SC-GC Chamber of Commerce luncheon features county assessor and GRMC interim CEO
Raul Turrieta was a featured speaker at chamber luncheon, April 6, 2017
Below, GRMC interim CEO Alfredo Ontiveros, Chamber board president Bruce Ashburn, and GRMC CEO selection committee co-chair Tony Trujillo.
Photos by Margaret Hopper
Article by Mary Alice Murphy
At the monthly luncheon on April 6, 2017, Bruce Ashburn, who is serving as chairman of the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce, introduced the speakers.
Grant County Assessor Raul Turrieta said his office would be sending out valuation notices this week.
"The last day to contest the valuation is 30 days from the mailing date on the notice," Turrieta said. "We are stuck with the 3 percent cap on raising rates. It causes inequity. Until the first person, who bought his home at $100,000 10 years ago, sells it, and his neighbor, with the same type of house, same number of bedrooms and baths, paid $300,000 last year, we can't adjust the rate for the first buyer. The first buyer stays at the 3 percent cap.
"We call it the 'welcome tax,' for new buyers at higher prices and higher valuations" he said. "I want to put houses at market value, but statute doesn't allow it."
He said if a homeowner chooses to contest the valuation, he or she has to give a good explanation of why the valuation is too high. It then goes to an informal hearing. "You have to prove me wrong. The property owner bears the responsibility of proving the valuation is wrong."
"If we don't agree, it goes to the protest board, which has several members, including a couple of Realtors," Turrieta said.
Right now, the assessor's office is running re-appraisal on properties in the county.
He explained the exemptions, one of which is available to property owners who are 65 years and older. If they request the exemption three years in a row, it is automatically put into the system.
For veterans, one request puts it into the system. Also available are head of household exemptions.
"In New Mexico, we don't have full disclosure," Turrieta said. "If something is sold, I have to find out how much it sold for."
A chamber member asked how the assessor comes up with comps when nothing is selling downtown.
"I have to depend on the income of the business," Turrieta replied. "I won't touch valuations of commercial properties downtown until I see some activity."
The next speaker was Alfredo Ontiveros, Gila Regional Medical Center interim chief executive officer. With him was Joe Kellerman, GRMC marketing director, who showed a 30-second spot that is airing on local stations. Individuals from throughout the community, doctors, nurses, citizens all say one at a time: "We are Gila Regional."
"We want to make sure we have quality care at Gila Regional," Ontiveros said. "I stayed 24 years in the Air Force, and have spent 40 years in health care."
His first job as CEO was of a physician-owned hospital in Juarez, Mexico, under an El Paso hospital, which when it was sold no longer wanted to manage the Juarez facility. He has worked in other hospitals in New Mexico. In 1995, when Gila Regional was under the management of Quorum, Ontiveros was chosen as the CEO for GRMC.
"Since 2014, I've been doing interim jobs," Ontiverso said. "I was chosen to do this job as interim at Gila Regional, because I have ties to the community. My daughter graduated from Silver High School. I'm here to do a significant but gratifying job. I can't participate in the CEO process."
He said he wanted to refute the rumor that he was in the running for the CEO position. "The other rumor I want to put to rest is: the hospital is not closing. It is in good shape with staff and financially. We had a hiccup with the loss of subsidies in late fiscal year 2015 and early fiscal year 2016."
"These are what I was tasked with when I came in," Ontiveros said. "Meditech 6. We had an old version of Meditech, but version 6.1 is one the company will support. June 1 is the Go Live date and we are not moving off it. If we find things, we will go and fix them on the run. It's called adapting to the situation."
The second thing was to review and fix the financial processes. "We have found we were not charging correctly to insurances and we are redoing denials, not just letting them drop. January and February, we were at break even, from before when we sometimes had six-digit losses. The budget approved for this year was a break-even budget. We hope the future will get better and better."
He explained that admissions are down about 16 percent; surgeries are down 11 percent, but staffing dropped only 7 percent.
"When admissions are going down, you can't keep the same staff," Ontiveros said. "We eliminated some positions, not people. We did a reduction in force and the annual savings will kick in in a couple of months. We paid the non-management positions two weeks of salary and management positions, four weeks of salary. Usually you have to give two weeks' or a month's notice. We did the reduction in force and gave them the pay in lieu of notice.
"The third task was to assist in the CEO selection process," he said. "Tony Trujillo and Jeremiah Garcia are the co-chairs and have run a super process. They decided to bring in community members to participate. Monday and Tuesday we will interview two quality candidates."
He said he may or may not stick around for the transition. "It depends on what they need me for. We have an interim CFO (chief financial officer) who has been here two weeks. She is finding processes that should have been done and they are being fixed."
Trujillo said the committee received 75 applicants for the interim position and "we were fortunate to have Alfredo as one of them. In the selection process, we wanted transparency, so we decided to bring in community members and let them participate. We have 15 members on the committee. The chamber representative is Derek Ratcliff."
Trujillo said they received 113 resumes and 120 enquiries. "Members of the committee reviewed the files, which had been screened into highly-qualified, qualified and not qualified. They screened 23 and selected seven for preliminary interviews. Out of the 15 members, who did their own scoring on their own time, they all came very close to scoring the same on the top seven, which went down to six, when one got an offer before the process was complete. They did six interviews and came up with two finalists."
He announced a meet and greet for each finalist from 4-5 p.m. at the GRMC Conference Room on Monday, April 10, for one candidate and from 4-5 p.m. at the GRMC Conference Room on Tuesday, April 11, for the other candidate.
"They had highly qualified candidates to choose from, and they chose two of the best," Ontiveros said.
An audience member said she understood one pod had been closed at the hospital.
"It's not fully closed," Ontiveros said. "We use it for overflow. We are starting a preliminary discussion on turning the rooms into private rooms. Everything we do must be budget neutral."
Another audience member said she worried about the longevity of the person staying on the job.
"It is a question that may be asked as part of the interview, but the problem is the CEO is a volatile position," Ontiveros said. "The board members change. Everything is about volume, revenue and patient care. Most CEOs are not usually long-tenured. They usually are at a hospital four years or less. Something can come up; the board wants the CEO to do something he won't; and sometimes, it's just best to move on. Five years in the position is a long time."
Ashburn said he wanted to confirm to the members that the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce had been approved as a partner on the Conference Center. "We will have the opportunity to improve visitorship to Grant County. We are in the process of getting the contract completed. It does two things, an income stream for the chamber and to make money for the county."
Scott Terry, chamber president, said the May 4 meeting would have the Freeport Mc-MoRan Foundation as the guest for the entire program. "The community investment fund awards panel members will give out the awards."