[Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of articles on the Grant County Commission work session of Feb. 8, 2022 and the regular meeting on Feb. 10, 2022. This one gets into county reports.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

With no public input, County Manager Tim Zamora started the work session with the first county report.

"I am tracking HB 146, which is the resource excise tax asking fora portion of the funds to be sent to the counties where they are generated rather than being put into the state General Fund," Zamora said. "Rep. Luis Terrazas and Sen. Siah Hemphill are sponsoring the bill. It was presented to the House Tax and Revenue Committee. A few were in favor of it, and there were no negative comments. However, it was tabled. They tabled everything that costs money. At a later date, they will reengage on it if they decide whether there are enough funds and whether to approve it or not."

He said HB 146 is based off an intent to have at least some of the copper excise taxes that go to the state and having some go to the counties and the schools. "Specifically, after everything is distributed to the state, it now goes into the General Fund. This bill asks for 15 percent of the net revenues to go to the counties. It could generate for the county a bit more than $1 million over two years. The expected amount for 2023 would be a bit more than $500,000 and the same for the next fiscal year. It is a temporary bill. Rep. Terrazas will continue to push for it. It's for a portion of the copper excise tax, not the production tax."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked when the bills that were tabled will come back. "I couldn't go to the second hearing."

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards said she was not able to attend the hearing either because of the late notice. "Could we issue a letter in support? If we all agree, we can have County Manager Zamora draft the letter."

District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings said he was waiting on the hearing, but because of other things going on at the same time, "I missed both hearings."

Zamora said the agenda for the regular meeting would have a hearing on the industrial revenue bond (IRB) for the construction of the Great Divide Wind Farm by Scout Clean Energy.

He said he wanted to recognize several employees for their work in 2021 at the March work session.

"My intent for the next few months is to start having meetings on the budget," Zamora said. "We will talk about what the department heads and directors want and what we have."

He said he plans to talk more about the employee salary Step Plan at the Feb. 22 work session. "There will be two step plans, one an update to the Sheriff's Department Step Plan and another for the county employees."

District 2 Commissioner Javier "Harvey" Salas asked about the bill to allow retired law enforcement personnel to come back to work.

Zamora said he had not seen any of several bills move very far, "but I will keep track."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce asked about the development of a county behavioral health advisory team.

Zamora replied that it is already running, but the county is continuing to develop it. "We have met only three times. The intent is to help the county, not as executors of behavioral health services, but to support behavioral health organizations in the community."

Joe Andazola, acting Detention Center administrator, said in his report that the jail has three vacant officer positions.

"We continue to recruit," Andazola said. "During the legislative session all the detention center administrators met with all the county managers to highlight the problems all of them are facing. Actually, it's across the country. We are impacted by the short staffing. We raised the pay up to $15.97, and we do have a shift differential, with an extra 55 cents per hour during the 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift, and from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., they get an extra 75 cents an hour and also Grant County has one of the best benefit packages in the state. Some facilities in the state have so little staff, they are asking the governor to send in National Guard members. We recently lost three nurses. We may have a potential new hire and a contract nurse now and next week. We had another Covid outbreak and had to pause training."

He said the facility had 96 inmates on Monday, which is over the capacity of 94. "This morning we had 90. Because of Covid and Zoom sessions with the courts, they have slowed down adjudications. Friday, we had 18 covid cases in inmates, today only 10. Most of the staff who have been vaccinated and boosted are getting covid worse than the unvaccinated."

On future projects, the jail has Guardian RFID technology coming on Feb. 16 for a demonstration on digitizing information on the inmates with behavioral health or medical needs to simplify the checks on the inmates. "In the RISE program, which we work on with HMS, we have four who are transitioning into the community, and we are looking at changes in the program. We would like to look at a grant for the position of care coordinator for presumption of eligibility. There are grants that could fully fund the position, so we're looking at it pretty soon. We are also coordinating with the Sheriff's Department and are in the beginning stages of working on a grant for behavioral health, once the grant is approved. We are continuing projects to refit the facility to fix doors, locks and possibly enclose the mail area to make it more secure. We need ???? (he spoke with a mask on, and it was very hard to understand) in our recreation yard, and we're going to seal off the medical area from the cells. We received bids for the Detention Center assessment, and we chose a company. We will set up the assessment in early March."

Planning and Community Development Director Priscilla Shoup gave the next report. "The new health coordinator, Cassandra Hartley, will start on Feb. 14. I'll bring her to the next work session so you can meet her. We are also posting today a position for an office assistant under her. The Bataan trails have an estimated completion of next month. The Bataan Memorial completion is also on schedule to be completed before the April 9 rededication ceremony. The outdoor recreation master plan will hold a public meeting by mid-March, and we expect to have a draft ready by the end of March or early April for review and comment. The Truck Bypass improvements will go out to bid Feb. 24. As Mr. Andazola reported, I worked with Lt. Mike Burns for a grant through the Administrative Office of the Courts. It is a $100,000 grant for a pilot project, and it is crisis intervention training for county employees, including the Sheriff's Department, Dispatch, the Detention Center, Corre Caminos, volunteer fire departments and other county staff. The purpose is for them to have the CIT training in the case of someone in crisis, and not have them go straight to jail, but perhaps have them intercepted. Part of the grant would be to get a clinical social worker and a psychologist on board 24/7 on call."

Zamora said the psychologist would be through telehealth and would not be working for the county.

Shoup said she is applying for Colonias funding for Little Walnut Road Phase 1 and for a preliminary engineering report for San Lorenzo. The deadline for applications is March 3. Application for funding from the New Mexico Department of Transportation for Ridge Road Phase 1 improvements and possibly for improvements to Cottonwood. She reported the National Association of COGs (councils of government) has received an award to help study expanding the safety corridor, the Copper Trails, along highway 180 from Santa Clara to Silver City. "We are also considering contracting with Incite for grant writing services. It would help us acquire Tier 2 and Tier 3 grants, as well as federal grants. They could also train staff we have now and perhaps new staff."

Edwards asked where the Little Walnut project is.

Shoup said it is from Trail Ridge to Whispering Hills. "We would not need to acquire rights-of-way."

Edwards said she thinks the project will also be good for the outdoor recreation plan that "we are working on. The company was unaware of the Little Walnut project."

Zamora said his intent is to put the Incite proposal on the March agenda unless he hears negative reports. "It won't cost any more money that we had planned."

Edwards said that Renee Despres has been working with Incite for Doña Ana County. "They have gotten amazing amounts of money, so I'm incredibly excited."

The next article will continue the county reports.