By Mary Alice Murphy

[Editor's Note: This is part 5 of the Commission work session and regular meeting on Sept. 15 and 17, 2020. Items from both meetings will be covered in this article. Apologies for this being so late. This author had spotty to NO internet for about three days. Too much time was spent on hold waiting for tech. Twice!]

At the work session on Sept. 15, 2020, County Manager Charlene Webb began the review of the regular meeting agenda for Sept. 17, 2020.

The first item was the monthly update from Gila Regional Medical Center.

At the regular meeting, before Interim Chief Executive Officer Scott Landrum presented his report, the top-of-mind concern was the recent absentee ballot applications snafu, with the applications being sent out with invalid first names, usually with the correct last name and address.

County Clerk Marisa Castrillo said she wanted to do a public notice about the mix-up in the applications. "It was a simple and isolated error on the part of the vendor. The application itself has no personal information on it." She noted that early voting begins at the County Clerk's office on Oct. 6, continuing through Oct. 31 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early voting will begin at the Bayard Community Center on Oct. 17, 2020. The five voting convenience centers on Election Day will be here at the Grant County Administration Center, the Woman's Club, the Bayard Community Center, the Cliff Fairgrounds and San Lorenzo Elementary School."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked if it was not customary to check the list before it is sent out.

"The voter rolls are intact," Castrillo said. "We double checked the list before we sent it and it looked great. When it went back to the vendor, there was a glitch in their system. We did get the data, and everything was fine. I have used AES for 21 years. There will be a new mailout at no cost to the county and you should receive the correct absentee ballot applications no later than early next week (Sept. 21-22)."

Browne said: "It strikes me that they should comp us for the first mailout, too."

Castrillo said they would be discussing it.

District 1 Commissioner and Chairman Chris Ponce noted that these were not absentee ballots, but just applications for absentee ballots. "There are other ways to vote, as you said."

Landrum said: "I have good things to report. Our governing board will meet next Thursday (Sept. 24). Early this week we had the Level 4 Trauma survey and we passed with flying colors. When we receive the designation, it will come with extra money for the hospital. We've been approved for the one-year certificate that will arrive in about 60 days. It doesn't mean we'll be taking care of any different patients from what we've been caring for over many years, but it is some extra money, not a whole lot, but some. After a time, they will come back and review it and approve it for another two years, so it will be a three-year cycle. We're happy about that."

He said HealthTechS3 brought in a gentleman from the Cobre Medical Center in Arizona, also under HTS3 management, to help with the change-over from HRG to Visiant as the group purchasing organization. "It was decided at HealthTech that it would be best to bring in someone who was accustomed to working in MediTech, which is the system Gila Regional uses. He's been working with our materials person and other departments. This is a huge, huge step ahead for us. It will provide significant savings, including in our dispensing machines and how we distribute drugs. It's a huge help."

"We are also planning to have HealthTech with us next week for the governing board meeting to present the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities ad threats), which I believe you commissioners have seen," he continued. "It will be talking about what we are doing at the hospital and plans for ahead. Recruitment has started for both seated positions of the CEO and Chief Financial Officer, with plans to have them decided on by the end of the year. We are waiting for the Rural Health Clinic survey today, tomorrow or next week. The Joint Commission will be in next week, starting on Tuesday. We already have the critical access designation and as soon as we get the billing number, we will have to refund everything that was paid in and rebill it. AVEC is the company we use for billing. We have had a COVID survey. And our productivity system is in place. It is payroll-based and redone very two weeks. When we lose someone in a management position, we combine positions. Right now, we have an individual in as the clinic manager and as the case manager. We have made some changes in our compliance department. We have three people doing compliance. We have a new compliance officer, and the three are handling compliance, risk management, contracts and quality. All these people are good at what they do. What we're doing is spreading the expertise we already have in the building, and it seems to be working well and basically cutting down on the number of employees we have." Commissioners had no questions.

The next item on the regular meeting agenda was public input, which was a letter from this author, requesting they remain with one meeting a month.

During county reports, at the regular meeting. Sheriff Frank Gomez said his personnel would complete their state mandated training for 2020 in October. "We continue to give driving tests four-to-five per day. We are working with Cobre Schools on D.A.R.E. We're having to do it virtually, which isn't the best way, so we are continuing to do parades and celebrating birthdays of the students."

He said animal control was going well with Emergency Manager Gilbert Helton handling it. "We are also doing assessments on the repeaters. Domestic violence incidents increase every month. We were the reporting agency to another fatal accident, and the Stonegarden efforts continue in the Hachita, I-10 and 180 corridors. We are moving forward with cell phones for each officer and are working on the policy for implementation and training. For body cams that were brought up in the recent special session, we will be purchasing better ones, and implementing them through the New Mexico Association of Counties and the Sheriff's Association."

He said the department will be presenting special certificates of recognition to forest service employees. "We had the unfortunate task of searching in a remote area for a missing and unfortunately deceased person from Deming in the Gila National Forest. A thank you to the forest services for providing horses and pack animals and supplies for sheriff's investigators. This complementary service shows how we work together using skills reminiscent of the Old West."

Gomez reported 587 calls and 877 self-initiated calls.

District 2 Commissioner Javier "Harvey" Salas asked how much the body cams would cost.

Gomez said: "About $15,000. We've had body cams for at least the past 10 years, but I would rather they be up-to-date. We will have the funds. There is a lot of responsibility on law enforcement to be transparent. But if it's a rape of a two-year-old, we don't want to release that to the public. The Sheriff's Association agrees the public should not see things like that."

He reported the department picked up two new certified officers but is still short four. "We are doing background checks on two certified officers. If everything checks out, we'll be short only two. We're doing well."

Veronica Rodriguez, chief deputy treasurer, reported the office has collected 93.74 percent of the 2019 taxes, with $3,716,138.71 collected this fiscal year. "We're staying steady and doing a lot better than we expected, especially with the corona virus."

District 3 Commissioner and Vice Chair Alicia Edwards said she would like to see over the next 6 months or so a graph of the gross receipts tax.

Webb began the review of the regular meeting agenda at the work session, which will be covered in the last meeting article.