Community will have a say, and a vote, on Animal Service Center Board of Directors

Members of the community will have a voice, and a vote, on the Animal Service Center of Mesilla Valley Board of Directors for the first time.

The Board voted on Thursday to approve changes made to the Joint Powers Agreement between the City and Doña Ana County. Changes to the agreement includes revision of the makeup of the Board, which previously never included members of the community.

“Elected officials are not professionals in what we do so there is that lack of information, so when we developed this new JPA proposal, that is what we wanted,” said Clint Thacker, who has been the ASCMV executive director for the past six years. “Individuals on the Board who come from public that know the issues and the problems. So that they could see our (ASCMV) issues and hopefully tie those together as they are voting to guide the ASCMV along.”

The JPA will now need approval from the City and Doña Ana County, as well as the state by the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. City Chief Administrative Officer Barbara Bencomo said the earliest the JPA will be up for City Council approval would be in November with the County expected to vote during the same timeframe with the goal of State approval in January.

The Board currently consists of six voting members (three appointed by City Council members, three appointed by County Commissioners), along with two non-voting ex-officio members (City Manager or designee and County Manager or designee).

Once approved, next year's ASCMV Board will grow to eight voting members. Four members will be from the public: two appointed by the City, two appointed by the County. The rest of the board will be made up of four elected officials, ― two appointed by City Council, two appointed by County Commissioners ― the City Manager or designee and County Manager or designee who will serve as ex-officio members with no vote.

The Board voted 5-0 to approve the changes made to the JPA, which also included an introduction of term limits for Board members (max of two, two-year terms), moving from monthly meetings to quarterly meetings, required attendance by Board members to a minimum of half of its meetings, and a periodic renewal of the JPA, which had been unchanged since it was adopted in 2012.

During a work session on the JPA last week, Board member and City Councilor Yvonne Flores didn’t disagree with adding members of the community to the Board, but disagreed with the proposed Board makeup during the work session that included four community members and just two elected officials along with the City and County manager – primarily due to the Board’s role regarding matters related to the Center's budget.

City Councilor and Board member Kasandra Gandara echoed some of that concern on Thursday. She ultimately supported the amended Board membership that was approved.

“It's not a large budget, but it's a budget nonetheless that they (community members on the Board) would have to be responsible for," Gandara said. "This (Board) composition will be new.

"It's still pretty drastic. You are eliminating one of us. I'm all for bringing the public in. I think that is a really important aspect. It's something we have never done and something we have been talking about for some time."

Although not present on Thursday, City Councilor and Board Member Becky Corran started conversation related to Board makeup because many of the issues the Board considers are brought to them by members of the animal welfare community.

“Each entity has a secondary review process and Council always reviews the budget for ASCMV,” Corran said during last week’s work session. “I think that the three and three (makeup of the Board) is excessive in terms of elected representation. More often, we are responding to the community with less information than the community would bring to the Board.”

Future Board members from the public will be vetted by each government entity, but members of the animal welfare community are expected to come forward to eventually fill those positions.

"The hope is that these individuals would already be fluent in a lot of the terminology and things we talk about in the animal industry," Thacker said. "We have some great people in teh community who could easily fill that role."

Board adds memorandum of understanding

The City and Doña Ana County split funding the ASCMV operating budget, but the City serves as the fiscal agent for the Center.

The Board approved a memorandum of understanding on Thursday outlining the responsibilities of the Center and the City as the fiscal agent. The template approved follows the same model as the City’s South Central Solid Waste Board that separates the fiscal agent from the JPA.

The MOU is easier to update, requiring City approval rather than City, County and state approval like the JPA.

Some of the City’s responsibilities according to the memorandum, include; providing financial services, human resources services, risk management services, information technology services and fleet services.

The Center is responsible for budget management, collection and depositing of receivables and training.

The Center will also be subject to a periodic audit conducted by the City.

"We are already doing most of that, it's just in writing now," Thacker said.

Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @jpgroves.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Community will have a say, and a vote, on Animal Service Center Board