Quality of Life Committee Wed, Jun 18, 2025 · Quality of Life Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/319 == Executive Summary == The Quality of Life Committee met to discuss and approve various initiatives aimed at improving community well-being, with a significant focus on the "Connect" network. Christa Hernandez from Youth and Family Services presented on Connect, a program designed to link individuals in crisis with essential resources like housing, food, and healthcare, utilizing a closed-loop referral system. The committee learned about Connect's history, growth, and impact, noting its success in meeting critical needs for thousands of clients. A key discussion point revolved around funding for safety net and navigation services, including 16 contracts recommended by the Human Services Committee and the Children Youth Commission. The committee approved a service agreement with Interfaith Community Shelter Group, Inc. for $320,000, which will continue to provide navigation, life-stabilizing services, and transitional housing, despite the upcoming termination of their lease for Pete's Place shelter. Concerns were raised by councilors regarding the format and accessibility of an upcoming homelessness town hall, advocating for a more open and longer session to gather extensive community input. The committee also approved its agenda with one item removed for future consideration and passed the consent agenda. Staff were tasked with providing more detailed descriptions of services offered by funded organizations and integrating Urban Alchemy into the Connect network. The meeting concluded with updates on various community events and a domestic violence town hall. == Key Decisions == - Approved the agenda as amended, removing item 6W for future consideration. - Approved the consent agenda as amended, with item E pulled for separate discussion. - Approved a service agreement with Interfaith Community Shelter Group, Inc. for $320,000 to provide overnight shelter, life-stabilizing services, and navigation services through June 30, 2029. == Motions & Votes == - Motion to approve the agenda as amended (removing item 6W) — Passed unanimously. - Motion to approve the consent agenda as amended (with item E pulled) — Passed unanimously. - Motion to approve the service agreement with Interfaith Community Shelter Group, Inc. — Passed unanimously (5-0). - Motion to approve an unspecified item (likely the agenda or previous minutes) — Passed (Councilor Castro: Yes, Councilor Chavez: Yes, Councilor Faulkner: Yes, Madam Chair: Yes, Councilor Garcia: No). == Public Comment == No public comment period was held during the summarized sections of the meeting. Public comment was announced for a subsequent agenda item. == Topics == - Connect Program Services - Homelessness Community Engagement - City Manager Deputy Hiring - Juneteenth Celebration - Pride Month Events - Domestic Violence Town Hall - CARES/ARPA Funding - Entrepreneurial Support - Art and Culture Events - Shelby Street Bridge == Full Transcript == Madam Chair, we are live. Wonderful. Thank you so much. And at 5:01 p.m., I'm going to call the Wednesday, June 18th, Quality of Life Committee meeting to order. May I please have a roll call? **Councilor Castro:** Present. **Councilor Chavez:** Here. **Councilor Garcia:** Present. **Councilor Faulkner:** Here. **Madam Chair:** Here. **Madam Chair:** You have a quorum. Thank you so much. All right, moving on to approval of the agenda. We do have some items that are being removed. Marcela, can you, or is it one item? I think just one. **Madam Chair:** It's one item. It's item 6W. Let me find it. Where did it go? I got it. I can read it. So that's the request for approval of amendment number two to the lease agreement dated February 18th, 1987, as amended, with Challenge New Mexico to remove the requirement for construction of group homes for the mentally and physically handicapped and assign the agreement to the Life Link contingent upon the city receiving confirmation of the sale and transfer of Challenge New Mexico's improvements on the lease property to the Life Link. So we will be seeing this at another time, but staff did request to remove it to address some issues. Move to approve as amended. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to approval of consent. I believe the only item that was pulled was item E by myself and Councilor Garcia. Are there any items that people would like to pull at this time? As amended. Motion and a second. May I please have a roll call? **Councilor Castro:** Yes. **Councilor Chavez:** Yes. **Councilor Garcia:** Yes. **Councilor Faulkner:** Yes. **Madam Chair:** Yes. Motion passes. Thank you so much. All right, let's move on to our presentation for the day. It's a Connect presentation. We have Christa Hernandez here from Youth and Family Services, our Youth and Family Services Program Manager. And I will send it on over to you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, counselors. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Christa. Can you hear me? Is your mic on? Yes. Are you eating your mic? Better. There you go. Okay. Apologies. Thank you, Madam Chair, counselors. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Christa Hernandez. I'm here to talk to you about Connect. I've been with the city for almost four years. During that time, I have staffed the Human Services Committee and the Children Youth Commission. And I've had the privilege to be able to serve as the Connect oversight person for the City of Santa Fe. So Connect is our navigation and care coordination network that we have in partnership with the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County. It came about in 2015, 2016, when our nonprofit providers came to the county and had concerns around whether the individuals they were serving were getting connected to the resources that they were seeking. The accountable health community model was identified. It is recommended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. And so we established our own KBA health community here in Santa Fe. We utilize the United closed loop referral platform to make Zen referrals. This allows our navigators who are working with individuals to be able to have access to see client face sheets, case notes, and other information that helps them to do a better job, have a comprehensive look of the needs being met. What is an accountable health community model? For us, that means we're putting the person at the center of care. We understand that when a person comes to us in crisis, they may not have capacity to cold call nonprofit providers in the community to identify what services they may be eligible for, what resources are available. And so what we are trying to do by following this model is putting the person at the center of care so that our organizations, nonprofit providers, are working together to support the individual to decrease those systemic issues and allow them to have access or to get access to services. So the five items you see on this slide, those are the basic determinants of health that we are trying to address. They're not all of them, but they are the basic ones that we're focusing on. The vision of Connect. We just want to make sure individuals in Santa Fe have access to high quality health care and that they're connected to the resources that they're seeking. Connect was established as a New Mexican model. Kira O'Oaha, our former Community Health and Safety Director, started Connect at Santa Fe County. When she came to this city, that's when we began our partnership. But really Connect follows these four tenets. We want to be relationship-based because we understand having our nonprofit providers, when they have trust, they're willing to collaborate. So having trust amongst each other, having trust between Santa Fe City and the county allows them, oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. Allows them to work better with one another and allows them to have trust between city and the county. We want to ensure our navigators are connected. So we try to support them by allowing networking opportunities and providing technical assistance to them so they can focus on navigating individuals rather than troubleshooting system stuff. We try to be resource smart. So between the city and the county, we try our best to align the funding we have and align our contracts so we can have greater reach when we're supporting our nonprofit providers. We also want to take information that we have in Unite Us as well as information we collect outside of Unite Us to identify gaps, to identify the resources that we have, and to continually evaluate the work that we're doing to make sure we're having an impact. Ultimately, we're trying to identify, do we have an impact in addressing the ER use or jail use? Because we know when a person's in crisis, if they are having to access the ER or jail, it might be because medication needs to be provided or other resources are needed. Those are costly items to have to pay for. So we want to address those issues and have that prevention lens where we're trying to address things earlier on. We also want to ensure that individuals have access to health care and that their needs are being met. We do this through navigation. Navigation can happen with different individuals working at organizations. And we also standardize the work that we do to make sure the things that are being done in the community are standardized. We're able to compare data between organizations. A brief history of Connect. It's a lot of information, but we started 2017 at Santa Fe County. We started with 13 navigators across eight organizations. In 2018, we began using Unite Us. So April 2018, we began referring, making electronic referrals here in Santa Fe. Prior to that, we were really, navigation was done via phone, via email, and it was tracked via Excel. So this was a huge administrative lift for our navigators to be able to have access to client information and to be able to send in a referral and see what happens with that referral. We began to partner Santa Fe County with the city in 2020 right before the pandemic started. We have the self-referral portal which is still available, but individuals can refer themselves to Connect. And one of the biggest accomplishments we had during the pandemic was we were able to disperse $8.4 million in CARES Act funding, and this was done in five months. This could not have been done without the partnership that we have with all of our Connect partner agencies. They did an amazing job. They rose to the challenge and we're so grateful to have been able to support the community during that time. In 2021, we began to partner with United Way of North Central New Mexico. They currently serve as our call center. And so we're able to accept phone calls and we have bilingual navigators who are able to accept the calls, screen individuals for services, and make appropriate referrals as needed. Or if you're calling for the number to the library, they could also provide you with that information. We have a wellness fund that has also been established and this allows individuals to make donations to Connect if you want to support the work that we're doing, but it also promotes our 211 line. So you may have seen signs in town. They say, "Need food or shelter, call 211. Want to help? Text Connect to 26989." We are viewed as a model. So the work we're doing here in Santa Fe, all those organizations, partners in the blue font, those are the partners that we have actually supported in establishing their own navigation and care coordination network in their communities. This year, I don't think the slide deck is moving on our screen. I'm sorry. So, Presbyterian Health Plan, Presbyterian Health Care Services, Jooniana Connect, Workforce Integration Network, Los Alamos County, the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Rariva County, and America's Job Center. Oh, I apologize. I thought you were going to because, oh, my bad. Keep going. You're doing great. I'm not. Thank you. And so, we have finished dispersing $3.1 million back to the community. This was ARPA funding. And we have grown. We currently have upwards of 300 navigators across 85 programs here in Santa Fe. This is a list of all of our Connect partner organizations that we have. Those in the dark teal font were our starter agencies. They helped to start Connect here in Santa Fe. Our Connect hub is in yellow. So we do have city and county staff who respond to referrals and help individuals access resources. So, how do you connect with Connect? We like to have an any door approach. We understand if you're in crisis, you shouldn't have to figure out how to get the resources you need. So you can find a navigator or any of the Connect organizations listed on this slide. You can refer yourself to Connect via the websites on the city and the county's websites. And to the right is a screenshot of what the information we ask. This information can be translated to several other languages as well, or you can call 211. And so, as I mentioned, our bilingual navigators respond to those referrals. So, what does it look like for an individual who's accessing the resources and Connect? If someone calls 211, shows up at a partner organization, or submits an assistance request form, a navigator receives the information. They will screen them for other needs because we understand if an individual presents with a food need, they're kind of like an iceberg. Through the course of screening and other discussion, establishing that rapport, you may come to find out that there are transportation, utility needs, maybe housing needs. And so the screening really guides the referral. We always gain consent for any individuals who have their information entered into us. And so the digital consent can be obtained, the referral can go out, whoever the referrals go out to. Whoops, apologies. Oh, the navigator can identify if the receiving agency has accepted the referral, if the referral is under review, or if it's been rejected. That allows the individual in crisis to not have to receive the rejection. It allows the navigator to receive the rejection and to be able to refer elsewhere. And ultimately you can review case notes, you can review other screenings, and you can track the outcomes to identify, I refer Tom for a food need, did they get the bag of food? I refer them for utility support. Are their utilities paid? And so that's what the journey looks like for someone receiving service. Tying this to many of the agenda items that I apologize I had to bring to you all today. The City of Santa Fe is investing in Connect and this is how we, you, City of Santa Fe, funds navigation and safety net services. I believe there are 19 contracts, three of which have gone to the City Manager, 16 of which are on the agenda for today. Those are all for safety net and navigation services to fund providers to provide these services in the community. We have a United Way contract that's not on today, but we are funding a position at United Way in order for them to provide navigation services to Santa Fe. The Aspen Solutions contract that's on for today as well, they are data consultants. So, we are funding them to support grantees to track data and outcomes at that local level. Some data points, I'm not going to get super specific because I'm sure I'm almost out of time. We can track through Unidas the cases that are created. This slide states that these are the cases created from 2019 to present. The greatest need that we're seeing in our community are housing and shelter, income support, and individual and family support. We can identify whether cases have been resolved or whether they have been unresolved. And we can dig deeper into the reasoning for if it was resolved, why. We can look at unresolved cases. Out of 11,128 clients, there were 27,400 resolved cases, 5,276 unresolved cases. Ultimately, out of the 11,21 clients served, of those closed cases, 93% of individuals had their food needs met, 69% had their housing and shelter needs met, and 91% had income support needs met, which those are great numbers. Tying it to the Human Services Committee, the contracts on today's agenda are funding recommendations of the Human Services Committee. These are their funding priorities. We go through an extensive process to identify these every three to four years, identify what safety net and navigation means, what it looks like in contracts. And then we also track these numbers. So, grantees are able to submit mid-year and end-of-year data to tell us how many numbers were served, how many individuals were navigated, and how many received safety net services. Safety net services are the things: the bag of food, behavioral health treatments, respite care. Navigation is the linkage of services. Diving deeper, this is broken down by our current contracts. These are the mid-year reports. So, I don't have data to show you from the new set of contracts we're trying to get approved, but these are the current contracts. We have it broken down by safety net and navigation numbers served, numbers billed. Many of our nonprofit providers tend to serve more than they're able to bill us because we have a set amount in the contract. For the new four-year contracts that we're bringing before you today, these are the 19 organizations broken down by whether they'll be providing navigation and safety net, navigation, or safety net. The Human Services Committee has a budget of 1.24 annually, and that's 2% of the city's gross receipts taxes to support individuals ages 18 and older. The other hat that I have been wearing is to staff the Children Youth Commission. I just wanted to share information about them as well. These are, to the left, their funding priorities. Our safety net navigation definitions and these are their mid-year numbers as well. Just to show these organizations and broken down by organization who's been awarded funds. They're in their second or third year of their contract. And they are tasked with serving children and youth ages 0 to 21. We follow the same kind of funding recommendation process. They update their strategic plan every three or four years, and their mission is to serve and support organizations to provide safety net navigation services. They have about 1.14 million annually, and as I mentioned, they are tasked with supporting the provision of safety net navigation services to children and youth ages 0 to 21. I want to say thank you because the governing body has supported Connect with short-term cash assistance over nine months. The nine-month funding was able to serve 209 households. The ARPA short-term cash assistance for 12 months was able to serve 98 households. This year was the first year that we received one-time funding allocation for Connect flexible funds in the amount of $150,000. And those have gone to support individuals with utility, transportation, rent, and food needs. I'll take this last slide. Before I jump in, I also want to just say a huge thank you to Christa for the incredible work that she does in managing this program. I think there are a lot of folks who want to talk about results and see results. There's some very comprehensive data that Christa and the team have put together that we can share from the mid-year reports as well as from the Aspen Solutions team. No presentation is complete without an ask. As counselors have seen, there's astounding need in our community. These two mechanisms for getting funds into the hands of local providers together account for 35-some-odd organizations, maybe even a little bit more, for about 5% of GRT. I think that amount, while generous, is only getting us as far as we can with 5%. So, I think there's interest in seeing what it would look like to try and increase these funds and scale the impact that we can see in our community. Any opportunities to have that conversation, I believe, are welcome, and staff will be excited to have them. Also, I think one of the challenges of this program is that it's incredibly robust, but it's only as good as it is if people know about it. So, we're really trying to help promote the use of referring individuals to these entry points, whether it's the self-referral portals or through 211. That's our single or dual points of entry into getting people connected to the variety of services, or the more than variety, the astounding number of services that exist in our community. So, thanks again to Christa for pulling this presentation together. Thank you so much. Christa, did you have anything else to add at the end? Thank you so much for your time, Madam Chair, counselors. Wonderful. Thank you so much for being here. It actually is really exciting to see how much this has grown since 2020, including the way that it is being tracked and measured. I really appreciate all the work that's gone into this. I know it's been quite a lot. Questions, comments from the committee at this time? If not, I have a question. This is actually a little serendipitous given that the contracts are on here. I had actually pulled you more to discuss the contracts as a whole, which is wanting a better understanding of what each organization is doing. So, the contracts are pretty general, but knowing this list of organizations, we know they're not all going to be doing the same thing. And that's important to know what the variety looks like. So, I would actually be curious to hear, whether it's now or whether it's at the next item, looking at these, we know a lot of these names, but not everybody does. If you could provide some more information on what service we're really looking at. For example, I actually don't know the Coming Home Connection. I'm not sure which one that is. So, if you could just briefly go over and discuss what these would look like. You don't have to know all the metrics or anything like that, but in general, what is their piece of the pie that they're taking of this entire effort? Thank you, Madam Chair, counselors. Coming Home Connection actually serves older adults. They have about four or five programs they offer at that local level. Part of it might help to understand the process. What tends to happen, we put forth an RFA, so Request for Application. This is done electronically. Information is sent out, we publish it in the newspapers, so organizations can apply for funding within the RFA. We identify how much funding is available. This year, I believe it's $150,000 per year. So, grantees are able to apply and tell us what they are willing to do. They can either select from navigation or safety net or both. So, those are the options they have. Safety net, as I mentioned, it's the thing. It's the bag of food. It is respite care. It's diabetes education. Those are the things. The navigation, that's the connection. So, we screen individuals to identify their needs, make those referrals. That's done in Unidas. There are certain expectations that differ based on the navigation versus safety nets. If I apologize, I could pull Coming Home Connection. You don't have to just specifically do them, but I think like I'm looking at page 17 or slide 17, and just kind of a very brief information around what these each do. What would be their one-liner? Absolutely. Coming Home Connection, that is older adults. They provide in-home cleaning services and caregiving services. Espanola Shelter, that's our domestic violence shelter. They're going to provide shelter services as well as, apologies, these contracts are new to me as well. There's one other item they have, and I'd have to pull up the contract to see. But Fathers New Mexico, they provide navigation services. They focus on the family unit. It's not just fathers. Gerard's House, we provide English and Spanish grief support. Interfaith, that's our shelter. They'll be providing life-stabilizing services and navigation as well. Kitchen Angels provides food to individuals who are homebound. La Familia Medical Center will be providing diabetes prevention education. Las Cumbres provides navigation services to the families that they work with. Literacy Volunteers provides ESL, and there might be another education training to individuals. People who don't know, ESL is English as a Second Language. It is supporting individuals who speak Spanish in learning English. So, yes. New Mexico Immigrant Law Service or Law Center will be providing navigation services and immigration legal services. Dreamers Project will be providing naturalization, green card, and DACA services. Santa Fe Recovery Center, they're one of the newer organizations to the Human Services Committee. They'll be providing navigation, but also behavioral health, life skill training to those that they work with. Scott's House provides respite care to individuals who are homeless. Solace provides navigation and safety net services. So, I believe this year they are doing victim evidence, and I apologize, I have to look at the contract for this specific terminology. St. Elizabeth Shelter, navigation and safety nets or shelter services. The Birthing Tree offers a doula program for primarily Spanish-speaking households. The Food Depot offers navigation and food to individuals in the community. The Life Link provides navigation services, and the Memory Care Alliance will be, they have four or five different deliverables to support caregivers who are providing care to those who have dementia or Alzheimer's. Madam Chair, if I may add a few pieces here. If you go back to slide, I believe it's the second slide. This program has a dual function of providing, I would call, modest amounts of money to organizations to provide services that they provide, but more importantly, it's a mechanism to make organizations work as a collective, oh sorry, the third slide, as a collective to provide this broad network of services that ultimately treat the conditions that lead to an individual's health. So, providing navigation and life-stabilizing services—those are these kind of broad categories, but they ultimately allow this to be a network of people that we can incentivize to be on our closed-loop referral system. Because otherwise, if we provide funding to organizations to only provide a specific set of services, they might act as a silo and not be incentivized to say someone goes into the food depot looking for nutrition support, but they show up also needing substance use disorder. The food depot doesn't necessarily have the incentive to say, "Well, why don't you just, here's a brochure," as opposed to now that individual shows up at the food depot and they are introduced and then referred out to the recovery center who can then make sure that that individual is actually getting that closed, full loop of service. So, I think it's both providing a little bit of funds to allow people to continue the services that they do, not by any means covering the full suite of services that they need to operate, but more than that, also incentivizing people to be in this network, right? Right. And to your point, it's whether it's motivation or just simply people don't know, because a lot of these areas are working with volunteers. And so they may come in because they're extremely passionate about, you know, Kitchen Angels. They're very passionate about cooking and meal delivery, but they don't necessarily have the background of all the different information. And that was a big piece, as you mentioned, Unite Us. That was the requirement to get the dollars is to get onto the platform. Correct. Am I remembering that correctly? Med Chair Counselors: That's only for navigation services. Oh, interesting. Just navigation, because that process is a little bit time-intensive. The safety net service, all our organizations are aware of Connect, and even if they are not utilizing Unite Us to make and send referrals, they know to send referrals via the electronic referral. So even if they're not participating in that piece, they are still making referrals to Connect. Wonderful. Thank you for clarifying that for me. I appreciate that, and thank you for giving more of the information. And I think it is really helpful to know the wide breadth of services that are available within the community because a lot of people don't know about them. So, any other questions, comments from the committee? Thank you so much for being here. Don't go far because we are now moving to item E, request for approval of a service agreement with Interfaith Community Shelter Group, Inc. for the purpose of providing overnight shelter, life-stabilizing services, and navigation services in the total amount of $320,000, including NMGRT through June 30th, 2029. We have Christa Hernandez and Director Hammond Paul. Did you want to state something or want to go straight to questions? Madam Chair, I think Christa did an excellent job overviewing kind of how all these contracts fit together. I'm up here to answer some questions. I'm sure there will be others that Christa will be better positioned to answer than I am. Got it. Thank you. So, this is pulled by myself and Council Garcia. So, Councilor Garcia, over to you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chris, I just have one question because I'm assuming this proposal was approved prior to the termination of the lease agreement with Interfaith, and now there's no longer a shelter for them to operate upon the end of next month. So how does that impact this request in front of us? Madam Chair, Councilor Michael Garcia, I'm happy to answer part of that question. I think there may be some other pieces that Christa may answer. We actually were discussing that as we were bringing forward this contract, and we ultimately decided that it is important to continue this contract with them because the work that they are expected to do includes both navigation and life-stabilizing services. And the third component is just those two. So it's not specific to them running a shelter. And the variety of, and this was something that had been articulated in previous evenings up here, that we are hopeful that the organization will continue to serve this community. And this encourages them to do so by again providing navigation services and continuing the kind of work that they do, whether it's through the motelling program where they have 25 individuals in a motelling program receiving wraparound services, or through navigation services. So, while it is consistent with the type of work that they will continue to do in the community regardless of them being the owner-operators of a shelter. And I don't know if Christa wants to add. Madam Chair, Councilor Michael Garcia, the other item that we considered is the showers-to-go program that Interfaith also runs, and so navigation could absolutely occur, and their showers-to-go services could all definitely be considered part of the safety net services as part of this contract. Okay. So, follow up to that is, have we had a conversation with them because the way this reads is the initial allocation was to provide services via the shelter. Now what I'm hearing is, well, they're doing additional work so they can pivot and do this and additional work to support those services. I want to ensure before I vote to approve or not approve this that conversations have been had with them because at the end of the day, they can say we were planning to use that money to operate the shelter and thanks but no thanks, we don't need the money because at the end of the day when an allocation goes out the door, they're responsible for meeting certain objectives and if they don't have the capacity to do so, I don't want to put them in a position where either the money doesn't get utilized where it could be utilized in other manners or we put them in a position where it, in what we call the grant-making process, chasing the money, and we don't want to put organizations in the sense where they're just chasing the money to get the money. So, I guess the question is, have we had a conversation with Interfaith around this proposal since the termination of their lease agreement with the Pete's Place location? Madam Chair, Council Michael Garcia, there's been two different conversations that happened. One has been at the programmatic level between, and the Connect program is a joint program between the county and the city. So there's been a level of conversation between Christa and Jennifer Romero, who's our counterpart at the county and the Interfaith team. And then today, myself and City Manager Scott met with the Interfaith leadership and board regarding this topic as well as covering the two items on, or three items on the agenda for today's meeting was their willingness to continue providing services through the mobile hygiene program as well as the motelling program. Second was to discuss how the city could support in their pursuit of the resource opportunity center if they are interested in having that be something that the city is supportive of. And the third is to go over transition programming and timelines for shelter operations. So I didn't hear that a conversation was held on this specific item. I heard hygiene units, the ROC transition plan. The, sorry, the first item was about them continuing to provide navigation services and life-stabilizing services through these programs, which include the motelling program and the mobile hygiene unit utilizing the allocation here because, yes, sir, I'm doing the work before without this money. Right, right. That, that's Michael Garcia, they have a current contract with us, so they have been doing the work up to this point. They've drawn down those funds. We have had, I have had a conversation with Beverly Kell at Interfaith, and the question was around this contract specifically and if it had been approved yet, and the expectation is that they are anticipating these funds to continue to provide services. Okay. Thank you. That's what I was wanting to hear is staff is well aware of this and, okay. Thank you so much. No other questions. Thank you, Madam Chair. Any other questions or comments? One follow-up on this. You did mention the motelling program. So that is actually still overnight shelter. So even if they're not operating at Pete's, am I, is that when I'm talking about the motelling program, they're still providing shelter? Madam Chair, yes, it's technically transitional housing and programming, but it, yes. Okay. So there, so when we're talking, are there overnight? Okay. So there, but there would be a differentiation between what is outlined here and the providing overnight shelter. Is that more the emergency shelter or is that a broader category? That's, sorry. Can you restate the question? So the, the providing overnight shelter piece that's listed here, does that include things like transitional housing or are you looking at these as separate categories? I believe, Madam Chair, they will be able to fulfill the work in their contract via meeting the requirements for via navigation services and life-stabilizing services. Okay. The providing overnight shelter piece cannot be met through, I mean, we, we're, we're reading this as them providing life-stabilizing services through that program as as meeting the conditions. Got it. Okay. Thank you. And then, you know, as we just discussed, the importance of all of these organizations and how they are interconnected is incredibly crucial for how our community works. What have the conversations been with Urban Alchemy regarding their responsibility to be a part of the Connect network and to be collaborating continually with all these different groups? Madam Chair, thank you for the question. We have articulated very clearly that we expect them to be part of the community of providers in our city, and they've clearly communicated to us that that is their expectation as well. So I'm, I'm not sure if that they, they're not included in the HSC funding. Correct. Yes, I understand that there's the funding and then there's, but just making sure that, you know, as we transition over, and that's critical, especially for the street outreach work that they be doing, that they in many ways will be similar to 211, a front door when you're going and engaging with someone, being able to make that direct connection into this network because ultimately no single provider can meet the needs of an individual and it needs to be this broad holistic approach. And Madam Chair, if, and C counselors, if I could add one item. As soon as the Urban Alchemy contract is executed, Jennifer and I will onboard Urban Alchemy staff or whoever is identified is going to be serving as navigators to ensure they are trained and access to Unite Us and can begin serving as a Connect partner organization. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm very glad to hear that. And I know HSC funding, Connect, there's overlaps and they're not exactly the same, but we get you did biannual progress reports, quarterly progress reports, and is that consistent with what we see for the HSC contracts? Madam Chair, counselors, we do receive a mid-year and an end-of-year report. So we just received the end-of-year report for this current contract cycle. And I apologize, can you restate the rest of the question? Just, just confirming that we, so for these, we'll be seeing a mid-year and an end-of-year report for all these contracts that we're seeing come through as part of that process with Aspen. Correct. Okay. All right. Any other questions or comments? If not, can I get a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. May I get a roll call? Forgot my line there. Go ahead. Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Faulkner? Yes. Madam Chair? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Okay. Done with consent, we're moving on to our action item on the discussion agenda. And as discussed in governing body, this is also going to be an opportunity for public comment. So I'm going to read it in, give public comment, and then we can go ahead and or give the opportunity for public comment. So this is consideration of Bill Number 2025-16, Ordinance Number 2025, to be numbered later, sponsored by Mayor Alan Weber. It's a bill amending Section 2-4.6 to remove the 60-day timeline for the City Manager to hire a Deputy City Manager and update the section consistent with the charter. We have City Attorney McSherry here to answer questions. So that being stated, because we are allowing for first public comment, if there are any members of the public here or online who would like to comment, please either come up to the podium or raise your hand on Zoom. Is there anybody in the Zoom room? Doesn't look like it. And did anybody here want to comment? Okay. Well, thank you all. So, Ms. McSherry, if you could please join us, and I will go ahead and turn it over to the committee. Any questions or comments from members of the committee at this time? Councilor Castro, I just wanted to state on the record, there was a comment made at governing body, deadlines. So, if there's any way that we could possibly try to be more diligent with our deadlines, that would be great. Just in general in life. Okay. Any other thoughts on this? Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. May I please get a roll call? Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Nope. Councilor Faulkner? Yes. Madam Chair? Yes. Motion passes. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Moving on to matters from staff. Thanks for being here, Erin. I hope you enjoyed the walk down to the podium. Over to staff, Dr. Montoya. Madam Chair and counselors, we have a lot happening this month across town. The current Art and Technology Festival is still in process through the weekend at Elmus Cultural in the Railyard District. On June 19th, we have the Zumba Salon from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. This is the Regional Development Corporation, and they offer responsive business support and information about funding opportunities and also connect individuals with community leaders. And they also are offering a micro-grant right now. So that would be a great event for people to check out who are interested in our entrepreneurial and looking for support. This weekend, on June 21st, we have our Juneteenth celebration at 3:00 p.m. Doors open at 2:00 p.m., but it's on the plaza. So I'd say go whenever you feel like it and bring your family. It's a day of joy, remembrance, and celebration honoring Black freedom and culture. This year's Juneteenth gathering is presented in collaboration with Love and Happiness, and it also features a world-renowned DJ named Natasha Diggs. There's going to be vendors and activations and jazz and blues bands. It's going to be awesome food, craft vendors. It's going to be a lot of fun. On June 24th, that's a Tuesday, at 6:00 p.m., we're going to have a Books Behind the Business Series get-together at the Southside Library. This is going to be really interesting because we're going to feature two local entrepreneurs, Ward Henden of Dangerous Ventures, and also Kaye Shoemaker who owns As Below. On June 25th, we're going to have an Equal Grounds event. It's the Pride edition. It's in the morning from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 at Harry's Roadhouse. So come and join the community conversation to talk about what it means to be a safe space. And then on Saturday, June 28th, we have our Santa Fe Pride Parade downtown that starts at 10:00 a.m. That is going to be a lot of fun. More than a parade, it's an opportunity to come out and celebrate our LGBTQIA+ community through pride and visibility. Also, toward the end of the month, our Office of Economic Development has their office hours on Cerrillos Road at Del Norte Credit Union. This is another opportunity to come and learn how to grow your business, learn about what resources the city has to offer. The hours for that are 10:00 to 2:00, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., again at Del Norte Credit Union on Cerrillos Road. We still have two calls for artists. I mentioned a couple weeks ago at our last gathering. Those are still open until the one call for artists is Queer Magnetism is what it's called. It's inviting trans and queer artists of all mediums to submit new and recent work for a collective show at our community gallery. The deadline for that is June 30th. The second call for artists is connected to our UNESCO Creative City Artists Exhibition. The deadline to submit a portfolio application is July 1st. Anyone can learn more about any of these calls for artists by reaching out to artsandculture@santafem.gov. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Director Hammond Paul. Madam Chair, counselors, just a few quick updates from the Community Health and Safety Department. The first is that our libraries and recreation centers will be closed tomorrow for Juneteenth. There has been ample notification, and that is up on the websites in case any constituents ask. There is a host of programmings that are listed on the library website as well as on the recreations websites that I really welcome folks to take a look at daily, weekly programming that is really exciting, a lot of it focused on Pride Month at the moment. I'll also say that on July 1st, many of there was just an announcement that went out today. There is the community engagement event around town halls. And that is being promoted on city channels including social media, and we will be really excited to welcome constituents from across the city to attend. So with that, thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Marcela. Anything from you today? Any matters from the committee? Councilor Castro? Really quickly, there is an early neighborhood notification about the Shelby Street Bridge on June 24th at 4:00 p.m. at the New Mexico State Land Office. So, if you're interested in that bridge, come stop in. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Matters from the Chair. I, oh, I'm sorry, Councilor Garcia. I didn't see your hand. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just want to pass along some recommendations on behalf of constituents. Thank you, Director Hammond Paul, for passing along the info around the July 1st community engagement event around homelessness. The feedback asked to pass forward is why limited capacity? The convention center can accommodate thousands of people. So we should not have a space limitation. Why making folks register? We should allow folks to just show up as they want without an RSVP. And then the time limitation, 6:00 to 7:30, that's coming from me just as a counselor. When we have these events, we typically spend half an hour, 45 minutes going over staff overview and then 45 minutes of community engagement. And this is a topic that many can attest to. We've heard loud and clear. Residents have a lot to talk about this. And so I would like this meeting to not formally end at 7:30. That this meeting, if this meeting goes on till the cows come home, we do it. This is our opportunity to work with the residents to ensure that they're confident and comfortable as we move forward with this process. And I don't think we'll be there till the cows come home, but I also don't want to say at 7:30 the clock struck midnight. Cinderella's royal coach turned into a pumpkin. We've got to stop. I would like for us to continue on and really begin these critical conversations that folks have been eager to begin for months, if not years now. So, just passing along that feedback. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Faulkner, I have to concur with Councilor Garcia. I did receive a lot of emails about this. I do think we need to broaden the amount of time, and I feel like it should be more open, like people can just walk in and have an opinion. That's how we do our town halls in District 3. It's open to the public. We have a larger period of time for the public to speak. And so I think by making it restrictive, we're furthering the mistrust from the community that already exists on this issue. That's Travis. Thank you. I have a few things. I wasn't going to say anything about that, but I will now. I will say that I think it is our responsibility when we identify that there is a controversial topic coming forward that we promote safety. And I think that there are certain systems and procedures that we're putting in place to promote safety. And I think it's important. I think we've seen here at City Hall how conversations could get around this. And I think we need to be able to take that kind of data and make sure that we have more structured conversations that are more productive. So I do support some of it. More time is always good. We know how long governing body goes. We know how long public comment goes. I completely support extra time for conversation. But I do think it's our responsibility to put in structure to make sure all is safe. And outside of that, what I was going to say, there is a town hall event on June 19th, which is tomorrow, from 6:30 to 8:00. Chief Joy will be speaking. It will be focused on domestic violence. There will be multiple experts on domestic violence, offering their experience and resources. So, I just wanted to put that out to the community. It will be at First Presbyterian Church at 208 Grant Avenue in Santa Fe. Join Esperanza Shelter for a powerful screening of the documentary, "This Is Where I Learned Not to Sleep," followed by a town hall meeting on domestic violence and how it impacts our entire community. So, that event is there with some beneficial information. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Any, well, we've had all our matters. Matters from the Chair. I, I, oh, well, I do want to wish everybody happy Pride. I unfortunately will be out of town for the Pride parade, which I'm really sad to miss. I love it. I didn't check that on my calendar when we were planning vacation, but I really want to wish everybody happy Pride and a really safe Pride. And a very happy Juneteenth. Hopefully, I'll be able to get down to the plaza. So, thank you again, Director Montoya, for reminding us of that wonderful event. And with that, our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 2nd, and at 5:53 p.m., we are adjourned. Thank you.