Quality of Life Committee Wed, Aug 20, 2025 · Quality of Life Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/812 == Executive Summary == The Quality of Life Committee met to discuss two primary topics: the city's broadband strategic plan and the ongoing issues and repairs at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center (GCCC) ice rink. Regarding broadband, the committee reviewed efforts to improve internet access and affordability, particularly through ARPA funding for free Wi-Fi access points. They emphasized the importance of digital equity and the need for a clear, actionable strategic plan, while also exploring potential collaboration with Santa Fe County. The committee also received a comprehensive update on the GCCC ice rink, which has experienced numerous mechanical failures due to aging equipment and design flaws. Discussions highlighted the $1.4 million invested in repairs since 2019, the current $268,000 repair costs, and the challenges posed by procurement rules, specialized contractor licensing, and staffing shortages. The projected reopening of the rink is between November 1st and 17th, pending parts delivery and installation. The committee stressed the need for transparent communication with the public about repair timelines and progress. == Key Decisions == - Approved the agenda. - Approved the consent agenda as amended. - Approved Resolution 2025-2, authorizing the sale and consumption of beer and wine for the Route 66 Centennial Festival concert, with an amendment to correct event times. == Motions & Votes == - Motion to approve the agenda — Passed unanimously. - Motion to approve the consent agenda as amended — Passed unanimously. - Motion to amend Resolution 2025-2 to correct a time error (changing 5 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 7 p.m. on page two, line seven) — Passed unanimously (Councilor Castro, Councilor Chavez, Councilor Garcia, Madam Chair all voted yes). - Motion to approve Resolution 2025-2 as amended — Passed unanimously (Councilor Castro, Councilor Chavez, Councilor Garcia, Madam Chair all voted yes). - Motion to postpone the presentation for Item H, with the option for committee members to meet individually with Rod and receive the presentation in advance — Passed. == Public Comment == Public comments and committee member inquiries focused on the need for alternative funding for broadband affordability, the rationale behind shifting to community Wi-Fi access points, and the urgency of addressing the digital divide. For the GCCC ice rink, committee members emphasized the need for long-term planning, increased resources, and transparent communication with the public regarding repair timelines and progress, especially given the impact of climate change and staffing challenges. == Topics == - Ice Rink Maintenance - Broadband Access - Staffing and Compensation - Economic Development - Budget Process Improvements - Route 66 Centennial Festival - Digital Divide - Climate Change Impact - Housing Services - Public Communication == Full Transcript == Are we live or not quite? We are live. Wonderful. All right. It is 5:00 PM with a busy evening ahead of us. So, I'm going to go ahead and call the Quality of Life Committee meeting to order. If I can please have a roll call. Marcel, if you're able, or I can. Councilor Castro. Present. Councilor Chavez. Here. Councilor Garcia. Present. Madam Chair. I am here. And for the record, Councilor Falner is excused. And we have a quorum. Moving on to approval of the agenda. If there are any changes from staff or the committee, and if not, or staff or the committee move to approve. Thank you. Motion and a second. All those in favor say, "Aye." Aye. Wonderful. Oh, any opposed? Motion carries. Moving to approval of consent agenda. There have been two items that have been pulled off. One for a quick amendment and one for a quick presentation. Item H and item I. Are there, is there anything else anyone would like to pull off at this time? Approve as amended. Second. Motion in a second. Roll call, please. Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Chavez. Yes. Councilor Garcia. Yes. Madam Chair. Yes. Motion passes. Wonderful. Thank you. All right. On to presentations. Our first presentation today, we have economic development, broadband, and Wi-Fi update. We have Johanna Nelson, our Economic Development Director, and Lizzie Portillo, Economic Development Specialist, and Tony Flores of F5 Planning and Consulting. So, welcome. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, Councilors and City staff. We'll load up our presentation. We're ready to, we can share. Oh, there we go. Wonderful. Good evening. My name is Joanna Nelson. I'm the Director for the Office of Economic Development. Great to see everyone here tonight. I'm joined with our amazing Lizzie Portillo, who is on our staff and our team at Economic Development and has really been helping us on this charge to identify ways that we can support and build and develop broadband and access to Wi-Fi in the City of Santa Fe. If you all recall, we did receive ARPA funding, the federal funding a couple of years ago in response to COVID mitigation to address Wi-Fi access. As we know, broadband infrastructure and access to affordable Wi-Fi is very important to our team and our businesses. Our residents need access to Wi-Fi for school all the way up to doing online business. And we have been in the process over the last year plus years working with the great City staff, Larry Worcell is here, to figure out our strategy and plan. And so we are going to share with you some insights into that work over the past year. We feel really proud at the point that we've arrived at and want to share that with you all to get your feedback on next steps and actions. And I'm going to turn it over to Lizzie and we'll have, we'll share the presentation with you. Good afternoon, City Council. Happy to be here. Thank you all for the time for us to present on this. Really just doing a small intro and just special thanks to our director, Johanna Nelson, who has been instrumental in getting this work done. Also, Larry Worstell, the City Infrastructure Service Manager on our IT team. Special thanks to Larry. We have used his help tremendously. Also, wanting to introduce you to Tony Flores, who has been our wonderful contractor with F5 Planning and Consulting. We put out a request for quotes last year for a broadband strategic plan and accompanying action plan, and he's here to help discuss that tonight. So, thank you so much. And I'll turn this over to Tony Flores. Good evening, Councilors. I apologize. I've been in the sun all day at InPic, so bear with me. My eyes are still adjusting to inside light. Excuse me. Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you tonight. As we know, broadband, I'll call it around 2021 through the pandemic and even today, has been one of the most challenging things I think we as community members, business owners, educators have faced. And we continue to face those challenges. You know, I started just down the hall in 1989, right after college as a land use inspector with the City of Santa Fe. 36 years later, what I did at that point is I didn't have a computer and I didn't have a cell phone. And now they seem to be attached to us daily. We don't walk any place without a cell phone. We don't walk any place without a computer. We do business wherever we can. After I retired in government in 2019, my wife and I established F5, kind of a two-pronged approach, really project development. I have a little bit of experience in putting projects together, my previous lives in government. And then she handles all the grant development and management. Since 2020, we've been working exclusively on broadband. I mentioned Picard East. Right now, we have three of the eight northern tribes that we're working actual broadband projects, not in the sense of their strategic planning that was done 2021 and 2022, but actual implementation projects. Those projects, Pic, for instance, this morning, when those are completed by June of next year, they'll be providing broadband service to 1,600 residents of Pueblo and all those residents within their exterior boundaries. So, broadband in the sense of large and small scales, there really is no line. Right? Broadband is broadband. And people think that this thing here is broadband, and it's not. And I think that was kind of the first challenge that we identified when we started working with OED and others, is understanding what broadband is and what broadband, broadband in its truest sense is just the getting information from point A to point B. The most safe and reliable way is a fiber connection, right? That's either fiber in the ground or overheads. This, this whole eight months has gotten kind of weird. They've changed some of the rules at the federal level, and now broadband can include everything from satellite as now a preferred alternative method for delivery. Whereas up until January, that was kind of on the lower tier of being able to get broadband service to rural communities. You know, broadband as we know it really provides access to jobs. Economic development is a huge factor, and everybody thinks that economic development, broadband, besides the business aspect, it's getting that entrepreneurship from homeowners, people in the community, right? It's not just making sure our businesses have internet, but it's also making sure that our community has internet, right? The people have internet to be able to do, you know, the online health, telehealth, and remote learning. You know, there's still, even after the pandemic, there's still some asynchronous days where they do the work at home. And that's why I'm saying the challenges of broadband have never gone away. They, it just have been exacerbated because it was in our face because of the pandemic. We were unprepared as a nation, as a world. And we're trying to play catch-up right now. The technologies have changed, and they, they change the thing often is the right word, I guess. Minute by minute. Yes, I think that so broadband in the, in the sense is, is evolving, right? People think again, the cell phone, you know, they hear the 5G and the 3G and the 4G. All that is the next generation of wireless or cellular service, and 6G is coming some point. Those are great. They're, they're easy to use, but they're not connected, right? So, they still have limitations on coverage areas and foliage and dead spots and things like that. And broadband in its truest sense will bring that connectivity so it's more reliable. You don't have to worry about holding your phone outside trying to get a connection, right? So, that helps in the long term really with job creation, health care, all sorts of other, other issues. When we took this, this project on, as we've done with our other partners and their strategic planning, is really to look at what's the vision, what is Economic Development's vision as it moves forward with broadband? The State of New York, City of New York and others have really looked at this idea of establishing some vision and principles, kind of the foundational work. But then as things develop and and grow, then you can really do your goals, objectives, strategies. Our plan built that. So, it started with what do we want as a community from Office of Economic Development? And I must say, I, I give them a lot of kudos because they approached it from the community perspective, not necessarily an economic development benefit businesses, right? And that's, that's kind of key in this whole equation that we're talking about tonight. Access, you know, there has to be sufficient access to infrastructure, right? Equity, and I know that's an interesting word right now, but I still use it. So, if I get in trouble, equity is important to me because when you look at the digital divide, it's those that have and those that didn't, right? Performance, it has to be fast and reliable. That's why the preferred methodology of, of, of fiber originally was that, that hard connection, right? That's from point A to point. Affordability, you'll see in a second, the affordability means different things to different people. We'll talk about that in a second. Privacy. We want to make sure that residents, consumers, information private. We're in an age now of, of everything's digitally in the cloud or someplace else. And I'm even scared sometimes when I get some text messages or or emails of, is this right or is this wrong? You know, is this good? Don't, don't click. And then choice. The last thing is choice. Making sure there's open competition because that provides an opportunity for residents to have that flexibility in choosing a plan, a broadband plan, not a wireless plan that meet their budget. Right? So, those are the kind of foundational visions and and broad brand principles that we started with. And then from there, we, we developed the plan. The plan is, is based upon the State of New Mexico and the TIA, the FCC's federal guidelines on how to do a plan. And that's important when we started this exercise because that built the city up for a way that the plan complies with those requirements that when they go after grants, the plan is already in place, right? And you can just apply for grant money to implement some of the projects. That of course has changed over some period of time, but really the goals and objectives is to increase broadband service, promote adoption and use, and that is people having the technical digital skills to be able to operate a computer or to get on the internet or seniors not to be afraid to use internet because they've never used it before. And then the last thing again is the economic development opportunities through broadband. So, those are the overarching goals that OED and and and the team have put together as kind of the starting point as we move forward. As I said, the, the, the plan was built upon different things. The goal is really to improve infrastructure, and it serves as a roadmap. Now, the planning process has, has been, I think, six months worth of planning, and it's, it's really in three phases. We have to understand what the broadband infrastructure landscape is in the city, and I'm not talking again cellular, I'm talking what is the broadband infrastructure in the city. And then the phase two is really to evaluate options. And then the last phase, of course, as Lizzie indicated, was to develop a strategic action plan. Accessibility, kind of the first thing on the infrastructure is what is out there and available from conversations with internet service providers, fiber contractors, middle mile providers, that's kind of the middle. If you think of middle mile, it's the road, and then last mile is the driveway. It's a quick analogy, right? So the middle mile is the trunk of fiber, and then you take the last mile to the homes or the businesses for service. Okay. After evaluation of all that, looking at all the data sets, contacting all the ISPs, looking at franchise agreements, the city has a lot of broadband infrastructure. You see it all the time. You have a lot of ISPs going in and offering new service constantly. So the number one thing to look at is accessibility. The city has accessibility. Residents, businesses have access to broadband service. So we check that first box, right? So when you look at a broadband plan, if the infrastructure was lacking, let's say in the county, that would be a different type of goal and objective to be able to get them that infrastructure. But the city has quite a bit of infrastructure, and I think with the franchise agreements and other things, you're going to continue to get some infrastructure, right? So broadband's in place. The next question or the next item that we talked about, including the accessibility, is under Larry and OED and the schools and others. The city was really at the forefront of trying to identify some free Wi-Fi accessible points. This is pandemic basis, right? And when we first sat down and talked, it's how do we take this map and expand it, right? How do we make the city have more accessibility points for its residents? So, this was kind of the first swing of things between Larry's shop, the city, the school shop, the agreement between both entities to try to get some free Wi-Fi locations. So, we also looked at that as accessibility and how it's used, where it's used, when it's used. The next box that we need to look at is affordability. The feds and the state require broadband service at certain speeds in order to be determined to be a proper speed for an area. For non-community anchor institutions like this building, if we were applying for a grant today, we'd be applying for money to get a gig of service in this, but we already have it. But for homes, it's 100 download, 20 upload, and also there's some jitter. That's the little whenever you're starting to download something, you don't have good internet, or sometimes the latency is the speed that it's... The city has quite a few ISPs that provide 120 as part of that infrastructure that meet the pricing points that we'll buy and TIA and stuff. But what they don't talk about is the affordability, the true affordability, right? By saying that a home or there's an ISP that provides broadband service at 120 speed, it's affordable, it may not be affordable to the house. And we know by our planning process, there are quite a few areas in town where low-income, very low-income, and vulnerable populations exist. And when we start looking at the cost for broadband service and the household burden, the percentage of each of our households goes to paying utilities. It's a hard decision. 100 bucks a month to be able to pay for utility and for other things. So that's a major issue in the city, in inner areas, is the affordability of the actual service for our residents. But if we looked purely at the requirements of the planning process, the city has affordable broadband because certain ISPs can provide those. When the federal government didn't do the continuing resolution, it'll be two years this March, they lost money to be able to do what's called the Affordable Connectivity Program, which was a federal program through FCC that provided those low-income and very low-income households. Basically, they offset the bill, right? That went away, which is unfortunate because it left a hole in service, right? So, it increased that use and adoption of broadband because that stipend or that offsetting price with the ISPs went away. Even today, the requirements, if an ISP went and got those type of funding, $50 would be their low point. You look at the penetration rates, that's the amount of people that come in and come off of broadband, you can see that you're probably going to see a decrease in that. Okay. And then again, that leaves our residents without broadband. We looked at solutions. The first one that we looked at is, should the city establish its own ISP, become its own ISP? Being in government a long time and in some positions where I was a bureaucrat, I'd say absolutely not, right? Because there's so many other things that government does. Some of them well, some of them not so well. I don't think it's appropriate to layer another component on that and manage that expectation for our residents. There are costs, right? Your capital expenditures are very high. Your operating expenditures, OPEX, over a period of time can be expensive. Staffing, support, those types of things. And then the other thing is, we as governments may lack that. And nothing against Larry, but he's it right on this team. And to have a network and have call centers and technicians, etc., it doesn't make sense, right? Your ROI or CBA, whichever you want to look at, is upside. However, we looked at those three goals. Remember, increase access to broadband. The first project we looked at is expanding that Wi-Fi accessibility initiative, which is targeting locations for Wi-Fi equipment, which is building upon the ARPA project, right? This exercise started as our effort to try to make sure that the city met their goals that they indicated when ARPA was set aside for broadband. That's how they started the initial initiative. So we had ARPA funding sitting out there that we needed to get obligated by December of last year, otherwise they would claw back. And the first thing, of course, is to expand that initiative of free Wi-Fi accessibility. If you look at the city of Albuquerque, they have a fantastic Wi-Fi, community Wi-Fi program. They even have an office. They have 90 locations in the city of Albuquerque where you can go to parks, community centers, and libraries. You can get free Wi-Fi. The city started that, OED and ITT. They were able to get a couple of sites or one site up, and the other site's kind of in flux. But with ARPA funding, we identified tiers. With Lizzie's help, we sat down, we looked at demographics, we looked at the number of visits by park, we looked at the population by census tract, etc. And we identified six locations that would be kind of the targeted first step to get that. If you look at the map, we have Swan Park, of course, which is a very highly used park. There's actually out there right now working on getting some projects lit up there. We looked at the Hopewell neighborhood, Las Acequias area, kind of as where the need is currently. I think there are other locations, other city locations, parks, libraries, community centers, senior centers, etc., where this project could be expanded if funding is available. Project two is really, this is kind of an offshoot or an expansion, if you will, of the Tech Connect programs that the libraries have right now, where they have mobile hotspots and laptops available for use. Lizzie was able to secure funding through the ARPA where they've actually increased those numbers. So that one is moving. One that I think is important is we're lacking a communication and messaging plan for the city, right? If you Google the city, it talks about internet through OED broadband, but it doesn't really give that interconnection point or that, not even a soft handoff to somebody that tells you, "Hey, this is where you live, this is what we have, these are the ISPs," etc. So, a messaging communication program is essential. And then the last one, I left Santa Fe County as the Deputy County Manager and Interim Public Works Director in 2019. And I think, although we're separate governments, I think there's a lot of cohesiveness that has to happen in certain areas. We did that with the film office back when I started that with the county having it housed there. Now it's housed here. There are some synergies to have these things. But that's just something to talk about. I don't see that as a to-do today. But I do think if you establish a joint office, it would help the residents in totality have a larger voice. The county did a great broadband survey, and although the majority of the respondents were in the city, you know, you look, they questioned the affordability, they questioned their reliability, they questioned, and they were concerned about the response time they got from the ISP or the ISP. So, I think that is something that should be looked at and vetted for. Adoption and use. Lizzie and I tried, and she did a heck of a job on the Pinon grant, on trying to write a grant for digital equity at the state level. This was part of the federal government's infusion of dollars to each of the states. Digital equity seems to be a different word today, but I do think that digital equity is important, right? We have to understand what our residents need. And much like your constituent services office here or the liaison at the county, those people act as the go-between the council, the governing body, even some of the directors, on trying to field those calls on what situation is concerned about. You could develop something similar here. It could be a collaborative possibly, but really to have that program where digital navigators would actually go out in the community at senior centers or Senior Gonzalez and actually teach seniors how to navigate safely, right? I still have a little problem paying bills online. I just, you know, I still like writing checks and seeing my name on them. But the age we live in now, digital banking is one of those things that this little thing here has provided to, right? I'm almost 60. It's taken me some time to understand how I shouldn't be writing checks, right? And I think there's a lot in this community as we age, as in the county and the city. I still think that's an opportunity for government to be there to assist, not to take anything from them, but just to be that navigator or that point of contact when they need. And then, of course, the last one is economic development. Deploying laptops and hotspots at city business locations. The libraries are doing that right now. Trying to get the business centers and the entrepreneurship up. This is really geared to people that don't have the big box. This is geared to you and I that actually work from our computer, or I'm sure you do all your ordering at night, Councilwoman. So, you know, you just need to have that opportunity. If you didn't have that opportunity, how would we still manage those types of, be the old way of doing it? So we've looked at how we get economic development back, how we improve our digital equity. That's it. That's a lot. I apologize. Stand for questions. That was wonderful. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Before we jump into questions, I want to note that the packet that we have on whatever we're using now, Civic Plus, does not have the map. So, if we could get that new presentation uploaded so that we have that as well, that would be great. Any questions or comments from members of the committee? Councilor Castro? Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair. I do have a quick question about that missing funding now that we're not getting from the federal government about what does that look like? How can we help? Are there other funding sources that we can tap into? Mayor: Madam Chair, Councilwoman, that's an excellent question. ARPA, we've got the ARPA in good shape with the city, the city's ARPA. Since April and then again in June, the federal government has taken some interesting directions on broadband. They still, so the state published in February a BE program, so Broadband Equity Access and Deployment money, which was really intended to get infrastructure deployed. We sat through many iterations of that with the state, with other clients that I have, and submitted applications, and they kicked them all out because in June of this year, they changed the rules at the federal level. So, we all had to start back over. Quite a few applicants submitted for that money. None that I'm aware of in the city because again, the maps and the research indicates, we just validated, is you have access. We were going to close on this, but I think when you talk about future funding, these programs to be able to get the Wi-Fi accessibility out to the community, I think is a fantastic opportunity. Existing funds to start the pilot, right? You need to prove out some of those numbers. And I know Larry can sit here, and he and I can talk about this for hours, and people use it, but I think in order to build our business case, we need to prove that out for a little bit of time. And then what happens next is probably some either legislative requests or the city prioritizing broadband as a necessity. And hopefully with support, your support, your questions, maybe a little bit at a time and chunk for funding. I'll be honest with you, my personal opinion, I don't see broadband funding coming from the federal level to the state level to the local governments. And the BE itself was geared to internet service providers. It wasn't geared to governments unless you were really an ISP. The pre-qualification was huge. I just get this sense that less and less will be coming to the local level than if we talked about this a year ago. There was $683 million coming to the state, or $687 million coming to the state anymore. So, just so I understand, that's why we're pivoting to sort of these centers, these six centers that we're going to be offering, because we might not be able to support broadband and internet in people's homes. Madam Chair, members of the committee, Committee Member Castro, thank you so much. That's a fantastic question. And just to take a whack at kind of that front part of the question, right? And Tony did a fantastic job at that. Also, to kind of explain in a short way is difficult with broadband, right? As we can see, broadband can often get very technical very quick, right? And running around with OBI, which is the Office of Broadband Access and Expansion from the state level, the NTIA, the FCC, it can be difficult to, okay, wait, when we're talking about how do we continue these programs, how do we continue this effort, especially when we're looking at, you know, funding concerns on the federal level, right? Only we had that crystal ball. But really to think about it, Counselor Castro, we are in a stage where we were very blessed to get this ARPA funding. We spent it to identify the goals, identify the landscape that exists currently, right? And also to align with the state office, OBI, FCC, NTIA, like Tony mentioned, our plan is very much around what they see as fundamentals. And so we're positioning ourselves. Yes, we've got this plan. We kind of understand that landscape better about broadband in Santa Fe specifically. We understand kind of the needs. We've identified these goals, objectives, and we've had enough funding to say, "Hey, let's expand this into those utility poles that Tony is talking about with the maps, right?" That effort is already underway, but how do we extend it? And we're at a position now, and I think this is a fantastic time for us to have this presentation because there is so much uncertainty at the federal level, at the state level, whether we'll get more funding to keep going with these programs, right? And that's why we're very much pivoting to see, look at this ARPA funding we were blessed to have. Let's put it in these programs to reach community, to reach business, to meet needs. Come back and assess that. Is it meeting the needs of community? Is it meeting the needs of local businesses? So not only do we better understand the landscape, we're positioned to pursue funds if they become available, but we're also expanding these programs and we're going to make them very measurable. We're going to track metrics and see if that's the right angle so that when we come around and if that funding does appear at the federal level, at the state level, we'll very much be able to say, "Hey, this is what we know about broadband in Santa Fe. This is what we've done about it, and this is what we want to do tomorrow." And come back and say, "Hey, we're going to make sure this meets the needs of the community every so often." And so on that end too, to have this presentation today, to have your time today is really about asking as well, or not just, hey, can we have additional funding for this, but can we also see if you all are interested in being more involved with what we're doing? Broadband can get technical and be a rabbit hole very quickly. But if you guys see funding that is something that we could pursue, if you see needs in the community that we can pursue, identify, and start seeing how we can continue these programs, it would be fantastic. We're on the search on our end. Unfortunately, we didn't get some federal funding that was, we pursued Penon Grant, which Tony just discussed, unfortunately. But we had a great program behind it. We had a great application for it, but seeking that funding is going to be a critical part about what we're doing. We've got our next steps today, but really about thinking where are we getting that funding next and imploring you all to direct us with leads if you have any, because we're definitely on the look at ourselves. Does that answer your question? It does. Thank you. And it's a clear directive. So, thank you. And I see the floor. Wonderful. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Council Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Tony, Lizzie, and Joanna for the presentation. I want to make sure folks in our community are well aware that, I mean, the digital divide is real. It impacts folks every single day at every age level in our community at this moment. And so, I guess we've got this presentation. We now have a strategic plan that's 150 pages plus. Hey, that's, that's, that's work. So, I guess my question to staff is what's next? Where do we get started? Because we've now got a plan. What, what, what are the next steps? Because every day that passes, whether it's a student or an elder in our community that can't access healthcare in an effective, efficient manner, I think government is not doing what it's supposed to be doing, which is supporting its residents. What's, what's next? Thank you, Counselor. Thank you, Counselors, for the question. This is a great topic, and that's why we're here tonight. I think Lizzie did a good job illuminating the importance of this plan and working with Tony and his expertise because we didn't have a plan before, and this helps outline the need and identify our next steps. One of the items that we're, we're working on currently is deploying the funding to support the Wi-Fi access through the tower initiative that was mentioned, as well as the communications piece. These are simple, low-hanging items that we can accomplish pretty immediately. We are also talking to community in areas now that are identified, and we understand have limited access, to understand what is our, our, our, what is our approach to enabling Wi-Fi there. A great example that Tony highlighted was the Hopewell Man area that's right across from Midtown. So, we're in communication with the players that have buildings and structures that we can identify how we can support access to Wi-Fi there. So, beginning to deploy Wi-Fi at these certain locations, but that's six throughout the city. And I'm appreciative of the Hopewell Man neighborhood because I agree that's, that's more of an economic disadvantage versus an infrastructure in that particular neighborhood, whereas there's infrastructure in other parts of our community. And I think that's where I didn't hear a lot of, because that, that's much more costly, takes more time, and I want to make sure I didn't miss anything, and it wasn't really highlighted in the presentation. I saw, you know, collaborate with the county, get, you know, get access out there, but I guess the broader question is besides these hotspots, which we did kind of in the pandemic, and I think we partnered up with the schools at that time to do that, what are we doing long-term so that, because again, I want to make sure that we're setting the plan in place and the motion in place, and ultimately what it comes down to is the resource requests in place. That way it flows like dominoes, right? You do one next step, the next step follows, and before you know it, you have a neighborhood that has 100% access, half the city then 100% access, and before you know it, the entire city has 100% access to Wi-Fi. So, is that laid out in this plan? Because I didn't, I saw like recommendations, but I would like for us to take the steps to say this is how we're year one, by year five, by year 10. Counselor, Counselors, thank you again for the question. Again, that's why we wanted to get the plan in front of you to solicit this feedback and insight. I think that's a really relevant plan, and it's something that we've been talking about a lot. Infrastructure for broadband is very different than access to Wi-Fi. And so within those strategies, there are recommendations addressing the needs in a systematic way to see where the most need is based on socioeconomic factors. And so the recommendations and strategy that are outlined, I think your feedback is really great that we can go back and tweak that so it's more clear. And Lizzie and I have talked a lot about this at the staff level, putting out that due to capacity, we really need a black and white game plan for us to understand, okay, where is the action? We'll move so we can understand the funding to seek. And again, without this plan, we're, we don't have that information. Does that help? It helps. And it sounds like we're beginning the process because I look at it from the perspective of when Joanna and Lizzie hit the lottery and they're in Hawaii, people that come behind them have the game plan ready to go to follow and continue the process because we don't have anything like that right now. I think that's especially in a utility like broadband, we need to ensure that there is that process because, I mean, can you imagine if there wasn't such a plan to get water to every home? Right? There wasn't such a plan to ensure everybody was hooked up to sewage. Well, we still haven't hooked up everybody at the city to a utility. Maybe that's not the best example at the moment, but that's where I want us to be able to set up not only the success for now, but for folks down the road. And I guess this leads me to my next question of, and it's part of the recommendations here, which is to partner with the county. So, what conversations have been had with the county specifically around potential partnerships? Are they, are they willing? Have we had any? Have we not had any? How has that gone? Sure. Counselors, again, thank you for the question. We overlap often regarding economic development with our partners at the county. As you know, they have their own initiatives to deploy access to Wi-Fi and broadband. We don't want to be duplicative in our efforts. Ultimately, that's what we're examining and really early-stage conversations around, "Hey, how can we work together on initiatives that are going to make sense, especially when we're going after grants and things like that?" Tony, I think you got up and you want to say anything too? Madam Chair, counselors, thank you. I'm actually a subcontractor on the county's strategic plan, so they hired me to actually write to a different firm, the county's plan. We had very preliminary discussions with their office, that is, the office division county, on their initial ideas about this collaboration because the way the federal government, the FCC, and others look at it, they could look at the county-wide. They have the lines for the boundaries, but everything's county-wide. So, although the county has different accessibility issues, they lack infrastructure where we don't necessarily lack it here. We have the same affordability issues, right? We still have some population groups in the county that really can't afford even $50. So, those discussions have been preliminary with staff. We'll be doing a presentation on September 9th to the ECC. That's been one of our recommendations to them as well, that we start the dialogue, take it from a staff level to a governing body or legislative. Okay. Well, Don and Lizzie, they'll need somebody to go with you to chat with the county. I'm happy to cross the street and begin those conversations with them because I think especially in the moment when we might be going after funding, in particular federal funding, the feds love when entities partner up and collaborate. It helps make a much stronger application versus us competing, and I think the end residents are who benefits from those types of resource opportunities. So, let me know how we can help, and thank you for the presentation. I appreciate it. That's all I have, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. On that note, I will just add that at our next Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting, we are actually having the county's economic development director come over to have these conversations around where the city and the county are not yet collaborating in economic development areas that we do have the potential to, and broadband has already been listed. So, excited that we are starting those conversations. Councilor Chavez, just a quick, I don't know, question, comment, confirmation. I would imagine having a black and white plan in this would be nearly impossible until you're tackling an area that's unserved or underserved because the challenge is that the infrastructure accessibility, just like all the complexity of one specific area in the city, is going to be different as you move along from one to another. So, I just wanted to see if there's, if you have any experience, or am I right in that thinking? Because I would just imagine to plan ahead to have a timeline of how we would accomplish every underserved or unserved area, like I said, would be nearly impossible just because as you enter into tackling that, you really don't know what you're walking into until you're there. Chair, Council, that's exactly the way we've set this up, and the Wi-Fi accessibility program has multiple tiers to it, right? So, that map that we have that's in there shows what we consider second tier because we started looking at where areas had a large degree of population and then where their household incomes were. We've identified those areas as part of this document, that second tier. What we haven't identified yet is that tertiary tier, right? Because I think the goal, and Larry can correct me if I'm wrong, is really to have a network topology, that's a fancy term for network plan, right? Have a kind of a mesh or a partial mesh. It would be great for the city to have, as you said, Councilman, free Wi-Fi across the city, right? And how do we get there? We have to be able to use locations that are strategically placed to get the best benefit for that project, right? So, having that mesh is we have connectivity through the points. That's really what we started looking at in this first project is how do we start building that to the next level? I'm glad Director Oster stepped out because we really hadn't put a dollar amount into the budget, right? The poles were ARPA. I think we got six poles, equipment, and accessories for around $165,000. Simple math, $20,000 a pole. What's that benefit? Because these poles, you need a lot of them to create that mesh, right? Hope, man, gives us good coverage, but it doesn't give us complete coverage. If we put poles at Rego Park, for instance, or MRC, it gives us great coverage, but not complete coverage, right? Frenchie Park trying to get back in on this way. So, we've started those discussions, and included in the plan is that secondary level. Once we get out there and prove it, I'm assuming based upon all the national studies and the bigger cities that have done this, and the City of Albuquerque, this is a good way to get free Wi-Fi to your residents. It's not cheap, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than building infrastructure. I just want to say the plan is built, Councilman, we've built strategies into each of the, it's included in the plan. We have the goals and objectives and the strategies how to accomplish that. We can time that, but my concern about timing is we manage an expectation in a document, and we say five years, and somebody's knocking, or two years, and we're knocking on the door. You know, the city said two years. So, I'm always hesitant to really time it on a document because I don't like to put anybody in that position of why you didn't do that. The simple answer is we got to get funding to do it. Funding is, and especially with like levels of complexity that kind of comes with this process, I could see that as well. But they're in there. Strategies are in there. We know what the costs are for this program. We haven't started identifying costs for an outreach pilot program. That's a different discussion that needs to happen with team members during your budgeting process, really to determine if that's a goal for the council. And then, yeah. Great. Thank you. I would like to have a small follow-up to that. Committee member Chavez, I think you asked a fantastic question, and you bring up a great point, and one of the biggest things that we did in this plan, if you see, there are lots of maps included and understanding some of that as well. Like if we look at page 14, we're looking at the Federal Communication Commission's, the FCC's broadband map. According to them, right, according to the FCC, 80 to 100% of Santa Fe is served. When we're looking back at page 57 of the broadband plan here, we're looking at a survey that was conducted by the Santa Fe County. That was very much their initiative. We did get it translated to Spanish for them. They had a lot of feedback there. So, a big part of this plan is looking at what does the FCC say served and unserved right in Santa Fe, and then what does a community actually say about it? I think that's a big part of what we're doing here. I believe that's somewhat going to your question on that end, right? When we're talking about how do we actually look at those locations, as mentioned in the presentation, we're not looking to be an ISP, internet service provider. That would be entirely like the city being a utility provider for internet, be competing with other ISPs. We talked a good bit about that, and also Tony just explained it quite a lot in the presentation. So, when we talk about unserved and underserved locations, Tony did a fantastic job just now talking about our utility poles. We also have 24 different laptops that are going to be at the three different libraries to help people get connected. But when we're looking at those locations, that's a big part of what this plan is doing. Then when we pursue funding, if it is available, that's going to be a big part of what we do. Also, at the state level, the OBY office is very much focused on those unserved, served locations. Awesome. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, thank you all so much for being here. I really appreciate it. I know this is phase one, so I really look forward to hearing more from you. I know you guys will let me know when it's time for another presentation and you have more to report on. So, thank you all so much for being here. Thank you. All right, moving along. Our next is a rescheduled presentation. It is the GEC Ice Arena update. We have Director Stinette, or Brian Stinette, Recreation Division Director, here to present. Director Stinette, I will hand it over to you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Council. Happy to be back a couple weeks later with the presentation. So, a little bit lengthy, but I'm going to dive right in if that's okay. Can we please? There we go. Okay. Starting off, 30,000-foot overview of kind of where we are right now with the ice rink. Six main categories I'm going to talk, tackle tonight: deferred maintenance, budget constraints and procurement, the geography and the location of our rink, specific knowledge and expertise for repair and maintenance, our rink design and engineering, and then some staff continuity issues that have persisted throughout deferred maintenance. Coming up first, we have original equipment from 1999-2000 that was part of the original build. Manufacturer recommendations for those maintenance and replacement are long past due. Skid one is original equipment, what we call a recumbent skid. Skid two was replaced in 2019, is what we call a screw skid. So, two separate types of compressor systems, 2019 being new. Then we have our support systems that also work with the compressor systems to handle the load of what it takes to run an ice rink: our HVAC, our cooling towers, and our water treatment. A phrase that's tossed around regularly is deferred maintenance, and I would like to say that that's pretty much a misleading statement when it comes to the ice rink. Many of the recommended lifespans for the equipment in the ice plant are well beyond their specific lifespans from their original build. Multiple issues, past and present, kind of allowed us to get where we are today in the condition of the rink. So, what has been maintained? Some of the basic, higher-level, simple type tasks, filters, oil changes, oil changing, things like that, have happened over the past 25 years. Essentially, we had a rink from 2000 to 2018, about 18 years of uninterrupted ice. Since 2017 and 2018, all of our four major compressor systems have not worked from their original design. So, we've been operating our rink with two, three, one, but never all four consistently working for the past six to seven years. Our original contractor sold in, from 2006, Travers Mechanical sold in June of 2022. The company sold again in 2023. Summer 2024, the original contractor that basically oversaw the rink for the past 20 years retired fully. So, the industry knowledge and the rink-specific knowledge went away with him. Some recent discovery known facts: we have had one service provider for the rink, being Traverse Mechanical. Major manufacturer-recommended repairs were never done during their time in oversight during the rink. There was an attempt for a major repair in 2019, as I said, with compressors three and four, skid two being replaced. Industry knowledge has been absent from Santa Fe in the rink since 2023. Attempted repairs from 2022 through the summer of 2024 with Travers Mechanical were either misdiagnosed or misunderstood from the new technicians coming on board. They were incorrectly repaired or created further damage, and they were only surface-level attempts at getting the rink back up and running. Some other key things: reduction in city staff at GC, whether that's COVID, competent class removal of the GC maintenance position specifically in the ice rink when that last competent class came out. So that position is no longer there. The original rink design through a new company is also not suited for the high desert climate. We have undersized cooling towers and other contributing factors that were not thought of in its original design. Safe to say, our rink was designed to be built in Minnesota or the Northeast United States. We didn't arrive here due to one factor, and I think that's what's important for the public to understand. These are years and years of continual things that have built on top of one another to bring us where we are today. A brief overview, and I like to use a vehicle as a layman's term of how I'm going to explain how the rink works and where we are in the specific systems. Our engine is the compressors, right? Without the engine, the car doesn't move. The radiator and the water pump are what keep the car cool and keep the engine running. The antifreeze is the primary coolant, right? Without that primary coolant, the car will overheat and break down. Our air conditioner in the vehicle is our dehumidifier in our HVAC. It keeps the conditions in the vehicle livable, right? Not too hot or not too cold. And then our check engine light is all of our safety valves and fail-safes that tell you, "Hey, something's wrong. Stop operating right now or you're in danger." In an ice rink, overheated systems mean an inoperable car. So, it's too hot. And any one of our main systems, we have a rink that's not going to work. A little more technical on the design here. If we're looking at this photo, this is a graphic of our rink. We have our HVAC and our dehumidifier, our air conditioning that keeps the rink cool inside so that the ice can stay cool. Our compressors meet in the middle right here and right here. Our cooling towers are basically the last place of the loop that removes any heat from the ice at the very end of the process. If we're looking at the ice rink floor, we have our skating surface, our chilled concrete slab, insulation, heated concrete, sand and gravel, and our water drain. We have a glycol brine or a water mixture which has a lower freezing temp. It freezes a concrete slab. Water freezes to the slab through latent heat diffusion, and then the glycol circulation receives the heat from the rink and removes it out through the compressors and the cooling towers. If we're looking at our five major systems, we have our secondary system, our cooling towers and water treatment. Our primary, the engine, our compressors and chillers and our condensers. And then the atmosphere, the dehumidifiers and the HVAC. All of these three systems, cooling tower, dehumidifier, and HVAC, are up on the roof above the ice rink plant. Our chiller and compressors is where everything meets in the middle. That's the heart of the rink. Our climate has to have cool, dry air. And then all of our systems have to work in unison with one another. The systems that cost the most to repair are our compressors. And successfully, since the summer of 2024 to today, all four of our compressors have been rebuilt and replaced. So the heart of the rink is sound. A little rule on thermodynamics: heat can't be created or destroyed. It always moves from hot to cold. So whichever part of the rink, whether it's the atmosphere, if it's humid and hot, it's going to pull heat into the ice, causing degradation of the ice. Outside heat, hotter summer temperatures stress the systems even more, right? Harder for our HVAC to keep up, harder for our rink to keep running, to keep things cool. And then another piece of heat is what heat is run and created from our compressors, right? If they're running for a long time, it's likely that the heat and pressure is going to increase, causing ice degradation as well. That right there is where our rink failed this summer. The long run times, the cooling towers unable to keep up with the demand, set off our vehicle warning light. Shut down or you're going to damage the vehicle. And that's where we arrived on June 9th. High humidity and other things also led to that. And again, as I said, that's where ice degradation occurs both ways. In 2023, this is something that's good for the community to understand: why is the rink broken again? Each subsequent shutdown for the last three summers is for separate reasons. 2023 was our safety systems and our chiller maintenance. The primary coolant was lost through a valve that leaked, and our safety valves were obsolete and not working properly. 2024, the atmosphere was the issue. Our HVAC failed. We lost all of our primary coolant yet again. And then in 2025, our cooling tower and our dehumidifier failed. Well, atmosphere and secondary systems. We need dry atmosphere, cold subfloor, cold air temps, pressures functional, and all of our support systems and clean water to keep our rink running. A little bit of a timeline. I won't go through it in depth. There's a lot to it, but I will highlight that in 2019, Skid 2 was replaced to the tune of roughly $500,000. New system, not engineered to fit with the old system. You put a V8 inside of a four-cylinder vehicle compartment. A radiator couldn't keep up. In 2021 through 2024 with Travers Mechanical, they attempted a lot of fixes, and that's when they were sold. So, we never had consistent maintenance crews on the ground. So, it was always kind of a new discovery and something else going on. In 2024, Skid One was rebuilt. Our original system was rebuilt from the ground up, rewired, and all of our safety systems were rebuilt along with that Skid One. In 2024, the facilities division replaced all of the HVAC with brand new HVAC. In 2025, in the spring, we replaced compressor 3. And then in the spring of 2025, we also replaced one of the motors on the original compressor systems. Total city investment from 2019 to 2025 is $1.4 million in the ice rink. A lot of those costly repairs being the compressors and the HVAC. Why we failed: our cooling towers are 25 years old, rusted, corroded, scaled, biomaterial. They clogged the secondary system loop, leading to safety shutdowns. And then our failed dehumidifier, heavy rains, we couldn't keep the moisture out of the building, so heat transferred into the ice. Going forward, our cooling towers are replaced with a new design set for what's recommended in the high desert climate of Santa Fe. Improved efficacy, improved flow, and higher capacity, which is essential to work for compressor Skid 2. Our dehumidifier is going to be rebuilt and repaired with a new drum, wheels, bearings, and everything that it needs to get that operational as well. So, from shutdown till today, I'll go through a brief timeline. We shut down on June 9th. B&D Industries is our on-call emergency service contractor. They came out. They didn't have the industry knowledge to do any of the repairs in the cooling towers. They gave us a bid very quickly for the dehumidifiers. From June 9th to July 11th, myself, my complex manager, Sperlin, and our ice rink manager, Cisneros, contracted every or contacted every single contractor we could find in any type of listing we could. We found a lot of issues when going to that, and I'll kind of get into that later. July 22nd, we received a bid from a previous contractor that we used in the fall of 2024 and the spring of 2025 for the replacement parts to the tune of $222,000, which was approved last Wednesday for the governing body. July 28th, B&D completed their final walkthroughs, and July 22nd to current, we're still working on finding the additional money from rollovers to complete the labor and install. August 12th, we met last, August 13th, and of course, the governing body meets every second Wednesday of every month. So for us to get on that, it was critical for us to meet that. So, we really couldn't have met in any shorter timeline for when we had that. So, we were happy to get on that. August 4th through the 13th, our final bid from B&D was received to the tune of $267,000 for labor and install. The emergency procurement and parts and items were purchased through Arena Products, and the funding for the additional equipment and repair is pending right now. And I'll have more of that on the next few slides. Some of the hurdles that we had and have currently are, number one for my department and division, our city procurement rules. Some of our vendors are required to put 50% down for some of these high-expense items. That, of course, is a procurement violation, right? We cannot pay anything unless we receive all of the receivables at once. So essentially, we are in this situation of asking vendors to be the bank for us. "Please front us the money, buy what we need, and we promise to pay you back later." The dehumidifier is not a company that our expert uses regularly, so they don't have a line of credit with them. Some other things that we're kind of pigeonholed into: B&D is our sole emergency procurement company for their repairs, but they're not Ice Arena specific. Arena Products passes with the necessary expertise, but they don't have the license reciprocity in New Mexico for a mechanical license. So they are not allowed to do the work because of the licensing issues that we have. And then B&D right now is responsible for the engineering, permitting, performing labor, and installation. One other hurdle that's not listed on here: there's a competitive environment when it comes to ice arena companies. There are only so many in the country. So trying to find two that were willing to work together and have a license in New Mexico was like finding a needle in a haystack. We were unsuccessful in doing that. In the fall of 2024, our Arena Products made us aware of the failing condition of the cooling towers and dehumidifiers. They completed maintenance when they rebuilt the compressors and gave us a soft guarantee that they should hold up until they can get repaired again, which is when we asked for mid-year appropriations and received those appropriations to the tune of $140,000 for the cooling towers, $40,000 for compressor 3 replacement, which we successfully did in March 2025 and completed in April, and $50,000 for the Munters unit repair. $20,000 of the $50,000 was needed to finish the repair of the motor on compressor 2. So we used $20,000 of the $50,000 for that. So all in all, we have $170,000 remaining from mid-year appropriation that we're waiting for rollover and to use for these repairs that we planned for. Now I went over the cost again. We have that secured. The bid is in at about $265,000. It's $268,000. We received the final one today. And then we have some additional funds for mid-year appropriation that are slated to go into fixing some of the aquatic things that we have identified as well. So, in a pinch, recreation should have the money to move forward with the ice rink repairs. What we're hopeful not to do is essentially take from one section to fund another and then be devoid of funds to fix the other things that we've identified in aquatics. Our projected timelines: city procurement and fund approval. Essentially, the clock started yesterday when Arena Products purchased the items that we needed. Our deliverables are about 8 to 10 weeks. Our install and labor is 1 to 2 weeks, depending on many things that could change and wildly develop into something much longer: craning, replumbing, electrical elements, engineering, a whole bunch of other things. And then our ice build. We've contracted with the Dallas Mechanical Group to come out, provide training, and help us expedite our install with a 24-hour, round-the-clock install to get us done in 3 days, where traditionally it took staff about a week to 10 days to get it done. Our deliverables window was submitted today. Cooling towers are about 7 weeks on order, order placed yesterday with 3 to 4 days additional in transit. Our dehumidifier parts are 2 to 3 weeks with transit time, and our plate and frame and other gaskets and supporting pieces are also 2 to 3 weeks away. Putting our window, should everything go well, November 1st to November 17th. One of the unknowns right now is the engineering procurement for B&D. They are the company that is emergency services for us, but they also have to sub out the work to get the engineering done. So, we're also at the mercy of the subcontractors that B&D uses as well. Some other developments that we know from this summer that I think have been derived from information: We had a window project completed. The window project led to some heavy rainstorms during the time. We had some heavy flooding in the arena. We would have lost ice during those rainstorms regardless. On July 7th, our new HVAC that was installed in the fall of 2024 failed, and it is still currently not operational. But from July 7th on, our repairs that B&D did last time would lead us to a point right now where we couldn't keep ice. And then in summer 2025, we know that those are warrantied. That work is being completed. They were on the roof yesterday trying to get the new compressors for the HVAC in. However, had we maintained ice June 9th and on, we would have lost it twice or up to three times at a cost of about $50,000 every time we lose ice for all of the decals and the paint and everything that it takes to build. So, silver lining, we shut down on the 9th. We didn't have any other subsequent shutdowns. So, in a way, if there was a perfect time, I guess this was it. A few other projects needed after these repairs are done: our glycol pumps, our new water treatment contract. We need a developed maintenance plan, which I will get into. And then we need the budget and the tools to be able to expedite these types of repairs going forward in the future. What we know: the window project, the HVAC failure, we lost ice, it cost a lot to build ice. Our compressors are all fully operational. Our engineering now with the new repairs coming in are adequate and appropriate for Santa Fe, and the maintenance schedule that we've established should put us in a position where we're not faced with these same issues again. Our compressors should have a minor replacement, a top-end replacement, every two years, and every 5 years a full major replacement, which is kind of like rebuilding the engine. Our cooling towers should be annually cleaned and descaled, and then they shouldn't get to the condition that they are now. Our dehumidifiers should be replaced with drums and bearings and everything and motors every two years or rebuilt every two years for some of those support parts. Our HVAC on an annual maintenance every year and a biannual inspection. Our glycol pumps and all of our moving pumps should be every three years, and our floor pumps and all of our secondary movers every three years as well. If we're getting into this graphic that you're looking at right here, that red line are all of the things that we've repaired since 2024. So, looking from this point in time moving forward, we're at a good point to actually have a fully fleshed out repair maintenance schedule that sets us up for success in the future. In 2025, when the repairs are done, we have a minimal cost. And I'm going to go through each year, mainly highlighting that 2026 and 2027 are preventative maintenance, 2028 preventative, and 2029 is when we get into that major. The cost is going to go up in 2029. In 2030, again, replacement is needed. So, there's going to be two years of higher costs that we expect during those years, back to a lower amount for the next three, and then a higher amount in 2034 and 2035. 2035 being the big one because skid one should be replaced during that time, and there's a few reasons for that. Skid 1, being original, has R22 coolant or antifreeze that has been phased out since 2009. So that coolant is becoming more scarce on the market and won't run for much longer. As long as our compressors are maintained within the next 10 years, we shouldn't lose that coolant. But should something happen between now and then, that cost is going to be exponentially higher. Going back to 2024, our coolant alone was about $78,000. So, it's a pretty high cost. So, planning for a new skid is critical in about 10 years. Another three years of standard maintenance, and then another two big years of deeper maintenance. And that will continue on for up to the 20 years that we've outlined. And this just kind of highlights every two or three years. And then the large ones on the bottom, the years that we expect the need for a higher budget and the capital to be able to take care of these projects. Some of the other things that we have some issues with: Genlec Aquatics and ice arenas are extremely different than all of our other city facilities. The current budget model for a three-year average doesn't address the need for those larger fourth and fifth-year allocations that are necessary to maintain the rink. We believe this is the contributing factor to the 20 years of failure that we've arrived here now. Inadequate budget only being able to repair when there's an emergency. Our previous comp and class study eliminated some ice rink technician positions, reduced some compensation for employees, and mainly eliminated career development. So, we have two positions in the ice rink right now. We were successful in creating a third, but it's nowhere near the expertise needed to be able to do the repairs in-house and on hand. Again, the rink's unique. It's not apples to apples with other facilities. The rink and the aquatic systems are not maintained by our facilities department. It has fallen to the recreation division to be able to get these things done. Procurement limits for the recreation division is $20,000. As you see, the cost for these puts us almost always in a loop of trying to find emergency procurements and sole sourcing, which adds time and delay to the things that we need to accomplish. Some of the previous positions that were existing at the Chavez Center, from what I believe historically, were moved into public works and to facilities. Those people that were in-house to manage these types of things are no longer there. And then, as we've said, our budget, our procurement guidelines, and our capital are nonexistent for us to be able to maintain what we need to in-house. Some other work that we've got to do: Myself, Complex Manager Sperling, and Manager Cistos are currently one or two of three legs complete, reserving a certified ice technician certification, which is standard industry standard for running an ice rink. We need to figure out and determine the maintenance and repair delineation. Where does that live? And how do we have those tools to be able to accomplish the goals? Some unique budgeting: a three-year average is insufficient for us to be able to maintain the rink. A recreation maintenance position is something that we sorely need, not only for the ice rink but also for aquatics. And setting up the rink for success in the future is going to take those three big items for us to be able to get there. A couple photos of what you're looking at. Right here on the left are our cooling towers. If you've ever been up on the roof and you saw your aged, dilapidated cooling swamp cooler, that's essentially what failed this summer. Let's see here. Photos of our dehumidifier. Our drum and wheel is warped, probably due to high heat and overwear. So, that needs to be replaced, as well as the motors and bearings and belts for that. Thankfully, all of the other components, the heating elements and the other fans and drives, just need to be cleaned, standard maintenance, but those are all operational and doing well. Some of the other projects that will be going on, if you're looking at here, our chillers will need to be cleaned, our pathways removed of all of the particulate from the cooling towers. Our safety valves and switches are here listed, shown on the left. This is a photo of the equipment prior to the rebuild in the fall of 2024. If you're looking at the black marking, the scoring here on the piston, and some of the repairs that were done, this machine is a miracle that it actually ran for as many years as it did. That repair came back brand new, fully rebuilt, new motors, new parts and equipment. So those things are set up because they've only ran for about 3,000 hours since the fall of 2024. So they're brand new to us. A couple other photos of the rebuild. Our skid 2, our V8 engine now that we have the new type of machine rather than rebuilds, their major replacements are every 5 years or every 50,000 hours ran. So every 50,000 hours is the lifespan for those. So instead of rebuilding it, you take one off and you replace it, which we did with compressor 3 in March 2025. And then some of the projects that we have left: our aging glycol pumps, our water movers, our chemical treatment and water treatment plants. Those are some smaller objects that we're working on right now, getting some contractors in to get those taken care of. That's all I have as far as the presentation goes, but thank you all for listening to all that. It was a lot. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Director Snette. I really appreciate how thorough this presentation is, given that it has been such a hot topic in the community. Given the time and that we still have a study session, I am going to ask us to stick to our 10-minute rule because that usually makes us more efficient, and I know that there are a number of questions still. So, I will go ahead and play timekeeper. And Councilor Castro, do you want to get started? Councilor Castro: Mostly just comments. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director Snette. We've heard loud and clear that we need long-term planning and that we need more resources. I think this is a great conversation that we need to have with the community, the difference between our recreation department and our facilities department and our public works department and how those work together. So, thank you so much for the presentation, and we'll continue it. Councilor Travis: Thank you so much. Thank you. I think this is very thorough. I will say there are a lot of things in regards to timeline out of our hands as the city, and I think that I want to be very clear about that. Obviously, you have put so much time and effort into this, or your presentation wouldn't be this thorough. So, first of all, I want to acknowledge your work and the fact that within our control, we're doing everything we possibly can, but there are so many factors right now that are going to dictate the timeline that we really have no control over. Due to that, though, I do think that we need to increase transparency. Meaning, and we always say increase transparency, what I really mean is we need to communicate. So, it would be nice if on the website right now, we could have a page just on the ice rink so that as timelines shift, as we run into issues, as there are delays, there's a one-stop that our community could go to and they could be in the know of how that timeline is evolving based on all of those subcontractors. I think there has to be something so they're just informed and we don't have this high level of frustration. We're very transparent about the fact that there are a lot of items out of our control for this reason. Because there are these delays now, we're pushing back the time. More than likely, everyone, the time will be pushed back. It's just reality. We see it with every aspect. Anyone who's been building a house or ordering parts of any kind for repair, there are just delays right now. But I would highly recommend that we create a web page for those types of updates and that that's very public and advertised, just so that at least we keep the community with us as we move through this process. Thank you. **Councilor Travis:** Thank you, Councilor Travis. That reminded me that things have already changed since this presentation was first developed. What is in our packet is not the most updated version. So, if we can get that over to Marcella so that we can get it into Civic Clerk, I don't know why I can't remember the name of this, and so that the public can actually see this updated presentation with those updated timelines. **Madam Chair:** Madam Chair, may I quickly add two things? One, Director Stette, to his credit, and Director Sanchez Tucker have been really great about communicating with user groups. I think we can basically leverage those to have this more public effort at information that's available to folks. The second thing is that I just want to let you all know, as well as the folks who are listening, that while there are many things that are out of our control, we are deeply, deeply motivated to push our partners who are working with, including B&D, to be as proactive and responsive as we can. Directors and I got off the phone with our main contact there today and really emphasized the critical nature of getting things done quickly and also transparency in terms of the cost that they're quoting us for because these are expensive repairs. So, I just wanted to alleviate any concerns there. **Councilor Garcia:** Thank you, Councilor Garcia. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Director Stette, for the very thorough presentation. The HVAC equipment that failed on July 7th, is that under warranty? It's a new HVAC. **Director Stette:** Yes, Madam Chair, Councilor Garcia, it is under warranty and the repairs are at no cost. **Councilor Garcia:** Okay. Now, as we're essentially rebuilding this whole facility, for lack of better words, are we doing it in a manner to accommodate not only the Santa Fe climate but to take into context that it is next to the swimming pool? Is that factoring in as we're rebuilding this facility? **Director Stette:** Yes, Councilor Garcia, I think when you think of the DCCC specifically, I like to label the three areas: winter, summer, and fall and spring right in the middle. The design has always led to some issues in the middle, right? Humidity from the ice rink, I mean, from the pools coming over to the middle. We end up with a rain cloud essentially in the center. Those systems in the pools have been upgraded, the dehumidifiers to hold the limit. And then now the newly redesigned cooling towers and dehumidifiers will accommodate for that. **Councilor Garcia:** Okay. Thank you for that. Just because I'd hate for us to be investing all this money and then run into the same problem. I know we've got facilities down the road, whether it's the Outpost, that are in a much hotter climate than Santa Fe. They're not seeing the challenges we are. **Director Stette:** If I may speak to that, of course, any one of those three systems, summer, winter, or Middle Earth, if any one of those fail, it's going to lead to carryover in the building because of the way it's designed. They're not separate. They're all connected one way or another. So, as heat moves, it's going to go from hot to cold all the time. So, if something goes wrong with our HVAC in the building, it's going to affect the ice rink. **Councilor Garcia:** Okay. Thank you. And then there's some somewhat attributed to loss of staff for this, whether it's COVID. I don't know if we lost folks due to COVID, but lasting comp. I'm not surprised we would lose folks. I don't remember us cutting staff in the budget. Did we cut staff? Can you help me understand that? Because I don't remember us eliminating a position. I can understand class and comp not wanting folks to come work for us, but if we did lose a position, I was not aware of that. **Director Stette:** Yes, sir, Councilor, we did not lose positions from the last comp in class. What we lost were the descriptions of those positions. So, we had a manager, we had an ice rink technician, so to speak, but they were the maintenance professional in the rink. The positions switched from manager maintained to ice rink technician, but that technician received a downgrade essentially to what a recreation technician is, bereft of any of the training, any of the requirements necessary for it. I believe the job descriptors never had certified ice arena technician as part of the job descriptors. So, we've taken it upon ourselves to get those. We created a rink technician lead to have those as well, but budget kind of puts us at a pretty hard limit on what we were able to pay that position, underpaid for what industry standard is right now. **Councilor Garcia:** Perfect. Just because that was going to be the fall apart. What adjustments are we making? Because we can point our fingers at class and comp and blame it, but I'm all about action. Let's make the necessary changes to get the appropriate people into positions and pay them the appropriate wages to ensure that our facilities are being maintained. I think this isn't the only situation where class and comp hurt the city, and to the narrative that's been it's worked well, it actually didn't. It hurt the city more than I think it helped. So, I'd also like to stay updated because it seems like, and this is no fault to your staff, I think it's just that the way the world is working when we're relying on equipment to be available, contractors to be available, etc., that's pushing timelines out. From the last presentation, we're already seeing it being pushed out to mid-November from my understanding, right? Because last presentation, what we've got in our deck is November 1st. I'm in agreement with my colleagues. We need to just keep the users updated there, just like we would with any other if the pool was going to be closed, if any of our facilities. If City Hall was going to be closed, we need to make sure the users are well prepared. Some of our folks use it for recreational activities, some use it as a business, right? Their teachers, coaches, etc. I feel for the users that don't have the space. I know it's not your fault, Director Stinett, but it's holistically the city's responsibility to ensure we can get that ice up and running as quick as possible. So, thank you for all the due diligence being done. Thank you. I appreciate the update. **Madam Chair:** Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys are very efficient tonight. I just have a couple or maybe even just one additional question. Thank you for raising the questions, and every time I wrote one down, you then answered it right away. So, I really appreciate that. It's a very, very well-prepared presentation. Speaking of climate, it's not just the fact that we are trying to hold two climates within, but I am curious over the last 25 years. We know that climate change is a thing, and our summers are getting hotter. We are seeing more humidity, and what maybe should have been for a high desert 25 years ago, I'm concerned about what it would be now. Are we really looking at the fact, you know, our summers may be, we may see even higher temps and more humidity? Are we going to get equipment that will be able to handle those changes? **Director Stette:** Yes, Madam Chair. When looking at the rink design, we have four compressors. Each compressor is designed to run for about 5,000 hours a year. They're supposed to cycle between one, two, three, and four. So, as one trips off, the ice is cool, the other one will trip on. The issue that we face now, at the beginning of the presentation, we've never had four working for the last six to seven years. Now with four working, those run times should be within manufacturer recommendations of 5,000 hours. With four running as well, should one go down, we know what type of a repair it needs so that we can get the four back up and going quickly and efficiently. I think that's the big difference from before to now. The cooling towers specifically are designed for New Mexico with a higher capacity and rate and flow rate. So, the warmer temperatures that we've seen in the summer and the longer warmer weather is not a factor. So, we've essentially put in or designed cooling towers meant for Phoenix, Arizona. So, as long as we don't get to that type of climate, we're okay. **Madam Chair:** Here's to hoping that we don't. Plug for Treesmart Santa Fe, I guess, right there. Well, thank you again. This was very, very thorough. I really appreciate it. I agree wholeheartedly that making sure that this information is getting out to the public. I know that we get a lot of emails. I think that what would be great, maybe this is for City Manager Scott, if we could take this presentation, and I would love it as a clip from YouTube, and if we put it on the city website, if we put it on the Facebook page, I think that a lot of people have questions, or if it's just something that I can easily send out to constituents, any way that we can make it as easy as possible if individuals want the deep dive, which I feel a lot of those who I've spoken to would like that and would appreciate that. So, if there's any way that we can get this, it's not bite-size at all. So, if we can get it down to like a quarter of a sheet cake instead of an entire cake, that'd be great to pass on over to constituents. And with that, I don't, oh, and updates as well. I think that if there are any updates, Henry, we don't always have to drag you down here, Director Stette, but Henry, if you can just, during your communications from staff, if there are updates on the timeline on anything relevant, if you can make sure to include those, we would appreciate it. **Director Stette:** Absolutely. **Madam Chair:** Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate you being here. I really appreciate all of your work and your dedication to this. I, it is quite impressive what you are doing and the task that you are taking on, given that you've inherited something that's very challenging to deal with. So, thank you. **Director Stette:** Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Councilor. I will ask the question before I go. We do send regular updates to the user groups. I'm happy to attach those updates and you to that if you're wishing for that information. Now that we're past the discovery, we have some timelines. Those updates are going to be as soon as I receive them going out to the groups. So, we'll make sure that you're fully kept up to speed. **Madam Chair:** I would imagine the entire governing body would have interest of that if you want to BCC us on that. **Director Stette:** Yes, ma'am. We'll do. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, moving along, item H had been pulled by me to give a presentation. However, we are already 30 minutes past the time that we told the public we would start a study session. So, a couple options for the committee. Rod has offered to meet individually with each of you, and so we would not take the time to do the presentation today. Also, Rod, is this the same presentation that Finance received a couple weeks ago, or is it different? Okay. So, another option, we can also make sure that that presentation is sent out to you all in advance. And then you can follow up with Rod, and then of course, we will have the opportunity to see this at Governing Body. Is that something the committee is amenable to? And if so, can I get a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. May I please have a roll call? Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Madam Chair? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. And thank you so much for that flexibility and for finding a solution for our packed schedule tonight. I will accommodate your schedules. Thank you. All right, moving on to item I. Oh, you know, I didn't read Councilor, I'm sorry, Councilor Item H into the record. Going to do that real fast so that the community knows what I was talking about. So this is consideration of Resolution Number 2025, to be numbered later, sponsored by Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth, Councilor Jamie Cassutt, Councilor Pilar Faulkner, and Mayor Alan Webber. It's a resolution adopting improvements to the budget process for the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Annual Operating Budget. And Rod Gold, of course, is our Senior Advisor and Public Engagement Coordinator, as well as Director Otero, our Finance Director, is involved. So moving on to item I, this consideration of Resolution Number 2025-2, to be numbered later, sponsored by Councilor Alma Castro. It's a resolution authorizing the sale and consumption of beer and wine during the Route 66 Centennial Festival 2025 concert on October 11, 2025, pursuant to Subsection 23-6.2C SFCC1987. We don't need staff, although Christine is here. The only reason that this was pulled is because there is an amendment that is needed in order to correct a misplaced time. So on page two, line seven, just replacing 5 with 3, so making it 3:00 p.m., and replace 10 with 7, making it 7:00 p.m. So there was just a technical error there. Any questions? And can I get, first, I need a motion to approve the item. Move to approve. Second. A motion and a second. And then can I get a motion to move Amendment A? Moved. Second. Motion and a second to move Amendment A. Roll call on the amendment, please. Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Madam Chair? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. And on the main motion, a roll call, please. Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Madam Chair? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you, everybody, for your flexibility and your efficiency tonight. Moving on to matters from staff. Madam Chair and councilors, in the interest of time, I'm only going to flag one item. We are hiring in the Office of Economic Development. We're looking for a Southside Coordinator, preferably someone who is bilingual. This position closes soon, so if you have any recommendations, please send them directly to me, and I'll connect them with the application process. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Montoya. Director Hall. So, keep this quick. And on the matter of recruiting and hiring, the Human Services Division is hiring for an Eviction Prevention Program Manager, a Housing Services Manager, and a Data and Policy Program Manager. So, that is currently open and looking for applicants. Wonderful. Thank you, Marcel. I'm going to guess that you don't have anything else that you'd like to try to say tonight. So, hope your voice gets better soon. Matters from the committee, anything? Matters from the chair, I have none. Our next meeting is Wednesday, September 3rd, and at 6:35, we are adjourned. Thank you so much, everybody.