Quality of Life Committee Wed, May 7, 2025 ยท Quality of Life Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/316 == Executive Summary == The Quality of Life Committee received updates on various community initiatives and upcoming events. Staff presented a comprehensive list of community events, including a construction briefing, a business workshop, art exhibitions, and several cultural festivals. Director Hammond Paul provided updates on Youth and Family Services, highlighting efforts to combat domestic violence through grant applications totaling $500,000 and the successful launch of a strangulation task force. The department also discussed homelessness initiatives, including the review of proposals for project management and the proposed creation of three new positions to expand the homelessness and housing services team. Councilor Castro also highlighted ongoing workshops focused on making Santa Fe an age-friendly city. The committee approved both the agenda and the consent agenda. == Key Decisions == - Approved the agenda. - Approved the consent agenda. == Public Comment == No public comment period. == Topics == - Homelessness & Housing - Domestic Violence Services - Community Events & Festivals - Age-Friendly City Initiatives - Guadalupe Street Construction - Business Support & Development - Community Gallery Exhibitions - Youth & Family Services - Watershed Day == Full Transcript == Is there somebody back there? Is Mike back there today? Mike, are you here? Madame Chair, Councilor Catzer, we are live. Wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right. At 5:06 p.m., I'm going to call the Wednesday, May 7th, Quality of Life Committee meeting to order. May I please have a roll call? Councilor Castro. Councilor Chavez. Councilor Garcia present. Madame Chair here. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you so much. And Councilor Faulkner is excused today. Moving on to approval of the agenda. Are there any changes from staff or the committee? And if not, can I get a motion to approve? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Nothing got moved off the consent agenda previously. Would anybody like to take either item off at this time? Move to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call, please. Councilor Castro, yes. Councilor Chavez, yes. Councilor Garcia, yes. Madam Chair, yes. Motion passes. Wonderful. Thank you so much. All right. Scrolling along. Matters from staff. I smell smoke as well. Is anybody else smelling smoke? Smoke. Yep. Okay. I don't hear anything going off. So hopefully we're okay. Oh, that's true. That's true. Right out there. So I wonder if there's something coming in. Madame Chair and councilors, I have some interesting events that are going to be going on around town that I want to tell you about. I want to start with what I think is very important. On Tuesday, May 13th, between 5:30 and 7:00, we're going to have a Guadalupe Street construction briefing. The Office of Economic Development, in partnership with other city divisions and the construction company GM Emulsion, is hosting an important community meeting for Guadalupe Street area businesses to address road construction and business concerns. They're going to provide project timelines for upcoming critical phases of construction. On May 14th, between 11:30 and 1:00, the Santa Fe Business Incubator is going to provide an online tutorial called Business 101: Starting and Doing Business in Santa Fe. They're going to walk participants through steps to get their business licenses in Santa Fe. This workshop also will provide valuable resources that are available from city and community partners to help businesses grow. Tomorrow, May 8th, in conjunction with the literary festival, the community gallery right down the street here is opening an exhibition on the art of the book featuring internationally acclaimed Santa Fe-based art book publisher Radius Books. And during the Lit Fest that's launching, Santa Fe Poet Laureate Tommy Archuleta is doing two panels with renowned poets Victoria Chang and Dana Levin, both free to the community. On Saturday, May 10th, the first of five UNESCO-oriented community gatherings are going to occur called Get to Know Your Creative City. And these are happening at the Southside Library. It's a talk and demonstration on drum and drum making from the Etta family of master drum makers from Cochiti Pueblo. The following Saturdays will feature tin workers, jewelry makers, and other heritage artists. Today kicks off Native Fashion Week, now produced by SWA. In addition to Native Fashion Week, which is another Native Fashion Week event, both happening at the same time, May 16th through 18th, as I mentioned earlier, is the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. May 24th through 26th, excuse me, we have the Native Treasure Indian Arts Festival. And then May 17th and 18th we have our Santa Fe Century-like event. So wonderful. Thank you. A lot of fun things happening. As John Blair used to say, it's the beginning of silly season where everything starts happening. Director Hammond Paul: Madame Chair, councilors, thank you for the opportunity to provide some updates. I'll try and keep this relatively quick. Just a few updates on our community and domestic violence work as well as some from the homelessness work. So, I think you remember Director Sanchez had committed to having $2 million in grant funding in this next, an additional $2 million in grant funding for this next fiscal year. She applied for two CYFD domestic violence grants this week totaling $500,000, and they would add two case management staff in the city. And then the other, another grant would allow us to pilot a peer responder program for survivors of domestic violence. They were also able to successfully launch the strangulation task force. That's with 10 agencies across a spectrum of domestic violence organizations, including the police department, the District Attorney's office, hospitals, shelters, and a handful of other organizations. Also, we have had great success in our partnership with the Department of Health, the State Department of Health, and they're so excited about the work that we're doing that they are giving additional funding without request to us to continue some of this work, bringing the total contributions from the state up to $1.2 million. In the homelessness realm, many of you will remember that there were a lot of items articulated in the one-time funding that was, I believe, in March or March that was brought forth. One of those was a handful of project management and technical assistance work, and we had 11 proposals that were submitted to us and are in the process of selecting those contractor proposals to implement things like the small business windows to opportunity grant program, some data and geospatial analysis work, as well as some strategic planning work. We're also, as part of the new budget that is proposed, there are three positions to build out fully the homelessness and housing services team. And we're finalizing those roles so that if the budget is approved or however that works, we'll be ready to hit the ground running and recruit for and get those positions filled as soon as possible. On the topic of one-time funding, nearly 85% by June 30th, nearly 85% of our FY2425 one-time funding will be allocated. And we understand that the goal is not to spend that money quickly, but to spend it well, but at the same time to spend it. And so we have a bunch of contracts in process supporting legal case management, education, events, digital services, and a handful of other work that's going to be critical for the community. So, I'll pause there. That was more specific to the Youth and Family Services Division's portfolio, but always happy to give updates at your request on other departments and divisions. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Marcella, anything from you today? Any matters from the committee? Councilor Castro? So, just one last thing. I think staff hit almost everything. May 10th is Love Your Watershed Day at Dargas Park as well. Travis, thank you. Director Sanchez Tucker has been doing a lot of work in making sure we are meeting our commitment in regards to being an age-friendly city. So we have both workshops and listening sessions taking place right now. We had our first workshop on Monday the 5th. The next will be the 12th, the 19th, and the 2nd. So it's going to be on Mondays. She has worked very hard to make sure that there's interpretation taking place at these, even though she's planning to offer Spanish sessions. We've had long conversations about making sure people have equitable access to all sessions they're interested in attending. So those are workshops. Those workshops just give people of all ages resources, activities, just different things like that, just to add positivity to their life at every single age. And then we will start listening sessions the week, well, on Tuesday, May 20th, also will be offered. There would be interpretation in Spanish, and the listening sessions have to do with guiding us and making Santa Fe an age-friendly city for all ages. So we want to know about the needs. So our city is a great place no matter how old or young you are. So I just invite the community to all of those amazing opportunities that she has put together with her staff and keep an eye out because there's a lot of dates. There's more than one. It has been posted. There's been email blasts. It's been on social media. So, everyone just keep an eye out for those opportunities. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Anything else, Council Garcia? Matters from the chair. I don't have any myself. So, our next meeting will be May 21st, and at 5:17 p.m. we are adjourned. Thank you all.