[Editor's Note: The Grant County Commission held a work session on Dec. 12, 2023. This part 6 continues the Dec 14, 2023 regular meeting agenda review and decisions made at the regular meeting. It covers presentations at the regular meeting. ]

By Mary Alice Murphy

In the work session review of the Dec. 14, 2023 County Commission meeting, Grant County Manager Charlene Webb said Sixth Judicial District Attorney Michael Renteria had requested doing a presentation in reference to the MOU (memorandum of understanding) for his office to coordinate and oversee the DA prosecution diversion program for veterans. She said the report was in the packet for review before the meeting.

At the regular meeting, on Dec. 14, 2023, a woman from the D.A.s office, Jennie Becerra, said she would be giving the report, because Mr, Renteria was out sick and sent his regrets for not being there.

"This is a report on what we've been doing since about two years ago when we were requesting ARPA funding for the project tfort a veterans' treatment program for Grant, Luna and Hidalgo counties," Becerra said. "Because other districts around the state have a similar program, in March 2021, we began researching and participating in the veterans treatment program initiative. We worked with several state veterans groups, including the Veterans and Military Families Caucus, the Department of Therapeutic Justice, the Department of Veterans Affairs and existing veterans treatment court programs. After participating, we began doing presentations around the different counties and this district. We learned that others had funded their programs locally and then expanded with federal grants. In September 2021, we presented a request to you for ARPA funding and you awarded it. In addition, Luna County awarded us ARPA funding and Hidalgo County agreed with an MOU in the program.After discussions with Judge Delaney, we realized that it would be better to have the MOUs with the counties and courts, rather than through the D.A.s office. Those amendments were completed in November 2021 and the courts started looking for a program administrator. After about a year, we had seen no interest in the position, so we updated the request and made changes to the position, including deciding to move it from a treatment court to pre-prosecution diversion (PPD). We received $100,000 in ARPA funding from Grant County and an equal amount of funding from Luna County. In September 2023 the D.A.s office decided they would like to hire Karen Whitlock as the administrator and Connie Keeler as the part-time research and development coordinator to develop the program. By November, we had created and had approved second amendments to the MOU between Luna County and the D.A. and Grant County and the D.A. Since then, we have observed the programs in Farmington and Taos. We communicated with them to help develop our programs. We developed our PPD packet and information folder for offenders, as well as the application and contract. We developed a mentorship program with a brochure and application, because it's a very important component for the veterans. We met with military members and presented at the American Legion and provided them with the application and contract. Since then, we've received several mentor applications. We've also visited the VA clinic here and Workforce Solutions, where we left applications and brochures. We have also held meetings with providers to discuss the program and referral process. They include Waldo Winborn and Associates, Recovery Management, HMS, Trauma and Recovery and SPIN's day program. We've begun our screening process to determine eligibility to apply, as well as talking to the jail because they hadn't been tracking whether a person was a veteran, providing applications to defense counsel, reclassified staff within our office for PPD and requested additional positions in our legislative budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 and have presented requests to the LFC (Legislative Finance Committee)."

She also presented a projected budget for expending the $200,000 received in ARPA funding from Grant and Luna counties to be expended by September 2024.

Becerra said that Keeler as part of her position had applied for a grant from the Sentencing Commission and the program was awarded $100,000. Keeler will also be collecting data and applying for additional state and federal grants. "We have also requested an increase in budget, because Farmington's program is fully funded by the state's General Fund. We want to make this program sustainable. We hope once we have the program up and running, we can go back and also get fully funded."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce noted that the application was lengthy. "Does someone help them with filling it out?"

"Yes, our program specialists help them fill out the forms," Becerra said.

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked if there were adjusted costs in the judicial system if someone is accepted into this program.

"When we started researching, we found out that for every $17 spent in the judicial system, you pay $1 in diversion," Becerra said. "So yes, it is a tremendous cost savings."

District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards questioned why almost half the budget was going to drug testing.

"We are using evidence-based best practices, and drug testing is done three times a week," Becerra said. "The price has gone down, but drug testing is expensive."

Edwards also asked if the idea behind the program "is you have a veteran who is in the judicial system early and is going to be prosecuted for a crime. They participate in this program prior to prosecution and successful completion of the process would
defer them out of the judicial system and progressing along this path of drug court treatment? Is that the general idea?"

Becerra said the idea is to get behind the root cause early of whatever caused the action in the first place, so it doesn't happen again. "If they successfully complete the program, their case would be dismissed and their prosecution would stop at that point, and they would go on to a successful life and not engage in criminal activity."

"Are we looking at social determinants, such as health, housing, access to food?" Edwards asked. "The lack of having those things is often why a crime is committed."

Becerra said: "We plan to have a holistic approach. Karen Whitlock has a masters in social work, so she understands all these things. When she creates the treatment plan, it will involve community service providers who can help to get them where they need to be, so those basic needs are met to prevent future criminal activity."

Edwards said she had more questions, but she would stop there.

The next presentation at the regular meeting came from Gila Regional Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Robert Whitaker. He said at the beginning of the report that because the Board of Trustees would meet the following week, he did not have the November financials yet.

For an update on the hospital's construction projects, he said the MATCH (Maternal and Child) labor and delivery project had a start date of Jan. 15. "On our OR (operating room) air handler project, funded by state funding, we received a final quote from Trane for $1.3 million. I sent the quote to the federal agency that is overseeing the project, and it will be in front of the board next week for approval. Trane has already started the process of procuring needed materials. The orthopedic clinic renovation is underway. I do want to let the commissioners know that the way the hospital is designed, we have a courtyard. We have closed the courtyard. With the walkways and all the tree roots, the paths have come up and we've had several people trip and get hurt. We have in the past painted the parts yellow, but because of some accidents, we have closed it for the winter. We are talking to some contractors to see what it would take to take the raised parts up and repair the concrete."

Whitaker said, a few months ago, the hospital held a lab survey. While the Joint Commission regularly surveys the hospital, the lab survey is separate under CAP and they recently went through a survey. "They presented their recommendations, and we submitted our work plan and now we are fully accredited for lab services. "

"We had submitted a proposal to replace our telemetry system to the Economic Recovery grant," he continued. "Yesterday I presented to them, and we were awarded $900,000 to replace our telemetry system. As soon as I get the documents and get them signed, we will move forward with the project. I did present at the Grant County Prospectors' forum requesting state funding to replace our CT scanner at a cost of $1.6 million. I gave some statistics. We average about 23 to 24 scans a day with that scanner. It's a busy machine. Our maintenance costs have gone up; it's time to replace the unit. That will cost about $1 million and the rest will go toward replacing our patient beds."

He said he has presented to several town councils in Bayard, and Hurley, as well at to the Mimbres senior center meeting. "There are still a few places I want to go. The big message I want people to know is that Gila Regional Medical Center is not a Silver City hospital; it's Gila Regional and we serve the greater region with our services."

"I am working with the Chamber of Commerce, and on Jan. 10 from 5-7 p.m., we will be holding a townhall, a meet and greet with me. I have a presentation and a Q and A afterward. It will be held at the Conference Center. On some promotional fronts, we recently did a video on our swing bed program, what it means and what it does. At the Mimbres meeting, people still had questions about what a critical access hospital is. I will address that at the townhall. For the past several days, we've been working on some promotional items for our trauma services. We are a designated Level 4 Trauma Center. It means that we are committed, have staff and physicians in place to manage that level of trauma. We want people to know that we have partnerships with tertiary services and can transfer people out as needed."

Ponce asked for a repeat date. "When does the MATCH renovation begin? Please tell us again."

Jan. 15, Whitaker said, and Ponce said, "I just like hearing that."

Edwards commented that they would be doing a happy dance that day.

The next article will being with the regular meeting agenda elected officials' reports.

To read the prior articles, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81832-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-121223-part-1  ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81852-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-121223-part-2   ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81868-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-121223-part-3 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81909-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-121223-and-regular-meeting-121423-part-4 ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/81935-grant-county-commission-held-work-session-121223-and-regular-meeting-121423-part-5  .