Discussions were held on hospital funding, possible temporary budget issues and a proposed walkway between Santa Clara and Bayard

By Mary Alice Murphy

At the May 6 work session, much of the meeting was taken up with county reports.

Sheriff Raul Villanueva spoke first, because he needed to be elsewhere.

"We got through with the Tour of the Gila," Villanueva said. "It was eventful, especially with the crash on Wednesday on highway 180, just going into Catron County. We will also assist with the Mimbres Region Arts Council Blues Festival Memorial Day weekend.

"We have two positions open and 17 applicants," he continued. "We will be testing them this Friday. Even with the vacancies, the staff has been keeping up and working well. With the warming weather, we are getting more activity."

He explained that he, as a board member of El Refugio Inc., was helping at the booth set up at LifeQuest Inc. for Give Grande New Mexico Day. He invited people to give donations to the many Grant County non-profits seeking the funding.

Commission Chairman Brett Kasten said he attended the New Mexico Association of Counties meeting, where there were concerns about cross-commissioning officers. "We, who are self-insured, may have to pay to insure those individuals."

Villanueva said the concern was brought to the NMAC Sheriffs' Affiliate. "I hope it will come out to everyone's benefit."

"Curry County was particularly concerned about the drug task force," Kasten said.

Assessor Mary Guthrie, in her report, said the protest period had closed, with just a few protests. "We will take time to get out to each property. If someone has not yet protested, I invite them to come talk to me or one of the appraisers in my office."

County Clerk Robert Zamarripa said Tuesday, May 6, started the absentee in person and absentee voting process. "My office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for early voting. You can receive by mail an absentee ballot by calling our office at 574-0042 or print it from the website."

Gila Regional Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Brian Cunningham said, although the hospital knows the basic proposal of Senate Bill 268, which passed the recent legislative session and was signed into law, there is still confusion on the disbursement of funds. "The example for Gila Regional is that going back to 2013, we received $9 million, but we have been told we were miscalculating and were supposed to include the sole community provider funding in our calculations. With the new proposed disbursement system, we would get $300,000 annually. There is a big uproar across the state about this late recalculation. The Hospital Association is up in arms, so we're working through that."

"We advertised the chief financial officer position, internally and locally first," Cunningham said. "For the past couple of months, we engaged with two national recruiters. We did phone and web interviews with several candidates and brought the top five on site. Omaira Heakin has accepted the position and will join us on June 2.

"As of the end of March, we had 128 days of cash," he reported. "On the expense side we have lost about $480,000. We are behind about $1.8 million for the year. We're looking at about $2 million to $3 million loss at the end of the fiscal year before we receive any supplemental funding. It will continue to put pressure on us. We are continuing the dialogues and continuing to work on efficiencies and savings."

Commissioner Gabriel Ramos said he has had a few people ask him how the lawsuits affect the hospital.

"We have insurance," Cunningham said. "And although rates may go up, it doesn't come out of taxes or our bottom line."

Saari said the Human Services Department said any money the hospital receives reduces the uncompensated care funding. "The department is bending the letter of the law to get everything it can. This fund, to which we are sending money, will help support Medicaid. HSD pays out almost $1 billion in Medicaid. That may be part of their push."

"Next, I fully expect the penitentiary fund will run low, and they'll look for county funding," Kasten said. "What next? The road fund will ask for an eighth or twelfth percent. They will ravage the counties, which will not be able to serve their residents."

"The Local Government Road Fund has already started," Saari said. "We would start a project and then get a revised budget, cutting the amount to be paid for the project. The county is committed to providing as many services as possible."

Kasten to Cunningham: "Having Susie (Trujillo) there with us at the legislative session was imperative in helping us. I hope she will be there next year, too." Cunningham confirmed that was the plan.

Next to speak was Detention Center Administrator Mike Carrillo. He said the jail has four temporary vacancies. He also reported Las Cruces has a corrections academy that he will request Grant County Detention Center officers be able to attend for mandatory training at minimal or no cost.

The daily average in the jail from April 4 to May 5 was 73, seven less than last month, with a high of 11 females at one time and a high of 84 males, a slight increase. The average length of stay was 9.17 days.

Commissioner Ron Hall asked how the medical program was going.

"It's going well, but we have been having administrative issues," Carrillo said. "When they are using telemedicine, the doctors from elsewhere don't understand our facility. The medical staff has to discuss with us before an inmate/patient is moved."

"Are we saving money?" Hall asked.

"Right now, it's about $14,000 for the medical services, considerably lower than what we were paying," Carrillo confirmed.

Road Superintendent Earl Moore said his personnel were working on chip-sealing several roads and streets and on blade patching on Kirkland. "We got the audit done on the Cottage San Project, and the county should be reimbursed."

Kasten said a culvert on the north side of the fairgrounds building was needed. "Do you have time to do that before June? We also want to get slats for the cattle."

"I'm meeting with Crumbley this afternoon," Moore said. "It won't take us long to do what the board is asking."

General Services Director Randy Villa said the Senior Program was working with the Non-Metro Area Agency on Aging to check the senior centers. "Hurley has an issue, because it's not a senior center, but is just the community center loaned out for feeding seniors."

"At Corre Caminos, they're trying to get reimbursements up to date," Villa continued. "The volunteer fire departments are praying not to get a big fire. At the Prom Fire in Luna County, we worked with the Luna departments to get about 1,000 acres put out. They had to shut down the highway for a time. On Saturday, I understand there was a fire the chairman put out. The chipper is up and running. In Wind Canyon, Silver City Fire Department, county fire personnel and volunteer fire departments will join in on a chipper day on May 17 to clear debris."

He said Public Works was very busy and the department had been awarded a bid for Bataan Memorial Park. At the shooting range, a new skeet high house will be built with funding and volunteer workers from Freeport-Mc-MoRan. "Next year, we hope to fix the shack, then we'll have a pretty good shooting range. At the conference center, we are clearing out the back. Graduation parties are coming up and big events are also taking place. The Tour of the Gila used part of it. At the airport, we're working on fuel needs. We had someone stop for fuel, but we have none. The plane made it to the Deming airport. Deming contacted us and said Desert Fuel was willing to help us out. At the Detention Center, we put in a new water heater and the HVAC systems works. All the HVACs in the county buildings are working."

Commissioner Gabriel Ramos thanked Villa for the good work. "Bataan Memorial Park is looking good."

"Don't let the fuel companies short you," Kasten cautioned Villa. "If you don't think it's 1,000 gallons, question it."

Saari said the county has put in a grant for a fuel farm at the airport, which would be reimbursable up to $100,000.

County Planner Anthony Gutierrez said he attended the Colonias Board meeting, and hopes the county did well. "We did receive the final agreement for last year's award for the North Hurley project, so we can get it done and get it on next year's construction funding. There have been a lot of right-of-way and drainage issues with individual residents. It takes a lot of research with old documents. I find out we own something we didn't know we owned. There is no policy to address this issue."

"On the Arizona Water Settlements Act, I've been working with the Gila/San Francisco Water Commission—I'm chairman now," Gutierrez continued. "We need to decide whether to use the existing joint powers agreement. If there is a diversion, we want to make sure we represent southwest New Mexico on how the water is used.

"I want to thank Jon," Gutierrez said. "He has given Grant County a lot of good years. I've learned a lot from Jon."

Ramos thanked Gutierrez for his work on the AWSA. "We do appreciate your doing that." He said he met with Gutierrez, and with the Council of Governments, Bayard and Santa Clara to work on a walkway between Santa Clara and Bayard. "I think it's a safety issue. Also I want to wish good luck to Silver, Cliff and Cobre high schools' softball, baseball and track teams."

He said Santa Clara Mayor Richard Bauch at the meeting said Bayard had contacted Santa Clara about using the effluent from the Regional Wastewater Plant, which produces 500,000 gallons a day. "We have to deal with it. We want to try to get it back into the aquifer and use it for recreation."

"The walking path project would qualify for Community Block Development Grant funding, but it would rank low," Saari said. "We don't qualify as a county at 43 percent low-to-moderate income. It has to be above 51 percent low-to-moderate income. We will have a hard time getting CDBG funding."

Hall said for the past few months, every time he has asked for help from the staff, he has gotten it. "We are so fortunate to have an outstanding staff." He gave several examples and then complimented Saari for putting together a great staff and for his leadership.

Kasten said the Rio Grande Fund has developed a watershed protection plan, for which it is requesting comment by May 9. "All they are asking for from us is an endorsement of the plan." He also said he saw the afore-mentioned small fire and put it out with a milk crate he had in the back of his truck.

Saari said the budget process is proceeding. "Linda Vasquez, financial officer, sent requests out to the department heads. I will talk with Mary Guthrie this afternoon. We will try to stay flat on expenses. We are testing training in house at the Detention Center, and have built into the budget a permanent position. The return outweighs the expense. The jail is reducing its staff turnover, except for temporary employees."

"I got the preliminary revenue numbers from Mary," Saari said. "Revenues look like they are up slightly. On the PILT (Payment in lieu of taxes) and the Secure Rural Schools funding, a group of congressmen from the West are talking to those in the East who have similar funding so they can fight together to be stronger.

"We will try to get the budget to you by Thursday," Saari said. "We need back up plans for the PILT, which may be late this year, because of the sequester and government shutdown. We typically receive it on June 30 at the last minute going into our bank account. We could end the year with two to three weeks without a reserve. It happened several years ago. The federal Association of Counties may step in. PILT is determined by a formula of the number of acres of public land and the population, then the amount is decreased by how much other federal money the county received. It starts at about $2.8 million, and goes down to about $1.7 million.

"It's been a great 8 ½ years," Saari said. "It's hard to leave everyone here. I hope whoever takes my place will realize what a great group of people we have and how very knowledgeable they are."

Commissioners then went into executive session for limited personnel issues, with the primary one being the county manager position.