[Editor's Note: Grant County commissioners held a short special meeting right before a long work session on Nov. 14, 2023. This is the seventh of a series of articles covering the work session. It continues with a review of the regular meeting agenda for Nov. 16, 2023 and will include decisions made at the regular meeting.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The Grant County Commission Nov. 14, 2023 work session continued with the review of the regular meeting agenda, beginning with resolutions.

County Manager Charlene Webb said the first resolution addressed the need to amend R-23-62 to authorize an election for adoption of Municipal Fire Member Coverage Plan 4. "The first time we approved this resolution, we included only Tier 2 employees. PERA (Public Employees Retirement Association) wants us to include Tier 1 employees, although I think the chance of a Tier 1 employee being part of this is slim to none. This simply amends the one you already adopted but adding the Tier 1 language."

Commissioners approved the change at the regular meeting.

The next resolution, R-23-69 supports the New Mexico Counties 2024 legislative priorities. "Each year NMC asks the counties to approve unanimously the priorities set by the board. The top priorities this year, the top one is House Bill 2 with the first one being the Detention Centers reimbursement fund. Currently, the fund is at $5 million. Last year, the counties spent $7.5 million. It was at $7 million years ago, but it has dwindled. What we're asking is for them to fund the full amount of the cost to house those state inmates. Also in HB 2, we're asking for $10 million to go to the newly formed fund for Workforce Capacity Building. It's a detention retention and recruitment fund, similar to what was done for law enforcement. You heard Joseph (Andazola, Detention Center administrator). Ten days ago we were fully staffed, today he said there are four vacancies. We're lucky we have that many employees, because a lot of detention centers across the state are less than half fully staffed. We asked again this year for a new line item in the DFA (Department of Finance and Administration) for $750,000 to reimburse counties for state prisoner transports. State statute says that should be paid for, but it hasn't been. It's not the counties' responsibility to pay for those costs. We've been submitting what our costs are. We are also asking for continuing and permanent funding for the R.I.S.E. program. Although they added more counties last year, it is still not considered a permanent program. We are also asking for a permanent line item in the Department of Health budget for $10 million for EMS services. A few years ago, a bill was passed to provide some Fire Funds for EMS, but that only pays for a small percentage of the costs. Another item is to create a fund of $25 million to help counties renovate or construct district courthouses. Last year, there was a $23 million allocation, but $15 million of that went to resolve the Otero county litigation between the district and the county. It's to help counties handle the costs of the unfunded mandate to house district courts and D.A.s in our courthouses."

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards asked to clarify: "So last year, Otero County got funding because they weren't offering adequate space for an unfunded mandate?"

Webb said that's the problem: "What is adequate space and conditions? It's not necessarily the same what we think is adequate and what the court system thinks is adequate."

Edwards said so the request is for a recurring appropriation to provide "adequate space. But is there going to be a definition of what adequate space is?"

Webb said she thinks the lawsuit and the settlement helped identify what adequate is.

She said the next thing is a state health benefits plan, "which doesn't apply to us. These are for individuals that participate in the state benefit plan. We're lucky to use a local insurance broker for our health premiums. I attended a meeting on this issue and it was an absolutely atrocious meeting, so I'm very thankful we're not part of that."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce, who also attended the meeting, noted that counties get assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars for this plan. "There's one on the east side of the state that received an assessment of more than $1 million."

Webb said the problem is the state has not increased their premiums since before Covid, so the fund, for all intents and purposes is bankrupt. "They couldn't get an answer to whether it was $60 million, $150 million or $200 million. So they are requesting the legislature to bring them up to zero and then requesting a 10 percent increase in premiums, and $60 million may not be enough to bring it up to zero, and then they are moving the plan out of General Services and into the new state Health Care Authority to administer. Nobody in the room got any answers, so we're very thankful we're not part of it."

She continued that there is a lawsuit that the assessments were illegal. "We don't know what will happen with that, but they want to make sure before it is transferred to the authority that they have a zero balance. And the lady in charge could not give any answers."

Another item addresses the increase in elected official salaries, with a request for a 15 percent increase, with a cap and no increase on those already in office, and they are asking that the increase be tied to the CPI (consumer price index).

Edwards asked: "Is there still a stipulation of how many hours an official has to work."

Ponce and Webb said almost at the same time: "Yes, eight hours a month."

Edwards said if that requirement remains in place, no matter how much an official is paid, "I can't support this if it remains this way."

Webb said she doesn't think many officials in the state only show up for eight hours a month. "We are lucky that ours are in their offices daily, putting in plenty of hours."

Edwards she was not implying that "ours do that. To me, it shows the lack of accountability that the state builds into the system. "

Webb said she would share the concern and she was sure that Ponce, who serves on the board, would also bring it up."I would hate to see you not vote to support the priorities, just because of that piece, but that's your choice."

The last one addresses firefighter retention. "This is a request for $50 million to go to the Department of Homeland Security to pay for recruitment and retention of career and volunteer firefighters. They did a survey of the VFDs (volunteer fire departments) and the call volume had increased by 50 percent. They also looked at the age of volunteer firefighters. The average age of a volunteer firefighter right now is 65. So this is a $50 million recurring ask to recruit and retain firefighters."

Ponce said these issues came up because, for instance, the detention centers take up large chunks of the county budgets, and "it would be nice if the municipalities contributed to that. but it's state prisoners, so it's a problem. And the other major issue was the EMS services, where remote counties like Catron have a problem getting enough services. We can certainly bring up the issue of the eight hours required a month."

Edwards asked if all 33 counties rely on volunteer fire services. The answer was yes. "So the majority of our state is covered by volunteer firefighters?" Again the answer was yes.

Webb noted that all rural areas are covered by volunteer firefighters, with some paid and some unpaid, with some a combination of paid and unpaid. "The idea is to pay them with some sort of response stipend. Actually one of the chiefs had given me a plan from another county for response stipends. Ben (Young, county contract attorney) and I are looking at that to see if hopefully we can provide something like that, especially if this request goes through. We did receive a $25,000 grant for a response stipend, but that only applied to the chiefs."

District 2 Commissioner Eloy Medina said about a 60-mile stretch of I-40 east of Albuquerque lost all EMS and fire services.

Edwards said $50 million seems like a drop in the bucket. "The amount of risk we have in this state around fire, because of drought and all that. I'll be happy with $50 million, but it doesn't seem like enough."

Medina said: "With volunteer firefighters you have to look at ways to help them any way you can. I've asked Bayard to just pay their water bill for servicing areas. You get a structure fire and it takes hours. The time they give away. They get up at 5 a.m. to go to work and they're exhausted. They do it for the community, which is appreciated. The other thing is finding volunteers."

"You look at Reserve, Glenwood, Hachita," Ponce said, "it's not as if young people are moving into those areas."

At the regular meeting, the commissioners approved the NMC legislative priorities, with Edwards saying she wouldn't stand in the way of approval.

Ponce said he had brought it up to New Mexico Counties, and that Webb would also move forward with the issue.

The next article will continue with the resolutions and complete the two meetings.

For previous articles, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81381-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-111423-part-1 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81427-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-111423-part-2 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81509-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-111423-part-3 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81548-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-111423-and-began-regular-meeting-111623-part-4 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81565-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-111423-and-regular-meeting-111623-part-5 ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81584-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-111423-and-regular-meeting-111623-part-6 .