Public Works and Utilities Committee Meeting Mon, Jun 2, 2025 ยท Public Works and Utilities Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/79 == Executive Summary == The Public Works and Utilities Committee meeting covered a range of topics, including updates on completed and ongoing capital projects, particularly in parks and open spaces, and a significant discussion on a proposed micro-community for individuals experiencing homelessness at 2395 Richards Avenue. The committee approved the amended agenda and consent agenda unanimously. A major point of contention was the timing of community engagement for the micro-community project, with some councilors advocating for earlier public involvement. The committee ultimately voted to approve the resolution to move forward with the micro-community project, with one abstention. Public comments largely supported the micro-community concept, citing successful models and the critical need for housing. The committee also received updates on infrastructure projects like Airport Road paving and Guadalupe Street construction, and discussed logistics for future meetings, including the possibility of adding Zoom access for public comment. The Parks and Open Space department will provide two more presentations on capital projects in the future. == Key Decisions == - Approved the agenda as amended, removing Item 7A (minutes for May 19th) and pulling Item 7G (micro-community at 2395 Richards Avenue) for separate discussion. - Approved the consent agenda as amended, excluding Item 7G. - Approved the resolution to identify 2395 Richards Avenue as a location for a micro-community to provide shelter and supportive services for individuals experiencing homelessness. == Motions & Votes == - Motion to approve the agenda as amended (removing Item 7A and pulling Item 7G) โ€” Passed unanimously. - Motion to approve the consent agenda as amended (excluding Item 7G) โ€” Passed unanimously. - Motion to approve the resolution regarding 2395 Richards Avenue โ€” Passed (Councilor Castro: yes, Councilor Michael Garcia: abstain, Councilor Lee Garcia: yes, Councilor Romero Worth: yes, Chair Chavez: yes). == Public Comment == Public comments were primarily focused on the proposed micro-community at 2395 Richards Avenue. Matt Johns advocated for camera monitoring at the site for safety and liability. Erica Kid and Lisa Bloom from St. Elizabeth's Shelters and Supportive Housing, along with Joe Dudiac from Chaplain Joe Street Outreach, expressed strong support for the micro-community concept and Pallet homes, citing their effectiveness in providing secure shelter and addressing homelessness. There was no public comment period via Zoom, as comments had to be made in person. == Topics == - Micro Community/Homelessness - Public Comment Access - Infrastructure & Maintenance - Airport Road Paving - Guadalupe Street Project - Park Capital Projects - Community Engagement - Project Oversight & Evaluation - Camera Monitoring - Gun Violence Awareness == Full Transcript == Are we live by chance? Madam Chair, Councilor Romero, we are live. Thank you. I just wanted to let everybody know, anybody who may be waiting for this meeting to start, we do not have a quorum. We are waiting for the chair and for one of the members of this committee to arrive. We need three members of the committee in order to have a quorum. Oh, that's okay. We don't have a chair. Oh, I'm so sorry, Councilor Garcia. I was waiting for, I was thinking we needed Lee Garcia in order to be here, but you're absolutely right. All right, so we do have a quorum. Okay. So then we can call this meeting to order at 5:04 because we have three. Thank you. Point of information. Yes. Just want to let folks know. So this is the only subcommittee that has public comment, and we traditionally don't have a Zoom link. So unfortunately, folks won't be able to testify online, but they're more than welcome to testify in public comment here in chambers. Okay. Yeah. And we do have quite a few people here. It looks like they are going to take advantage of the public comment that is available at this meeting. So thank you. Okay. With that, if we could get a roll call, please. Certainly, Madam Chair. Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Michael Garcia. Present. Councilor Lee Garcia. He, so I'm confused because I was told, I think he's coming. He's just going to be late. So he's excused till he gets here. I understand. Chair, I got my Garcia confused, so I apologize. I understand Chair Chavez will be arriving late as well. Yes. And she's excused till she gets here as well. And acting Chair Romero Worth, correct? Is present. Yes. Thank you so much. All right. So we have a quorum of three. We have two members on their way, and then we will be five. Do we have any changes to the agenda this week? We do, Madam Chair. The minutes were not actually completed in time to be in the packet, so we're removing the minutes from the agenda, Madam Chair. All right. So item 7A, the minutes for May 19th will not be approved as part of the consent agenda tonight. So can we get a motion to approve the agenda as amended? To approve. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve that item. All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? That motion passes. Okay, we have approval of the consent agenda. I do think there were some items pulled, correct? Yes, Madam Chair. Item 7G was pulled. Okay. So we have item 7G, which is the resolution identifying city property at 2395 Richards Avenue as a location for a micro community to provide shelter and supportive services for individuals experiencing homelessness in Santa Fe. That item we will hear independent of the consent agenda. So can we get a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended? Move to approve as amended. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? That motion passes. From there we will go to public comment. The chair allows two minutes per person. And I don't know. Oh, here is the chair. Hello, chair. And I, Director Wheeler, do you keep track of the time on that or how? I certainly. Okay, I guess I'll, oh, oh, we even, oh, okay. We have tech people who can do that. All right. I'll let the chair get settled, but if you are here to take advantage of the public comment, if you want to line up, you'll each have two minutes to address the committee. I think you can go ahead. Whenever you start talking, I believe that timer will start and keep track of your two minutes. Excellent. Are you hearing me? And yeah, you have to, the green light has to be on on the mic and you have to really speak into it. We can hear you, but anybody who's watching won't be able to hear you unless you're speaking right into it. So, excellent. Thank you. Good evening. My name's Matt Johns. I'm in Cacina Ridge neighborhood. I'm here to remind the committee to ensure that standard infrastructure is not overlooked in development of the 2395 Richards micro community site. Specifically, the installation of camera monitoring focusing on the public areas surrounding the site, including city-managed roads, trails, and open spaces. For a site of this nature, camera coverage is an operational standard. Without cameras, this project is exposed legally, operationally, and publicly. These cameras would serve several purposes. First, support safe and consistent operations, reduce liability exposure, and provide basic asset protection for the site and the surrounding public infrastructure. Second, to enable early response to emergency safety concerns. Did you know fire station 7 doesn't even have windows that would face the proposed site? There could be a fire over there. They'd never know it. And third, to demonstrate the community that the city is being proactive, hands-on, and managing for success. Other cities already have done this. Portland, Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, all use public facing camera infrastructure similar to on their shelter sites. The cameras work. Santa Fe needs to follow best practices. Why? Liability reduction. Cameras provide visibility, documentation, certainty, and ability to be proactive. Privacy. The cameras do not face the site. The residents of the site are private. It covers the surrounding area. Cost reasonable and fully justified. Duty of care. Yes, public cameras are standard now. Cameras protect city property. Safety and security. Cameras support oversight. Add protection for residents, staff, and the public. Strengthen public trust. Implementation and integration. Santa Fe already monitors public roads and infrastructures. This will extend to a new city-managed solution. Make sure cameras are included. It's smart governance. It matters to the success of this endeavor. Thank you for your opportunity to speak. My opportunity. Thanks. Thank you. Hey, can we have your name? It's, can you hear me? Okay. Erica Kid. And thank you all for being here. I know there's some really respectful words I'm supposed to say, but they've left me at the moment. So my apologies. I work for St. Elizabeth's Shelters and Supportive Housing. I'm over at the Santa Fe Suites. I'm a volunteer at Eats and volunteer in the community in general. And as someone who's worked in the field for about 20 years, we really need every resource we can possibly have to work with this complex issue of housing. And I think it's showing some good results and it was set up really well over at the Royal, the church. Yes. Praise the Lord. It's doing great work over there. So I think if that could be replicated, it'd be in the best interest for quite a few people and it's only one piece of a very large puzzle as you know, and we really could use more housing. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Hi. My name is Lisa Bloom and I am a supportive housing case manager for St. Elizabeth's Shelter at the Santa Fe Suites as well. I just, and I've got life experience being homeless on the streets. I just want to say that I completely support the Pallet homes and the micro communities. I've seen what's happened at Christ Lutheran Church and it's been an amazing success and I'm super excited that we're moving forward with this in Santa Fe. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, counselors. Director Wheeler. I'm Joe Dudiac. I volunteer a bunch at the shelter. I've volunteered for about 12 years. I also am founder and executive director of Chaplain Joe Street Outreach. We do outreach to the homeless. I'm here to speak in favor of the Pallet homes. They have been proven in other cities to work. They've been proven in this city to work and they're a benefit for the neighborhoods they're in and they're a benefit of course for the homeless community, but also for the neighborhood and the city. And these, these, it's a great thing because it puts people where they have a door they can lock to go to sleep. They can leave their belongings, lock the door and leave. And they also have an address so to speak so that the social workers can come, whether it's mental health, health, physical health, addiction or whatever issues they need help on, the people that can help them know where they are and know where to find them. They are developing a 17-acre lot behind my house and I would have preferred to see Pallet homes there than the just regular homes. I really would. And so I'm in full support. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak now during public comment? All right. It looks like we are done with public comment. I will close that and we will move on to presentations. And so we have a presentation today, Parks and Open Space Capital Projects Update. We have Scott Overly, Public Works Project Manager here to present and Director Melissa McDonald. Madam Chair, counselors, while Scott's getting this set up, I just wanted to introduce you to a couple things about our capital projects. I'm very excited to be here tonight because I see this as part of a three-part series. So Scott is going to talk about the parks projects tonight and then the next presentation, you need these two. The next presentation will focus on the Municipal Recreation Complex and we'll have Sam Lubari. So we'll have Sam Olabari and our new MRC business manager Philip Luhan involved in that one. And then the third one is going to be with Zoe Isacson who will talk about a river and watershed project, storm water project, a royal project. So they're all very exciting things and I'm really glad to be able to start presenting that to you about this. Now this team runs about $40 million worth of projects and it's growing. The CIP project management was brought into parks and open space so that we can have a lot more say in terms of the projects. We're most closely aligned with the public so we know what people want and we feel like our maintenance crews have more say and I think we're having really great success with that. So I'm excited about that as well. We're not only able to deliver projects with increased quality, we're making gains in that, but also the deliverability I think is greater. For larger projects, we've decided to start requiring maintenance requirement reports. So when we come back on things like Swan and the MRC, you will know what it is going to take to maintain these amenities. And I often hear from the governing body, concerns about our maintenance. This will allow us to understand what we're going to build and really build it to last so that you know what we need. So that's one of the big advantages of having us run these projects. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Scott Overly, our project manager. And I want to give a big shout out to Scott. He's a huge asset for our division and our capital projects. He came to us from the private sector and he's been able to deliver these projects with just such skill and consistency and it often feels very seamless, which it really isn't, but it's exciting. So tonight he's going to share some recent successes, some ENs, some ribbon cuttings, and our timelines. And hopefully that'll give you a big picture overview. But with that, I'm going to turn it over to him. Thank you so much. Thank you, Director McDonald. Thank you for being here, Mr. Overly. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, committee members. Thank you, Director Wheeler, and thank you, Director McDonald. I am very proud to be able to show you the accomplishments that we've made over the past year or so to date. And so without further ado, we're going to go ahead and jump into this presentation. Okay, so recently completed capital projects would be the Fort Marcy Park pickleball courts. Some of you were able to be there for the ribbon cutting. Thank you very much. And that has been very well received. The Fort Marcy pickleball courts were completed on May 2nd, 2025. We added six new courts. The design and engineering was completed through our partnership with Molzen Corbin. And the funding for the work over there was through legislative funding, as well as a $100,000 donation. Construction was completed by Helus Construction. Salvador Perez Park, a multi-sport field, new synthetic turf was installed. That was completed March 15th of this year. We installed new POS-free synthetic turf field with a new drainage system, an engineered drainage system below it. We also utilized a new technological, they call it an Ecom. It's an infill material, and it actually reduces heat up to 30 degrees over the traditional black rubber infill. This is the stuff that goes into the fabric itself. That project was $1.2 million, was also completed by Helus Construction. At Ragle Park, we were able to change field number one from turf grass to synthetic turf, again using the same material that was basically used over at the Salvador Perez. So we also have the Eco infill at that place, and it also includes a drainage system. And by reducing the amount of turf grass, we also have reduced the amount of irrigation and are saving quite a bit of water over there. As you might remember, two years ago, a year and a half ago, we finished field number two over there. So this is literally going around the bases. We're going to get them all, I hope. That was also Helus Construction, and that was a $1.3 million job. And then, by the way, all three of those, we came in under budget and on time. So those were big jobs, a lot of fun. Interesting times, but yes. Alto Park and Salvador Perez Park, the tennis court resurfacing was completed late last fall. And we updated the color scheme over there, which matches our color scheme that we used when we installed Larragoite Park tennis courts and also Herb Martinez tennis courts. And the cost on that was $155,000. Resurfacing was Helus. So here I want to, I have some pictures of when we started the work while it was under construction. And the boom that you see on the right picture, right-hand picture, we brought in over 400 cubic yards of concrete at night, and we finished about 7:00 in the morning. And when I say we, I say that because I was standing out there in the cold watching it happen. It was actually impressive. It was a lot of concrete. And so the reason being so that so much concrete, this is a post-tension system that is built to last a very long time. We met the construction schedule, as I mentioned before, and we were able to actually open the courts the day before the 2025 Dinko De Mayo tournament. So there were over 220 participants. They got to play on the new courts. We also were able to resurface the old courts. So the whole place looked really pretty, shiny, and new. It was a lot of fun. Here's another picture. We were able to get a drone up in the air so you can see how big that pour was. It's a monolithic pour, so it was just one truck after another. And then the picture on the right is early morning for the Dinko De Mayo. Here's the Salvador Perez area, and you can see the construction after we took out the old fabric, and then the completed on the right-hand side again with a drone. We included the schematics for both soccer and football, and all of the colors that you see on there are integral to the fabric itself. This is not painted on. It doesn't wear off. It's actually in the fabric. We were also able to do something that was kind of unique. We were able to include the city seal right in the middle of it. That's about a 50-foot circle that goes across, and that had a, it received a lot of attention the day we opened. One of the other things I wanted to comment, every time that we're able to do this kind of a surface, it allows us for year-round play. So potentially, I mean, when there's a lot, there's snow or ice, we won't be able to play. But compared to our turf fields, when they go down and they go dormant in the wintertime and we can't water them, we really should be playing on them because it really does damage to the turf grass. This allows us to have much more extended play. And then Ragle Park, and again, drone shots, they're impressive. So we have a picture of after the turf grass, the living turf grass was removed, and then the install on the right. And then this is the ribbon cutting picture on the right-hand side. On the left, I'm sorry, the drone shot of the turf grass, and then the ribbon cutting on the right. We are able to extend the field to 225 feet, which allows it to be used for tournament play. And also again for year-round play if people want to go out there and play on it. And here's some pictures of the Alto and Salvador Perez Park with the new color schemes. Also installed were new nets and posts on all the courts. And we also installed a hard wall or bang wall, they call it. So if you want to play by yourself, you can hit it against the wall for practice. Ongoing capital projects. Okay. So we have Shelby Street Bridge. We call it Shelby Street Bridge, but it's the at Shelby Street and Alameda pedestrian bridge. That is currently in design and is going under historical review. We have a 30% review expected. I noted in July here, but I was able to move it up. We're actually going to have it on the 24th of June. So that is for the, under contract now is Wilson Engineering, who is actually working on the design and conceptual sketches that will be available to look at at the ENN meeting. Swan Park Phase Two. We have $3.8 million in existing funding. It is in design right now, contracted with Design Office for the landscape architecture and Bohannan Houston Engineering for the roadway extension. We are introducing five new elements as part of the work at the park. And so we will be also presenting that park in late June, probably more like July for review. We've already done our ENNs for that park. The Santa Fe Median Beautification Project, again, currently in design phase one construction, expected potentially spring or summer of 2026 start on Airport Road. That is in design with our partners at Site Southwest Landscape Architecture, and we currently have $1.7 million in funding for that job. The Municipal Recreation Complex, also known as MRC, the Soccer Valley Expansion Project. It is also currently in stakeholder and public engagement and design, and a 30% review is expected late summer of 2025. We have contracted with Bohannan Houston Engineering. We currently have $5.3 million in funding and with an expected $3 million more from a donation. And so that project is taking shape and is looking very interesting. Water History Park. Some people don't know what Water History Park is, and they don't. And it's a neat park, but we're going to make it even better. So we've been working on a historical signage job up there, and with the, what is it called? The Canyon Road Preserve Association. I'm sorry. Yeah. Working hand in hand with them, and they're very, they are very a wealth of information on the history of that area. So we are contracted with Davenport Construction, and that is currently in the planning and design process, and then Davenport will be doing the installation on that. Yes, we are, that is end of June. I have a lot of ENNs coming in June. So yeah. And then lastly, we have the Fort Marcy Park Improvement Project. That is currently in design. We have an early neighborhood notification expected, and this is at the end of June. Actually, it's going to be July 1st. And so I just was able to verify that today. So we will be having that. Some of the repair improvements will be completed prior to the fall 2025. Additional improvements will go into 2026. We're looking, so some of the improvements that we're looking at, grandstand, we are looking to do work on the grandstand area and the concession and the bathrooms. So those are, those are all items that are old aged, are definitely needing some help, and so that's part of what we're looking at. Accessibility and safety. So walkways and retaining walls, we need to make sure that they are set up so that they're safe and that we don't have some of the older items that are starting to wear out. We need to get them out and replace them with newer items. They're going to last a long time. Electrical system improvements we're looking at, as well as some water improvements, including irrigation for some trees and potable water for the dog park and the drinking fountain at the pickleball courts. I mentioned access improvement, but an additional access improvement would be at the East Side Arroyo crossing. This actually comes off of Bishop's Lodge Road, which allows us to get to the backside of the park in the ball field, additional access for pedestrians during the events that we have there. We're looking at building better access from different points around the park. Currently, we have $5 million in funding, and we have Molzen Corbin under contract, helping us with the design engineering and for project management services. And that's it. Great. Thank you. Appreciate all the information, and the pictures are great, so thank you for that. Are there any questions or comments from committee? Councilor Michael Garcia. Councilor Michael Garcia: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Scott. No questions. Just thank you for really working to help to improve the infrastructure of our community, but more importantly, doing it under budget and quicker than the time proposed. That is amazing. So, just thank you for that. Really appreciate that. I appreciate that. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Lee Garcia. Councilor Lee Garcia: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Overly. Director McDonald. I think that the amount of projects that are underway are, wow, it's crazy to see and how busy you guys are probably with the community outreach. I know that I've attended a few of the Swan Park stuff. And I think community outreach, obviously listening, we can't do everything that everybody wants. But at the same time, as long as we listen and try to incorporate those things into our community parks is very important. The medians, all of that stuff is crazy. So thank you for your work. Just, I think I was talking to somebody over the weekend in regards to the Franklin Miles area, and I know there was a community cleanup there just last week. But, you know, that's kind of a centralized area where possibly soccer fields could be, or I think it would be amazing to have a large soccer complex of some sort. Just food for thought. But thank you guys for being here and presenting all the wonderful work. Thank you, Councilor Lee Garcia. Councilor Kestra. Councilor Kestra: Yes, thank you again for the presentation, Mr. Overly. I have a couple questions about the ENN. I recently went to an ENN that was all in person. It was around the reconstruction in the Arroyo, but some folks have been concerned that some of the past ENNs were virtual, and some of our older residents weren't able to participate. Can you give us a history of sort of how those ENNs work and what we can be expecting in some of the upcoming ones? Right now, we're planning on in-person ENNs. I know that in the past, a lot of the virtual ENNs came out of the COVID situation. I personally find that there's better interaction when you're face-to-face. A lot of times during these ENNs, we break it up into groups and then we move around within them to get more information. So all of the ones we have planned right now are in person. Perfect. Thank you so much, Director. Madam Chair, Councilor Castro, I also want to let you know that we're making an incredible effort to have bilingual ENNs, and that we have gone above and beyond. I'm really proud of the Parks Division for really insisting that we have that feedback, especially with the MRC field expansion, Soccer Valley project. We really were assertive in trying to get that out to that community because so much of the soccer community is invested in that. So I just wanted to highlight that because it's very important that we get many opinions in this. 100%. And sorry, I guess on that note, I know that Franklin Miles Park was recently added to the Midtown corridor, or we will be seeing a little bit of a shift. Does that change anything with how you were looking at managing the park? Is there anything that we can do to help facilitate that inclusion? Well, you know, just making, Madam Chair and counselors, just making it known to your constituents that we want to hear them and encouraging them to come out and participate. As many people as we can get, the more voices, the better the product, and we really sincerely do want to hear from people. Thank you so much. No further questions. Thank you, Councilor Castro. Anyone else? All right. I do. I was just talking to one of the fans of the work that you all have done. My son was like, "Where's the sugar? I can't find the sugar." It was a crisis just a while ago, so I was texting him. But he and his brother are both in Little League. So, we've been enjoying the field. We've also spent a lot of time on the soccer field at MRC and at Salvador. Sorry. It's not Sandoval. It's pretty amazing. His little brother just feels like he's on a professional field at Salvador when he's there playing soccer, even when he's just playing for fun. So, I think that we really see the benefits of this work with our youth, and that makes a huge impact when not only are they excited to engage in sports, but they feel valued while engaging in those sports because the facilities are the way they should be for our youth. I do, though, hope that we could find ways to put some focus on Franklin Miles because as much as they get super excited to be at Regal every time we have to practice at Franklin Miles, I get a lot of input from my teenagers on the conditions and how hard, and it's their least favorite place to practice, but it's where they usually have to just because it's limited. So, I would love to see what we can do there and help in trying to get some of that voice captured for you all so we could get an idea on how to move forward at least with Franklin Miles. I think that that's consistent feedback we receive from our constituents. But, you know, we see the effort, and there's always hope for improvement. We see it happening in all these other areas. So, I thank you for that, and I appreciate the presentation. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, counselors. I appreciate the time to be able to show you what we're doing and where we're at with everything. No, we appreciate it very much, and so does the community. So, thank you. All right. I think we have one item pulled off of consent. Is that where we are? We are there. So, that is item G, consideration of Resolution Number 2025 to be determined, sponsored by Mayor Alan Weber, Councilor Jamie Cassutt, Councilor Alma Castro, and Councilor Amanda Chavez. A resolution identifying city property at 2395 Richards Avenue as a location of a micro-community to provide shelter and supportive services for individuals experiencing homelessness in Santa Fe. And we have Director Henry H. Paul here. And I think we will kick it off to you, Director, to start with the presentation on this or provide some information. Did you want a motion or not? Oh, we do need a motion. Thank you. Motion to approve. Second. All yours, Director. Madam Chair, counselors, I actually don't have a visual presentation. There'll be much more discussion of this per the committee assignments as it goes through, and then also tomorrow at the special governing body session. I will just give a few quick data points, and I'm deeply appreciative of all the folks who've come and spoken with multiple different perspectives on this. I think there's been a remarkable, constructive conversation that has been going on about what this looks like, what are the needs and desires of a community both to be in one of these micro-communities, but also to be neighboring to one of them. So, I'm deeply appreciative of the constructive conversation there. I will quickly point out two things in the resolution and then some data about this just to help frame the conversation, but ultimately, I believe this is an opportunity for questions from the committee. So, first, I want to point to the last sentence of the resolution that's under consideration. I believe that's the right term, which is that it directs the city manager and city manager-designated city staff to take immediate necessary steps to acquire and establish a micro-community on city property. And this includes such as land use permitting, site preparation, and community engagement and other administrative steps. So, there's a little bit of a chicken and the egg when it comes to how community engagement occurs for a specific site as opposed to the concept more broadly. But it is, at least as I understand it, very clear to staff that the community engagement is a component of what is required per this resolution and how the city staff shall proceed. So, that is my understanding of the resolution. And then just in the bigger picture, a lot of conversation right now about homelessness in our city and affordable housing. "Complex issue" is a very poor way of describing it, but maybe one that just suffices for the moment. I do want to point to, in a world where many, many people are saying nothing works, I want to point to the data that we have from our pilot community here in Santa Fe. And this is updated as of May 28th, 2025, so last Wednesday, 36 individuals have been served at the Arroyo Chamiso Micro-Community. On average, and this is a big number, those individuals have an average of 68 months of homelessness each. I don't know, that's over five years a piece. But compared to other models, we see really positive and promising outcomes. First, a total of nine people out of that 36 have moved into permanent housing. This site has been open for a year and two months. Nine people into permanent housing. Two more have active housing vouchers and are on waiting lists to be using those vouchers. Three more have qualified for permanent supporting housing and are waiting on a waiting list to receive that housing. And then six more are on the waitlist for permanent supportive housing through the LifeLinks linkages voucher system. So, that accounts to 26 of the 36 people who have either achieved permanent housing or are on waitlists for permanent housing, which is about 72%. So, the long and the short of it, at least from the data that we've seen from this pilot, is that this is working, and it is actively getting people out of homelessness and into stabilization so that they can achieve permanent housing. Thank you so much, Director. And I'm going to go ahead and ask the sponsors if they'd like to talk to this at all before I turn it over to discussion. And the only one other than myself that is here is Councilor Castro. Do you have anything to add? No, I actually pulled this item in particular to give Director Henry H. Paul the opportunity to speak to that process of chicken and egg situation of how we were going to engage the community. And also, I don't know if you're ready to sort of talk about the next public meeting coming up July 1st, where folks will have the opportunity to discuss some of these issues. Thank you, Councilor, Madam Chair, Councilor Castro. So, yes, I mean, in short, to begin in-depth community neighborhood-based engagements around discussions about criteria that the community needs to have at a specific site, really only makes sense for us to begin when we are committed as a city that one site makes sense to begin those conversations. Otherwise, it's a complicated dynamic of trying to stir up people to engage on a topic only to then have it not actually be relevant. So, this resolution provides a pathway for us to now pursue that in earnest and have meaningful conversations as a condition of establishing a specific site. The city has, furthermore, committed or expressed interest in multiple city-owned sites. I believe at one point there was a call to have one site in each district. At the moment, we need to continue that conversation to understand what are other optimal sites that can meet these various needs. So, on July 1st, we'll be having a town hall that will be both an opportunity for the public to learn about the model more broadly, but then to also engage in a process of providing input onto what other sites might look like, where they might be, the types of populations they might serve. Perfect. Thank you. And I think the only other thing I would add is that we have changes scheduled to send this to Quality of Life, and so we will be discussing this tomorrow. Correct. But we will not be voting on it. Is that, that's my understanding? That's correct. I believe per the agenda, this goes to Governing Body on the 11th for voting. Perfect. No further questions. Thank you. Thank you. And I, you know, I want to just leave the discussion up to the committee, but I do want to say that I feel like we're in a place where we need, we need both action and we need collaboration with the community. But I think as leaders of the city, we have to first take that initiative and starting a process so that we are in a place where we're ending in actual results and actual action. And the way that we make that serve the community better is through the process we collaborate with them. And it sounds like the process is going to be that way. But I just want to thank Director Henry H. Paul for just taking the initiative and really wanting to tackle the issue of homelessness, which we've been concerned about as a whole community for some time now, and really wanting to arrive at a place of great result, as much result as we possibly can. So, I appreciate the work behind this. I appreciate the intention and how it's going to move forward, and us really wanting to get as much community feedback as possible. So, I thank you for that, Director. And now turning it over to the committee. Are there any questions, comments, concerns? Yes, Councilor Garcia. I first just want to start off by saying I 100% support shelter communities. We have one in District 2 that's continuously being referred to as the successful model. I remember that process when it began. There was definite opposition from residents, and then through constant engagement from Christ Lutheran, that project has shown success. So for that, I'm just thankful for Christ Lutheran and really walking the walk and talking the talk. Now, when it comes to walking the walk and talking the talk, I don't believe that the city has a good track record of that. A perfect example is that in February, when we allocated the monies for the additional purchase of these shelters, there were several counselors on this dais that said we need to have community engagement first before any proposal is brought forward. That's not what has happened. The process for these type of proposals, it's critical that community is engaged first, especially when it's publicly owned property, because this is the public's property. Christ Lutheran is private property. Residents don't really get a say what goes on in private property. But when it comes to public property, residents have the right, and I think that's what I heard loud and clear when we allocated the money, was that community engagement must be done and then bring us forward with the proposal. I don't believe that there's anything prohibitive that would have stopped us from having this action. I mean, we can have this resolution before us, but then there could be scheduled town halls in conjunction with it. That way, we can hear from residents in regards to what their concerns or support are. That actually helps the process. It helps me as a counselor determine what is ultimately the best viable path for success. So with that, why wasn't community engagement done first, Director Hammond Paul? Or at least parallel? Why are we planning to have community engagement after this proposal is or is not approved? Mayor: Counselor Garcia, thanks for the question. So I think I would say a couple things. One is that there has been substantive community engagement over the past three years on this issue. I'm going to stop you there because we heard a resident just give testimony tonight and has given testimony previously to not be the truth. And tell me when there was specific community engagement between February and today on this topic that was open to the public. I know there's been some community engagement around the site on Agua Fria that was led by the neighborhood that was not city-led. The guidance was that the city has to lead the process. So why has the city not led this process from February 2025 to this date? Mayor: Counselor Garcia, I think the resolution points staff to engage in community engagement for this specific site as a precondition for it being established. But Director Hammond Paul, again, what's so extremely frustrating not only as a counselor but as a resident, when the community comes out and begs to be engaged before the process begins, when counselors request for engagement to begin before requests are brought before us, and that's ignored. I find that it's a circumvention of what we as a governing body are ultimately tasked to do, is work to provide a benefit for the residents of Santa Fe. And I'm talking about all residents, not only the residents that currently live in the neighborhood, but the residents that might be a resident of a pallet shelter community. Because the last thing I'd want is for conflict to be there, a pallet shelter community get established, and there be animosity between residents of the community and then residents of the pallet shelter community. Can I speak to community engagement? Sure, Garcia. I do think this was when I supported this because I was one of the counselors that said we need town halls for the micro communities. And I think we did hear from the public. I think there was the presentation that was made. I know I had many conversations with constituents. I received emails. I think we had a lot of people coming to meetings providing comment. And I think what made that type of engagement really difficult is we didn't have answers because we hadn't made a decision. And I think it's very clear that we have to commit to some type of proposed action in order for us to work with the community in a productive way. Because if we say, "Well, what do you think if it's here? What do you think if it's there?" there's going to be a lot of questions coming at us, and the planning process is not initiated in a way where we could actually answer those questions. And I think that's where my mind shifted because I know that I saw how the public engaged. I saw how limited our response could be to them because we hadn't actually made a decision about a location or a proposed location. And so now there's this action of, "This is where we're looking at putting up a micro community. We want to have conversations to build it in a way that serves those that it serves, those that will be housed there, and those that are housed around the micro community." And I think this is the type of collaboration I'm learning very quickly in my four years here that is actually productive. We get caught up a lot in this idea of community engagement, but we need to kind of lead in order to have productive engagement with community so we actually have a product. Because the other side of this, which I hear consistently weekly from community members, is, "We never act. They say all you want to do is talk. You guys never act. Do something." I think this is a great way to do both. So we're engaging or initiating an action, but it won't, we won't arrive at a final product without hearing and building it with the community. And I think that's how we actually arrive at a good product. So I just wanted to share, I know that the community had been present here. I know why my mind shifted on it. I just, I don't know if that helps at all. Counselor Garcia, thank you, Madam Chair. I definitely appreciate that perspective. But somebody who's been doing community engagement for two decades, when you engage the public after a decision is made, you're going to bring less stakeholders to the table. You're going to have less buy-in and trust in the process. And ultimately, whatever the final outcome is, it's not as strong as if you engage folks on the front end. And a perfect example of this situation right here is we've got plenty of time to plan a July 1st community engagement process. My question is, why couldn't we have that parallel to this process of this resolution? There's nothing in law. There's nothing in our rules that would not allow for this resolution to be introduced and actually schedule the committee meetings to be after July 1st. That actually would benefit the process in my opinion. So, it seems like we're not going to get anywhere with this question. I'm just very frustrated, and this is what ultimately might not lead me to supporting this, is because if we're not going to authentically engage the public, and we've shown through the city's historical process of leading its own good neighbor agreements, i.e., the process that we've had with the Interfaith Shelter and the Pete's Place location, and the frustration I constantly hear from residents in that neighborhood saying that I don't even attend those meetings anymore because it's not productive. We need to do better. So with that, for this particular location, will guests be allowed to use illegal drugs at the site? Mayor: Counselor Garcia, no, that is a decision that is ultimately up to the provider in terms of how the community is structured and what the requirements are for living there. As it stands, the city is recommending that this site is for families with children. So I would say that drug use would not be a permissible condition for the residents who will be living in this site. But ultimately, these are designed, each community, to serve a different group of individuals with different sets of needs. I don't believe families with children should be having drugs in their communities. So the short answer is no. The longer answer is, I think some communities may want to say a medium barrier or recovery-oriented micro community might be for them, but that is not what the intention is for this site. Okay, thank you. This resolution does not have a timeframe for the pallet shelter community location lifespan. I've heard terminology from a couple years to up to three years to up to five years. What is the timeframe for this, and why isn't it included in the resolution? Mayor: Counselor Garcia, that's a great, I'm not deeply familiar with the legislation writing process, but if that's something that the governing body is interested in seeing, I see no reason for that not to be an amendment. But I'm not intimately familiar. I have said, and I will continue to say, that these are not long-term solutions to the lack of affordable housing in our city, nor are they stopgaps to get us to where we need to be. If these things are lasting for 10 years in a community, then we've done a bad job. These are things that are supposed to carry us through until we can have brick-and-mortar facilities that support people's needs. In terms of a specific timeline, staff can make recommendations on that, but ultimately, I think that is a thing that can be negotiated with the community or on the governing body. I will also say, I think that, and I actually believe a person in attendance here has suggested something similar, the city should be accountable for the quality of services provided at these things, at these micro communities. I apologize, I'm a little slow on my words today. The city should be accountable, and we should have mechanisms and expect mechanisms for holding the city to account, whether that looks like review periods or reauthorization. I think that's totally fair. But again, if these things are here in seven to ten years, then I think the city has done a bad job, not only staff and electeds, but the city as a whole in solving our affordable housing crisis. Okay, thank you, Director. And that kind of dovetails into my last question around what are we going to use to define success and what metrics, what performance measurement, etc.? Mayor: I think that's a great question. I think it's definitely one that, sorry, Counselor Garcia, I think that's a great question, and it's one that I think is going to come up a lot in the next couple days, which is what does success look like? I think to me there are a couple key metrics that we should be looking at. Without boring many folks here and sparing them the details of the homelessness information management system and the variety of data requirements that that is for sites like these and others, we should be looking at two things. One, public safety statistics. How often is law enforcement showing up? How often is emergency medical services showing up? And is this actually creating a safer and healthier environment for the neighborhood? The second is, what are the results that are being achieved for individuals or with individuals who are living in these communities? And ultimately, that gets down to, are people actually moving into permanent housing? When I pointed to the 72% of people who have either moved into permanent housing or are in a very advanced stage of having either a voucher in hand or on waiting for a unit to come online at the current micro community. That's an important metric to say people aren't living here forever. People are using this as a means of being stabilized, getting the services they need to be ultimately put into a place that is where people can and should be living for long periods of time. Okay, thank you, Director Hammond Paul. I appreciate that. As we move forward with this, if we can flesh out more plans in regards to what that July 1st community engagement meeting looks like, because it's one thing to say we're going to have a community engagement meeting, but when the rubber meets the road, what does that look like? What are the outcomes? Besides a good neighborhood agreement, which is required per prior resolutions, I really think that this being the first city-owned site to place a pallet shelter community, we need to set the bar high and we need to really show how we are listening to residents and how we're going to take that information to make it the best successful and safe place for not only residents in the existing community but residents at the college shelter community. Thank you, Director Hammond Paul. I appreciate the question or the responses to my questions. Thank you, Councilor Michael Garcia. Councilor Lee Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Director Hammond Paul, for being here. And obviously, this is going to be quite a journey. And I say a journey because it seems as if there's a lot of pieces to all of this puzzle. And I've always said that you can't just attack a problem with one solution. You've got to have multiple assets that contribute to the overall solution and hopefully have a good outcome. I think, speaking to the mechanism to get the ball rolling on all of this, and I think that's where the resolution comes into play. I do concur with Councilor Garcia in regards to community engagement. And yet, where do you start? It's kind of like putting that first fence post on a fence. If you don't put that first fence post in, you're not going to get going. You may have to readjust. And I think the readjusting process is going to be very important for us as we move forward. And so, sometimes you have to take it back down and then put it back up. And so, I think that's the analogy that I'll use in regards to some of the concerns that I've already, people have reached out, is right away people see 50 units. It's in the resolution and it says up to 50. I guess my question would be along the lines of how scalable can this be? And this may be something that during the community engagement process going forward is, do you start off with 20 and add as we go? Because obviously, we also want to look at costs. But not being so familiar with the process on how easy it is to erect these, if you can set pad sites for 50 units and maybe 20 are up and then as you go build them. So scalability is a potential to ease into this process with the community. And I think that's something. So is that something that might be on the table as far as engagement with our community as we go forward? Madam Chair, Councilor Lee Garcia, the short answer, well, I think the short answer is yes. There's a more complicated math that we should do as a city, which is that, you know, there's different types of returns on the investment. And in some ways, if you get too many units, you're going to have diminishing returns in that it's going to be harder to satisfactorily provide services and the individual attention that people need. On the other side of the bell curve, you're going to have, you know, the pilot community is doing great and we have seen incredible results there. And yet if we have double the number of units, we could probably have the same number of staff serving that without any compromises to quality. So there's, we have to find that point as a city in collaboration with the operator, and I believe that sweet spot is right around 30 to 40 units. You know, many cities have ones that are considerably larger, but I think the city of Santa Fe is interested in making sure that we make this succeed at the right scale and not overestimating and under-delivering on the type of quality that we're looking for. Thank you. And obviously, economies of scale come into it all. And you don't want to overdo it, but at the same time, you want to hit that sweet spot in regards to overall costs and putting things in all at the same time. So I understand that portion of it. I, once again, I think that having something built into the process where we truly do have reports back and maybe even action given by the governing body where if in a year or two years, three years, five years, gives this governing body, whoever is sitting up here, the opportunity to say, you know what, this isn't working. We need to really rethink this or be done with it. I mean, checks and balances going down the road. I mean, obviously, we're making this investment and that would be the will of this governing body, but it may look different in two years and well, it will look different in a year from now. And so, how do we put those into the plan in regards to making sure that it's working? Because at the same time, all stakeholders are going to have to be held accountable. Whoever is running it and who is supporting it, and we as a city are taking a big step forward in being a partner there as well. So I think that's very, very important. So is that something that could be built into this process of evaluation going forward and how it's working? Madam Chair, Lee Garcia, I don't see why not. Thank you. And so, lastly again, I don't think anyone wants to put something up for failure. And I think that if we can keep tabs on how it's working going forward. I think that one of the other concerns that I heard from some constituents is in regards to its proximity to the Chavez Center and even the tennis area. And so, I think that going back to where is, where either where's the best place to put something like this in the neighborhoods? No, no neighborhoods. Here in this spot where it's kind of not right next to a neighborhood, but it is in a neighborhood, somewhat proximity. And in the outreach process, what is the circumference of who will be contacted to be involved with this going forward? Madam Chair, Councilor Lee Garcia, one moment. I just want to ask, I believe at current, it is, we're looking at around a half a mile of radius, but I think that is not prescriptive. I would also say, if I may, very quickly on the question of proximity to Chavez Center, just, you know, the city this week delivered 44 vouchers to the families living at Consuelo's Place so that they can have access to the Chavez Center this summer. There's children living at Consuelo's. So proximity in my mind is actually a good thing. We have family programs that are run out of there, access to swimming pools for kids, remembering that the intention is to put families in this location next to Spire Station 7 and the Chavez Center. Thank you, Director Hammond Paul. And you know, again, I think that it's, in my opinion, it's time to put that first fence post in. And you know, I sit up here as an elected official saying, you know what, we are charged with making these hard decisions, which sometimes isn't always favorable to people who are the voters. And yet we still have to take a look at how do we make these hard decisions and how are they done? And not only how do we keep tabs on them and making sure that they are successful. I think that's the biggest thing in my mind is making sure that if we are making these decisions, how are we as not only counselors but staff and the administration making sure that they're not going south on us. And so I think that's going to be the biggest thing going forward. And with that, I'll yield. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Councilor Lee Garcia. Any other questions, comments? Councilor Castro. Yeah, if I wasn't mistaken, Councilor Garcia asked about who the contractor was going to be. Is that part of the process? Do we know who the contractor is going to be? Thank you. Madam Chair, Councilor Castro, Councilor Lee Garcia. Sorry, I think I had maybe misheard the question. The contractor is going to be Davenport Construction. And they'll be working with us on the notification processes, community engagement part as well. So yeah, sorry if I missed that. No, no further questions. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilor Castro. Any other questions, comments? All right, we have a motion and a second. Could I get a roll call vote, please? Certainly, Madam Chair. Councilor Castro, yes. Councilor Michael Garcia, abstain. Councilor Lee Garcia, yes. Councilor Romero Worth, I'm just a counselor here. I mean, Councilor, sorry, I had it written the other way. Yes. And Chair Chavez, yes. The motion passes. Thank you, and thank you, Councilor Romero Worth, for stepping in when I was running late. I appreciate it. All right, next we will go to matters from staff. I'll turn it over to you, Director. Thank you. So, thank you so much, Madam Chair. I do have some updates. I was requested last week to provide an update about the Airport Road paving. And you have probably noticed the bond ordinance has been introduced. That's a key piece of getting to paving Airport Road because that is the biggest single paving project that the city will have done in seven years that I've been here. It's an over $3 million project to repave and rehabilitate that road. And so the bond ordinance has been introduced. I think that means that we could be looking forward to funding as in early August. The team has met with the contractor about the possibility of paving a portion of the road before the winter, the worst part, which is the northbound lanes. I have this in a message. It's from Poap to Po del Sol on the north two lanes. They're the worst ones. So we can't do the whole project. It's a $3 million project. It'll take probably a month to do, but the contractor and the staff have looked at the road and are proposing that if they can get the funding and the PO cut before the end of the season, they could pave part of it and do that quickly. So, that's the update on that. I also have another update on the Guadalupe Street construction project. We're giving the community very frequent updates. Friday, a gas main was found buried only six inches below the pavement. It needs to be three feet below the new pavement, which is a foot below the existing pavement. So New Mexico Gas Company has to relocate that gas line, that gas main. They're expediting the project. They expect to be done by next Thursday. So we're issuing a press release with new schedule, with new dates for the paving that will affect the contractors. But this Guadalupe project, as difficult and uncomfortable as it is, will deliver really great benefits to that corridor. It'll make it a destination as a place rather than just a corridor, which is what it was. It has all that new infrastructure fixed. All the water leaks are fixed, the gas leaks are fixed, the bad storm drainage, we had sinkholes happening there. So there are a lot of benefits to the immediate residents and businesses, as well as to the community at large. But it is a difficult project to get through all that ancient infrastructure in our ancient city. So those are the only updates I had. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Director. Are there any matters from any committee members? Councilor Lee Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick note, somebody did reach out and they were looking for the committee Zoom link. I guess I was unclear that there's not a committee Zoom link for this. Maybe it's something for us to consider for the future. It doesn't seem like we get a whole lot of people that come in, so I don't know how hard that would be. So, just a question. The other thing that the same person brought to my attention is it said Councilor Chris Rivera was still on this thing somewhere on the website. So if we can take a look at that as well. I didn't have time to look into that, but I told him that I would ask the question or bring it up under counselor comments. And with that, no further comments, Madam Chair. Any other committee matters? All right. Well, I do want to say thank you for the update on Airport Road. And I will say, just having the information given last meeting and sharing it with the community, they were actually grateful that there was a date. So, at first I was like, it's probably going to be spring of 2026 for when it starts off. But look at this, it looks like it's going to be sooner than that. So, thank you, Director Wheeler. And I do want to say none of the committees have public comment, our main committee, so that's Quality of Life, Finance, Public Works, and Utilities. When I did begin chair of this committee, we did get requests to have public comment, and we agreed to do so with staff. We will look into Zoom. What makes Zoom difficult is it does take more staff, more manpower to manage. And we are a committee and don't necessarily have the staffing. So, I will say in the meantime, please join us in the chambers. You could make public comment. Every single meeting, we start our meeting with public comment. I do want to give a reminder out for our Gun Violence Awareness event, which is this Saturday, June 7th, from 11 to 2. We will be reading a proclamation, and we will be having personal statements from community members affected by gun violence. We will have JP Grano that will be leading this event, or leading individuals who attend, and an art activity that will be representing not only remembering those lives that are lost, but advocating for change. And so that event is this Saturday for anyone that would be interested in attending. And with that, I think, wait, one more, one more reminder, Madam Chair. Sorry. I think the next meeting will be at Randall Davey Center. Is that right? We do. We have a field trip. So we'll send some reminder emails out on those details. And that will be June 9th, 2025. And with that, I think we are adjourned. Thank you.