Grant County Planning Director Randy Hernandez receives recognition of his 15 years of service to the county from County Manager Charlene Webb.

[Editor's Note: This is part 5 of the Grant County Commission work session on Jan. 9, 2024 and the regular meeting on Jan. 11, 2024. This begins the work session review of the regular meeting agenda.]

Photo and article by Mary Alice Murphy

County Manager Charlene Webb at the Jan. 9, 2024 work session began the review of the regular meeting agenda for Jan. 11, 2024. The first items were to elect a chair and vice chair for the year. At the regular meeting, the commissioners elected unanimously District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce to continue as chair. The vice chair position went to District 2 Commissioner Eloy Medina, again unanimously.

With no public input at the regular meeting, the next item on the agenda brought Gila Regional Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Robert Whitaker to the podium.

"In November, we had 80 discharges, which was 23 less than last year," Whitaker said. "Our ER visits were lower this year at 1,300 compared to 1,550 last year, but all these numbers picked up in December. The board will approve the December numbers at the meeting later this month. Outpatient visits for Nomber were up to 5,000 compared to 4,700 last year. Outpatient visits include labs, radiology, imaging and the cancer center. Our revenue for November was $7.9 million compared to $6.8 million last year. A lot of that is related to our cancer center. Our operating expenses were $7.8 million compared to $6.7 million last year. Your revenue goes up and for us our expenses go up for patient care and supplies, too. A lot of it is related to the cancer center, where our volumes are up significantly. We reported an operating profit of $214,000 compared to $77,000 the prior year. Charity care and bad debt totaled about $385,000 compared to $190,000 last year. We had $244,000 in capital purchases. Year-to-date, we're at about $1.1 million in capital purchases.

"In regards to that, we're on track for our labor and delivery project, which starts on Monday," Whitaker continued.." It will go about five months, and we expect it to be done hopefully by the end of May. We will have to have local and state inspections. Our operation room HVAC is still in the process of completing all the federal requirements with the EDA (Economic Development Administration), which is the agency we're going through with the grant. Our orthopedic clinic project also starts next week. In December, the board approved the purchase of some orthopedic power tools for about $93,000. We're also asking for $1.6 million as part of our capital outlay request at the Legislature. We have two projects. Because of our status as a county-owned hospital, we are not required to do a health needs assessment, but we're going to do one anyway. We'll do one this year and then every three years thereafter. We'll contract with a vendor to do that for us. There will be a lot of feedback, a lot of input, a lot of surveys. It is not a Gila Regional assessment, it's a true community needs assessment. The other project I want to focus on is a community benefits report. I think it's important for the community, for Grant County to understand the impact we have, both economically and with our clinical services within our region. That will be annual assessment going forward. We had a staff townhall that went well and last night we had a community townhall. [Editor's Note: That report will come after the county meeting articles are completed.]"

He said he was pleased with the turnout of about 70 people. The next board meeting will take place Jan. 24. Whitaker will not be in attendance because he'll be in Santa Fe for Grant County Day, but he will Zoom into the meeting.

Medina said: "I just wanted to say, you did a really good job with the townhall last night. You got some tough questions thrown at you and you maintained your composure. The crowd had good feedback, so I appreciate that. It was very positive last night."

The next portion of the meeting went to elected official reports. Clerk Marisa Castrillo had no report.

Treasurer Patrick Cohn presented his report. He began with his tax schedule maintenance report as of Dec. 31, 2023. Taxes collected for the month of December totaled
$3,170,249.91. "So far, for the 2023 tax rolls, we have collected $8,777,141.75, leaving an uncollected amount of $5,121,613.32, at a collection average of 63.15 percent."

The total 10-year collection is at 92.28 percent of which $114,193,522.48 has been collected, leaving $9.549,749.11 remaining uncollected.

He said he would attend the New Mexico Counties Treasurer's Affiliate the following week and then Grant County Day on Jan. 24. "I thank my staff for their dedicated service to the community. We will lose our Solid Waste Department employee Jasmine Prejean, who will go to the airport to work, as Rebekah announced earlier. We are working on the ins and outs and coming up with a succession plan, so it's easy for a new person to be ready to work."

With no questions, the next report came from Sheriff Raul Villanueva. He began with some of the December statistics, which included 1,682 calls for service, of this 1,200 were self-initiated. They included 22 alarm calls, 12 crashes, 26 agency assists, 55 animal complaints 60 welfare checks and 8 unattended deaths that the department investigated. Cases of interest included a battery against a household member ending with an arrest and charge. They also discovered contraband on a Silver City arrested male in the Grant County Detention Center. A stabbing occurred on Dec. 5, 2023 and a female was booked and charged with aggravated battery against a household member, as well as other charges.

"In general, we are working actively with Operation Stonegarden," Villanueva said. "We work under the direction of Border Patrol. We've seen a lot of UDAs coming up highway 180 to avoid the check station, and cutting across highway 61 to access 152 through the Black Range to get to I-25. If you see our deputies parked along the highway or patrolling that's what they're doing. My focus is to concentrate on the county rural areas, but with overtime, I have to abide with the Border Patrol requests.

"We still have six new vehicles being outfitted in El Paso," he said. "We should be getting two of them this week. We have donated a lot of the older vehicles to fire departments."

The department was awarded $47,946 for the office to purchase new tasers. He said he continues to emphasize training and has his deputies and officers get training whenever possible.

Villanueva also thanked Cross Point Church Pastor Tim Heyer, as well as Ace Hardware, Griffin's Propane and the CYFD, who participated with the Sheriff office for handing out gifts and meals during the holidays to some of those less fortunate. "Nine families received gifts and meals."

He concluded with statistics from the year of 2023. "We had a total of 18,351 calls; we were dispatched to 6,087 and the rest were self-initiated. That shows that deputies have been out and more involved with the community."

The next item on the agenda was a recognition. Webb said the recognition would go to Randy Hernandez, Planning and Community Development director, who has served the county for 15 years. He began at the county as an intern in the county manager's office in 2007. "He has worked his way up. He has one of the best work ethics I have ever seen in my entire career. He is a team player. I couldn't do my job without his assistance. When the county won the (Silver City-Grant County) Chamber large business of the year award, Randy is an instrumental part of the team that led us to receive that award. And I hope you're here for another 15 years."

Ponce thanked Hernandez for his quick answers when he has questions. "Yours is probably one of the hardest positions in the building. We commissioners appreciate the job you do and the attention you give to us when we have questions. Congratulations."

To read the previous articles, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/82291-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-010924-part-1 ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/82325-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-010924-part-2 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/82348-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-010924-part-3 ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/82371-grant-county-commission-holds-work-session-010924-part-4