By Mary Alice Murphy

After some technical problems, the Grant County Commission began the work session on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. No public input had been received, so the next item on the agenda was four presentations.

The first report came from Dan Otero, Hidalgo Medical Services chief executive officer.

He began with a report of the impact of Covid-19 on HMS.

"Immediately after the start of the lockdown on March 13, we saw a decrease of 25 percent in patients coming to the clinics. It has held fairly steady at that rate since then. We got immediate permission from insurances to perform telehealth, and that is working with 75 percent of patients. For dental services, we only offered them for emergencies. That has had the biggest reduction in volumes. We have redeployed the dentists to do Covid-19 testing. We have maintained our 235 employees. We have laid no one off. Seventy of our employees are working from home, which has gone quite well. We have maintained all our health care services. From a safety standpoint, we have consistently followed CDC and New Mexico DOH guidelines. Everyone is wearing masks, and we have enough PPE (personal protection equipment) to continue. We have performed 136 tests, of which 130 were negative, with three positives, one inconclusive and two pending. We are working toward getting testing for asymptomatic people. You will see a big tent next week in Silver City. We're just trying to get enough tests. Employers are wanting to get their employees tested before they bring them back to work. We aren't doing antibody testing yet. We want to wait until the tests are validated. They are working through whether they prove immunity. We have done no reduction in force, although we have accepted a couple of resignations and one contract we didn't renew. Some of our employees have voluntarily reduced their hours. We got funding from the Payment Protection Plan. HMS has received $4.7 million in funding that has specific criteria. Some of it has yet to be used, in case the federal government pulls some of it back. We have put a hiring freeze in place. Behavioral health needs are going up. We know Tu Casa will play a large role in addressing that. I also requested and got a meeting with the interim Gila Regional Medical Center CEO Scott Manis to say hello and to offer HMS as a partner."

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards asked if HMS would be participating on contact tracing.

"Not directly," Otero said. "We will do the testing and send the information to the state, which will do the contact tracing."

Edwards also asked about what Otero meant by the potential for federal funding being pulled back.

"The criteria is so ambiguous for the use of the money, we are taking the most conservative way forward," Otero said. "For instance, the HRSA (Health Resources and Service Administration) funding can be used only for Covid-19 response. We want to make sure we are using it correctly, in case there is a pull back."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked if anyone in Silver City was doing antibody testing.

"I'm not sure anyone is until there is efficacy in the tests," Otero said. "The DOH asked us not to, so as not to raise false hope that people wouldn't get the virus again."

Browne said he understands some people took pay cuts.

"No one took a pay cut," Otero said. "Some took a voluntary cut in hours, and we have postponed any raises in pay."

The next report was the audit presentation by Debbie Gray of Krieger and Krieger Accounting. "The county is in accordance with accounting standards. We did a reconciliation of funds. The county was in compliance with total expenditures not exceeding budgeted expenditures. The county received an unmodified opinion, which means the county has no material weaknesses and no significant inconsistencies. The county had one finding— an oversight on a debt payment. In the past the entity had always sent an invoice but then stopped sending invoices, so a payment was missed in timeliness, but it was paid. It was a good audit for a county with this size budget. Only one finding is a significant accomplishment."

Browne asked if Gray would be available if he had questions. She confirmed that she would be ready to answer questions.

Browne did ask about a disposal of assets and why it had a loss.

"That was the Fort Bayard Medical Center," Gray said. "The county sold it to the state. It looks like an $8 million loss, but it actually contributed a $10 million gain. Part of it was not on the asset list. It was only a paper loss and a $2 million paper gain, due to the correction of capital assets."

Browne asked if there was a penalty fee for the forgotten payment in the finding.

"Not a penalty, only interest," Gray replied.

The next presentation by County General Services Director Randy Villa addressed the Grant County Wildfire Protection Plan.

"In my opinion, I think this is the best document ever;" Villa said. "We're ahead of the game. Our previous plan will expire Dec. 31. 2020, so as soon as you pass it, it will go into effect. Please approve it as soon as you can."

The next item also presented by Villa discussed the New Mexico Counties 2020-21 Wildfire Risk Reduction Grant Program for Education Project titled: Grant County Education, Prevention and Outreach Project in the amount of $10,000 with a 10 percent county match.

"We will reach out to as many folks as possible about the Firewise program, through media and radio, and flyers," Villa said.

The following item began a review of the Thursday, May 21, 2020, regular meeting agenda.

County Manager Charlene Webb said she was calling from home and having some tech difficulties, so "please bear with me."

She presented an overview of the expenditure report from April 11-May 14, 2020. Expenditures totaled $2,681,461.41, including two payroll periods totaling $426,984.21.

Extraordinary expenses of more than $10,000 are included in the following chart:

Two items were scheduled for deletion from the Senior Program—a 2010 Ford F-150 deemed a total loss as a result of an accident and a 2013 Ford Escape no longer needed. The Escape will be transferred to the Manager's Dept.

An agreement between Santa Fe and Grant Counties is under consideration for inmate confinement for adult inmates. "We've not used this very often since I've been here. It is in case of a need for space to confine an inmate."

Under consideration is an agreement with Classic Industries Inc. to perform improvements at the Gila Senior Center, primarily to meet code requirements in the kitchen for $115,506.86

An additional agreement with Classic Industries Inc. out of Doña Ana County will be considered at the regular meeting. The item is to place a 60' X 65' pad for the Tyrone Volunteer Fire Department Hachita Fire Station for $154,979.14.

Grant County Community Development and Planning Department Director Michael "Mischa" Larisch said the station had already placed a portable building for offices and has purchased a metal building for the truck bays. "This is to finish the project."

Under resolutions, commissioners, at the regular meeting on Thursday, will accept and approve the Fiscal Year 2019 Audit; and will authorize the executive and delivery of the grant agreement for the wildfire risk reduction grant program.

As the Grant County Health Care Claims Board, the commissioners will consider indigent claims for April 2020 in the amount of $4,578.50 and will consider corrected indigent claims for February/ March 2020 in the amount of $487.65.

Randy Hernandez, chief procurement officer, said the county has changed its process with the hospital to submit indigent claims. "Gila Regional is now sending us the medical forms, so we can review them. For April we disallowed $20,717.45 and denied one claim of $742 for a person not incarcerated at the time of service. February was when we started with the new software. We pay 150 percent of the Medicaid rate, but after they submitted it to our software there were small multiplication errors, so we owed them an extra $487.65 for February and March."

Edwards commended Hernandez for the work he is doing for the indigent claims.

Under county reports, Detention Center Administrator Mike Carillo reported two vacancies, but said they have hired an officer who has started his training. "We have enough PPE to test inmates as they enter the facility. The average population for the past month was 54, and today we have 55 in the jail."

Edwards asked about discharge planning. "Are the things Mr. Long is doing things that were not available before?"

"We were not getting these services before," Webb confirmed. "This is part of the IDP (Individual Discharge Plan) pilot program."

Larisch, in his report, said the Tyrone ADA project is complete. "We are waiting on the Bandoni Road improvements. We have a recommendation from Colonias. We have also put in a grant application, in conjunction with Better Cities, Freeport-McMoRan and the Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments for economic adjustment funding. The scope is for an economic recovery plan, and we will hire an economic recovery specialist. We've been working on it with Better Cities. There is a 20 percent match, but we're hoping to get a waiver due to the Freeport furloughs and potential layoffs. That's why we're working with Freeport."

"We remain active on the census, but we're behind in the county," Larisch said in answer to questions. "Thirty-four percent of our population does not receive mail at their homes, with most having post office boxes, so they have not received their Census ID. You can do the census without the ID, but it's preferable to have it. We are behind by about 39 percent, and the state is behind by more than 40 percent. Our target is at least 49 percent. We always hope for 100 percent, but that's not likely. The deadline has been extended. Santa Clara has one of the lowest rates because its addressing is not accurate. So, (Clerk) Sheila (Hudman) asked for a census kiosk at their city hall, so when people come in to pay bills, they can also do the census."

He explained that those with post office boxes are likely to find an "update leave" door hanger at their home with a census ID. "The Las Cruces Office opened up again yesterday (Monday), so although no one will be doing face-to-face census taking, people will be distributing the update leaves with the ID needed."

Road Superintendent Earl Moore said his department is finishing the Tyrone access bridge replacement. "We will start chip sealing June 1 and anticipate finishing by June 11. We will be doing Ridge Road on the county section from Lance Drive to the Detention Center and the side roads from Mobile Drive to Lance Drive where sewer was installed. Other roads to be done are on the north end of Cottage San and in Indian Hills. Oil prices went down, but so did the funding, so we may have to cut some roads. Thursday, we will go to Albuquerque to pick up our new dump trucks. The roads are dry, so we are doing only spot blading until we get some rain."

In answer to a question about widening Ridge Road, Moore said what the department will be doing is just maintenance. "To widen the road, we have to get the engineering done before we can start widening. It will take a lot of money."

In commissioner reports, District 2 Commissioner Javier "Harvey" Salas, District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings and Commissioner Edwards had no reports.

Browne said he would like to hear a report on how the well-jetting at Hurley turned out.

District 1 Commissioner and Commission Chairman Chris Ponce said he has been getting compliments for the work down at the Clerk's office to make it safe for early voting. "I know the County Manager got the plexiglass installed and the personnel have masks."

The commissioners went into executive session to address issues on the hospital governing board. They adjourned at the executive session.