Quality of Life Committee Wed, Feb 18, 2026 · Quality of Life Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/982 == Executive Summary == The City Council meeting covered a range of critical topics, with significant discussion around the Code Blue program, the proposed Gunshot Detection System (ShotSpotter), and the Age-Friendly Action Plan. The Code Blue program, designed to protect vulnerable populations during extreme cold, was lauded for its effectiveness and extensive coordination, but councilors and public commenters highlighted the urgent need for more sustainable funding and year-round shelter capacity to address the broader homelessness crisis. Concerns were also raised about security around Code Blue shelters and the need to expand criteria for activation. A major point of contention was the approval of a $354,000 contract for the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system. While proponents emphasized its potential for faster emergency response, improved data collection, and integration with youth violence prevention efforts, some council members questioned its cost-effectiveness compared to direct funding for youth and family services. The Age-Friendly Action Plan was approved, leading to the formation of a task force to prioritize its implementation, and an $80,000 budget amendment for OpenGov software was also approved. == Key Decisions == - Agenda approved by voice vote. - Consent agenda, as amended (items B, D, and G pulled), approved by voice vote. - Formation of the Age-Friendly Task Force approved by voice vote. - ShotSpotter funding approved (4-1 vote). - OpenGov Software Budget Amendment approved (4-0 vote). == Motions & Votes == - Approval of the agenda — Passed by voice vote - Approval of the consent agenda, as amended (items B, D, and G pulled) — Passed by voice vote - Approval of the formation of the Age-Friendly Task Force — Passed by voice vote - Approval of ShotSpotter funding — Passed 4-1 - Approval of OpenGov Software Budget Amendment — Passed 4-0 == Public Comment == Public comments largely focused on the Code Blue program and homelessness. Residents and advocates praised the program's coordination but urged for expanded criteria (raising the temperature threshold from 15 degrees), the establishment of a permanent, year-round emergency shelter, and the reversal of a policy prohibiting city-funded services from distributing tents and sleeping bags. Concerns were raised about increased property crime near Code Blue shelters and the growing economically disadvantaged population. One councilor praised the Code Blue model but highlighted the critical lack of resources and urged for increased budget prioritization for homelessness. During the ShotSpotter discussion, a council member questioned the allocation of $354,000 for the technology when youth and family services are underfunded, while others emphasized the importance of the data for safety and education. == Topics == - Code Blue Program - Youth and Family Services - ShotSpotter Funding - OpenGov Software - Planning and Land Use Updates - Meeting Procedures - Emergency Preparedness - Community Partnerships - Land Swap Approval - Future Meetings/Field Trips == Full Transcript == Madame Chair, Councilor Castro, we are live. Wonderful. Thank you so much. I think we're just about ready to get started. So, I'm going to call to order the meeting of Quality of Life. We are starting at... I apologize, we're still waiting. Just a couple technical things. So, I'm going to try to talk on this mic as long as I possibly can. Hi. How is everyone? Hi, St. No, you're totally fine. We don't technically have to entertain the public. I just tried to... No worries. So at 5:07, I would like to call to order the Quality of Life meeting. If I could get a roll call, please. Councilor Fagali? Here. Councilor Barrett? Here. Councilor Travis? Here. Councilor Cassett? Here. Madam Chair, present. Madame Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you so much. I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. No changes from staff. Motion to approve. Second. And since we are all in the room, we can have a voice vote. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Motion passes. Now, there are a couple things pulled from the consent agenda. I will let committee members or staff... Was there anything pulled from the consent agenda? Madam Chair, three items were pulled: Item B, Item D, and Item G. Are there any other items that committee members would like to pull at this time? All right. So, I would entertain a motion to approve as amended. We can take a voice vote. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you so much. We will move on to presentations. We do have a Code Blue presentation. If we can get our emergency management team up to the podium. Thank you so much. Director Morgan, go right ahead. Thank you, Chair Castro, members of the Quality of Life Committee. Thank you for allowing us to be here to give this presentation. My name is Kyle Morgan, the Director of Emergency Management for the City of Santa Fe. And with me is Leah Azul Salivi, the Youth and Family Services Division Director for the city. I'm going to start us off today talking about who we are, who's involved with this effort, what we do, how we do it, and we'll both be contextualizing that within the larger goals and objectives of our respective departments and the city as a whole. So what is Code Blue and why is this something that emergency management is involved with? Traditionally, much of what we do to build preparedness in the city happens behind closed doors. We run tabletop exercises in conference rooms. We hold drills and workshops with city staff and we work on hypotheticals. We continue to do that and there's plenty of value in that. But Santa Fe has identified a second approach, one that enables us to leverage tangible community service as a training opportunity for building all-hazards emergency preparedness. We're doing two good things at once. We're testing and exercising the expanded coordination functions that we use for any disaster response, such as wildfires, while serving vulnerable populations through an effective humanitarian response program. This is an inventive, efficient use of city resources with forward-multiplying impacts that positions the City of Santa Fe as a regional leader in both the emergency management and human services spaces. A little bit about us and what we do. Disasters are resource problems, and during disasters, emergency management coordinates resources. First, we use our own stuff in novel ways and our own people. And when that isn't enough, we coordinate with neighboring jurisdictions, the State of New Mexico, various NGOs, and the private industry for mutual aid when our own systems become overwhelmed. Between disasters, we engage in an iterative preparedness cycle of planning, organizing, equipping, training, exercising. Yes, there's an acronym for that. It's poetic. We also manage the city's hazard mitigation program where we identify and plan for reducing risks before they become a problem. That piece of our portfolio, the work that happens before emergencies, is where we really provide the most value to the organization. Back to Code Blue. So cold weather injuries and fatalities are a national issue, one that we unfortunately know well here in Santa Fe. According to FEMA data, there are about 1,300 cold exposure deaths annually across the country. And according to NMDOH, New Mexico averages about 70 per year, much of that in our northern counties. Unsheltered populations are particularly vulnerable due to lack of shelter as well as various comorbidities. Locally, we have some additional risk factors that compound these risks even further. Taken as a whole, these challenges require a coordinated response between the city and our partners. So, I want to make sure to recognize that before we had a formal program that we called Code Blue here at the city, the Santa Fe Fire Department engaged in proactive outreach to vulnerable populations during cold snaps for many, many years. Code Blue as a formal program was initiated in the 2019 to 2020 winter season. As you can imagine, this one was pretty complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2021 and 2025, the program was more fully implemented with enhanced intracity and partner network coordination. It's grown each year. This year, it's really evolved into a comprehensive multi-agency coordinated effort involving nearly every city department as well as many of our community partners. For a quick overview of our operations, we activate for approximately the coldest 3% to 5% of nights of the year. This is a capacity-driven metric. Our priority during Code Blue is to protect life and safety through enhanced collaboration and the coordinated use of city resources. Life safety is always our number one priority during any major incident or disaster response. Previous after-action reviews identified the need to formalize our coordination structure. This year we've implemented that. Put most simply, we've divided tactical field operations versus the strategic elements that we coordinate through our Emergency Operations Center. This clarifies roles and responsibilities and ensures unity of effort. It has multiple other benefits. We're allowing city staff to train on the incident support model, which is the model that our EOC function uses and improves Code Blue operations. Oh, it's that huge. My apologies. So in this model, the EOC supports our tactical operations by developing shared objectives, strategies that support those objectives, and then facilitating a coordinated planning process to identify gaps, resources available to close those gaps, and developing shared situational awareness about planned operations both vertically and horizontally: city leadership, tactical units, and community partners. Taken as a whole, this facilitates a quick response if compounding or cascading issues emerge while we're doing Code Blue. Important to remember that while we're doing Code Blue, it's cold, it's winter, we can absolutely simultaneously have other emergencies happening at the same time. By positioning our response this way, we're able to expand our coordination function. Code Blue requires coordination across many city departments, each with specific roles. This is a quick snapshot of some of the primary players, but there are many more people involved. At the highest level, emergency management coordinates but does not supervise the overall response to ensure unity of effort. Similarly, our Youth and Family Services Division coordinates but does not supervise sheltering and partner organization outreach efforts. Meanwhile, operational units manage their own tactics in line with the objectives that we've all agreed upon. So, earlier this fall, we used Code Blue as our baseline training scenario for building preparedness citywide. Emergency management held a three-part training and exercise series that over its course involved almost every city department. First, we recognized that Code Blue is like an enhanced steady state or a planned state of exception. It's not a true disaster, but it's not normal operations. So, our first training contextualized Code Blue within the EOC coordination mechanisms. We expanded that to a larger winter weather emergency response where we transitioned from just Code Blue to a whole-of-city response. And we ended this with a full-scale winter weather disaster scenario with multiple cascading and compounding impacts across multiple sectors, not just mass care and sheltering. This is not theoretical training. This is preparation for something that we knew would happen, which made it more realistic and more effective. And once we got going with real Code Blues, we had a pretty well-oiled machine ready to go. Success is evidenced by all parties involved reporting improved coordination. And to date, no cold weather injuries or deaths have been reported by the fire or police departments. And no significant emergency department surges have been reported by hospitals on our Code Blue nights. So, starting last season, we began incorporating quite a bit more real-time data systems into our response. Initially, we were simply tracking outreach locations and equipment burn rates. This year, we've expanded to include bed availability of all participating shelters. Real-time data visibility makes our response more efficient and accountable and exercises the same data tools that we're going to utilize for larger disaster response and recovery operations if needed. I've mentioned this multiple times, but I really just want to drive home that the capabilities that we've built and continue to build for Code Blue apply to other disasters. Our coordination system works whether we're responding to a winter weather emergency, a wildfire, a public health crisis, or a flooding event. The data systems that we use for Code Blue give us real-time situational awareness that we'll need in any crisis. And by treating Code Blue as a training and exercise opportunity, we're building a more capable, resilient city organization. Code Blue has a cross-cutting strategic value, delivers on multiple city priorities. Simultaneous under the public safety banner, we're protecting lives during extreme weather events. We're diverting patient surges from our hospitals. We're also building organizational capacity and competency that we need not just for emergencies, but for anything that we need to work on here at the city. We're also strengthening our community partnerships and service delivery systems year-round. And as a whole, we're building community resilience. With that, I'll hand it over to Leah. Thank you, Kyle. Good evening, everyone. My name is Leah Azul Salivi, and I'm the Youth and Family Services Division Director. Glad to be with you all tonight. So to kick off our portion of the presentation, first and foremost, I want to begin by introducing my incredible staff and second, clarifying what the homelessness team actually means inside the City of Santa Fe. Within the Youth and Family Services Division, the homelessness portfolio is led by one program manager, one project administrator, and my oversight as division director. Our division also oversees youth violence prevention and the city-county connect referral network. So structurally, the city's homelessness portfolio is currently managed by a small but I'll say mighty team, managing a very challenging and complex systems challenge. So what makes our work possible is strong coordination and partnerships. We strive for efficient cross-department alignment with emergency management, fire, police, ARU, park rangers, transit, and public works, along with sustained partnership with more than 25 nonprofit and community-based organizations. County coordination is also essential, particularly around referrals, healthcare linkages, and broader regional response. Code Blue demonstrates how that coordination functions under pressure. Our response goes beyond one department solving a problem. It is a powerful network operating efficiently within alignment. While Code Blue is a necessary intervention, it is also a signal of a larger structural emergency. When individuals are living unsheltered, particularly in a climate like Santa Fe with extreme temperature swings, the risk is immediate and life-threatening. Exposure to the elements creates an acute public health and safety risk that escalates our efforts and warrants clear prioritization. So, building on the theme of partnership, next I want to talk about what these efforts look like in practice, and outreach is where that coordination becomes tangible. First, reducing barriers means designing the response around the realities people are facing from a human-centered perspective during Code Blue. That includes efforts such as no-cost transportation to shelter sites, multiple sheltering options to accommodate diverse needs, and flexible administration and policies to promote safety and well-being. Meeting people where they are is both literal and strategic. City staff and service provider outreach teams go into encampments, high-traffic areas, and known outdoor sleeping locations to distribute cold weather kits, provide real-time information about shelter availability, and coordinate transportation on the spot. We are also working to integrate healthcare and connect referrals as a bridge into broader services when individuals are ready. Finally, trust-building is critical to our success. A multi-pronged outreach model, which allows different partners to engage in complementary ways with those experiencing homelessness, promotes trust across the entire system. The objective is twofold: first, immediate protection from cold exposure, and second, creating longer-term pathways into stability. Outreach is the connective point between these two goals. Next, I want to highlight some of the progress the city has made over the last two years by improving access and strengthening operations. This season reflects a clear maturation of the program. Two winters ago, the city was not contracting for overnight shelter operations or meals at this scale. Today, we have three contracted providers sheltering across two locations, transportation support, meal service, and clearly defined operational plans. This model is more formalized, reliable, and scalable. Code Blue shelters operate under low-barrier principles, including accommodating pets, as you can see here, and personal belongings so that no one has to choose between coming indoors or leaving what matters to them outside. These adjustments directly increase participation during extreme cold. In terms of data, this season we expanded real-time tools to track bed availability, outreach encounters, and transportation logistics. We also collect after-action surveys from providers following activations to ensure continuous improvement. Just as OEM aligns departments under an incident structure, the homelessness team convenes contracted providers and the broader homelessness response network daily to problem-solve and mobilize resources in real time. The result is a response that is more predictable, data-informed, and coordinated than ever before. These operational improvements strengthen immediate life safety outcomes during extreme weather and reinforce the broader infrastructure of our homelessness response system year-round. While we've made major strides in recent years, at the same time, it is important to acknowledge some of our constraints. Most notably, Santa Fe currently has 280 shelter beds system-wide, and the latest by-name count includes 546 individuals on that list. So, that is a significant structural supply and demand gap. It is important to note that Code Blue does not close that gap. It mitigates the most acute life safety risk, but it operates within a system that is under capacity year-round. Resource limitations are also an ongoing challenge, not only for Code Blue operations but for homelessness initiatives at large. There's a critical need to identify sustainable ongoing funding for Code Blue and other emergency shelter bed programs locally. From a policy perspective, in the absence of a formal emergency proclamation, certain mass care resources are not automatically accessible. That also limits flexibility during operations. Because Code Blue serves individuals who experience complex medical and behavioral health needs, this can also raise operational demands and requires more coordination across healthcare and service providers. So, while Code Blue is effective at preventing cold weather injury and death, it exists within a broader homelessness system that remains strained. The emergency intervention works; however, the underlying capacity gap remains. The larger takeaway is that homelessness warrants an emergency response mindset, which Code Blue exhibits. That means recognizing unsheltered homelessness as an ongoing public health and safety crisis. Code Blue reflects what it looks like when we apply structured coordination, rapid mobilization, and incident management principles to that reality. The broader question is how do we embed that same urgency, coordination, and detailed attention into our year-round homelessness strategy? Cold weather conditions remind us of the critical life-threatening risk of unsheltered homelessness. It is a reminder that our system design must reflect that level of urgency beyond just winter activations. Looking forward, our focus is on strengthening regional coordination, aligning with recognized best practices, and continuing to integrate crisis response principles into homelessness operations. That includes cross-agency alignment, data tracking, and clearly defined objectives. The long-term goal is not simply improving cold weather response. It is building a system capable of responding to the homelessness crisis with urgency and the scale that is required. Code Blue demonstrates what is possible when we mobilize and align as a city and across the community, and it provides a blueprint for building a homelessness response system that meets the scale and urgency of the challenge before us. With that, I'm going to hand it back to Kyle. Kyle: Thank you, Leah. One thing I just wanted to flag is that due to this model's success, it's already being replicated by neighboring communities. The town of Taos now has their own Code Blue, which is modeled after our Code Blue. So, as we continue finding our success, we really would like to grow that regional influence, like to present this model at both emergency management and human services-related conferences, and develop training materials for easy replication in other communities so they can meet their own needs. Thank you. Thank you, Director. Appreciate it, both of you. Wonderful presentation. I'll open it up for committee members. Does anyone have comments or questions? Councilor: I just want to give you the floor to emphasize an obvious thing here, which is we have a successful model, but we don't have resources to really benefit to the extent we could from that successful model. So, I know you talked a little on resources we don't have. We don't have enough shelters. We don't have enough beds. But could you go deeper? Do we have enough resources in regards to creating kits and getting those kits out? To what extent can we grow this? I know it all has to do with budget, and I'm hoping that that is a priority when presented in front of, when budget comes. But I just want to give you the floor to emphasize that because it's amazing that we have a model like this that we are confident in, but it's also unfortunate that we're not resourcing it enough so that our community is getting the full benefit. Leah: Thank you for making that point and for allowing me to expand on some of those challenges. What I can say is certainly in terms of assets, Santa Fe is an incredible community in that even before we were organizing Code Blue in a very streamlined way and we had dedicated funding, we were able to leverage a lot of, particularly our service provider partners, faith-based community partners, to help us really think creatively and expansively about how do we maximize resources, how do we work together to promote mutual aid. So, as it pertains to our current operation within Code Blue this season, having that added support financially and in terms of sort of the dedicated staff support, it has really allowed us to move the needle in an exponential manner. I think what progress could look like moving forward would be one, moving away from one-time funding to think about this again in the longer term, as well as, from an operational standpoint, some of the focal points that OEM and my division are working towards include evaluating activities with data, and so really integrating, as you heard in the presentations, some of these data tools and bringing those to the next level. Obviously, expanding shelter capacity is top of mind, and to the extent that we can also grow our shelter bed capacity from 280 to as close as we can to that 546, and also understanding that, reading the tea leaves unfortunately, from trends at the federal level and from a national perspective, we can anticipate that homelessness will continue to grow. So, really not only trying to move the needle on shelter bed capacity in terms of our current need, but thinking in a more proactive sense for the next three to five to ten years out, what does this look like and what does a robust homelessness response network look like within the city of Santa Fe? So that's obviously huge. Also, an effort we spoke to a little bit but are looking to move the needle on even further is regional coordination. So, as Kyle mentioned, collaboration with the state, with the county, and other healthcare agencies and other agencies that work within the city of Santa Fe. I would say those are some of the primary focal points that are coming up in terms of where we can really strive towards. But having that prioritization dedicated and outlined from City Council, from leadership, and all the way down in terms of our partnerships with community-based organizations, having that alignment and agreement about the need to address homelessness as a crisis is going to help us with all of those efforts. Councilor: I love that you mentioned how rich we are in community partner services because we really are once we're aligned, right? I've said this multiple times, we're actually really rich in resources, but we tend to duplicate because we're not collaborating enough and because no one's stepping up with a common goal, like, "Hey, we need to accomplish this for our community. How can you all help?" And that creates alignment. So, you're modeling that with this, and there's just so many areas in the city we could do the same thing. So, we could really capitalize on the amount of resources our community partners actually have. Once you give them a goal, the way that they show up and the way that they help, it's just really, as a government agency, we should be providing that direction. I don't think we do that in a great way, but you're an example of that being done really well. And I agree. I think I was looking at data, and I won't go into details, but I was looking at a piece of data of economically disadvantaged populations. Since 2022-2023 to now, it's grown 15%. So people are not gaining resources; they're losing resources, and the population is going to grow. I also appreciate, and I would love to have a conversation with you and Councilor Faulkner, because she and I have been talking about unhoused people being a regional problem, and we're not tapping into resources right now that we should be. So this should be a larger conversation with people who can make decisions and bring resources forward regionally because we're all neighbors and we're all serving the same people. So I would love to have that conversation with you and her because she's starting to explore how we could get a convening of some sort together, which I think would be powerful. But yeah, thank you for the work. It's really exciting to have a model that works, to have an example of what a common goal for the community can do with bringing resources forward. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Cassid. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you both for being here. And it is really wonderful to see the way that this has grown over the past six years. Really impressive. And again, a conversation around data and how we filter this down and understand what the common goal is, as Councilor Chavez was stating. A couple questions, maybe just one. One of the conversations we had when we purchased the pallet homes, and I'm pretty sure we still have some hanging out waiting for Richards to actually—we, I think we had to order different ones for Richards because we needed family-sized at that point—was the benefit is that even if we no longer needed them for micro-communities, they can be used in emergency situations, whether [clears throat] that is a Code Blue situation, a fire. Have we utilized those in a Code Blue scenario? And if not, why not? And if yes, great. I love that question and appreciate it quite a bit because these are exactly the types of creative initiatives that we are exploring and hoping to get off the ground sooner than later, again, all in the spirit of addressing this with an OEM mindset and a crisis response mindset. So what I can say about the pallet shelters, we currently have about 70 pallet units in storage. We have our Richards Avenue micro-community, which you all are well aware of, that is under development. We just had a great meeting with the architects and project team earlier today. So our next step in terms of Richards Avenue is to move forward with the special use permit, and hopefully, we'll be able to get construction going once that process is finalized in the next six months or so. That's our timeline. Beyond that, like you mentioned, we have quite a few pallet assets that we have not yet identified programming for. And so I think it's a conversation where we want to make sure that we are using those to the best of our ability. The great thing about the pallet units is that they are a flexible model. So just as easily as you can pop them up, you can bring them back down and put them into storage. Many communities have used them to do innovative projects, like where there is a parcel of land that is slated for affordable housing development, can we utilize that land as we're awaiting approvals, pop up a tiny home community and house folks in need, and then once that development hits construction, bring it back down and put it somewhere else. So we have actually had some conversations around how we could potentially utilize pallet shelters for Code Blue, and we're in conversation with a couple of faith-based partners. We have not yet been able to identify specific plans in terms of funding and site location, but we are very interested and eager to continue with that work, if not for this season, perhaps down the road. Okay. But yeah, I'm happy to hear that because I know that in our long-term plans, we would like to get more of these micro-communities permanently set up so that we can continue to use these as transitional housing. But as long as they're sitting in storage, we may as well utilize the resources that we have. And I'm curious, and Director Lamboy is here as well, I would imagine part of the challenge that we're running into is potentially some land use regulations. And is there a mechanism by which we can put something in the code that's, if a Code Blue is triggered, and by the way, we have sites that have been approved administratively for these types of emergencies? I mean, I understand that that has been one of our problems with Richards right now is that we have to go through the land use process, which can take some time. But what might we be able to build in so that we do have more access to other sites, whether it's for pallets or something else, in an emergency situation like a Code Blue or like a fire? I mean, if we were to have a wildfire, would we also be running into the same issue of, well, we have these pallet shelters, but we have nowhere that we are permitted to put them up? So I love the way that we're thinking about Code Blue as a practice for, or not a practice, but as preparation, as problem-solving, as for other emergencies that we may very well deal with in the future. So, Director Lamboy, I apologize to you. Thank you for your question, Chair, or Chair Castro, Councilor Casset. We worked on developing at the end of last year a policy where the land use director could approve these pallet shelter communities, and we worked with Henry Ham and Paul to develop standards, to develop the process. And one of the sort of hiccups that we encountered is on city property, the state Construction Industries Division does all the approval for construction. And so there was a series of meetings with Barbara Felix, Henry Hammond, Paul, and Martin Romero over at the state to talk about, I mean, the desire was to have them sprinkled, you know, for fire protection, and it's just that's not feasible given these pallet shelters. And we have a great demonstration project over at the Ro Chimiso, the Christ Lutheran Church on Ro Chamiso. So we really are trying to work through those issues, and Kevin, I'm sorry, Mr. Morgan and I have talked about in the past using them on an emergency basis. There's only just a few concerns regarding safety and construction. So Bobby Padilla, who is our chief building official, as well as Goron McGrego, our fire marshal, have been involved in those conversations. And honestly, I think it would be good to create the policy framework for that as well. We haven't. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I know that there's been a lot of conversation around the micro-communities. But again, let's think about this and really how do we make sure that we can utilize all of our resources? And I know that that's actually been a challenge. And Kyle, I'm really loving hearing what's happening with emergency management. I think this might be the first time that you've given a presentation since you've taken it over. But, you know, we hit this moment where PNM was threatening to take down power. Not threatening, they thought that they might have to. It was not a threat, but they were concerned that they were going to have to take out power for the city. And we realized that we don't have a generator at our emergency command center or emergency operations center. So I'm really liking all this forward thinking that I'm seeing from your leadership, and thank you for that. And again, I really think thinking through all of these different scenarios and how we incorporate the various regulations that we may need to deal with, or do we have the ability, in the case of a wildfire, to say, "Hey, we're in an emergency. We're declaring an emergency," as we did with COVID. I think we eventually extended the number of days that an emergency declaration from the mayor would stand before needing full governing body approval. And what does that mean for some of these? And does Code Blue, can it kind of fit into that also? Like, this is an emergency situation, and it's not an emergency situation citywide, but it is an emergency situation for members of the city. And what does that then open up for short-term, very acute response that we may need to be going through other processes for for more long-term solutions? So more fun things for you guys to think about. And as always, please reach out in any way that we can help be thought partners in this and letting us know how we get these things done. And again, thank you all so much for all of this work. Really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you, Councilor Cassid. And yes, for all of the folks in the room, if there's anything we can do around our emergency proclamation to make it easier, please let us know. Councilor Barrett, you had something to say. Yeah, just a quick question. I know this could be off a little, but I'm just thinking about the lack if we have like 280 beds, and that's with Agape, all the shelters combined. And so, and we have about 546 names on the list. How about long-term planning in funding? What does the city have in the works? I know there's some community members working in different areas, but what does that look like from the city's perspective in funding or lack thereof in our moving forward with a concrete plan? Yeah, thank you for that question, Councilor. So one of the things that we are very excited about is our division is pursuing a strategic planning process in the next few months so that we can start to flesh out a longer-term vision not only for homelessness response within the city but implementation. So what do we need to fund these efforts in a meaningful, ongoing fashion? What collaboration can we continue to infuse in our process? Are there untapped funds within the county scope, within the state, or even federal government? I think we are very eager to kind of broach that conversation and bring it to the forefront, again, within the context of all of our community partners. We would definitely envision this being not only a priority of our division, but we recognize this as a massive citywide priority is really beginning to define what the future entails around homelessness response. So, you know, we are actively kind of trying to move away from one-time funding towards more ongoing, long-term programmatic sustainability. I think we are very much of the mindset that that needs to be something that is embedded within our process in an ongoing fashion. But I think at this juncture, we're not quite in a position yet to say what the future holds. Again, that will have to be a collective conversation. But very much encourage this partnership, creative exploration around the need to continue homelessness response as a clear, dedicated priority. Right. Can I ask you one follow-up question? So this is under Youth and Family Services. So is that where money comes when there is a Code Blue? Is that, is it like separate funding, or that comes through like Youth and Family Services funding? It does. Yeah. So it comes to our division, and then we are in the budget process, actually, in the process of creating a specific Oregon object for homelessness so we can better track that funding. But currently, it is coming to our division, and then, I say, the homelessness team, not because that's a formal function, but because again, for the purposes from an operational standpoint, there is a clear carve-out in how we put forward homelessness solutions and fund that in a specific manner. Thanks. Thank you, Counselor Bear. Counselor Chavis, I just have a request, actually, just this whole conversation of pallet shelters, because I know early on when they were introduced years ago, I think we got some information of the work it takes to put them up and have them actually be a safe place for an individual, because it's not that easy, because it requires infrastructure. So, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around how they would be used for Code Blue unless they were already standing, right? Because by the time they stand up, it wouldn't be a Code Blue situation anymore. So, I think it would be really helpful when we're exploring utilizing them as a resource to understand what goes into actually getting them to a place where, and they have to be, because we're responsible for them being safe and keeping community members safe. So, they can't just be kind of put up, right? We have to make sure that they're constructed well. We have to make sure that they have heat if that's the purpose of them. We have to make sure all of that is possible. So, it would be cool to get a presentation if possible, just so we could see the details that go into that to really understand how we could put policy forward to support utilizing those resources properly, because I think when we think of pallet shelters, we think, "Oh, we just throw these walls together and they're standing, and we could utilize them in an emergency." But in reality, we'd have to have agreements in place. We'd have to have access to gas, electricity. They'd probably have to just be standing. And so, I think that's important for us to understand, because I do agree that we have to utilize those resources, but I just want to make sure that we understand the process in detail so we utilize them realistically. No, that's a really important point, because again, where the rubber hits the road is what do these operations look like in a very detailed format? And again, what does that partnership look like? We definitely have learned that with the Code Blue process. So, to kind of give, this might be a bit of an oversimplification, but to kind of answer your question in terms of what sort of a pallet model can look like, there are two pathways, right? There's the more emergency response model, which would include potentially, if there were a fire or if there were a Code Blue activation, could we stand up pallet units for the season? And with that, maybe we would be connecting to generators. Perhaps again, we would be looking at publicly available parcels of land or parcels of land adjacent to faith-based organizations where we would have a little bit of an easier pathway from a regulatory standpoint, but could utilize those parcels of land in an interim and emergency fashion. So, there is a way to do this with lower infrastructure and a more rapid response model. And then, of course, there's more of the micro-community model, which includes much more robust community engagement, actual site layout with architects, and dedicated construction funds. And I think the differentiating factor is where we could pursue perhaps a Code Blue pallet model that would be more of a seasonal approach. So, we would obviously still be needing to plan far in advance, but it's something that we could potentially do with lower infrastructure in a more rapid response fashion versus a longer-term, more robust micro-community. Yeah, I like that idea. So, we'd have models or partners established to use their property, maybe store generators. Yeah. Okay. And how long do they typically take to put up? So, they can actually be stood up in a matter of hours, just depending on, you know, you have to have the right tools and teams available and training that might be involved with constructing them, but they can be constructed with simple tools on a relatively quick basis. And they're designed with the conception of not only being a model for homelessness, but for disaster response, actually how they're intended from a manufacturing standpoint. Yeah, I like that. So, a key step then would, because right now, we go out to see who wants to support these long-term, but maybe putting something out there, RFP, I always get them confused. I'm probably saying the wrong thing, to any community partners or even private property owners that would be willing just to have that role in partnership with the city so that we could provide them with the tools needed, right? Whether it be generators or whatever resources, just like emergency supplies and resources, so that if we do see a Code Blue, they'd agree, they'd have that partnership with us that we'd utilize their property short-term for this purpose. Yep. All right. Interesting. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Counselor Chavis. Counselor Faggali. Thank you. So, talking about that seasonal model, is there any talk about having cold code shelters for the season or increasing the temperature at which they activate? Yeah. So, I might pass the threshold questions to Director Morgan. Chair Castro, Counselor Faggali, thank you for the question. It's something we consider all the time. Code Blue in its current form is extremely resource-intensive. Even four days of this in a row starts becoming a major challenge. So, while we would love to have everyone indoors all the time, right now our trigger points, our metrics by which we activate, are really based on capacity. We're working backwards from saying what can we actually do for 10 or 20 days a year, because once it's past that, we just don't have the human resources or the disposable one-time use resources to actually be able to do that. Does that answer your question? Kind of. So, you're saying, we, the way that it works now is too resource-intensive, but there could be ways that we have seasonal shelters or have something else in a more planned long-term capacity. Absolutely. And I think at that point, that's where this stops being the state of exception, right? And it starts being part of just housing. Emergency management at that point is probably not involved, but certainly something that we support is getting people indoors. Thank you. And then one other question. I think that you said there were two sites right now. What are the two sites? I know one of them. So, we've been utilizing the former Warehouse 21 site at 1614 Poe Peralta as the primary overflow shelter, and that's operated by our partners at the Lifelink. And then we've been utilizing the Oasis, is that what it's called? The Oasis at Agape House, where they have, I think it's a pallet shelter, but a bigger one that can house 15 or so people nights. Thank you. Thank you, Counselor. Counselor Barrett. Talkative night. Sorry. I was just going to ask one more thing about the funding. Do you think it's important, or I don't know if there's like a long-term discussion on having separate funding for this outside of the larger umbrella, like pulling it out how we pulled out the affordable housing, like is that, for long-term planning, has that been a thought? Chair Castro, Counselor Barrett? Yes. Broadly, what we struggle with in emergency management right now is having flexible needs-based funding to close gaps quickly. Specific to Code Blue, for the last four years, we had been operating utilizing ARPA dollars. So, we had an ARPA set aside of $150,000, I believe, and that's what really funded our Code Blue operations up until last year. So, this year is the first year where this is basically entirely city-funded. Right now, that funding is going specifically for Code Blue into youth and family services. But certainly, there's a broader conversation to be had at the policy level about flexible preparedness funding. Thanks. Thank you so much, Counselor. Any other comments from the committee? Most of the questions I had have been asked. So, thank you to my colleagues. I did have some concerns about the two contract providers. I did do a tour of the Oasis, and there are some things to be expected in terms of a small space, it being not heated particularly well, to Counselor Travis's point. If we're going to offer emergency spaces, we want to make sure that the infrastructure is there for them. And so, I did have a couple questions also about the 266 beds that we are lacking currently, and what we can do in the event that we don't have an emergency proclamation. Are there spaces where some of those shelters that we were talking about could go up in a more permanent way? What resources could we give your office to help do this in a more holistic way? Still getting used to the tech here. So, to answer your question, and maybe to take a step back actually before I answer your question, provide a little bit more context. So, one of the things that Code Blue really emphasizes that we do very well is again, not only leveraging our existing contracted service providers, but just like OEM is convening all of the city partners on a daily basis, every single day that code is activated, we are organizing a coalition of essentially 25 service providers and community partners. We're highly invested in this work and making sure that we bring to the table mutual aid, leveraging other types of supports who can provide transportation, who can provide extra meals. We got some very interesting requests this year, everything from we need more cold weather clothes specifically for women and they need sweatpants, to all kinds of things, right? So, just an example of kind of the real-time on-the-ground coordination that we are leveraging. So, we are making sure that we are being from a resource allocation standpoint as exhaustive as humanly possible. But ideally, moving forward, we would have additional shelter beds again year-round. So, one of the things that we have learned just in our halfway through the season, Code Blue this year is, while we're having those conversations with some of our extensive community partners, we're just hearing that every single shelter is at capacity. So, that's kind of the new norm, right? Is like even a couple years ago where we were maybe able to scramble and say, "Okay, who has five beds here? Who has a couple beds there?" We are just learning that everybody is stretched incredibly thin. So, what that means for us again in a forward-thinking approach is, to the extent that these are a direct correlation, the extent that we can build more capacity in our year-round shelter system, that will alleviate the burden on Code Blue and vice versa. So, I think we are really trying to think about that. But everybody is stretched across the board. In terms of the questions around specific providers, one of the other things that we need to acknowledge is that a lot of our existing shelter providers are set up in an emergency fashion in facilities that may not be sustainable in a longer-term function. And so we are thinking about again what is the long-term plan for some of these core providers. These are providers that are currently making up a big portion of that 280. Urban Alchemy, I think they are at about 100 people and they have a waiting list of over 50 individuals at any given time. So, just again to show and exemplify the true demand and scale of the crisis. The other component that I should weigh in on is, whether it is at Agape or Consuelos or a lot of our providers across the board, many of the current shelters are in a congregate setting. So, as mentioned, when we're thinking about particularly high-needs individuals, folks that have either substance use disorder or co-occurring mental health diagnosis, a congregate setting in particular is not a best practice. It is not always a trauma-informed approach, and it creates again from an operational standpoint, even for an effort like Code Blue that's only a couple of nights out of the season, it creates a lot of operational strain. So again, just to paint a picture of some of the challenges that we're facing, we are very eager to think through this and be efficient and figure out how we can maximize resources and tap into every pot of funding that is available to us. But it is an ongoing challenge and I think we're at the beginning of some really pivotal conversations, but a lot of work that we need to do moving forward as well. Thank you, Director. And Director Salivary, I just want to remind you that we can't give what you don't ask for. So, please ask for everything in the kitchen sink so that when we have those budgeting conversations, we can give you as much as we can. My next question, I think, is going to be for Director Morgan and potentially for Captain Montoya or maybe Chief Grundler. I want to talk a little bit about security around the Code Blue areas. In particular, Warehouse 21, we had some folks who were not used to having Code Blue in that space. There were some challenges. Do you want to address some of what happened in the last couple of Code Blues? Sure. So, as we're, sorry, Jere Castro, happy to answer your question. So, as part of our coordination group, when we're having our daily coordination calls, PD is certainly one of the people there. We always put in for a close patrol. We found, and they agree, that having a cop sitting right in front of the shelter isn't great for getting people to show up. So they happily provide close patrol. We also work with tourism and the Rail Yard to reposition, it's Condor or maybe Allied, one of the two, private security to be even closer in at the shelter. So we did have one, there was a fight or some sort of physical assault that occurred on, I believe, the first night of Code Blue of the season. Unfortunately, since then that has not been the case. Some of that due to increased security presence on site and yeah, we hope that continues to be the trend. And there were some concerns, thank you again, Director, around some property crime and theft. I know that we have a specific operation in the City of Santa Fe around property crime and I don't know, maybe Chief Grundler, if you could speak to that operation. I don't know how much is public in terms of the operation around. Thank you, Chair Castro, committee members. Yeah, we do have an operation currently going on and no, it is not public knowledge and I can't really get into details about what they're doing, but they're making inroads. Thank you. And so, just to let folks in the area know, there are separate units that are working on violent crimes and there are separate units that work on property crimes. And so we have different folks who are maybe specialized in those areas. Absolutely. They're very specialized and in how they, basically how they plan their strategic operations are very, very different and it's because the crime is varied. Some of it's very technical, dealing with the internet, things of that nature, and some of it's very much physical and operational, being out in the city and doing the things they need to do. So, it's very particular on how they execute those operations. So, thank you so much. And so, just to confirm, it is a normal practice to have close patrols around Code Blue areas. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. We, just like the Director mentioned, we don't really want to station a police officer there only because inherently some people are a little shy about going anywhere near a police officer. So the fact is is we want to do close patrols, be in the area, be available, which in this particular one case, we were able to reply or respond very, very quickly. We did take one individual into custody that night and luckily nobody was seriously injured. Thank you so much. No further questions from me. I appreciate all of you and the presenters and we will move on. Thank you. Next item is the consent agenda. We did have three items pulled. Is that correct? Public comment. Oh, I apologize. We do have some written public comment as well that is in our packet. If there's anybody in the room that would like to address the governing body, we cannot have a two-way conversation, but you can have two minutes to speak to us if you would like, and you can step up to the podium. Madam Chair, how would you like the two minutes? If we could get a timer, that would be great. That's okay. Yeah, we can do one up here. All right, that's set up. We would just need your name and address if you're comfortable or district you live in. All right, ready? Ready. Go. Okay. My name is Andy Rogers and I live in the Rail Yard district. I live across the parking lot from Rail, from Warehouse 21 in Rail Yard Flats in the Art Yard there. And yes, there were a number of issues during this last Code Blue which have some of them have been discussed and at least at some point, you know, we know we live downtown. So we have the police, we also have Condor in the area, we have Chavez, our building specifically, but even so, people are leaping over the fence and going shopping on people's porches which people are feeling upset about. So since the last Code Blue, we have had three tenants either give notice or move out because they don't feel safe and that's a problem for, so I'm going to, so I'm not going to talk more about the problems because you've heard about so like better management facility. Thank you. Anyone else please step up to the podium? Thank you. Your name and what district in or what address? Pelican. I'm sorry. I'm not sure your mic is on. Should I start over? Yes, please. Okay. Pelican Lee. I live in District 1 and I feel like we've been lucky this winter that it's been warm. We have nights like tonight. I wouldn't want to be out living on the streets tonight just because of the wind and the cold. And I'm hoping that somehow the city can find the money to expand Code Blue. 15 degrees is awfully cold, but so is 20 degrees and so is 25. So I'm really asking for that. And the other thing I think that is really important is that we don't have an emergency shelter anymore. It's pretty clear that Urban Alchemy is not running an emergency shelter at Agape. So that means there are more people on the streets. And somebody that just becomes homeless doesn't have a place to go. And so I think that we really, I mean, I don't know what the answer is, but I think we really need an emergency shelter as soon as we can get it. And I think The Rock is a great plan, but I don't think we're going to have it, you know, in the next couple months or this month. And that's what we really need. So those are the two things I wanted to say. Thank you. Is this on? Yeah. Good. All right. Thank you. My name is Captain Concincaid. I live just over 599 in the county. I am part of a housing and homeless advocacy group that comes under the umbrella of the Santa Fe Housing for All Collaborative that used to be S3. And we have been doing some research about wintertime best practices and practices that are recommended by public health authorities and by HUD are that you have a shelter open during the cold months, not just when the temperature falls below a certain threshold, but say November 1st to through February or March, because of the communication issues, because of the mobilization issues. And for every, they found from doing some studies in Toronto that for every 9 degrees that you go below 32, your chances of having some sort of injury from hypothermia or death is increased by 1.6%. So, if you're going from 32 down to 15 degrees, you are tripling your likelihood of having some major effect from being out in the cold. And we have lots of public health studies that we've gathered that we would be happy to share with this committee, but I was very encouraged to hear the way that the Code Blue system here is getting stronger. And I'd like to suggest as a toe in the water that this group consider opening an emergency shelter starting next November 1st and having it go through the coldest months and having that be a beginning. I've been here two years now in Santa Fe and there have been no significant homeless beds added despite the fact that everyone's been calling it a crisis for a pretty long time. It's been hard to get pallet shelter micro communities off the ground and this might be a way to get started. Thank you so much. Madam Chair, members of the committee, my name is Dylan Schwaggel. I don't currently live in Santa Fe, but I do work here. I worked in various social services, particularly with the homeless. I wanted to speak on a revision that was made to the Code Blue policy four years ago that prohibited the distribution of tents and sleeping bags by city services or services receiving city funding. Now at the time, the reasoning for that was that the city wanted to encourage people to go to shelters in the event of a Code Blue and that distributing tents and sleeping bags would encourage them to not do that. I know at the time myself and many of my colleagues believed and still believe that that was a misguided approach that doesn't consider the complex reasons for why individuals on the street don't go to the shelter even when the temperature drops significantly. There are many complex reasons. Some of them are rational. Some of them aren't. And whether we agree with those reasons or not, I do feel very strongly that it's a matter of harm reduction that we distribute those or that we continue to distribute those. Providing tents and sleeping bags is not the solution. But in the light of concerns that there's not adequate space or beds in the shelters and there's a lot of questions in the air about what's going to be done about that, this is an option for ensuring that more people are able to stay warm at night. So I would strongly encourage that the committee advocate for the reversal of that revision and that city services and services receiving city funding either be once again allowed to distribute those or perhaps in these warming kits that the ARU is distributing that tents and sleeping bags could also be distributed to people as necessary. Thank you. Hello, my name is Marca Emerton, and I live at 2826 Via Oriente. A couple of things: we really need to raise the 15 degrees. It's way too low. And I know this is so complex, and it sounds simple, "Raise it," but we've got to do better than that. Another thing I would like to bring up, and I don't have the exact statistics at all for this, but we need to get ahead of this. The rate of people right now who are behind in their credit card payments and also their mortgage payments has skyrocketed in the last few months. I won't go into that, but we need to get ahead of this. We're in for a tsunami of unhoused people. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in chambers? Seeing no one else, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. We do have three items pulled. Just to reiterate, it is B, D, and G. Is that correct, Steph? That's correct. Wonderful. So, we'll start with B. I believe I was the only one who pulled this item. Director Sanchez, I'll let the committee... Does anyone have any comments? I imagine Councilor Chavez is going to be one of the respondents on this. I did just want a little bit of clarification on how big of a project this is and how much support from us we might need in the future. One moment, Councilor, do you need me to read it? Yes, please. If we could read the caption into the record. Thank you. Before Councilor Chavez speaks, item B is a request for approval of the Age-Friendly Action Plan. Thank you, and Councilor Chavez. Well, I want to... I know Andrew is not here, but he will be at Governing Body. I think Andrew West made the action plan really helpful in navigating that question. So, there are a lot of items or actions that are listed for us to do that it's very clear whether there's additional resources from the city needed or not. And I think it's hard to say because this isn't going to be driven by politics. That's not what we want. We want it driven by the task force. So, that's what I'm focused on right now. There's a lot of actions. A lot of infrastructure, sidewalk improvement that could be huge, that could be costly. There's transportation increases, housing, which is something we're working on as a city. So, there are huge things within the action plan, but what is the most important is really setting the foundation with a task force that reviews it, that looks at the data deeply, and dictates where we start. And so the task force, the first step of the action plan, there are no resources needed other than seeing who should be representing those choices or representing the city for those choices. So, yeah, I wouldn't feel comfortable speaking for or too directly to that question just because we really would be guided by community members that interpret this plan. Wonderful. Thank you so much. And Director, Councilor Chavez, either of you, if somebody was interested in being part of this task force, should they reach out to us directly, to yourself directly? How would we do that? I think that we have to develop that. I imagine it's going to involve the Mayor. I know that we also talked about representation from each district. And so I think those are things that we will discuss if it's approved, once it's approved. So, but yeah, I think that it'll be similar to representing the whole city, which we go by that model, right? We each recommend a community member, and then we have some other members that the Mayor may recommend himself. Director, anything to add? And you don't have to. Sorry, I just wanted to highlight this as a really wonderful program. One of the things that I found super interesting that Councilor Chavez brought up was that even though this is age-friendly, this is something that is for all age ranges and that we're thinking of this holistically. Yeah, and I wanted to expand, and again, shout out to Andrew West, who was really the one that interacted with the community, and also Maria Sanchez Tucker, who just made it happen. But they were observant enough to realize that in these conversations, people were like, "Wait, Santa Fe is not accessible to all ages. Like, it's not just a senior issue. It's our youth. It's our working class. It's like a mom that is trying to, you know, push her kiddo in a stroller to enjoy the things we offer downtown Santa Fe." It is a greater issue. So it's like, how do we look at accessibility for all? I know there are already talks in involving the Mayor's Committee on Disability in these conversations and them being kind of like an overlooking, a committee oversight, an oversight committee for the task force because it really is about accessibility. So we want to bring everyone that has that as a priority forward in having those discussions. Thank you so much. Any other comments? I would entertain a motion. Move to approve. Second. And I don't think we need a roll call for this. We can do a voice vote since we're all here. So, all in favor? All opposed. Motion passes. We can move on to item D. I pulled this as well as Councilor Casset. I will defer to Councilor Casset. Wonderful. Thank you, Marcel. Do you want to read into the record? Yes. Item D is a request for approval of a service agreement with Sound Thinking Incorporated for the purchase of a gunshot detection, location, and forensic analysis service in the total amount of $354,000 for a one-year term. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. I wanted to revisit this. I know we had a very robust discussion when we approved this part a long time ago, or I think we... I don't remember exactly, but we did approve something on this, I imagine, or did we have a presentation? Maybe that was it. So a couple of things I wanted to review: why this is being brought forward, what is coming out of the Youth Violence Program, and what the benefits that we're hoping to achieve from this are. Let's start there, and then I'll jump into the rest of the questions. Thank you, Chair Castro, Councilor Cassid. My name is Sandy Amar. I'm a Youth and Family Services Program Manager, and I'm here today with my friends at the PD because part of the Youth Violence Interruption Program and the funding that we are receiving from the Department of Health includes the purchase of this Sound Thinking technology as a project component of our $1.2 million grant. So $800,000 is going directly to community services, and this portion is going to the purchase of this technology, which is meant to really provide a really healthy map of detecting where gunshots happen so that we can actually really blanket the community and support. Because what happens, we have found out, and I will let the folks at Sound Thinking speak more about this, but what the PD has found and what my former director and my counterpart at the county, Janel Dato, found in researching this program and really bringing it forward through the Violence Prevention Unit and the Violence Prevention Strategic Plan, is that this technology is actually really critical in making sure that families who have been exposed to a traumatic event and maybe don't feel comfortable in actually calling police or first responders are actually getting access to services and actually really saturating areas of challenge with support. Thank you. I appreciate that overview as to why this was part of this plan. Now, again, trying to trigger my memory, no pun intended, but if I'm recalling, this somehow improves response times as well. Does it automatically call in to RECC? How does that functioning work again, that essentially as soon as one's detected, we'll have PD and potentially fire, maybe, dispatched? Yep. Councilor Castro and Chair Cassid, or reverse. I'm going to let the professionals talk about that. Madam Chair, members of the committee, so the way this technology works is we will be alerted directly through our mobile CAD systems as well as our mobile devices, such as desktops and laptops as well. It just depends on how we set it up. So it's supposed to go to dispatch directly as well as law enforcement immediately as well. So it goes out simultaneously. And this is done within 60 seconds or less. So essentially, you guys can dispatch yourselves out. You don't have to wait for RECC to get a hold of you if you hear... That is the crucial part of this technology. And I do remember from last year's committee, you asked about fire personnel having access. Glad my brain stays apparently on the same track. So... So we can do that as well. However, we will implement certain policies to make sure that they are not arriving first, to make sure law enforcement is arriving first. And that's pretty standard with gunshot reports, correct? Because it's about making sure that the area is safe for... That is correct. And it's also giving us very accurate data to safely approach the area. Okay. All right. Thank you. I notice that we're talking about a five-something square mile. Let me find it. Five-mile coverage. How we've already identified where that's going to be. Where is it, and how was that chosen? So, I could actually, if I can get some assistance, I can actually pull up those maps for you. Wonderful. I'm somewhat tech-savvy. So, Madam Chair, members of the committee, over a year ago, we did the analysis, and what was presented to you back then was data obtained from 2020 through June 13th of 2024. However, we have updated that analysis, and it has actually shifted slightly north. So, as you can see in this area, looks Country Club off of Airport, towards around Camino Hoko, which is also off of Airport near the Santa Fe Police Department. The other location was the St. Michael's area. So we have these heat maps, and again, the data has changed. It has shifted slightly north, which is so in communicating with ShotSpotter, I asked very nicely if we can implement another mile. So that also is generated in this new map. So again, the data was collected from June 21st to 2023, from 2023 to 2026. So the Southside is now combined with the Midtown area with those heat maps, and then the other location is actually, we're actually right in that map. So the downtown area, which is it goes west towards St. Francis in the Allred area, as well as East Alameda, East Palace area. So again, the data has changed, and it's very important to know that it's not policing in a biased manner. It's all data-driven, and this is where we are here today with the data. Wonderful. Thank you. I appreciate these maps. It's really helpful to see. Last quick question. Well, I guess it's not a quick question for me to ask, probably not quick for you to answer. How do we measure success of this program? What are the metrics that we are looking for? How are we going to evaluate whether or not this is, because I believe this is just a one-year funding currently, whether or not this is something that we want to try to invest in further? And do we already have the baseline data that we can compare it to when we're looking at those outcomes that we would want to measure in order to assess the efficacy of the program? So with this purchase, there's a lot of different resources, such as Data for Good, and I think now I can actually bring up Mr. Alfred Lewis. Good evening, everyone. Got my notes right quick. Hello. Welcome. Alfred Lewis, Vice President, Trauma Response and Community Engagement with Sound Thinking, 39300 Civic Center Parkway, Fremont, California. So, before I go any further, I want to really commend Santa Fe for its empathetic, human-centered approach to addressing gun violence. Most of our customers take a law enforcement approach, and with our data for good program and our trauma response and community engagement over the last several years, we've been working towards encouraging our customers to take a public health approach. It's been a lot more challenging than we thought it would be. We just thought that everyone would embrace the idea of using this data to deliver services on a micro basis down to the 100 block to children, youth, and families who are adversely impacted by gunfire. That hasn't happened as much as we thought that it was going to, but Santa Fe's approach in the very beginning is something that we've been driving through, and we are very pleased to be a part of. So, we're looking forward to supporting the city. Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you today. Again, I'm Alfred Lewis. I'm Vice President of Trauma Response and Community Engagement. My role is not in sales or procurement. My role is to support cities in implementing public safety tools in a way that's transparent, community-aligned, and rooted in procedural justice. I want to begin by acknowledging something important: Santa Fe is not simply considering a technology purchase. You're implementing a violence intervention strategy under a New Mexico Department of Health grant that calls for a coordinated community response to violence. This distinction really matters. This grant emphasizes measurable public health objectives, community-based partnerships, youth-focused prevention, narrative reporting and accountability, and services for communities disproportionately impacted by violence. Gunshot detection in this context is not the strategy; it is an information tool that supports your strategy. At Sound Thinking, we have more gunfire data than any other entity in the world: days of the week, hours of the day, repeat gunfire location, gunfire that occurs within a quarter of a mile of schools in the coverage area. That data, when used appropriately with a community-based approach, gets to the root causes of what allows gun violence to flourish in one part of the city and not the other. And that's the path that you're taking. This grant emphasizes public health objectives, community-based partnerships, youth-focused prevention, narrative reporting, and accountability. To address the core questions in communities like Santa Fe, I understand the questions often center around three themes: privacy, over-policing, and the effectiveness of the services that we provide to you. As it pertains to privacy, we have taken a unique approach to address privacy. We've had the New York University Privacy Project audit our services, and they made recommendations, and we adopted them fully. Those recommendations were to change the time frame or the data that we provided to our customers. We give our customers one second of audio prior to a gunfire event, the gunfire event, and one second afterwards. Instead of having 72 hours of spool time of data, we only have 30 hours of spool time. They reported that there's less likelihood of surveillance even before those recommendations, and even less so once they've been implemented. So, we pay close attention to privacy. This system does not record conversations. It's not a surveillance platform. It detects the acoustic signature of outdoor gunfire. Implementation includes clear governance policies, transparency measures, and reporting structures so that the community understands exactly what it does and what it does not do. Along the lines of the effectiveness, success here should not be defined by a national debate. It should be defined by Santa Fe's own goals. And those may include faster response time to gunfire events, improved evidence recovery, identification of repeat locations, better victim support outreach, and reduction in recurring gunfire in micro areas. Our team's role is to help the city identify clear metrics that align with your grant requirements and your public reporting commitments. So, we will work with you to identify the metrics that should be measured, and through transparency, we will assist you with reporting and dashboards to ensure that the public is able to see that information on an ongoing basis. The role of trauma response and community engagement: This is the part I want to emphasize more clearly. Technology alone does not reduce violence. People, partnership, and trust do. Our trauma response and community engagement team exists to ensure that Santa Fe moves forward with this deployment and to ensure that it aligns with community values, that it includes transparent communication, that it supports youth and family services efforts, that it incorporates procedural justice principles. It strengthens, not weakens, community trust, and we can assist you with community briefings, stakeholder engagement, messaging, metric development, transparency planning, implementation guidance, and alignment with public health partners. We're not here to drop equipment in and just leave. We are here to support the city with your broader violence intervention ecosystem. The violence intervention program described in your grant calls for a coordinated community response. The question before you is not simply whether technology works. The question is, will Santa Fe equip its prevention ecosystem with timely, accurate information so that it can act strategically? If the city determines that this tool aligns with your values and goals, our commitment is to support implementation in ways that reflect Santa Fe's culture of transparency, equity, and public health-oriented problem solving. Thank you, and I'm willing to answer any questions that you may have. Mayor: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And one thing that will be important for me is I will be wanting to see some of these updates as we gather data. But I do think that you make a really important point that I want to emphasize, is that data and tools are not inherently good or bad or going to be productive or not going to be productive. It really does lie in how they are used. And I really appreciate you pointing out the difference in what Santa Fe is doing and the purpose of bringing in this type of data and how we are going to use it. And again, that's going to be a really important discussion as we move forward, assuming that or if this is approved, as we move forward of how this is being used and how we need to adjust that. Because to your point, it could be used in a much more enforcement mechanism as opposed to we are really looking at youth violence prevention. How do we intervene? How do we understand where individuals may be needing some more support and really taking that holistic view? So, thank you for pointing that out, that that is what Santa Fe is doing, because I think sometimes we forget that we utilize tools in a way that other communities may be using them in a way that we do not approve of, but that we can still take those tools and use them towards the goals that we have that really do support the values of this community and this governing body. So, I really appreciate you pointing that out. I think that's going to be an important conversation, especially as we continue to get reports and understand what it is that we are looking at currently, what data we're looking at, what we want to be looking at, and how that informs response. So, just thank you. I appreciate that. I don't believe I have any further questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Cass. If you think of more, I'm sure we'll have a second round. Go ahead, Councilor Pagali. Councilor Pagali: Thank you. I think my questions are mostly for staff. One is, this particular program is not required by the grant, correct? It's just a way that you are implementing the grant. Chair Castro: Councilor Pagali, it is a component of the grant as written and part of the intergovernmental agreement we have with the DOH's purchase of gunshot detection technology. Yes. Councilor Pagali: Okay. And the grant is for one year, correct? Yes. It expires. I mean, the grant is for a set amount of money. Yes. So what happens after that year? So, due to the flat budget, and that's why it's taken so long to implement this, is because the grant did come up. So we would have to make some adjustments and ask for funding for the following years. It is recommended that we do a longer contract with Sound Thinking. There are several discounts that we could probably discuss. And actually, I can have Richard talk about potential prices if you like, but we are looking into what next year would cost us already. And just, I'm sorry, the subscription won't start until we go live. Right. Okay. On these maps, can you explain the colors, like the light blue and the dark blue? Yes. Can you see the mouse by chance? No. Okay. So, in this current map that I have up, actually, let me just grab some notes real quick. I'm just curious what the light blue dots versus the dark, I see a dark blue dot and then I see a, I don't know, a lizard maybe. So the figure that you're looking at is actually a homicide that occurred in that area. The light blue dots are calls for service that were shots fired. The darker blue are actually assaults that occurred where shots were fired. So again, with the data that we pulled, this came from our actual CAD system, and this is what was recorded. And this was over three, two and a half years? Correct. Okay. Thank you. And then another question I have, sort of programmatically, how does this address youth violence? Well, with the data, it puts us in the area that we need to be. So we can start deploying resources as Alfred said, they're willing to help us with implementing those resources, and we provide the data to Youth and Family Services. So it puts us where we need to be to be more proactive. It seems a bit after the fact though, to be proactive. Oh, thank you. That's a really great question. So the funds, these funds that I am currently managing, proactive, reactive, we know that shots are fired in the area. We know that our community is in need of resources. What this has helped us do over this last year is really pinpoint the areas where our kids need resources the most. So through this funding and through working with the data that the PD provided to Julie Sanchez and Chanel Delgado before this funding was in place, we are able to get contracts in public, the public schools are the high, who where the highest needs are. We have contracts with service providers who are going into those areas to provide prevention and saturation of services. So, you know, my goodness, chicken and egg and all things aside, we know that these events are happening. They're not going to stop happening with the switch on of the ShotSpotter technology, but what we are doing is putting systems in place for our kids to get supports in areas where we know that these events are occurring. So proactive over, you know, a longitudinal amount of time for youth as they age and they're experiencing, you know, they're getting prevention services, right? Does that, does that answer your question better? It answers my question, but it looks like we have that data, like there, there it is. How does this technology that makes us respond faster help us with the kids in the schools? And I would say it's actually shifted, right? So, since I started on this project last March, there were these two primary areas where events were occurring according to CAD data, right? And now, a year later, not quite a year later, it's shifting a little bit. So now we know in these neighborhoods we need to put more and more resources. I guess my question is, how does $300,000 to know this 10 minutes faster help us in this overall goal? That is a question for law enforcement. Can I comment? Because I know some of this just being, so these are shots fired that we responded to. That's the huge difference. So this is only what police respond to. So there's a lot of shots fired that aren't reported, which has been discussed at Public Safety Committee. Unless they're reported or unless the crime is being reported, police aren't responding to them. So there's a large amount of data we're missing, which means kids have access to guns. So they're witnessing gun use without necessarily knowing the safety protocol behind that. So, there's a chunk of data that we're missing because they're not reported and our police don't have access to locations to add to the data that we currently have. Thank you, Councilor Travis. As was noted earlier by law enforcement, there are certain communities that don't feel comfortable calling law enforcement and don't want them in their communities. Thank you. I think that's my questions for now. Councilor Bear, Councilor Travis, any additional questions or comments? No, I will, well, I guess so. I will say I'm excited for that purpose. Being in education, I know students unfortunately that I work closely with who are right now being held because they used a gun. Thank goodness they didn't harm anyone extremely badly. But they're just kids that reacted because they were put in an unsafe situation and knew that there was a gun in the sock drawer, and so they grabbed it when they were scared and they used it, and now they have completely rerouted their lives. And I'm just one person who works with youth who knows specific youth members right now in our system or who have been shot. And I think that this is a great way for us to just make sure people are taking safety measures but are also being educated. And I am not, and I will be public about that, I'm not anti-firearm, but I am pro-education. And we do have a willingness right now to learn about education around gun use and the safety issues that are affecting our community. And I think this will help shine light on that. And yeah, so I'm very excited. I remember us having a conversation, I think it was early on when I was on Public Safety about this, well, actually it wasn't Public Safety, it was a Public Safety forum Councilor Cassa and I had, and police were there and they were like, "If you don't call us, we don't know." Because they're like, "We hear gunshots in our neighborhood." And they're like, "Oh, are you calling and reporting it?" They're like, "No." And they're like, "Well, if you don't report it, we won't know, we won't have this data." So, and I think that it also shines light just on the residents in Santa Fe that just have access to firearms or the youth that have access to firearms. And I think that information in itself is really exciting to have so we could create education systems around this. So, yeah, I'm in support. I think this is going to be great. I'm more excited about what's going to come from it, because I will be following to make sure that we really make or take advantage of the data. Thank you. Barrett, are we currently using this data around our schools? So it is like a hot spot. So like Gerard's House and all the services are already showing up there and supporting the students in these areas where we've seen where there's a lot more action. Chair Castro, Councilor Barry, yes, the answer is yes. We are providing services. Gerard's House has actually a contract under with some of these funds. But we are providing services to those schools already. You can see in this heat map and the one from the previous slide. We know how many schools are in these areas, right? And so we were able to target funding to really support these schools and the kids who are in these areas who are going to the schools. Great. Thanks. Thank you so much. No further comments from the committee. I'm going to go ahead and ask a few more questions and then we will hopefully have our other member to make a motion. I think that this is for the contractor. You talked a little bit about the national debate. Will you discuss a little bit of what the national sentiment is around some of this technology and have you been involved in any legal issues? So Sound Thinking, formerly ShotSpotter, has been around for over 30 years. We're in over 210 cities across the United States, Bahamas, Brazil. We have a 98% retention rate for our customers, and more customers have expanded their coverage areas than have left us as customers. Sorry. And just to be clear, when you say customers, that's municipalities and national governments, correct? That's correct. And we also have corporate customers also. So yes, that's what I'm referring to. So we are, we are really confident that the services that we provide in conjunction with a holistic approach to addressing gun violence is effective. It's a tool that makes for a very effective strategy. So, And again, sorry, the question was around the national sentiment and any legal action taken against the company either in its current form or as ShotSpotter. We have no, we have no legal action against ShotSpotter related to our services. And you, but again, you mentioned the national debate. Can you just address a little bit what you were referring to? So, we often have people who, and I've looked at your previous videos, and the concerns over municipalities that have left our services. As you know, with city government, leaders of organizations, they have every right to go in directions that they see fit. So when that happens, that is not, we don't see that as an indictment against the services that we provide. As we shared earlier, well, we didn't really talk about the percentage, less than 80% of the gunfire that occurs has accompanying 911 calls. So what we are sharing with you is that that's roughly 20% of the gunfire activity that's occurring in those areas. Your police department will confirm what I'm about to share with you. There are incidents where people are shot and no one calls the police. Sometimes they'll end up at the hospital. Sometimes at 6:30 in the morning, someone comes out and they see a body halfway in the driveway, halfway in the road. Canvas the neighborhoods. Every house they knock on the door, heard the shooting the night before. ShotSpotter allows officers to respond in a timely fashion and render aid and saves lives. Our technology saves lives. That is a part of the national conversation and the narrative that we want to highlight. Wonderful. And I think the next question might be for Chief Grundler around how many incidents we're having. And I know that we have these spots on our map and we have these heat areas. I'm seeing light blue and dark blue. Just to confirm, the dark blue are homicides. How much loss of life have we had over this period in regard to gun violence? Madam Chair, could you repeat the question in terms of, I'm trying to find out sort of the volume of loss of life and times that we could have rendered a life-saving aid. So unfortunately, with the data that we do have here, I don't have the actual reports and the statistics along, I guess let me back up. So with these reported shots, I don't have every single report printed out, but there have been several throughout my career where we have responded and we have lost lives. Several incidents with the heat map prior to this one. Let me see if I, that specific one, I don't remember which homicide that was, and I believe it was a shooting because again, this is all shooting data. I want to say at least five to eight incidents where we have lost lives. Thank you so much. And so what we're saying is five to eight incidents potentially where we could have rendered life-saving support. That is correct. Correct. Now there is some concern that I have around false alarms notifications. How do we control for things like fireworks? We do have sort of a rural-ish community. There are parts of our community where there are firearms that folks are just maybe shooting or at a shooting range. How do we control for some of these other alternatives? So there are acoustic analysts that are experts and trained, but I'll let, I'll refer that question back to Alfred. He did a great job of answering that question. We have our service level agreement, our promise to you is that we're going to give you 90% of the audible outdoor non-suppressed gunfire above a 25 caliber within 60 seconds or less within 82 feet or a 25 meter halo. The acoustic experts who listen to the alerts, and every alert is vetted before it's sent to the officer's mobile data terminals, their smartphones, as well as your communication center. So every alert is vetted and it has a greater than 90% chance of being accurate. And this is vetted, sorry. So these acoustic experts, this is a service that we are contracting, right? This is a service that we would subscribe to. This is an additional cost on top of the cameras or this is part of the contract? There's no additional cost associated with the review. There's no additional services related to the forensics services and litigation support. Our experts will testify in court at ShotSpotter alerts. You'll have a customer success director that's assigned that will assist you with policy development and implementation best practices and training. No additional costs associated with our data and analytics team that will assist you with dashboards for transparency as well as to do analysis. Again, no additional cost associated with the trauma response and community engagement team. It's me, Dr. Tena King Jordan and Tahira Moore are directors on my team that will assist with community-based violence prevention strategies. So just to be clear, we're getting the technology and those services for $354,000 a year. No additional costs. Thank you. And Chief Grundler, I just wanted to point out there's, there is some data out there in terms of how chronically underreported gunshots are, and it's going to range wildly, but I did read a recent article that the very first year that was implemented in Pueblo, Colorado, they had 4,334 shots that were picked up in Pueblo, Colorado. Only 605 were reported. And that is, that's kind of indicative nationwide. And we've all been there. We've heard the shot and go, "Was that a firework? Was that a gunshot?" And whether people just don't want to be a pest or they want, they don't want to get involved or it's just become so routine, so to speak, they don't call it in. And unfortunately, the data is extremely important. And we're not just talking about numbers here. We're talking, like you said, potential lives. We've had instances where a shot was reported, officer went, couldn't find anything, and then the next morning we found a, we found a body in a royal right next to the road. With ShotSpotter, it wasn't just a call in a general area. With ShotSpotter, we get much more pinpoint accuracy on where this occurred, in which case that officer might have been able to find this person and render aid. So again, we always hear the argument, what's one life worth? And the fact is, we can't put a price on that. So **Councilor:** Agreed. And I think one of my, I have another funding question. I'm so sorry. My concern is sort of how we get the most bang for our buck, right? And I do understand that we're looking at five potential homicides. We're also looking at a youth and family services budget that is sorely underfunded. We have 200 so many beds that we need. Is this the only possibility for this funding, or could this be used for something else? **Speaker:** She's shaking her head now. She's shaking. So, we could not amend this contract to use it for anything else. This funding has a hard stop on June 30th. There will be no funding extensions as the city operates. We do not have time, even if we did a BAR or a contract amendment, to get any, to be able to contract and expend these funds. So, from a very nuts and bolts standpoint, no. It's also a deliverable outlined by line item in our IGA with the Department of Health. So, based on our procedure, it would be very difficult for us to reallocate this funding to anything else. **Speaker:** Yeah. I think based on any procedure, I mean, moving $354,000 into youth violence prevention services in four months and spending it, I think, would be incredibly challenging. Any other questions from the committee? **Councilor:** I have one quick question. What does this look like? Are there things on existing telephone poles? Are there, and how many of them are there? And do we need to install additional equipment? What just, what does it look like? **Speaker:** We at SoundThinking, we own all responsibility associated with the services that we provide. We get permissions to install sensors on existing light poles, government buildings, private residences, and businesses. They use about as much power as a nightlight, and it uses cellular transmission to send the data to a cloud-based classifier and location server. We handle all aspects of updating the software and the versions, and there's no additional cost associated with that. **Councilor:** And about how many devices do you need to cover five square miles? **Speaker:** It varies. It's between 15 to 20 per square mile. Although there are places in Pittsburgh where there's 40 sensors in a square mile as a result of ravines and valleys and things like that, but on average 15 to 20 sensors per square mile. Regardless of how many sensors it takes, it is our responsibility, and there's no additional cost associated with that to the city of Santa Fe. **Councilor:** And aesthetically, they're not super visible. **Speaker:** They are, they're not, you very seldomly will even notice it. So it's not some ugly piece of technology. **Councilor:** Thank you. **Speaker:** And I'd like to answer your question related to future funding. I'm a retired Assistant Chief of Police in Miami Gardens, Florida. I had 34 years of law enforcement experience before I retired 10 years ago. We were a city that was deemed one of the seventh most dangerous cities in the nation. We deployed ShotSpotter year one. We didn't have the money for it, but our gun violence problem was bad enough that we were able to get de-obligated funds from the Urban Area Security Initiatives and private donations. Our year one cost was $2,000 out of a $270,000 bill. Year two it was $180,000. We only paid, I think it was $50,000. It was so effective that the city of Miami Gardens saw fit to incorporate ShotSpotter into the budget, and it's been in place in the city of Miami Gardens going on 14 years. We have several communities that do the same thing. There are hospital districts that have assisted in the cost of ShotSpotter. Greenville, North Carolina, because they know that when someone comes into their emergency room, it is a very traumatic experience. It is, it often comes with violence. And the cost associated with a homicide, the Gifford Center says a homicide costs between $827,000 and $1.5 million each, depending on the part of the country that you're in. So, ShotSpotter is a worthwhile investment, and it pays for itself from a financial standpoint, but saving lives and reducing the risk factors of gunfire exposure from youth and incorporating protective factors that will occur from your violence intervention strategy are things that are going to further reduce youth gun violence in the future. So, it is a worthwhile investment. There's so much that goes into it, and we generally can't talk about it here, but it is a worthwhile investment. And but if you don't make, if you don't think that it's worth it, you can always walk away from it. Sorry, just a clarifying question. That $800,000 to $100, sorry, $800,000 potential cost is from services like law enforcement services, medical services per homicide. **Speaker:** From the Gifford Center. It's related to the initial police response, the initial fire rescue if the person gets to the hospital, public defender, prosecution, incarceration, lost income from the person who's incarcerated, lost income from the individual who's murdered, as well as the impact on property values and taxes to a municipality. Those are the costs. And again, that's the Gifford Center. And I don't know if we have this information, but Chief, do you know if there's a difference between a homicide and a shooting? Because in particular, there's going to be shooting incidents that we hear through this technology that could result or not in a homicide. So not all these costs are associated, but there are other costs. Correct. **Chief:** Of course there are other costs. And I just wanted to, the question we brought up about further funding it. We had actually built into our budget request going forward, based on an approval obviously, that this is a subscription, and we have a maintenance budget, and we've actually built the future cost into our maintenance budget request. So we will be taking over that after this initial grant funding. **Councilor:** So this has been planned for in future budgets along with the new personnel that we are now funding ourselves. Correct. **Chief:** Yes, Madam Chair. **Councilor:** Great. Thank you so much. Any other questions? All right, if I, I would entertain a motion since to approve. **Speaker:** Second. **Speaker:** We could get a roll call, please. **Speaker:** Councilor Fagali? **Councilor Fagali:** Yes. **Speaker:** Councilor Barrett? **Councilor Barrett:** Yes. **Speaker:** Councilor Chavis? **Councilor Chavis:** Yes. **Speaker:** Councilor Casset? **Councilor Casset:** Yes. **Speaker:** Madam Chair? **Madam Chair:** No. And I would like to explain my vote. **Speaker:** Motion passes. **Madam Chair:** Thank you. I do feel that there is a big need in youth and family services. I do think it would be a tight attempt to reallocate this funding. I don't think it's impossible, but I definitely understand the intent. I did reach out to the county, and they said this is a reasonable response. I don't know if we have full buy-in, but I'm excited to see what happens over the next year. Thank you so much. Next item that was pulled off of consent is item G. And I believe that was by Councilor Casset. **Speaker:** You could read it. It was pulled by Councilor Casset, and it is a request for a budget amendment resolution BAR in the amount of $80,000 to transfer one-time funding in FY26 from Planning and Land Use to ITT to compensate for the purchase of OpenGov software. **Councilor:** Go right ahead, Council. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair and Director Lamboy. I will be speedy. All right. Timeline to launch once this actually gets transferred. I believe that we've, have we already gone through purchasing, or do we have to go through the now purchasing process once the dollars are transferred? **Chair Castro:** Councilor Casset, we have already purchased the software. So this is a reimbursement to ITT from our one-time funding. So, and you will also, we see a BAR. ITT had concerns about their budget. We have some savings, vacancy savings and the like. So, we'll be moving, refunding that money for the OpenGov software itself. We have initiated configuration. We had a great series of work sessions with ITT regarding our processes and mapping all of those processes so those can be configured into the program. Many thanks to Chad Dole and Eric Hendeleria for stepping up and helping us look at ourselves because we like, why do we do that and what can we do better? And so that, that has been really educational for us as well as helping with the configuration. We have had a couple of hiccups with the financial side of things relative to taking cash payments. That's something that's part of the culture of Santa Fe is to be able to have cash payments available. But it is a challenge in electronic system. So check payments, certainly you can type in the routing number and all that sort of stuff. And with InterGov right now, we can only take payments up to $20,000 just because there's a limit in InterGov. But when you get very large developments with 1500 lots, for instance, their development fees can far exceed $20,000. And so that's impacting our revenues right now. So we're working through all those issues. And we really are trying to get things done by the new fiscal year and be initiating e-review at that time. **Councilor:** Got it. And then InterGov will continue operating until then. **Chair Castro:** Councilor Casset, yes. We have the subscription. There will be a crossover most definitely, and we're working on data transfer center. **Councilor:** Okay, wonderful. You answered questions that I had. So thank you. That's all. **Speaker:** Thank you. **Speaker:** Motion to approve. **Speaker:** Second. **Speaker:** We could get a roll call vote. **Speaker:** Councilor Fagali? **Councilor Fagali:** Yes. **Speaker:** Councilor Barrett? **Councilor Barrett:** Yes. **Speaker:** Councilor Casset? **Councilor Casset:** Yes. **Speaker:** Madam Chair? **Madam Chair:** Yes. **Speaker:** Motion passes. **Madam Chair:** Wonderful. Thank you so much. I believe that is all on our consent agenda. So, we have matters from staff. Any matters from staff tonight? **Chair Castro:** Chair Castro, thank you so much. Well, I'll just provide some updates regarding Planning and Land Use activities, and then my colleagues, I'm sure, will provide other updates as well. But relative to the general plan update, we're going to be launching into the scenario planning piece, and we're going to be seeking engagement on the growth scenarios with our community partners as well as with the community at large. The community partner program has been so successful in getting widespread response. One of my budget requests is going to, for this coming year, is to establish a community partner program for all Planning and Land Use programs so we can have a diverse group who are compensated, which, you know, would be an investment, that will be able to provide us with genuine response with their constituencies in a safe space. So, just look forward to that as well. We got all the contract paperwork done necessary for the launch into the phase two of the Land Development Code update. And the first step for that will be the assessment report. And so we'll be taking the comments we received from phase one, the comments that we've received with the general plan process, and pulling it all together to define priorities about what we're going to handle first. You will be seeing some amendments coming forward that are scrivener's errors that are, you know, in terms of numbering, as something was moved from Word to PDF, things got rearranged, the headers got changed, and links sometimes were broken. So we, we're working on that right now. Just as we're going through our budget review process, I would just like to bring up that in 2013, we processed 400 permits. And now in 2026, we're processing approximately 160, 100 permits with the staff net change of approximately three positions during that time. So we are busy, but we're also trying to leverage our process improvements as well as the technology to help us serve our customers and the constituents in the best manner we can. The Development Plan Manual: we are starting on the stakeholder interviews. So this is the community's opportunity to look at our processes and tell us how we can do better. And this Development Review Manual is intended to be a resource from the pre-application prior to any planning process to the certificate of occupancy, and having links available within the document as well as resources. For instance, with childcare, providing resources to ECECD, the state agency that regulates childcare facilities and the like, making sure that we make the process understandable and easy to navigate from the public's perspective. And so we'll be interviewing those folks who use the permitting system right now and progress through the system to see what their thoughts are and what improvements we can make. And that will be it for right now. Thank you. Thank you so much, Director. And I also want to just mention that Director Lamboy has done a great job in trying to make this process accessible, language accessible in particular. So thank you so much, Director Sanchez. Eric Castro, thank you. So the YFS, the Youth and Family Program, there was a press release earlier this week regarding the launch of the Youth Arise Pilot Program. Can you hear me now? Sorry, I apologize. So earlier this week there was a press release and a news report about the launch of the Youth Arise Pilot Program and the partnership with SFC as part of the Youth Violence Prevention programming. The ARPA-funded and Our Hands training has begun, the domestic violence training over at the Senior Center. So we had, there were quite a few people attended that, and the CYC strategic plan is near completion and we hope to have the RFP released soon. Last week, seniors took 25 seniors to Senior Day at the legislature. Same day on Friday that afternoon, we had over 160 seniors attend our Sweetheart Dance. And next week on the 23rd, the New Mexico Senior Olympics Northern Games start here in Santa Fe. So, Do we still need volunteers for that? They have not reached out. I'm sure they're always willing to have volunteers. So, if you know anybody, just have them reach out to come by the center and they'll take them. Thank you, Marcella. Right. We are moving on to matters from the committee. We'll start Councilor Forgi. We'll just go down the line. I just want to be the first person to get to say out loud that the state has approved our land swap. And so congratulations to the MRA, I guess. Yes, the Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency. And yeah, it's very exciting for us and hopefully very exciting for the Land Department in the near future. Thank you. Barrett. Awesome. Thank you so much. Matters from the chair. I just want to thank everyone for some amazing work. We are looking at having some field trips in the near future, potentially look at some city buildings. I'm hoping that we might take a look at Gonuel's place pretty soon here. So please, if you have any ideas for future presentations, let me know. And with that, we are adjourned until March 4th. Thank you so much.