Regular Finance Committee Meeting - Second Monday Mon, Apr 6, 2026 · Finance Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/939 == Executive Summary == The City Council approved a four-year contract with the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe for the city's Fourth of July celebrations, totaling $885,57. This decision prompted significant discussion among councilors regarding the overall costs of city-sponsored events, including additional city resources like police and fire, and the revenue generated from these events. Staff were tasked with providing a comprehensive breakdown of these costs and revenues, and to clarify the differences between city-sponsored, permitted, and privately leased events. In another key discussion, the Council approved a joint resolution to establish regular meetings with Santa Fe County to foster greater collaboration on regional issues. An amendment was also approved to specifically include 'regional housing strategy' as a targeted topic for these joint meetings. Staff provided updates on procurement modernization and year-end financial preparations, and were directed to explore new payment portal options. == Key Decisions == - Approved a four-year professional services contract with the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe for Fourth of July celebrations for $885,57 (4-1 vote). - Approved a joint resolution establishing a framework for regular meetings between Santa Fe County and the City of Santa Fe (5-0 vote). - Approved an amendment to add 'regional housing strategy' to the list of targeted topics for joint city-county meetings (5-0 vote). == Motions & Votes == - Agenda Approval — Passed (5-0) - Consent Calendar Approval (as amended, with Items D and I pulled for separate discussion) — Passed (5-0) - Fourth of July Celebration Contract (Item D7D) — Passed (4-1), with Councilor Castro voting no. - Amendment to add 'regional housing strategy' to the list of targeted topics for joint city-county meetings — Passed (5-0) - Resolution to approve the list of targeted topics for joint city-county meetings — Passed (5-0) == Public Comment == No public comments were made during the meeting. However, a Councilor expressed support for the resolution on regional collaboration, highlighting the need for regional thinking on issues like housing, homelessness, crime, and water. Staff clarified that the initial list of topics for joint meetings was a starting point, and the importance of full participation from both governing bodies was emphasized. The possibility of creating joint funds for collective projects was also raised, and a community meeting for the Lamplighter project was announced for April 14th at 6 PM at Salazar. == Topics == - City-County Joint Meetings - Fourth of July Celebration Contract - Event Cost Analysis - Event Policy and Sponsorship - Procurement Modernization - Regional Housing Strategy - Agenda Approval - Consent Calendar Approval - Finance Department Updates - Roll Call and Quorum - Public Comment - Lamplighter Project Update - No Presentations == Full Transcript == All right, I'll call this meeting to order. Can we get a roll call, please? Certainly. Councilor Cassett? Here. Councilor Castro? Here. Councilor Garcia? Present. Councilor Bamonte? Here. And Chair Faulkner? Here. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Can we get approval of the agenda? Anything changed from staff? No changes from staff. Move to approve. Second. Can we get a roll call, please? Councilor Cassett? Yes. Councilor Castro? Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Wamonte? Yes. And Chair Falconer? Yes. And that motion passes. Thank you. Now, an approval of the consent calendar. I know we have a couple of items pulled from Councilor Cassett and Councilor Castro. Anything from staff? No pulls from staff. Move to approve as amended. Second. Second. Can we get a roll call? Councilor Cassett? Uh, yes. One moment. I believe that we do need to state what was pulled before we can vote. So, what items are these? That would be Item D, which is the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe for the Fourth of July celebration, and Item I, which is the resolution for the periodic joint meetings between the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County. All right. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Cassett and Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Bamonte? Yes. And Chair Faulkner? Yes. That motion passes. Okay. So, we have a public comment. Is there anyone here from the public in the chambers? Madam Chair, seeing no one in the chambers, and we have no one currently present online. Okay, let's go to the next order of business. Presentations. No presentations this evening. Right. So, take us to the next order of business, please. And this evening we have Item D7D, which is a request for approval of a professional services contract with the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe to produce the city's Fourth of July celebrations in the total amount of $885,57 through April 15th, 2030. And we do have Parks and Open Space on this item. This item, no staff was required to attend this evening, and Councilor Castro has some comments. Castro, you have the floor. Thank you so much, Chair. And yes, I didn't need staff to be here tonight because we did pull this at Quality of Life. I just wanted to talk a little bit more about my concerns and get, I think, a little more clarification, which I might get from Deputy City Manager as opposed to Parks. So, this is a contract for four years, in my understanding, going forward, a total of $800,000 for the event coordinating, but there are some additional costs around fire, police, other resources that are not included in the dollar amount. Is that correct? Uh, Chair Faulkner and Councilor Castro, rest of the Finance Committee, I'll try to answer the questions on this. My understanding is that this is an up-to amount. The $870 and some change is the four-year estimate, but it does provide options within that and different cost breakdowns for a fireworks-only show, a hybrid show, which would be a reduced fireworks with a drone option, or a fully drone-provided show with pyrotechnic effects. So there are some options within that. Yes, the city does carry some costs in terms of making sure that an event like this would be safe for not only the attendees but also for the surrounding area. So traffic control, potentially closing some roads, providing police presence, those kinds of things. Event coordination staff, our special event staff will be involved in this. It is a heavy lift to put on something of this magnitude, but it is important, especially at this location, to make sure that we are considering all of those factors. So there is a cost to the taxpayer, frankly, to provide those services to put on a show like this. I will say it is the 250th anniversary, as well as the Route 66 100-year anniversary as well. So, we did want to partner with Kiwanis to really put on a celebration that is safe and, you know, well thought out for the whole community. Thank you so much, Acting Finance Director and Deputy City Manager. I think what's interesting is, and I think this is for us, Chair, as a Finance Committee, if we could get a full cost of what some of these city-sponsored events cost the city, because this contract is just for the event coordinating, but there are a lot of other costs associated with some of these large events. My understanding is that there's, for example, ticket sales, a beer garden, other events, and I'm not sure, because this is a city-sponsored event, if we get that revenue, where some of those revenue streams go. Do we know? Is that something we can get from staff at the next Finance Committee meeting? Yeah, I, um, thank you. I can certainly do some more digging and try to get a more robust information packet together for you. So, just so I'm clear though, you're talking about all of the additional costs related to a city-sponsored event. And then on the revenue side, you were wondering about revenues from ticket sales and alcohol sales. I think there were alcohol sales that came through as a permit. I guess in a more broad sense, I would like to understand the cost associated with some of these city-sponsored events as opposed to community events that we're sponsoring as individual councilors, like Pride or other things that are happening in the community. And just to get a sense of how many taxpayer dollars are going into these. I think we're all in favor of joyous events, but we are in a flat budget, and we need to start thinking about how we're allocating some of these resources. So, I would offer that like the beer garden is likely permitted, and they're going to generate their own revenue that we will not, through Kiwanis, but it'll go back to that organization. We will only see the permitting fees. Like, in general, in these kinds of events, we are leasing things to people in a sense. We're not going to see revenue from the beer garden other than the permits, likely. And I think that for me, I just wanted to sort of understand the delineation between a city-sponsored event and a community event put on by a large organization. For example, we had some concerns last year around Fort Marcy's capacity. There are some concerns that I have about some large-scale events that are hosted by the city versus permits that we're giving to outside organizations. So, can we do a presentation on that? The difference between a permitted event or a privately leased event, or I know that there's events, yeah, city-sponsored versus a private event where we're partnering with a private entity that is going to take the bulk of the revenue. They're only paying permitting fees. A city-sponsored event costs the city money. That's what it boils down to, from what I understand. But to get clarification, can we get a presentation on that at the next Finance Committee meeting about the difference between someone privately leasing or renting space at the city and the city partnering with them or a city-sponsored event? Like, what's the difference between those two? And like, where does revenue go? And what does the city get out of it? What does the city put into it? All of that kind of stuff. Yeah. What does it cost us to do Zozobra, for example, versus what does it cost us to do the egg hunt? Yeah. And Madame Chair and the rest of the committee, to be perfectly honest, I might have to do a little bit of digging to try to come up with the estimates for expenditures and revenues for those different scenarios. I honestly don't know off the top of my head, you know, what that would look like. And so, um, I will try to get it for you for the next meeting, a couple of weeks from now. Um, but I'll, I'll definitely keep you updated on how that project is going. Sir Bamonte. So if I can just kind of add on to here, I think one of the concerns, if I understand correctly, was in our packet we saw an estimated man-hours, and so there were something like 200 man-hours distributed through police, fire, work, streets, et cetera. So I don't know if that's part of just the estimate cost. Thank you, Chair. I'll do my best. Councilor Cassett. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I think that this is a very important topic given where we are in budget season. This has actually come up a few times around how does the city decide what events we sponsor? How do we waive things or waive fees, waive, you know, facility costs? Um, and it's been really mushy. I mean, we all have our convention center sponsorship that we get to do. Um, there's been some conversations around some youth tournaments and how do we get those sponsored and how do we budget for those things. So, um, I think that it would be really interesting to both understand what has already been established, what we do pay for, but more importantly, where does the decision come from as to what events the city will be sponsoring, what we will be paying for, what we will be putting on, um, and how we prioritize the allocation of those dollars that we do have for those events. Um, and I, I think that it, it's going to wind up being a larger policy conversation that we have a lot of room to, um, uh, to perfect or to, you know, hone in on, because I know that there's been some complications. So I agree, getting a presentation would be there, uh, would be important. Um, but I think is also part of that presentation, maybe taking a look at what is, what has been established by ordinance or resolution, what is the process by which a new city-sponsored event comes on, and, and there's a number of different categories, you know, we have like our big eight, we, and then we have our Easter eggs and, um, or egg hunt, excuse me, but, um, maybe also the conversation around what do other communities do, how do other communities make these decisions, because I, I do think that it's going to be a bit more of a complex conversation, um, because over the years we've had a number of conversations around this isn't very, it's not very well established and, and how these decisions are made have not been, um, really put down into a process or procedure. So just wanted to, to add that to this conversation as a presentation is being prepped. Thank you. Councilor Garcia. Good. Thank you. Yeah, I would, I would echo Councilor Cassett's remarks and Councilor Castro, actually, and Councilor Bamonte. The mayor and I had a discussion about this today, and in some of these spaces, it has been arbitrary and kind of just like at a whim or because of some agenda. And so what happens to the public and to organizations is there's no clear process that is consistent, that is reliable and transparent and easy to understand. And so this is definitely something that we should be looking into. And so if we can, if you can't get it by the next meeting, can we get it by the following meeting? Okay, great. Thank you. Anything else? Right. Next item, please. Oh, no. Can we get a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. Can we get a roll call, please? Councilor Cassett? Yes. Councilor Castro? No. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Wamonte? Yes. Chair Faulkner? Yes. And that motion passes. Next item, please. We have Item 7I. It's a consideration of Resolution Number 2026-TVD, sponsored by County Commissioner Lisa Carrillo Stone, Mayor Michael Garcia, and Councilor Jo-Ann Faulkner. It is a joint resolution recognizing the value of periodic joint meetings between Santa Fe County and the City of Santa Fe and establishing a framework for conducting those meetings. And on the presentation, we have Interim City Manager Brian Moya, but I believe we have Mr. Mayor Garcia in the room with us. Right. Need an update or stand for questions? Madam Chair, what's the will of the committee? Councilor Cassett pulled this item. Cassett, you want to go? Sure. Yeah, that'd be great. I just pulled it because I wanted to add another topic that has frequently been discussed among myself and other county commissioners and city councilors. So it is an amendment that would add on that list of targeted topics a regional housing strategy conversation. So that was the only reason I pulled it. I don't have any other questions. I just wanted to add that to the mix. I added it as item C because I plumped it with the other housing-related topics that were being listed. So I would, well, I think we need a main motion on the floor. So I'll move to approve the resolution. Second. And then now I will move to approve the amendment. Second. I think we have to vote on, nope, amendment first. Okay. Anything else? All right. Can we get any discussion? No, I did just have some comments that I spoke with staff and, you know, there's a lot of anxiety from all of us on making big changes, but I'm really supportive of this. I think that staff is excited to move forward and thank you so much for thinking of reaching out to folks before it ever came to us. Anybody else? Chair, Mayor, Madam Chair, members of the committee, this, I just want to kind of reiterate that this list is not an exclusive list. As you can imagine, we could have come up with a hundred different items. And so there's no intention for leaving any specific topic off, actually, in the legislation. And the intention is that as our joint bodies begin to meet, we will develop kind of a prioritization list of what we immediately want to begin to work off of. So by no means was it intentional to leave any topics off. It was actually intentional to keep the list as small as possible in the purpose that we're not prioritizing one thing over another. And that way our bodies can come together and say, "Hey, what's what's what actual action can we take the quickest? What is going to take the longest?" And we can work in between and ultimately get the job done together. Councilor Castro, Jan, I'm so sorry. Just the opportunity, there are some joint committees that we already work on. Can you both just speak to why we want to go further than what we're already doing? Sure. So there's a couple of them. No, SWAN solid, that's solid waste, as well as Buckman, but those are very focused topics. This is going to allow for actually every member of each governing body to participate. In each of those three examples I cited, not every member of the governing body sits on each of those bodies. So this will allow for us as joint bodies to begin to meet as well as begin to create what we're kind of classifying as action working groups. That way, you're kind of having sub-working groups working on specific topics. That way things can get done in a more efficient way. Now, as we are in finance, one thing that we haven't really talked about is creating joint funds to fund projects collectively as municipalities. Is that something that we might be seeing in the future? Nothing is off the table. Thank you. Anything else, Mayor? I just want to add, I've been asked numerous times in the water committee what happened to our coordination with the county. And then as well, there's other topics such as, I don't know, light pollution, urban farming. So I just want to say this is a very, this is a very good initiative to start getting these conversations started with our county counterparts and see how we can collaborate rather than working against each other on these. Thank you, Madam Chair. Garcia, Councilor Cassid, anything at all? Nothing else. Thank you. All right. As a co-sponsor of this legislation, I will say that there is probably a thousand spaces where the city and the county could be and should be working together. And one of the things that I keep harping on is that housing, homelessness, crime, water, there's a list of some big items where we cannot think in silos anymore. We have to think regionally because our, the arbitrary lines around jurisdiction mean nothing to the environment. They mean nothing to the homeless population. They mean nothing to crime. These are like kind of false in the sense, like it doesn't, we have to start working together on regional, we have to start thinking regionally. Our populations are moving around too much between different sub-governing entities and governing entities. And if we don't start thinking regionally, we are going to fail as leaders and we will fail most importantly for the community. So that's kind of the intent behind this is to start thinking regionally. So with that, anybody, anybody else with anything? All right. Can we get a roll call on the amendment? Certainly. So we have an original approval from Councilor Cassett and Councilor Castro. Councilor Cassett. Yes. Councilor Castro. Councilor Garcia. Yes. Councilor Bamante. Yes. Chair Faulner. Yes. And that passes. Can you get a roll call on the original item? Are we going with the same motions there as well? Councilor Cassid's motion, the first motion and Councilor Castro is the second motion. Okay. Councilor Cassett. Yes. Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Garcia. Yes. Councilor Wamonte. Yes. Chair Falner. Yes. And that motion passes as well. So next order of business, we have no public hearings tonight, no introductions of legislation. So we are on to matters from staff. Anything from staff? Thank you, Chair, Madam Chair, and committee members. Maybe just a few quick updates based on the recent bill that the governing body approved, which changed the thresholds, the procurement modernization bill. We have provided a memo to all of the staff citywide. Those changes are effective today, actually. And so we're training folks on how to utilize those. Our procurement team, it is holding a bi-weekly PUG. It's a procurement user group, which is an online Teams meeting space where they can ask questions, get training. We had our first one on Friday and it went really well. We had 92 attendees from across the city. So there's a lot of interest in our procurement process and how we can do things, you know, in a more streamlined way. We are also preparing for our year-end close. We have an excellent, maybe, we're also preparing for our year-end close for this fiscal year. So we're informing the departments on that so we can get ready. And then finally, we are doing some professional development. So our team is going to Tyler Munis conference this week. And then we also had some team members that just went to the statewide procurement conference. So I'm really proud that our team continues to prioritize professional development in finance. So we're really excited to see them continuing to take advantage of those opportunities. And then finally, tomorrow we're going to be meeting with some of the OpenGov project managers to explore this payment portal and potential interface. So we are continuing to try to find solutions to ensure that the operational needs of the land use and development team are being met with back-end support from finance and IT. So we're going to get some more information from the software developer on what that looks like and then hopefully bring some more information back to city leadership and to you all. There may be some additional costs in building and maintaining that interface, but we'll stay on top of that and get back to you on that versus other options. Are my updates? Anything else, staff? Right. Matters from committee members. You guys really want to be out here by like 5:30? Is that what's happening? Well, Chair, if anyone is interested in an update about the Lamplighter project, there is a community meeting at Salazar on April 14th at 6:00 PM and there will be a small update. Anything else? All right, matters from the Chair. Our next meeting will be April 20th. And on that, we're adjourned. Bye everybody. Thank you.