Public Works and Utilities Committee Mon, Mar 2, 2026 · Public Works and Utilities Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/962 == Executive Summary == The Public Works and Utilities Committee met to discuss several key items, including the approval of a significant contract and budget amendment related to a new Medicaid Ambulance Supplemental Payment Program. This program aims to help the city recover costs for ambulance services provided to Medicaid patients. The committee also recognized two long-serving employees for their dedication to the city. The meeting saw unanimous approval for all discussed items, demonstrating strong committee consensus. There were no public comments from attendees, and the meeting concluded with personal announcements from committee members. == Key Decisions == - Approved the meeting agenda unanimously. - Approved the consent agenda (as amended) unanimously. - Approved a Professional Service Contract with Public Consulting Group for $1.8 million unanimously. - Approved a Budget Amendment Resolution for $199,137 unanimously. == Motions & Votes == - Approval of Agenda — Passed unanimously - Approval of Consent Agenda (as amended) — Passed unanimously - Approval of Professional Service Contract with Public Consulting Group ($1.8 million) — Passed unanimously - Approval of Budget Amendment Resolution ($199,137) — Passed unanimously == Public Comment == No public comments were made by individuals from the chambers. == Topics == - Medicaid Ambulance Supplemental Payment Program - Employee of the Month Presentation - Approval of Agenda - Approval of Consent Agenda - Public Works and Utilities Committee Meeting Call to Order - Nancy Jimenez Retirement Recognition - Budget Amendment Resolution for Ambulance Program - Roll Call - Public Comment - Matters from Staff - Matters from the Committee - Meeting Adjournment == Full Transcript == Bless you. Madam Chair, Councilor Chavez, we are live. Thank you so much. I call to order the Public Works and Utilities Committee meeting. It's March 2nd, 5:01. Could I get a roll call, please? Yes, Madam Chair. Chair, Councilor Amanda Chavez. Here. Councilor Liz Barrett. Here. Councilor Paul Busamante. Here. Councilor Pat Faggali. Here. Councilor Polar Faulkner. Here. We have a quorum. Quorum. Thank you. Next is approval of the agenda. Any changes from staff? No changes, Madam Chair. Do I have a motion from the committee? Motion to approve. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying, "Aye." Any opposed? See none. Motion passes. Next is approval of the consent agenda. I have item 7H and 7I pulled. Are there any other items that need to be pulled? Motion to approve. As amended. As amended. Second. I have a motion to approve as amended and a second. All those in favor signify by saying, "Aye." Any opposed? See none. Motion passes. I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I missed the motion came from. Councilor Faulkner. And the second. Gotcha. Thank you. Sorry. I do apologize. Thank you. Next is public comment. Is there anyone in chambers that would like to address the committee today? No one in chambers. Moving on to presentations. We have one of our favorite type of presentations today again. Public Utilities Department Employee of the Month for February 2026, Amanda Britt, Contracts Administrator, Administration Division, and Nancy Jimenez, Billing and Administration Division Director is with us. Hey. Oh, hey. How are you? Evening. I'm great. How are you? Good. Good. Allergy season has started. So, bless everybody for those that will be sneezing for the next three months. I would like to present Amanda Britt. If you can come up here, please. Amanda Britt's been with the City of Santa Fe for over 25 years. I am actually very proud to say that I have pretty much worked with her in multiple divisions and sections and the last seven years at Public Utilities. She has, oh gosh, started in recreation and then went to cashiers here at City Hall and then accounts receivable at City Hall and then utilities stole her for cashiers and customer service and collections and project specialist and a contracts administrator. So, her whole career she's kind of been promoted and picks up whatever work needs to get done. She's currently the contracts administrator with anything from sole source and purchase orders and RFPs and helping with procurement, which is a huge, huge undertaking. Picked it up, really has just kind of helped us tremendously try to understand and have communication with procurement so that everything's, well, it definitely runs a lot smoother now than what it did. So, I am here just to present the Employee of the Month for February 2000, excuse me, 2026. Sorry, I have lost a whole 20 years on there. Just wanted to kind of read what we wrote about her, but City of Santa Fe Public Utilities Department, Utility Billing and Administration Division Employee of the Month is Amanda Britt. Thank you for your dedication and devotion to the Billing and Administration Division. Your ability to take on new tasks, learn the processes, and then teach and share your knowledge is what makes you an inspiration to your coworkers. Your teamwork, work ethic, attitude, and assistance with any items within the division and the department makes you a pillar of our team and your performance is a testament to you and why you are nominated, selected, and selected for the Employee of the Month for February 2026. So, thank you for honoring her. And typically, Amanda, we want to shake your hand, but we're going to do you a favor and not shake your hand because we do value you and we need you to do all the amazing work you do and not get sick by committee. But it's always, it's always like the greatest compliment when someone gets stolen from place to place because they're that good. So, I'm glad that I appreciate you being a treasure for the city and adding all of, you know, the improvement that comes with your work ethic and your knowledge. So, thank you very much. Madam Chair, if I could just add on and say thank you to Amanda and thank you to Nancy and Vanji and for being here in support of her in recognizing her great work. And also, I would be remiss not to mention that Nancy has is within two weeks of retirement. So, this will be the last Public Utilities meeting that she attends. And I want to thank her for almost 30 years of service and dedication to the city. Thank you, Nancy. Before we move on, are there any comments or anything that the committee would like to share with Amanda or Nancy? Yes, Councilor Busamante. Just want to thank, oh, nope. Go ahead, Paul. Okay. I just congratulations again and enjoy your retirement. You earned it. Councilor Faulkner, I just want to thank both of you. I love it when we have succession planning. It's may not be exactly in alignment, but we're going to lose a really good person, but we also have a really good person who's kind of moving through the ranks. So, I just appreciate both of you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you two very, very much. Next is moving on to our consent agenda. We had two items moved. The first one pulled, not moved, pulled. The first one was 7H. Request for approval of professional service contract for the Public Consulting Group for consulting to develop, implement, and support the Fire Department's participation in Medicaid Ambulance Supplemental Payment Program and the total amount of $1,800,000 excluding NMGRT for a term of four years. And we have DC Outerk here to answer any questions and I will turn it over to Councilor Faggali. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chief, for being here. As I mentioned on the phone earlier, I just this is a really confusing contract and I was hoping you could explain a bit about how it works. My understanding is we are contracting with this outside group to get our Medicaid funding for us. Is that correct? And how much, how much they get us if you know that amount? Yes, Madam Chair, members of the committee, it's good to be here. This is a very complex program. It's taken quite a few years to get it up and running. We were one of the first initial departments in the state, the initial seven to buy into this program. This, it's the Ambulance Supplemental Payment Program. We contract with a group called the PCG, which the Public Consulting Group, and that's we pay them. We also pay the healthcare authority to be part of this program and that's kind of the two entities that all this money is going towards. So, this is for Medicaid reimbursements. Public Consulting Group helps figure out how much money we're getting back for Medicaid. We provide a lot of data and information to them. We have to gather through over each quarter and each year and we give them all this information and they help consolidate all of that and they figure out how much we'll get reimbursed. That money comes back to the general fund and this last year we in calendar year 24 we brought in or calendar year 25 we brought in for calendar year 24 because we're always a year behind, right? You don't know how much you do until you do it. $5.27 million through this program. So, there is a fee that we pay them plus 14%. So, that's the 14% that you see there in H1. So, that's the 14% contingency fee that we pay them that comes from this fund. And so, you can see that the millions of dollars we're pulling in is this is a fraction of that money that we pay them. So, what we did in the very first year, it was roughly about $880,000 that we paid them. And once we started receiving these funds and that came from the general fund to pay for it initially and these funds went right back into the general fund and our idea is to always have it pay itself, right? And so, the money is not really coming from anyone's pocket that this is a self, at this point it's a self-sustaining program and it's money coming into the city that we've never had before. Over this next year, we have anticipated to see 2.9 million come in over this year and then estimated for the following year is 3.9 million. So, as we continue this program over the next couple years, we can see how it's going to be generating quite a bit of revenue in for the city. And this is for ambulance transports that we do that are not being able to be reimbursed through Medicaid and other sources. Right. Great. Thank you. That, I think answered my question. I appreciate that. Are there any other questions or comments for Chief? I have a motion. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor signify by saying, "Aye." Aye. Any opposed? See none. Motion passes. Next is back at you, Chief, with 7I, request for approval of budget amendment resolution to increase professional contracts in the total amount of $199,137 to fund the New Mexico Ambulance Supplemental Payment Program. And Councilor, I think your question probably got answered for this as well, but just in case if you have any questions or comments. Yeah, my question for this one, thank you, Chair, is just why, why is this a separate bar? Is it, is it just, is it coming from somewhere else or is it going to somewhere else or? No, it's going to the same program. This is the fee that we owe them for July to December of 2025. And so, a lot of times it gets paid, it gets back paid and that's what's happened over this first little while. And so, that's why we had the other item go through so we can be ahead of the game as we move forward over the next four years. We'll have basically money set aside to pay this program as we go. What they are moving towards, we had a meeting with them recently and they're moving towards doing a quarterly payment program and so we're not trying to pay huge, huge chunks at a time that it helps the city and those people paying into the program that we can pay just a smaller amounts because they know these are large, large amounts. And fortunately for us, we've kind of kept this money aside so it can help pay itself and we're not trying to come up with funds or find funds from somewhere. We initially had to do that in the beginning, but we received those funds back fairly quickly. And so, we should see quarterly payments come in every single quarter and those are being tracked with help through our grant people and everyone else that's helping us with this project. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Jesse's just going to call it. I have a motion to have a second. All those in favor signify by saying, "Aye." Aye. Any opposed? See none. Motion passes. Next, we will go to matters from staff. No matters from staff, Madam Chair. Matters from the committee. Councilor Faulkner. Just would like to invite everyone to my birthday party on Friday. Our birthday's on Friday. Thank you. 6:00 in the cafe. Any other, just have one thing. Kumad Korees. It's going to be a free clinic, a free health clinic in Santa Fe and they are having a fundraiser at Backros this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. Pints for Patients. You want to come support a good cause? Thank you. I was looking at that. Any other? No. All right, from me, next meeting is Monday, March 16, 2026. And with that, we're adjourned. Have a wonderful evening. Did you hear?