program, they earn a livable stipend in order to support their ability to attend college. And so each of these students enrolled in the program are not only able to get job experience, be mentored by a teacher or a teacher in an early childcare classroom, but they're also able to earn a living wage while they support their studies.

One of the other pieces to this is that the classes are generally all online to meet the needs of students because many of them have jobs. They can't make a traditional schedule, and so a lot of these classes are in the evening and online to support their, to be flexible and meet their needs. So far, three students in the program have earned their associate's degree, and 28 students have earned a certificate, which is a huge accomplishment because the more individuals that we get in the early childcare field, the more youth we can serve. And as a parent of young children, I was incredibly excited to hear that my daughter's preschool at the time had an apprentice in their classroom. And I was, and she was very excited about the program and loved it because not only did it add another person so they could take more students, but it was hands-on learning, and that individual ended up being hired full-time in the classroom. So, and they were able to expand their three-plus classroom. Not that I know anything about the program, but I was really excited to hear about this happening.

So, our next section is our homeless services section. Of course, we've piloted our first low-barrier, non-congregate, 10-unit micro-community that allows for couples and pets. So far, of the folks that have entered the program, which has been around 29, 10 have been successfully housed into their own permanent housing solution. With our homeless services funding, we were also able to expand street outreach services from one worker, which is crazy, so you have one person providing outreach in the community, to now six individuals who are going to be providing outreach into the community. And so all those positions were hired as of March 2025. And so those outreach workers provide a direct pipeline into emergency non-congregate shelter solutions in our community, which is huge. It also allows us to identify folks who may be eligible for our micro-community, who may be eligible for Consuelos, or may be eligible for other shelter services.

One of our other big programs under the ARPA funding is our community and youth violence initiatives. This one is probably our most robust pot of funding. We were able to do so much with just a million dollars. Not only were we able to hire, not only were we able to contract experts to help us develop programs, but we were also able to foster a really deep relationship with the police department and understand their needs for community violence intervention and interpersonal violence services. And so because we had already developed a strategic plan for youth and community violence, we were able to take both that plan as well as our funding and use it as match to apply for other grant funds. So we received DO funds separately. We received our domestic violence response funds, which allowed us to hire a specialist who has now started and is full-time, which is incredible.

We were able to, through our partners who are responding to interpersonal violence, we have executed 26 safety plans via community contracts that have been executed for survivors of domestic violence since the program started in December of 2024. So that's only four months, and we've had 26 safety plans executed. I'm getting a final count on lethality assessments, but hopefully when we come back as a follow-up to some of this work, I can bring that forward as well. One of the other big things was we began a provider multidisciplinary task force to work with all of our funded agencies to support care coordination for survivors of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a very siloed response, and so having contracts at key areas and then also having a domestic violence response specialist allows us to actually walk a survivor through the entire continuum and allow them to get access to services immediately. So that's the domestic violence piece.

Part of this intervention also includes preventative services, which is our work-based learning program. As part of our contract, we made sure that the program targets high-risk youth or youth who may be at risk of being suspended or may have behavioral issues. And so far, just from the economic development and youth and family contract, more than 400 seniors and juniors have participated in the work-based learning program since it started. 300-plus youth have been involved in various violence intervention and prevention classes since we started our contracts in December. So this youth violence, and there's so much more in there. We also are developing our own task force around addressing gun violence, which has become a huge issue throughout the state. And so we'll be starting to receive referrals and community-based contracts for that work probably by the end of, oh my gosh, this month, like holding my breath. But that's an amazing partnership with the DA's office, prosecutor's office. We have a whole community violence, youth community violence intervention task force that meets right now twice, actually once a week, in order to meet and plan and get our referral process started.

Emily just reminded me that the Santa Fe Public Schools partnership with the work-based learning program was actually the first in the nation being funded by federal ARPA funds. And so we received a national recognition. Well, the public schools did, but of course, the city was also recognized because it's the first of its kind using these kinds of funding and the partnership with the city. I'm going to asterisk that.

Another innovative program that we've also received a lot of attention for is our cash assistance programs. So far, and we'll be finishing up our third round of cash assistance, over a thousand constituents have received direct cash assistance from our ARPA funding. Funding has been used to support everything from back rent, utility payments, catching up on car payments, covering medications, groceries, paying for childcare, and other basic needs. We also continued our MGI program, in which we had 90 additional Santa Fe Public School parents enrolled and funded through our MGI program. And we're going to be getting our final evaluation for all of our cash transfer programs through UNM. They're actually conducting an evaluation to see how cash assistance supports individuals in crisis, both one-time, nine-month, and then ongoing payments.

So, we're really interested to get that study back, hopefully by the end of this year, when our ARPA funds are expended. We've received a lot of attention for our MGI program. We just recently found out that Wayne County, I think in Illinois, Michigan, is going to be replicating our model almost to the T because they recognize how important it is to support young parents through their education in a community college setting and how you break cycles of generational poverty through education and supporting not only the child but the whole entire family unit.

Some of the preliminary studies from our MGI, our first cohort of MGI parents, is that the parents who graduated and received their certification actually increased their income by an additional $20,000. They were also much more likely to graduate from their community college program and also spent much more time with their kids and were much more intentional about being able to be involved in youth activities. So, another program to asterisk.

So, really, we've been investing and investing today and transforming tomorrow. So, these investments are just the beginning of our strategy to uplift youth and families in underserved communities. In the following months, we're going to be focused on tracking and measuring success and ensuring that we see real impact in education, employment, and family well-being. And our goal with this ARPA funding is really to create lasting transformational change for Santa Fe's families and youth. The programs that we've designed are really to uplift folks, create new opportunities, and build resilience for future generations. And so, of course, we continue to look forward to presenting to the governing body as we continue to roll out all of these investments. And really, we can do incredible things with a large, flexible allocation of public funding. And I really just want to show my gratitude and thank you for allowing my little division to be able to support these wonderful initiatives that have really had long-lasting impacts in our community. And I appreciate all of you being able to prioritize human and social services as a big piece of this funding because a lot of cities invested in infrastructure, fixing roads, fixing potholes, but there really hasn't been—I'm proud to say that my city has invested in its community. So, I just want to thank you all for your commitment and your dedication, and I'm always appreciative of talking about this wonderful work. Thank you.

Let's take questions or comments. I think there are fewer of us, but let's still try to adhere to our 10-minute rule as much as possible. We'll just go down the road. Councilor Chavez, you want to kick—Castro, you want to kick us off? Councilor Chavez had her hand up. We'll go with you first. Councilor Castro, no worries. Sorry, I apologize. There's enough of us so we could probably jump around, but I will try to be brief. In particular, I want to know since this funding is no longer available if any of these programs are going to find alternative funding sources.

Mr. Mayor, Councilor Castro, one of the nice things about the city kind of dedicating this money upfront is a lot of these programs have been able to find match funding either through other federal grants or through foundations. So, Appren is a really good example of that. They've—I think I've signed like three letters of support in which they received two grant funds because of the city's upfront investment. The youth and community violence work, we've received match funding to continue those programs for an additional year and continue to look for more funding. So, there are pots of money out there, and we're always looking and applying as well as we can because our goal is to make sure we sustain and keep these programs going.

That's wonderful. Director, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councilor Castro. I just also wanted to add that the council has invested in some of these programs through allocations from the city's one-time funding, including continuing support for the Santa Fe Public Schools work-based learning program and also the Mayor's for Guaranteed Income program. So, that's another way that we're ensuring that these programs are able to continue past the time that the ARPA funds are expired.

Wonderful. And I'm sure we'll have lots of questions for both of you. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Director. In particular, I'm hoping that we can have more discussions now that we are coming into the budget season about how we can fund some of these programs long-term. But I'll cede my time. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor. Thank you. And I agree. I would like to see how the city can invest in human beings and keep some of these programs sustained, but also even expand them. I think we find success when we invest in the humans within our city. That's where it starts, right? So, we have healthy human beings, we have a healthy city. But with that, what I was really going to say when I had my hand up was I just really wanted to say that we have the right person in this position. Every person that knows about our services knows Director Sanchez by name and only has wonderful things to say about her. I think that to have someone that can be so trusted and genuine in a government agency doing this kind of work is what makes this work successful. So, I just want you to know, like, I talk to a lot of people, especially in my new position outside of council, and everyone is grateful for your existence and your stewardship with this work. So, and I'm grateful as well. So, I just really wanted to shout you out. You're a big part of why it's as meaningful as it is. So, I hope you give yourself credit for that. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to zip up to Councilor Lindell. I can't see her, but I know she's there. And since she would ordinarily be next in line, I'll cede the floor to Councilor Lindell if you'd like to ask questions or comment.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm not sure I can't make my video go here, but that doesn't matter. We got a lot of traction with this money, and Julie, it was a—you probably spent the last few years on the struggle bus making this happen. A bunch of people participated in it and did the repairs on the bus and pushed and shoved and pulled, and we got a lot out of it. I'm really pleased with the programming that we did. Sometimes I don't always understand it. But here's the thing about being around for a while: I know the people that are guiding this and their performance, and they're trustworthy, and I think that that's a big thing for us to keep in mind that we work with a very, very trustworthy staff. So, thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor, and Councilor Faulkner.

I'll make this quick. I just want to echo my colleagues. Director Sanchez, you are one of the shining lights in the city, and your passion and your heart for what you do is obvious in your performance. And so, I just want to thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you, Councilor Garcia.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Director Sanchez, and for all your work. I know you were here when I first began my term on the governing body, and you're still here. So, don't go anywhere. What happens is that a lot of times when there's so much change in departments or directors, it's just so much instability. So, that being said, kudos to you and your team for the hard work that you've done. I know you even had a child during that time, and so, or two, and so that shows the challenging work of what you've done, and you've continued to echo the sentiments of my colleagues. How do you continue the project and funding is the biggest source, the biggest issue, usually follow-through, people, personnel, project, procedures, everything. It just all goes hand in hand. And so, I hope in the future that you can continue this work. We can support that.

One question I may have is in regards to how do we evaluate the success of the programs? And what kind of metrics do we have in place to say, "Hey, look, this is working," because I'm a firm believer that you calculate and you work and you project and then you evaluate again and then you see, is it working, is it not working? And I do believe that you have to invest in people in any organization, in any community. And how do we also follow that up with how do you keep it going, but how do you measure the success of it? I'll stop there. Maybe you can answer that.

Mr. Mayor, Councilor Lee Garcia, one of the requirements for ARPA was to create performance measures for each one of these projects. And so, built into each one of our contracts are performance measures for us to see what difference we're making with that funding. So, for example, it could be in thinking about the Appren program, it's how many students have graduated, how many young people have these new apprentice and pre-apprenticeships have brought in to the early childcare system. So, we do have performance measures on each one, and I'd be happy to share a final report once our funding is expended.

That would be great. And lastly, you know, you did mention we invested in our community and our people, which left some of the other things like our infrastructure and our roads, which, you know, we are working on and hopefully we can get those things to other avenues. But, thank you very much, and I appreciate all your work.

Thank you, Councilor. Thanks for bringing this tonight and for previewing other episodes in the ongoing rolling out of what has really been an amazing achievement by everybody as part of the team. I just—I'll make a couple comments and try to connect some dots, and then if you want to embellish or add your own way of looking at this, I'd appreciate it because individually I think there are remarkable programs, but more than that, there are some overarching themes for me that are evident when you look at the different categories and tie them together.

First thing, some of you know I attended a few years ago a program on what does it mean to be a just city. It left a very strong imprint on me. That Santa Fe historically has been on a trajectory toward being more and more a just city. In things we pioneered, first city in the country to have a living wage, always in our city charter to be a welcoming city. And now with these initiatives that you've put on the screen for us tonight, individually and collectively, I think they represent a moral compass for the city and additional evidence that we are investing in and living our values. And so when you bundle them as a collection of investments, programming, efforts, individually they're quite remarkable, but overall they really are a statement of what we stand for.

And the second thing that I would say more at a policy level is that I think you could look at this set of activities and more that aren't ARPA funded but are other non-city funds from our general fund and say that if you looked at our approach to these fundamental human needs in our community, you could really articulate a social policy for the city of Santa Fe that people talk about what's your urban policy, what's your design policy, what's your land use policy, but I think what we have in the presentation you made and what could be an even more enlarged presentation around general fund expenditures that the city of Santa Fe, unlike many cities in the United States of America, has a social policy that we are able to articulate through these specific programs and commitment of funds.

And it has to do with helping people who need the most help, lifting up families, and investing in education, trying to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty at its core, providing safety and better choices for young people, investing in the kinds of city expenditures that may not manifest themselves instantly but will over time change people's lives because they're social investments. They may be intangible, but the outcomes are very tangible. So I would line those two things up as overarching messages. One is that we continue to seek to be a just city. And secondly, that as a community and as a city, we continue to articulate a social policy that is every bit as well thought out and well-funded as our urban design policy, our land use policy, our sustainability policies for water and energy. Similarly, our social policy ranks up at the highest level of the commitment of this governing body to articulate a vision for the future of Santa Fe. And you have the great talent to make that vision a reality. And we're very grateful. Thank you. I don't know if you wanted to embellish or ignore all of that, but it is your work that we're talking about.

Mayor: Mr. Mayor, it's been an honor to serve in this capacity over the last almost nine years I've been at the city. I think this June will be nine years. And just the dedication. I mean, I can't do this work without you all, without my team believing in the work. And so, I just want to let you know that this is not only myself and my team, but it's also everybody. It's the fact that you all approved this funding and allowed for these projects to happen to support in some ways kind of the wild ideas and dreams that come out of my division. And so, I mean, it's a team effort and not one person can do it. But I know one person with the right staff and the right support from leadership can make big things happen. So I want to thank you all. Thank you.

Thanks very much for being here and we'll look forward to the unfolding of other ways in which ARPA dollars have made an impact in our community as we do this on an ongoing basis. But the fact that every single dollar is encumbered, we're not sending anything back. We're putting out all the work in Santa Fe is a huge accomplishment on its own. Well, thank you both for being here. Madam Clerk, do you want to take us to the next item on the agenda?

Clerk: Item 10A, action item discussion agenda, request for approval to purchase traffic barriers from Meridian Rapid Defense Group LLC in the amount of $233,286.79.

Is there a motion to approve?

There's a motion to approve. Is there a second? There's a second. Is there? It's a discussion item. I don't know if anybody is here to present it to us. To some extent, I think the title speaks for itself. So unless there's further discussion or questions, I'd be happy to entertain a vote. Good. Madam Clerk, do you want to call the roll?

Clerk: Councilor Faulkner.

Yes.

Clerk: Councilor Lee Garcia.

Yes.

Clerk: Councilor Lindell.

Yes.

Clerk: Councilor Castro, you stepped out for a minute. Councilor Chavez, Mayor Weber.

Yes. Motion is approved. Thank you. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Clerk: Item 10B, approval of a proposed announcement of sale or lease of Midtown site parcels pursuant to Resolution 2021-16. And here to present is Daniel Hernandez, director of Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency.

To approve. There's a motion and there's a second, but I'm very happy to have a presentation for the benefit of all of the members of the public as well as the governing body who may not have had an opportunity to review this up till now. And since Midtown does have so much significance for all of us and for the community, I think a chance to get an update on this item would be most welcome as soon as you can plug in the computer and welcome to. We can make the presentation full screen. There we go. Welcome. Make sure you're really right in front of it so that your voice carries and so that the folks who are watching are listening now. Yeah, much better. Okay.

So we are about to embark on a process of announcing the availability of Midtown parcels for sale or lease, and it's pursuant to two guiding documents. One is a community development plan states that we will administer a request for proposal and/or enter into direct negotiations with developers for the disposition and development of parcels at Midtown. The other guiding document is a resolution that the governing body passed in 2021 that states that we require governing body approval for the disposition or the sale or lease of public property, the disposition of property, public property. So tonight is about fulfilling those two guiding regulations.

So the last time you probably saw Midtown was at this level, the sort of the framework for the development of all the 64 acres at Midtown. This was out of the master plan that really provided the guidance and the regulations for the uses that were allowed at Midtown and what was not allowed at Midtown with the guiding principle of creating a new center in Santa Fe, and it would be a mixed-use urban center that had compact development with a variety of uses that were really anchored by two major uses. On the north side would be arts and culture and civic uses. So we would be preserving the Visual Arts Center, the Garson Performing Arts Theater, the library as those big civic institutions on the north side. And then on the south side, major job creation and economic development around film and multimedia production.

So as you know, and as you passed the disposition development agreement resolution in December, that is moving forward. Actually, the developer for that has broken ground and there's a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow morning for Art House, which is the first phase of the residential development, not on the Midtown property, but on private property that the previous Shelberger Tennis Center property, but it's right across the street from the Garson Studios, which is on our property. He has submitted permit drawings for the first phase of development on for the film production on Midtown site for Driscoll Hall, and tomorrow he's issuing permit sets for Garson Studios. And he wants both of those plans, both of those to be completed by the by October or November in time for the International Film Festival. And as you probably know, the developer is a major sponsor of the Santa Fe International Film Festival. So those two things are moving forward rapidly. And so that's exciting. So just about now, the disposition of the other properties and the redevelopment.

So since that master plan was approved unanimously in 2022, there's been a lot of work just around the public right-of-way and the infrastructure. So that is moving forward with Public Works leading that effort of the design of the streets that is based on the sections within the master plan. But what more importantly happened just last month was or this month was that we we recorded, we surveyed and charted the streets and all of the parcels that would be built at that could be redeveloped at Midtown. So there are 22 large tracts of for development at Midtown. Of the 22, eight of them, eight of those parcels are up for redevelopment for sale or lease as part of this disposition process. So that means that 14 parcels of that 22 again are actually already in pre-development. So again, there are eight parcels that are for sale lease related to this request for a vote to dispose of property at Midtown. So those are parcels.

Looking at from an acreage perspective, we know that there's 64 acres at Midtown. Of that 64, 24 acres are up for sale or lease. And so that means that already 39 acres at Midtown are under contract, moving ahead in pre-development or are part of the civic infrastructure, meaning the streets and the and the public right-of-way. So this is the way that it's broken down. Again, the film use is about 11 acres. The community use, those existing buildings that I described, about 7.7 acres. The civic uses, which are a large royal park that's at the eastern edge of the site, a Midtown Plaza, makes up that 7.8. And also as you know that there's a state-owned property, we call a Tracto, that's eight acres, and we're in discussions with for the redevelopment of that with the state for affordable housing and and commercial development. And then of the public right-of-way, there's about 4.5 acres. So again, what's left is that 24.8. So it's not as big of a problem or scale of that people thought it was of that 64 acres. It's about 24 acres that we're actually needing to find developers to redevelop, and that's what we're embarking on now.

I want to reassure the the governing body and the public that the community development plan continues to drive the decision making at at for Midtown. Again, we want to make sure that 30% of all of the units at Midtown will be affordable to low and moderate income households. So those large tracts that you saw will be further subdivided for those affordable 100% affordable housing parcels. We will prioritize workforce and moderate income households as some of the priority types of projects we want to see. And we will also definitely be prioritizing projects that include building the inclusionary housing on site rather than negotiating and/or looking for projects that are only looking to pay the in-lieu fee. And also we want to prioritize projects that propose uses that are within the community development plan. Neighborhood serving retail and services, uses that create jobs, new entrepreneurs that want to establish businesses in Midtown, etc. And also uses that facilitate the 24/7 arts, culture, entertainment and recreation center at Midtown. So those are the kinds of proposals that we will want to see and facilitate, negotiate, etc.

So this is the process we're undertaking. It's something that you're familiar with. But we are also going to be doing outreach to developers in a much different way than what we have with the standard RFP process. So tonight you see the first arrow is governing body. You will vote on to on whether we proceed or not with the disposition of these eight parcels, these eight tracts. The next thing, and we've already begun putting all our materials together for marketing the parcels. We're working with the Urban Land Institute because they have a regional office as well as a national office to ensure that we're getting a lot of our materials out to the to the development community. And we're also just working with the local developers and notifying them of upcoming events. We're going to use the month of April to have round table discussions with developers as well as site tours that we're doing in sponsorship and collaboration with ULI and in April as well at the beginning of April was scheduled for April 4th. Again, all these things are dependent on the vote tonight. But we're gearing up for that if we get the positive vote. The next thing again, we'll enter into negotiations through the exclusive negotiation agreement. We will come back to the governing body with any proposals that we get. We'll make a recommendation to the governing body at that time. We'll go into executive session to discuss those proposals to get your guidance and leadership on on proposals that we may want to pursue or not pursue. Then we will then negotiate with those developers and enter into the disposition and development agreement, which will come back again to the governing body for a final approval for moving forward.

And you guys are familiar with this process based on what we just went through with the Aspect Studios. So that's the presentation. Again, for requests, Jack Kelly in the MRA office is leading this effort. So we're requesting all developers to address information to him as we move forward. Thank you. We'll take questions and comments. We'll just do what we did with the presentation. Go ahead, Councilor Garcia. We'll start at your end of the desk.

Councilor Garcia: Thank you, Mayor. I don't have many questions. I asked a few during finance and appreciate your work on this. I think this piece of property that the city purchased years ago is starting to move, and I think that's great because I don't think we can get out from under it as fast as we wish we would have been out from under it five years ago. But we are where we're at, and I think that the work that you're doing on this is helping to move this along, and I think that's very important. I hope to see a good, complete project in development into the future. So, just comments. Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you, Councilor. You're good.

Councilor: I just want to say this is very exciting. I think any movement, like Councilor Garcia said, is the right direction we need to go in. I also know I keep just thanking staff, but I do want to thank you, Daniel. Your communication, your reach out to city councilors, you trying to be as transparent and clear about every single process and available has been really helpful to this. So, I just want to give you some credit for stepping in and doing the amazing work that you have done. So, thank you.

Mayor: Thank you. Councilor Lindell, you want to zoom in and speak to the proposal before us tonight?

Councilor Lindell: I do. Thank you for being here, Mr. Hernandez. On page seven of eight, the MRA parcel disposition process, I don't know where it has the five arrows all going right. Yes. Can we put a timeline on that?

Mr. Hernandez: Yes, I will do that.

Councilor Lindell: Terrific.

Mr. Hernandez: I'll recirculate it as soon as I do that. I can do that. Actually, I'll have it by the end of the day tomorrow.

Councilor Lindell: Okay. And so, I'm assuming that the governing body DDA approval, the very last arrow, give me your best guess of when that is.

Mr. Hernandez: Well, I'm really focusing on 2025, and so I would like to try to get as many of these DDAs before the governing body within the last quarter of the year. That's my objective. So, we'll see how close we get to that.

Councilor Lindell: I would encourage you to do that. I hope that we can hit that timeline, and I think it's important to move this along. It's been going on now for a very, very long time. I think probably about seven years, not your part of it, but since we started this process of what shall we do? And it looks like we have a plan now. And I'd like to see us move this along as quickly as possible.

Mr. Hernandez: Thank you, Councilor. I appreciate that encouragement. And that's my sentiment exactly. I mean, I feel like what we're trying to do within the MRA is to be as entrepreneurial and aggressive as possible in engaging developers to get us good proposals. And so, yes, we'll work hard.

Councilor Lindell: Terrific. And the other questions I had, I asked at finance the other night. So, thank you very much.

Mr. Hernandez: Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you, Councilor. We're trying to... got a few people who've stepped out for a minute, so we don't quite have a quorum, but that doesn't prevent me from asking a few questions. Okay, first, I'm not allowed to ask questions when they're out in the hall. That's just the vote. Mayor, councilors, I think we would need to stop the meeting. You and Daniel would have to talk. All right, we'll get some more people back in the room here. We still need one more. We need another councilor. This is the Midtown proposal. Director, anything you think I should know before? We have to wait until we have a quorum. All right. Councilors, we're not voting. It's just that when we lose the quorum, we would need to adjourn for some period of time and then reconvene and keep that in the minutes. Okay, we're all back together. So, let me see if I can pick up where I was. Daniel, I have a couple things I wanted to, Mr. Hernandez, go over with you. One is, I think you slightly misspoke about the percentage of affordable units on the site. 30% is the minimum.

Mr. Hernandez: Yes, it is a floor, not a ceiling.

Mayor: Yes. And so, as we entertain proposals for housing on any of those sites, if anybody wants to exceed the 30% minimum total, that would be more than welcome, and we would give them extra points for going above and beyond our floor and heading for a higher level. Is that pretty much right?

Mr. Hernandez: Yes, the community development plan is clear on that, that it's the minimum.

Mayor: And the other thing I wanted to ask about is, if there are eight tracts that are going to be up for some entity to make an offer, a developer or a nonprofit or an organization that wanted to tie up or take control of one of those sites could take control of more than one.

Mr. Hernandez: Absolutely.

Mayor: Yeah. I mean, there could be... there's eight parcels, eight tracts, but we could have five developers, four developers, because they take more than one tract.

Mr. Hernandez: Yes.

Mayor: And there's no reason to think that would be a problem. In fact, we might end up with someone who is committed to really moving quickly on more than one tract and having the development pieces tie together. So, we really do have a coherent micro-community within the community as one or more developers or organizations says, "I will take of the eight, I'm really interested in five of them, and I want to have a unified whole that ties those pieces together." That's certainly a welcome possibility.

Mr. Hernandez: Absolutely. Yes.

Mayor: And the process of evaluating what people are prepared to do on the sites, how does that work?

Mr. Hernandez: So, we've created a template. There's a series of documents that we're creating for developers to be able so that they can understand what's allowed to be built on these different tracts. And one of the documents that we have is a template for the types of their concept proposal that we want them to submit. So, it will describe the number, the square footage of commercial space, the number of units, the type of tenure, meaning are they rental units, are they for-sale units, are they land trust units, are they co-op units? So, we ask for that level of information, and then we ask also how they've complied with the master plan regarding heights, setbacks, etc. So, we'll get some initial concepts from them. We want to try to bring them in as easily as possible. What we're hearing from a lot of developers is, "Look, we are interested, but we can't spend thousands of dollars to respond to an RFP. We're interested in submitting concepts to you." So, if you can tell us the level of concept development plans you want from us, we're happy to do that. So, we're trying to be really clear about the type of information we want so we can evaluate them that way. But we'll be clear about the experience that we want to see, the development plan, and how they're consistent with the community development plan and master plan.

Mayor: And going back to the priority on affordable units, what kinds of development incentives might we be able to provide? Is there a density incentive? Is there an affordability incentive? Is there, as you said, an incentive for producing units versus utilizing an in-lieu fee? How can we put the city's value system to work as we look at what people are bringing forward for proposals?

Mr. Hernandez: Well, I think it'll be... right now, we're actually... there's three major pieces of incentives that we're looking at and ways that we can bring them to the table. One is, of course, land value, which is we always knew that we can adjust land value to get a deeper affordability or community use that we want to see on the site. So, that's our biggest tool. The other tool is potentially increasing density on the site. And we're working with land use on whether, and Jack Kelly in my office, to understand what the financial feasibility and incentive could be. The third one is talking to the Office of Economic Development whether there's gaps we can fill in their financial scenario. So, look, someone might say, "We can do this 15% inclusionary housing, but we need this gap financing, and that will help us get us into that 15% being able to build the 50% on site." So, what is that amount, and maybe we can use the housing trust funds to fill that gap amount to get those units on site. So, those are the big three incentives and ways that we can work with developers that we're going to be pursuing that will happen during negotiations once we get their concept plans and kind of see that this is a real project, this is a real developer, and we'd be interested in moving ahead and negotiating these types of incentives with them.

Mayor: Thank you. Councilor Castro, I know you came in a little late. The floor is yours if you'd like to ask some questions for Director Hernandez.

Councilor Castro: Sure. Thank you so much, Director. I do have a little bit of questions in terms of what our capacity to use those housing trust funds are. Are there any difficulties for us using those to subsidize even more affordable housing on this Midtown development?

Mr. Hernandez: Again, we'll look at what we'll work with the Office of Economic Development, Office of Affordable Housing, the ways that we can use it on particular projects. In my experience, the way that they're most effectively used is when we work with the developer, we understand their financial constraints on doing it, and then work with them to fill those gaps in their financing. So, that's how we would propose using those housing trust funds.

Councilor Castro: So, I have a little bit of concern, and I know that this was a little before your time, but I did introduce an amendment to this proposal seeking for developers not to be able to get over a certain amount of profit. What are the profits that we're looking to incentivize developers to get?

Mr. Hernandez: Well, each... I mean, we'll look at their profit margins and try to understand them. I mean, each developer will have different investors in their project. Some of them just regular bank loans from a local bank. They'll have their return requirements, and then there'll be investors, their own investors, depending on the size of the developer. They have investors that invest in their real estate company, and then they average out those investment returns. And so, we'll be talking to them about what their expectations are, but they'll range.

Councilor Castro: And just in a general sense, I know that you've worked on a lot of previous developments. In your experience, what are some of the profit margins we could be seeing?

Mr. Hernandez: Well, we'll probably be seeing cap rates mostly. And we'll probably be looking at anywhere between six, seven, eight percent. So, again, we'll see what they bring. There is so much uncertainty right now in the economic marketplace. So, we'll be interested in working with developers, and that's why we want to go through this concept plan submission phase so we can begin talking at that level with different developers. So, anyway, that's how we're proposing to move forward with them.

Councilor Castro: And I know you've had an extensive community engagement plan and process that you've already gone through at the Midtown development. Will the community have any opportunity to have input on some of these developments?

Mr. Hernandez: Do you have suggestions? I mean, what we're hearing from mostly from the community is they're really interested in seeing us move forward with projects as long as they fulfill a lot of the objectives within the community development plan.

They're consistent with the master plan. It's to move it forward. So, not sure in ways that they would get involved in necessarily a financial analysis on individual projects, but you feel comfortable that with the general plan and the community engagement plan that those needs will be met and the community's desires for what is happening at the Midtown development will be met. We will only bring proposals to you. We will bring all proposals to you. We will bring all proposals to you, and we will make a recommendation based on that proposal in its consistency with both the master plan and the community development plan, and you'll be able to evaluate them yourselves at those sessions as well.

Perfect. And our constituents can always email us, and they have our contact information. Perfect. Thank you so much. And I see the floor. Any other comments or questions? Have a motion and a second on this item. Madam Clerk, do you want to call the roll?

Councilor Lee Garcia: Yes.
Councilor Lindell: Yes.
Councilor Castro: Yes.
Councilor Chavez: Yes.
Councilor Faulkner: Yes.
Mayor Weber: Yes.

Motion is approved. Thank you. Support this project. Thank you for moving things forward. We appreciate it.

Next item, Madam Clerk.

Item 11, matters from the City Manager. It snuck up on me. I'm happy to announce some more anniversaries for our employees. I will do this as efficiently as I can. We have a 25-year employee. This is for the month of March. All of these employees have celebrated anniversaries in the month of March. And the first employee on the list has been with us for 25 years. To put that in perspective, since two months after the Y2K bust, this person has been employed by the city as the Custodian Lead Worker in Facilities, and that's Virginia Noriega. We also have a number of 15-year anniversaries: Dustin Archuleta, Fire Captain; Nathan Rodriguez, Fire Captain; Raymond Garcia, Engineer; Gerudam Kulsa, Fire Training Captain; Marcus Weaver, Firefighter 2; Charles Maris, Firefighter Paramedic 2; Joshua Aragon, Rescue Technician; Philip Carlson, Rescue Technician; Pete Crop, Rescue Technician; Michael Wagner, Fire Training Captain; Antonio Candelaria, Rescue Technician. All of those were Fire Department employees. That was a great year for the Fire Department.

And then one other, oh, no, these now we're into ten-year employees: Fino Contreras, Project Manager, ITT; Jonathan Cordova, Radio Technician, Maintenance Technician, ITT; Joe Olivus, Operations Superintendent, Public Utilities; Jordan Romero, Park Superintendent, Public Works; Lorenzo Corral, Park Maintenance Worker, Public Works; Javier Gallegos, Park Maintenance Worker, Public Works; Danny Grigo, Park Maintenance Worker, Public Works; and Darren Payne, also Park Maintenance Worker, Senior. So that was a good year for Public Works.

Now the five years, we have three five-year employees: Matthew Rivera, Recreation Technician; Jason Vhill, Park Maintenance Worker, Senior; and Zoe Isacson, our River and Watershed Manager. As I said last time, quarterly we're going to do a reception to honor these employees more formally, and of course, we will be happy to invite all of you to attend those sessions. So thank you for that, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Item 12, matters from the City Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor, Councilors. Happy Spring Break. I just have one announcement, and that's that the District Court upheld the appeal of the Old Pecos Trail Final Development Plan. It was approved by the governing body a while back. And that's the second Old Pecos Trail appeal. The first one is in the Court of Appeals currently, and the second one had been in the District Court. So, this is the second city win on that case. So, congratulations to Rebecca Minerman. I think the case was pretty straightforward, and I'll send out the opinion to the Councilors this evening. Thank you.

Item 13, matters from the City Clerk.

I don't have much to state tonight other than we do have several positions that are going up on our website: our Communications Manager, our Project Administrator, Event Planner is going back up, and a Web Content Creator. So, if you know anyone who's interested in joining us at the city, please tell them to look at the website and apply. Other than that, happy Spring Break, too.

And that takes us to Item 14, Communications from the Governing Body. Go ahead, Councilor Castro.

I just want to thank all of my neighbors and so many constituents for having wonderful conversations the last couple days. It's been very exciting, and I've learned a lot. Thank you.

We will go to Councilor Lindell from afar.

Very far. I actually don't have anything, Mayor. The weather's been terrific. I hope everybody gets out and enjoys it some, and I'll look forward to getting back to City Hall. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor. Go ahead, Councilor Faulkner.

Just a couple quick announcements. Councilor Lee Garcia and I are working to hold a couple of town halls. One related to the public safety package that Councilor Chavez and Lee Garcia and I are working on, and we're working with Councilors from District 1 to pick those dates so we can have a joint district town hall. And we're hoping it'll be the 16th or the 24th of April, depending on what our schedules allow for. And then we will also be holding a town hall on pallet shelters and hopefully educate the community and have a good dialogue.

Councilor Garcia: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilor Faulkner, for that announcement. I concur. And nothing else for tonight. Thank you.

Very good. A couple things. I want to make sure everybody knows about the ribbon cutting at Ragle Park this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. We continue to add more synthetic turf for our baseball players, and another ribbon cutting. We get to celebrate that on Saturday. So, come one, come all. A great big thank you to all who participated in the recently completed legislative session. It's always a lot of hard work and a lot of effort, and it takes all of us setting our priorities, establishing our aim for each legislative session, and then working with our lobbyist and with the delegation. We have, I think, far and away, one of the best delegations representing Santa Fe and Santa Fe County, and we're very fortunate whenever they go to bat for us and help us advance our priorities. So, thank you for all of that hard work. It is a lot of effort over a 60-day period, and I know most of the people who serve in that body at the end of the session need some time to recuperate and come up for air. So, thank you for all that hard work. And to everyone who is out enjoying Spring Break, enjoy Spring Break and have a good family time. It's a great seasonal chance to have a little fun.

What's next, Madam Clerk?

Introduction of legislation 15A, consideration of Resolution Number 2025-TBD, sponsored by Councilor Alma Castro. A resolution authorizing the sale and consumption of beer and wine during the Railyard Park Plaza Summer Scene concert sponsored by Site Santa Fe on June 25th, 2025, pursuant to Subsection 23-6.2C SFCC 1987.

Castro: Another alcohol resolution. We are working to have less of these come before us. So, if any of my constituents have opinions about beer gardens at events, please email me.

Madam Clerk, 15B, consideration of Resolution Number 2025-TBD, sponsored by Councilor Amanda Chavez, a resolution authorizing representatives and agents for an agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department regarding agreement number SAP 24I2455GF to acquire land for and plan, design, construct, purchase, repair, permit, and improve a regional wastewater treatment plant.

I think it speaks for itself. We've had a lot of these coming through, and I think we have three that are being introduced today. So, yeah, it speaks for itself. Thank you.

Thank you. Next item, Madam Clerk.

15C, consideration of Resolution Number 2025-TBD, sponsored by Councilor Amanda Chavez, a resolution authorizing representatives and agents for an agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department regarding agreement number SAP-24-I248-GF to plan, design, and construct wastewater system improvements including sewer services and stormwater and for Vera the Venuela Valencia.

Okay. Speaks for itself. Next item, 15D. Consideration of Resolution Number 2025 TBD, sponsored by Mayor Ellen Weber, Councilor Jamie Cassat, and Councilor Amanda Chavez. A resolution making a finding of necessity and designating an area comprised of a majority of Midtown Local Innovation Corridor Overlay District as a Metropolitan Redevelopment Area.

I'll just say a quick word about it. We were all, I think, very engaged when Director Hernandez made his presentation earlier tonight about the progress that's being made toward actually implementing the plans around Midtown. And this is yet another step toward getting the legal designation required so that there can be a redevelopment district. And then funding that is only available to redevelopment areas can then be applied inside the Midtown district as a way of adding more capital investment and improvements that will help that area as we move those plans forward. So, it's very specific toward keeping the benefits of the area in the area and yet another step in pushing Midtown forward.

That's all I would say, Mayor, is I just want to emphasize how encouraging it is to see anything moving forward around Midtown because I think that we've all been as patient as we can be, but we're excited to start seeing some movement there. And so, I hope the community can see that those pieces are coming together.

Yeah. Thank you. And I want to propose moving or adjusting the agenda to move appointments to our next topic for discussion and then continuing the agenda as is.

There's a motion to amend the agenda so we skip to appointments and then we'll come back to the regular order.

And actually, Mayor, could I go ahead and Mayor and City Attorney also just include a recess in there until petitions from the floor at 7 o'clock, whatever that time gap may be?

Yep. So, the proposal in front of us is to vote now on appointments, then take a brief recess till we get to 7 p.m., at which time we will entertain petitions from the floor. And I just want to say, I know that there are community members here ready to talk already, and I don't mean to make you propose waiting until 7, but there's also community members outside that aren't here that really want to see what you have to say, and usually they don't log in until 7. So, I know you're all here ready to go, but I also want to make sure that your voice is heard by as many as possible, and that would be at 7 o'clock.

Okay. Is there further discussion about the motion? No. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll?

Councilor Lindell: Yes.
Councilor Castro: Yes.
Councilor Chavez: Yes.
Councilor Faulkner: Yes.
Councilor Lee Garcia: Yes.
Mayor Weber: Yes.

Motion is approved. Very well. So, let's go to the appointments now. Item 2A, appointment to Ethics and Campaign Review Board, James P. Sullivan, appointment, term ending July 2026.

Move to approve.

Second.

Is there further discussion? Madam Clerk, can you call the roll?

Councilor Castro: Yes.
Councilor Chavez: Yes.
Councilor Faulkner: Yes.
Councilor Lee Garcia: Yes.
Councilor Lindell: Yes.
Mayor Weber: Yes.

Motion is approved. Very good. So, I know there are folks here who want to speak on petitions from the floor. I know some of you thought there was going to be a vote tonight involving a pallet community. Just to be clear, there's no vote, but there's no reason not to have input from people who are here to speak on any issue, including that one.

But we do try to schedule it as close to 7:00 p.m. as possible. So, folks who are used to the 7:00 p.m. start time will be on Zoom or come specifically to the Council Chambers at that time. So, what we'll do is take a brief intermission and we'll be back at 7:00. Thanks, everybody. Michael, will you ensure it's two minutes, please? All right. Thank you very much, everyone, for your patience. I appreciate it. It is 7:02, and we are back in session. Madame Clerk, take us to the next item on the agenda, please.

Clerk: Next item is 16 petitions from the floor.

Mayor: Very good. So, anyone who wants to come forward and speak for two minutes on any subject, you have an opportunity to address the governing body. We need your name, and then the floor is yours. The City Clerk will keep a clock running, so we'll try to stay within parameters, but you have the floor. Thank you.

Patty Bush: Good evening, counselors, Mayor. A few of you are not here, but I'm Patty Bush, 124 Mesa Vista Street, just down the road from one of your proposed micro-housing sites. And really, I guess what I think the majority of the folks that are here tonight are looking for information. There's a lot of maybe misinformation out there, but also, I'm not sure why there's no neighborhood planner. I haven't seen that position filled in the entire time you've been here, Mayor. And I think this would have been a perfect placement for something like this.

But what we'd like to know is how your micro-housing community concluded that little tiny parcel would be a good, viable site. And it feels like it's set up for failure right from the get-go, to be honest. And was there a public process? Who's on that committee? How can you get this information out to people? Your ENN goes 300 feet. You've got a lot of old-timers in there. You're kind of a greater Agua Fria association that they don't have the information they need to even really in any way be supportive because when you drive there, the only time you even notice that little lot is you're stopped at the traffic light at Agua Fria, and it's like you see weeds and you see a utility pole with guy wires and no access, no ingress, egress. People are like, "How's this going to work?" Now, I would like to think that these pallet houses are going to work. Who knows? That remains to be seen.

So, questions I have are: Have any of you been out to see that site? Everybody that everybody here has. Can you raise your hand if you've been out to see that site?

Mayor: You know, we don't engage in back and forth.

Patty Bush: Okay. So, what's the square footage of the lot? Can we get a map indicating all city-owned lots? See what other District 1 sites? As you know, the only programs that deal with the unhoused are in District 1 already. We've got the three main ones. So, what does that mean? I know you have to be equitable and go all over the city. What about the lot next to the fire station by Fort Marcy? That was suggested by Mr. Montano up there. I know Northwest Quadrant's not on a bus line. Laura Gorte Park might have some land near there. Midtown, severely disappointed that you all sold off six lots in a fire sale, but that's another topic for discussion that probably shouldn't go on too much. You know, the other thing I think I've heard from folks is, you know, when we have to put a shed on a residential lot, we're required to have it hidden from sight. I believe it's never been something that you know, and it's difficult to actually get a permit.

Mayor: We're at time.

Patty Bush: Okay, that's about all I got to say. This...

Mayor: Thank you.

Tony Nelson: Yes. My name is Tony Nelson, and I live in District 1 across the street from the proposed Agua Fria pallet home location. I know you're not taking a vote today, but my neighbors and I feel like we need to let our feelings know before it's too late. I think it's clear that the homeless crisis in Santa Fe is out of control. I don't think anyone who's driven around the city could argue with that. The city should also realize that promises about the homeless facilities in the city have been broken in the past. So, when it's stated that the pallet shelters are temporary, I am pretty skeptical of that. It's often said that trust has to be earned, and I don't feel that the city has earned enough trust on this topic to put homeless facilities directly in the midst of our middle and working-class neighborhoods.

All I'm asking is that these pallet homes not be put in existing residential neighborhoods. There are suitable city-owned commercial or industrial properties elsewhere in the city that are not next to people's homes or schools. Many of my neighbors are elderly and don't really deserve this level of stress or uncertainty. I know there's a philosophy behind the approach to place these pallet homes in our neighborhoods, but frankly, this feels a lot like an experiment rather than something guaranteed to succeed. In addition, the Micro Community Advisory Board, which has the power to choose the sites, is comprised of people who will benefit from these facilities, such as aid organizations. This seems like a huge conflict of interest.

Ask any real estate agent, and they will tell you that trying to sell a home next to a homeless development will not only lower the sale price of the home, but it will also make it much harder to sell. My home is my biggest investment, and I put everything I had just to make the down payment. I've been working since I was 16 without a break. If my home value goes down due to actions of the city, that means I have to work longer. Does that seem fair? Let's all take a step back and remember the promises of city shelters and consider that it's very likely that this experiment will fail. Let's also ask if we really want to subject our working and middle class to this kind of stress and uncertainty. Please do not put these in our residential. Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much. Before you start my time, I asked if we could use this device over here to show you something. Is there a way to get in touch with him? I'd like to put it on the screen so you all can actually see it. Michael, can you turn on the, I can't remember what it's called, but the camera to the left of the podium?

Michael: Her camera is, is the doc camera actually on? I don't think it's on. It is on. Not showing up on my side.

Speaker: Yeah, I think you can see that. Nobody else can in the room. Oh, there they go. And I apologize. It's on the contract supposedly. And then on the other side, it's a purchase order. What it says is, this is for, this is for Fitness Superstore, all equipment from Salvador Pedro's who storage container on site. Doesn't say anything about returning it to the place it was in in 2018, which is the city's position. This one is from March 2020, 14 and a half months before Salvador Petta is opened, in which it says that Fitness Superstore will put the equipment back into the building. That's all it says. And with that, but there is no date. It says date, no data. I can't even see who it was sent to. There's no way of knowing what it was for, although it was attached to the March 2020 purchase. And again, this is the kind of crap that I'm getting from the hired gun that we're paying what, $300 an hour to. This is a waste of city resources. This is what's supporting their position that Fitness Superstore had an agreement to move the equipment back in and that they were going to be responsible for placing it in a professional way and that somehow their expertise was going to be relied on by the city. You don't have any documentation to support it. You have no reasonable care. You can't show reasonable care. You can't show it without documents. And so what are we doing? Spending time, spending money on a lawyer who won't admit that they have already gotten from Fitness Superstore that they have no plan to set it up for 2018 or 2021. What do we need here? If you don't like me and you want to just keep spending money, that's really pathetic in my opinion. Thank you so much.

Mayor: Thank you. Let's reset the clock.

Mercedes Marshand: Hi.

Mayor: And you have the floor.

Mercedes Marshand: Thank you so much. And first, I'd like to say thank you to everybody for all of your service taking care of us in Santa Fe. And I'm here, I really just heard about this.

Mayor: We do need your name.

Mercedes Marshand: Okay. I'm Mercedes Marshand, and I'm against the property being developed at 1300 Agua Fria. I am currently building a house at 1157 Agua Fria. I've spent my life savings building a healthy home. My neighbor at 1123, Hope Alexander, is doing so much work to beautify her property. And so, you know, building my home that I'm going to grow old and die in, and I'm a half a block from a homeless shelter situation is upsetting. And I do want to let you know that I was a homeless teen. So, I understand what this is. My mother was on the verge of being homeless. I managed that as well. So, I am not heartless. I have been there. And I still don't want this a half a block from the home that I'm spending my life savings on. This District 1, I know that we have many areas that were taking care of the homeless, and I'm just wondering if our communities can spread the love a little bit and they're not all in this district in case and when I do someday have to sell my dream home, I can get what it's worth. I also wonder if this tiny spot is really the best possible space. It's very tiny. There's no grocery store nearby. There's Owl Liquors. Is the path going to be then infiltrated with homeless people? You know, there's a myriad of residential families, hardworking, middle class, and my neighbors are against this. So, I plead for something else, a better decision from you guys, and thank you again for your service, taking care of us.

Mayor: Thank you.

Anna Gonzalez: Hi, my name is Anna Gonzalez.

Mayor: Can you tip that mic down a little?

Anna Gonzalez: My name is Anna Gonzalez. Thank you all for being here. I've lived in the neighborhood my whole life. I was born there. I own two houses there on Hiccop Street, and you know, there's some elderly that had to leave because they couldn't stay here. And so, you know, they're growing up in person and wanting, not wanting this. I don't think any neighborhood wants this, but we could think of better places to put this. And I know firsthand because I have a niece who died in front of, and so I do care. I but I think that we need to put our minds together and rethink this, and maybe we could come up with some better solution than putting homeless inside of neighborhoods. We already have a problem with homeless at Owl's Liquor Store. I live there. I rent one of my houses to a vascular surgeon where there was a lady coming out that wanted to shoot us. The police never showed up till 11:00 at night. You could look at your records. I have a record of it. So, we need, we need to put our heads together and figure out a better area for this. Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you. Madame Clerk, can you... There you go. Thank you. Yes, you have the floor.

Cat Concaid: Thank you so much. My name is Cat Concaid, and again, I thank you for your attention to this issue as well. I live on Agua Fria Street at 1700, and I am in favor of this site being looked at as a possible site. One of a couple out of, I think, five that are being proposed. And I thought that there was a lot of great information about this at last month's council meeting that I think unfortunately some people have not gotten access to. And I encourage everyone who was not at last month's meeting to look over the minutes from that meeting.

It started with how the micro-community at Christ Lutheran has been such a success and outlined the process for deciding what the sites are going forward. Community meetings are a first step, and I definitely encourage the counselors to convene those meetings as quickly as possible because obviously it's easy for people to get concerned if they don't have good information.

The other things that I recall from the meeting last month were that neighborhood agreements are foundational for all of these sites and that they're like contracts that require ongoing monitoring with the community. Are the promises that were made being met? Also, each micro-community has a 24/7 presence of service staff. I remember Henry Hammond Paul saying that the police and fire commissioners were, he thought, not aware of this site at Christ Lutheran because there had been so little trouble there. So again, I just wanted to say that I appreciate the attention and thank you so much.

Thank you. Yes, Sean Ham. Coming in tonight to speak against the placement of the pallet shelter community at that proposed site. The context that we got to deal with the homeless is mainly through work, and it involves daily having to remove aggressive people that are coming into the cafes that I work at. When they do come in, the experience is they're aggressive. Some of them come in threatening to kill the staff and the customers. We have to get rid of them as well and physically move them out. We call the cops, the cops don't show up. It ends up being myself or managers that have to directly address the issue. Saying that you want to put that in a small neighborhood, that kind of just seems bananas. Particularly, it's not that I don't think that this site's a good idea to do it. I don't think it's a good idea, period, for the city to voice that. Thank you.

Your turn. You have the floor.

Thank you. My name is Burj Gundar, also known as Sach Perkash. I have a business right around the corner. We're on 1400 Agua Fria. It's a jiu-jitsu and yoga studio. A lot of kids from ages three and up. I'm definitely a no on the Pallet City, and I'm definitely a no on the Pallet City anywhere in Santa Fe. Just like Sean was saying, I have also encountered many people, and for me, I can defend myself and I can hold my own. For other people that can't, this doesn't seem like a great idea, especially if we're trying to build a safe city.

On top of that, we did email and request different things for the kids, like a crosswalk. There's no sidewalk on Agua Fria where this pallet camp would be. There's no, so we're crawling on this tiny sidewalk, and we will be now crawling into the homeless shelter just to get to the park for the kids' spring break and summer camps. So, it's definitely not making sense, but I would love to be in service of this cause and decision-making in this community because I do love my veterans and I do love my homeless people as much as anyone else that comes to my business. So, definitely safety first for the kids. Thank you.

Thank you very much. James McGuire, and I'm here to talk about 1300 as well. It's too close to elementary schools and Owl's liquor store. I don't think it's a big prop. Thank you.

Well, good evening. My name is Angela, and I am two doors down from 1500. I am also speaking against this. Can you hear me? I'm also not for this. My property has been in my family. It's a generational property. I look forward to leaving that to my children and grandchildren one day. My grandchildren are little right now, and they play out in the yard, and I definitely would want a safe environment. Some of these people that are in these encampments are not meant to be stable. I don't think it's a really good idea to have that around in the residential area, as everyone else is expressing throughout the night.

Also, I understand it's our veterans that you're considering putting in there, and our veterans, I feel, have served our country, and maybe they deserve better. I understand in another state that they're putting up migrants in hotels and giving them free Medicaid and food and things like that. Maybe we should do something like that for our. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Elizabeth West, and I have a new low voice, but my aims are high. I have two things I want to talk about. One is just quickly about the Christ Lutheran location. It's just an ideal spot geographically. It's set down. It's very easy to monitor. It's pretty heavenly, and it's very rare. I think there are other places around town which we might all point to, but those people or those organizations aren't ready to step up. So, we're very grateful to the Lutherans. Unfortunately, they've set a very high bar that we think we can just go around in any neighborhood and find it. Again, that's a trick along those lines. That's not my second point. My second point will come later. It's kind of trashy, you'll see.

But anyway, my second part of this first point is that when we're thinking of what we can do for these folks who do need our help, we also want them to help us. A friend of mine, I can talk to you individually and personally and give you names, but for tonight's purpose, I want to just say that he no longer lives here. He and his family moved elsewhere, but he worked with homeless folks, people who are having trouble adjusting to our society, etc. He was a big, burly guy, very jolly. He had five pianos in his house, you know, typical Santa Fe eccentric person, a good guy. And he said, "You know, when they come in, I look at them individually, and I care about these people, but if they pee on the walls, if they throw the food on the floor at a serving place, I ask them not to do it, or would they pre-leap area?" It's gotten really tricky. They produce a great map, I mean, a great calendar, and I want to acknowledge that. But there have been recent horrible messes with their learning. I think there's a new bunch learning. I hope that's accurate. I mean that to be polite. Sorry. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Thomas Hughes. I was born here, living on Garcia Street. General contractor. Can't afford to live on Garcia Street. A lot of infill lot on Hickok. I invested all of my sweat, all of my abilities, and this only asset myself and my family have, we're directly across from where you're proposing this. When I build my place to try and offset it, I want to do a duplex, maybe increase density. My lot is much larger when you're proposing these pods, and I couldn't do a simple duplex. So, the density doesn't work there. It's exceeding what existing zoning is. The whole neighborhood is going to pay the consequences for very few people. If you're talking about eight pods, the price of security there alone could pay for those people to be in a hotel and better accommodations. So, I don't think it's a very well-thought-out plan. You're in a residential neighborhood. It's an established neighborhood. I'm usually here to propose something to the historic district. Most of those houses are over 50 years old. It's a historic neighborhood. Instead of trying to increase from a 4-foot privacy wall to a 6-foot, oh no, we don't want to, it's ridiculous. You're just trying to put it where you can, and it's bound to fail. You shouldn't have it. I can't believe any of you believe in this, see its potential. Thank you.

Hello everyone. My name is Eris Wetzel, and I moved here three years ago from Albuquerque, and this neighborhood is the only one I've ever really lived in. I've lived in two places around here, and I walk my dogs all the time to Alto Park. I pass by it every day, and I walk right next to it every day, and I wouldn't feel comfortable with this. Sorry, I don't know why I'm getting choked up, but I ask you to consider the mental health of all the neighbors because it's severely overlooked, and I wouldn't just feel comfortable, and I feel like this would be better suited for someplace else. Sorry, I don't know why I'm choked up like this, but thank you.

Thank you, Uni Mayor Counselors. My name is Mike Montano, or Miguel Antonio Montano. I've lived on Baca Street for a long time now, about 35-40 years. I built my home there. I live by the railyard, and I can hear the homeless behind me on the trail there. It's not even safe for us to walk there. I'm appalled by the fact that this little property, which doesn't have any utilities, and I'm not even sure how these things are going to take place, but are they going to build a wall around the whole thing? Is there going to be facilities? In reading articles about these pallet homes, people aren't really safe in them, and they feel like they're incarcerated more than they do of any kind of freedom. So, just speaking on that, it's kind of hard for me to see that you'd want to hurt more people by putting these shelters there. This is not a good spot. There are many other properties, and what I don't understand is there were 15, if I'm correct, there were 15 spots that were looked at, and you chose this little tiny area. That doesn't make any sense around schools, around the church, around facilities that house, like the jiu-jitsu place. It's just not good. I see the homeless coming down my street all the time. They talk to themselves. They do crazy things. I understand they're going to have police protection and fire protection. It's not a good area. It's just not a good area. I don't know who chose these areas, but maybe there's a better facility or a better place. From what I understand, the facility at the church, they have facilities for them to use the bathroom and shower and all that. Where are they going to shower there? Anyway, thank you.

Thank you. Hello. The need for on the shoulder is obvious to everyone. We see the evidence, sir. Without the city. We do need your name, sir, for the record. Is it good now? Yeah, but we also need your name. Oh, of course. I'm sorry. James Hughes. I live on Hickok Street, very near this post. Thank you. So, the shelter need is obvious. And again, deeper, more challenging issues to me to be medical, psychiatric, and substance use. Little plastic houses scattered in residential neighborhoods solve nothing. It will merely spread the homeless problem. I think the city's proposal is mostly political theater, which will threaten the peace and prosperity of my neighborhood. I love my neighbors and neighbors on my neighborhood. Thank you.

Ready? Yes. Hi, my name is Ellen Sackett, and I'm a business owner in the downtown area, and I used to live off of Airport Road and moved where I am now, which is on the backside of this area that you're proposing to put this encampment. Actually, when I put the address in my GPS, it showed that I was 400 feet away from it. That was until I realized that that was on the Agua Fria side. I'm on the Hickok side. I am 20 feet away from the backside of this proposal. I share everyone's feeling that this isn't a great neighborhood to be putting this, but I will say this, one of the reasons, and I haven't heard anybody mention it, is the traffic flow because Hickok at that point is one way, and people have to make their turns to go left, to go right.

It's going to be a traffic jam if there are people wandering around in that area as it is. We have to negotiate that. I'd also like to speak just very briefly. My landlord is not here tonight because he's out of town, but he owns the three properties where I live, and he has invested his life into these areas to make it beautiful. He's put solar on top of the roofs. He's even got an electric charger if somebody ended up with some kind of electric car. He's charming. He's forward-thinking and has invested so much to make these properties beautiful, and it would just completely destroy his property values, I think, to put this in at this point. So, I feel for him as well. And also that area, that little area, is a big cut-through. That's what Aerys was talking about. That's what we use that area for. Thank you for your time. Thank you for listening.

Thank you very much. My name is Mary Hall, and I'm here to thank you all for addressing the homelessness issue. These are our neighbors. They've had something befall them. Something's happened, a series of things. Our state, our country, since the 1980s, slashed support for mental health services that normally would have supported a lot of these people, and I am so proud to be part of a city that is stepping up and saying we're going to support them. They are frightening. Sometimes it can be very frightening, and sometimes it can be very rewarding helping them. I am a volunteer with St. Elizabeth Shelter's programs, with some other programs here in town. I've volunteered a little bit at the pallet homes, and even before that, lives get turned around, such as the speaker who said she had been homeless as a teenager. And I'm really proud that Santa Fe is trying to step up. If we don't do anything, whether it's temporary pallet homes, whether it's hotel rooms, whatever, if we continue to ignore it and just leave them on the streets, it will get worse.

Being on the walls, as one person said, we have no bathrooms. Where are they supposed to go? Trash. Cities all over the US take out trash cans. Where are you supposed to put your trash if there is no trash can? Because it gets filled up with whatever, and we don't have the money in the city to take care of the trash. I encourage all the counselors to move forward with your step in the process of having your town halls. Councilwoman Faulkner, thank you for working on scheduling that. The sooner you can do that and start talking within the districts and getting news and information out there. Thank you for working on this, and I do not envy your decision. But thank you. Thank you very much.

Evening. Thank you for allowing us to speak. I've lived in this neighborhood 26 years.

We do need your name, ma'am.

Sorry. I go by Maggie. Maggie Mcallnick.

Thank you.

I've lived in the neighborhood for 26 years, and I've watched it grow. It was a very scary place to move in in the first place. I was a kid from New York and then from Ohio, and this was a very different environment, and I've learned to love it. And the neighborhood has grown so very much. We have all invested so much to make it that way. I am a senior now and retired, and I do a lot of walking around this neighborhood. I have now to walk with mace and a whistle because I am verbally abused daily, either through cars, through the homeless sitting around, through people who really need help. I think we need to help people, but putting them in sheds and things like these pallet homes, it's appalling to me. It's absolutely appalling. We need to do more. And we're putting money into something that's just not even, I'm not even talking about location at this point. We need to do something for these homeless people that really works. This neighborhood does not have the facilities for this. We have a liquor store on the corner. We have lots of traffic coming through. They've redirected traffic. We can't even get out of Salazar. I know Councilwoman Castro has just helped. We're going to be getting a sign that they can't even park from a certain place to a certain place so we can get out of our street, but nobody will give me yellow paint to paint where it's supposed to be. So, I'll be taking pictures of people that are parked there, and hopefully, you'll do something about it. It's a beautiful neighborhood, and I want desperately for the homeless to be helped, but this is not the way. And you have already invested a lot of money into this, and I'm sorry about that. Thank you for the time. Thank you.

Anyone else in the chamber who wants to come forward and speak now? If not, is there anyone in the Zoom room who's holding their hand up to speak? Are there two people in the Zoom room? If you would like to speak, please raise your hand in the Zoom room. No one has raised their hand. No one is raising their hand in the Zoom room. Give them one more shot just to make sure that the technology isn't failing. There is a Kristen and a Mike. If you would like to speak during petitions from the floor, please raise your hand. No takers. Anyone else in the council chamber who wants to use this opportunity to speak for two minutes on any subject? If you've already spoken, thank you. If you haven't, now would be the time to come forward. Very good. I think we have completed the petitions from the floor period. Councilor Castro, you have an announcement you wanted to make.

Sorry. Yeah, I neglected to let folks know that I do have a town hall coming up on April 24th at the Genoveva Chavez Center at 5:00 p.m., and I will be sending out an email to let folks know.

Great. Thank you. We'll do that. We'll put that in the category of council members having a chance to speak. Any other business from the governing body? Anything left on the agenda? Madame Clerk?

No, Mayor.

In that case, thank you everybody for coming. We are now adjourned. Appreciate you.