Emergency loans for fire victims approved months ago yet to be delivered. Also, no one has applied. - By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
It’s been more than two months since the governor authorized sending emergency loans to northern New Mexico fire victims. Nobody’s gotten any money yet since the state has received no applications, according to public records released by the state agency responsible for distributing up to $100 million in funds.
First, state officials needed to get money and then set up an application process. In the month since that’s been set up now, zero applicants have filed for a loan.
Lawmakers quickly passed Senate Bill 6 through the legislative session, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed it on Feb. 20. It allows the state to send $100 million in zero-interest loans to political subdivisions in and around the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire burn scar.
The legislation has an emergency clause, meaning money should be available immediately. The goal was to get funds for repair projects faster than the federal government. Last year, Congress approved billions of dollars in relief to pay for damage caused by the disaster first started by the U.S. Forest Service.
After Lujan Grisham signed the bill, it took nearly a month for funds to be delivered to the Department of Finance and Administration. The department got and budgeted the dollars by March 23.
State officials finalized the application for the loans a week later, on March 30.
Source NM verified this information through public records obtained through the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.
The Department of Finance and Administration as well as the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management explained how to apply for loans to eligible entities in late March and April.
Henry Valdez, spokesperson with state agencies trying to connect loans to communities, said via email that there are at least seven political subdivisions eligible for these loans: Mora County, San Miguel County, the City of Las Vegas, New Mexico Highlands University, La Acequia del Cañoncito, La Acequia del Cañoncito del la Cueva and the Agua Pura Mutual Domestic Consumers Water Association.
For five of those entities — Mora County, San Miguel County, the City of Las Vegas, La Acequia del Cañoncito and the Agua Pura Water Association — necessary repair dollars for some projects added up to over $34 million in late March, according to public records.
That’s over a third of the state loans that are available.
And the applicant list will likely keep growing. More acequia associations will probably be eligible in the future, if not already, according to emails released by the state.
Questions stand if there will be enough loan money to go around.
Since entities haven’t applied for the state loans yet, the Department of Finance and Administration hasn’t given out any money. Valdez said the dollars will be delivered once the political subdivisions start applying.
“The funds are ready to be disbursed,” he said. “Once the political subdivisions submit their applications, we’ll get this money out the door for these projects to help the communities recover.”
Meanwhile, FEMA has fulfilled only $5.7 million so far between Mora and San Miguel Counties, according to a FEMA spokesperson.
CONFUSION AROUND WHO CAN GET THE LOANS
Senate Bill 6 specified that loans are only available for political subdivisions in New Mexico, such as local governments or acequia associations.
State officials didn’t seem completely sure if private nonprofits could get the loans too.
One such nonprofit, the Mora-San Miguel Electric Cooperative, serves over 11,000 people in northern New Mexico. The fire left many without cell service as the disaster knocked out towers. Lack of electricity is still an issue for some, according to residents in the area.
The electrical company took significant damage from the fire and qualified for more than $21 million for repairs through FEMA’s public assistance program, according to state records.
That FEMA public assistance program is the same program that political subdivisions have to qualify for in order to get the state loans.
The difference is that private nonprofits like Mora-San Miguel Electric Cooperative can’t get those loans from the state.
The company has to wait for FEMA to get back to them, which could take a long time. That’s the reason the state wanted to set up its loan program in the first place.
Ali Rye is the deputy secretary of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. She told a legislative House committee in February, before Senate Bill 6 was passed, that private nonprofits wouldn’t be eligible for state loans.
Rye said the same to Source NM in late March. However, she added that it’s better to say “there’s some back and forth” about the private nonprofits getting the loans rather than stating that they couldn’t get the state loans.
There also seemed to be confusion at the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration about nonprofits’ eligibility.
In the initial drafts of the loan application, the Mora-San Miguel Electric Cooperative was listed as an eligible entity that could ask to borrow state money, according to the public emails obtained by Source NM.
Wayne Propst, cabinet secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, told his staff and DHSEM staff on March 23 that the electric co-op “may” need to be removed based on a conversation earlier in the day.
The co-op got taken off the application in late March, just before the state explained to eligible officials how to apply for funds.
Eligible political subdivisions have until March 31, 2024 to apply for the state loans. Anyone approved has to enter a loan agreement with the state, and repay the dollars to the state’s General Fund once the federal money comes through.
Politicians tell Forest Service: Do more to fight wildfires - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Lawmakers from several western states want the U.S. Forest Service to do more to address a wildfire crisis that they say will surely destroy more landscapes, communities and livelihoods as long-term drought persists around the West.
They grilled Forest Service Chief Randy Moore during a congressional hearing this week, asking about the agency's spending priorities and the backlog of national forest lands that need to be treated to reduce wildfire risks.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Wisconsin Republican and chair of the House Natural Resources Committee's panel on federal lands, said the agency needs to usher in a new phase of accountability and transparency if it wants "reverse the tide against this historic crisis."
Tiffany pointed to a yearslong restoration project that has struggled to treat wide swaths of land spanning four national forests in northern Arizona, saying the agency has reported more acres being treated than what regional managers have submitted.
Moore did not directly address the discrepancy but said the top priority is reducing hazard fuels on more than 4 million acres in high-risk areas nationwide over the next year. He said the Biden administration is requesting more than $320 million for the work on top of money already appropriated by Congress through the infrastructure and inflation spending packages.
"We all recognize that we have an emergency situation out there and we need to be doing more work rather than less work," Moore said.
The agency's spending request also includes $56 million for rehabilitation in burned areas, but some of the subcommittee's members said that's a drop in the bucket when considering the amount of acres that burn each year.
Lawmakers from California noted that their state has seen seven of its largest wildfires over the last five years, while Colorado in fall 2020 saw two record-setting fires.
New Mexico marked its worst wildfire season in 2022 as a conflagration caused by the federal government charred more than 530 square miles of the Rocky Mountain foothills. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and residents in villages throughout the region are now bracing for flooding that will come with the monsoon season.
Moore vowed to work with New Mexico's congressional delegation after being confronted by U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández during Wednesday's hearing about the agency's failure to use its resources to keep the treatment projects from going awry.
The New Mexico Democrat told Moore that gone are the old growth forests that meant so much to her constituents, along with the livelihoods of the rural residents who depended on them.
"The pain of losing so much, it's not going to go away," she said. "Chief Moore, victims in New Mexico are watching us today. What do you have to say to them?"
Seeing the devastation in New Mexico and in other areas wrecked by wildfire, Moore said his heart bleeds and that his employees are moving ahead with treatment projects.
The New Mexico fire forced a pause and evaluation of the Forest Service's prescribed burn operations last year. The agency has since made changes and the lawmakers agreed that prescribed fires are a necessary tool for clearing out dead and overgrown vegetation at the scale required.
The Forest Service has estimated that more than 460 million acres are at moderate to high risk from wildfire.
Moore acknowledged to the legislators that lawsuits by environmental groups over timber projects and endangered species along with previous policy decisions to limit access to roadless areas within the national forest system have made it harder to treat areas.
3 New Mexico college women basketball players allege assault - Associated Press
Three former women's basketball players at Eastern New Mexico University have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming their coach coerced them to undergo "treatments" that amounted to sexual assault by her volunteer trainer husband.
The Albuquerque Journal reported the women were listed as Jane Doe 1, 2 and 3 in the complaint filed Thursday against Meghan de los Reyes, the team's now-former basketball coach. The lawsuit also names her husband, Glen de los Reyes, as well as his company, Glen's Fitness Lab. The Board of Regents of the university based in Portales, New Mexico, and Paul Weir, the school's athletics director, are also named.
The women have since transferred from the school, and Meghan de los Reyes was removed from her position.
A university statement said an investigation into the women's basketball program had resulted in "no findings of an abusive nature."
"We did identify opportunities to improve training practices and internal policies with regards to volunteers and volunteer services," the statement said, adding the university had instructed the coach's husband "to cease any continued services with student-athletes."
The newspaper reported that Weir said by phone Thursday he had not seen the lawsuit and referred questions to the university. It also said the couple could not be reached for comment and that no one answered the phone at the husband's business.
The lawsuit alleges the coach was told about the allegations but protected her husband. It also claims the students' allegations of assault were reported to athletics trainers at the university but that the school took "minimal action" to protect the student-athletes.
Largest powwow draws Indigenous dancers to New Mexico - Associated Press
Tens of thousands of people are gathering in New Mexico for what organizers bill as the largest powwow in North America.
The annual Gathering of Nations kicked off Friday with a colorful procession of Native American and Indigenous dancers from around the world moving to the beat of traditional drums as they fill an arena at the New Mexico state fairgrounds.
"We're ready to rock the house here," the announcer proclaimed, after introducing drum groups, including from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
During the event, dancers slowly spiral their way, one by one, toward the center of the venue, making for a spectacular display.
This marks the 40th year for the gathering, which has grown from humble beginnings in 1983 into a massive celebration with Indigenous people showcasing their cultures through dancing and singing competitions.
Spectators get a chance to see the competitors' feathered bustles, buckskin dresses, fancy shawls, and beaded head and hair pieces. Many of the dancers' elaborate outfits are detailed with hand-stitched designs.
Most dancers at the Gathering of Nations compete for prize money.
More than two dozen contestants from the U.S. and Canada also are vying for the title of Miss Indian World. The winner will be crowned on the final night of the powwow and will spend the next year serving as a cultural ambassador as she travels to events and other powwows.
Several hundred Native American tribes in the United States and First Nations in Canada are represented at the gathering, which has become Albuquerque's second-largest annual festival and brings in more than $20 million for the local economy each year.
Organizers held virtual gatherings in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19 restrictions. This is the second in-person gathering since public health regulations were relaxed.
School days extended in Las Cruces - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Las Cruces Public Schools will extend the school day by 10 minutes each day, just one of many districts needing to lengthen their academic year in response to a law passed during the 2023 legislative session.
Other districts are choosing to extend the school’s academic calendar rather than adjust the school day. Albuquerque Public Schools board voted April 5 to extend the school year by an additional four days.
House Bill 130 requires districts to increase all of the instructional hours for K-12 to 1,140 hours per year. Previous rules were a minimum of 990 hours at elementary schools and 1,080 at secondary schools. When the bill was enacted, only a quarter of New Mexico’s 189 public and charter elementary schools, and about half of secondary schools met the hour requirements, according to a financial analysis of the bill.
Deputy Superintendent Wendi Miller-Tomlinson presented the information at Tuesday’s Board of Education Meeting, as part of the process of submitting a budget to the state’s Public Education Department.
“This is one of the steps necessary to get our budget approved,” she told the board.With a 10-minute addition to the day, elementary schools next semester will run from 8 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.
“The time was added to the end of the day, so that children would not have to go to the bus stop 10 minutes earlier in the morning,” she said. “That’s problematic in the winter when it is dark in the morning.”
Middle schools will run from 8:55 a.m. to 3:55 p.m. High schools will run from 8:25 a.m. to 3:25 p.m.
Miller-Tomlinson said the schedule allows for complete bus runs between each school level, and minimizes disruption.
Miller-Tomlinson recounted that state officials verbally said lunch and lunch recesses would not count towards the instructional requirement.
“We would like to see something more concrete in writing, but we have not seen that yet,” she said.
LCPS schools operate on a year-round school calendar, with spring semester ending in early June and the new fall semester starting in late July. There are two-week breaks in fall, winter and spring.
The estimated statewide costs for the change ranges from $171 million to $245 million, according to a fiscal impact report on the bill.
Some of those costs would be offset by repealing programs to extend school days for kindergarten through fifth grade, and opt-in arrangement for a longer academic year. The fiscal report estimates a savings of $34 million to $108 million.
Man convicted of killing mom of 2 New Mexico police officers - Associated Press
A Mexican national was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday in the 2019 slaying of the mother of two state police officers in a case that drew national attention and spotlighted Albuquerque's struggle with crime.
Jurors also found Luis Talamantes-Romero, 35, guilty of eight other felonies in the death of Jacqueline Vigil, who authorities say was killed outside her northwest Albuquerque home in an attempted burglary.
Vigil, 55, was shot in her driveway in November 2019 as she prepared to leave for a gym.
The case went unsolved for months, drawing the attention of then-President Donald Trump as he pushed his tough-on-crime agenda. Vigil's family also traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump.
Prosecutors said Talamantes-Romero also was convicted of aggravated burglary, attempted armed robbery, tampering with evidence, conspiracy and other charges.
They said a man who was with Talamantes-Romero when Vigil was shot agreed to testify against him as a condition of his plea agreement with the state on charges unrelated to the murder.
Former New Mexico governor remembered as Hispanic role model - Associated Press
Jerry Apodaca, a Democrat who became New Mexico's first Hispanic governor in 54 years when he took office in 1975, has died. He was 88.
He died at his home in Santa Fe on Wednesday after what may have been a stroke, his son Jeff Apodaca said.
His son talked about the legacy his father left behind, one that fellow Democratic politicians say paved the way for more minorities to enter public office and take on leadership roles in corporate boardrooms across the country.
He took his role seriously, said the younger Apodaca, an Albuquerque businessman and former media executive.
"I used to meet with people in Fortune 500 companies, and there was not a meeting that went by where I wouldn't run into a Latino executive who'd ask me, 'Are you Jerry's son?' They would tell me so many stories about what he'd done," Jeff Apodaca told the Santa Fe New Mexican. "General Motors, McDonald's ... he opened doors for Latinos in the '70s and '80s."
Apodaca ran an insurance business in Las Cruces before being elected to the state Senate in 1966. He was 40 when he was inaugurated as governor on Jan. 1, 1975, making him the first Hispanic governor in New Mexico since Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo left office in 1921.
During his four-year term, Apodaca's administration reorganized the state government to its current form by creating a cabinet system with 12 departments. Delivering on a campaign pledge, his administration consolidated agencies and eliminated some boards and commissions.
In an interview shortly before his gubernatorial term ended, Apodaca cited the government reorganization and establishment of a statewide kindergarten system as major accomplishments. He claimed his administration made the government more open and responsive to citizens.
Apodaca regularly held open office hours where residents could meet with him. His administration implemented tax relief programs, including tax credits, tax rebates and tax rate reductions, but Apodaca was criticized for appointing close friends to public positions.
"I didn't find any logical reason to exclude anyone from the administration just because he helped in the campaign or because he was a friend," he said in December 1978. "I think the record speaks for itself. The success of this administration does not rest entirely on my shoulders."
Apodaca also battled allegations linking him to organized crime figures.
While campaigning in 1982 for U.S. Senate, Apodaca disputed claims by a convicted felon that he had accepted a $10,000 bribe as governor in return for granting a pardon or parole for a New Mexico inmate. Apodaca called the accusation "a total fabrication."
A grand jury requested by Apodaca ultimately found no evidence of perjury.
He lost the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate to Jeff Bingaman, who went on to serve for 30 years.
Apodaca, who played halfback at the University of New Mexico in the mid-1950s, was appointed in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness. While governor, he ran and completed the 1978 Boston Marathon.
After leaving office, he resigned from the fitness panel after being elected to the board of directors for tobacco giant Phillip Morris.
Carter also interviewed Apodaca for Secretary of Education when the U.S. Department of Education was created. The job went instead to Shirley Hufstedler, a federal appellate judge in California.
After leaving office, Apodaca endured a series of troubled business ventures, including failed real estate deals that led to a bankruptcy filing. In later years, he sought to return to politics but lost the Democratic primaries for U.S. Senate in 1982 and for governor in 1998.
Apodaca also ventured into publishing, taking over Hispanic magazine and Vista magazine, both English-language periodicals aimed at Hispanic readers. He also served on the University of New Mexico's board of regents from 1985 to 1991.
Apodaca started in politics as a state senator from Las Cruces, serving four terms from 1966-76. In the 1974 gubernatorial race, he defeated Republican Joe Skeen by just 3,752 votes. Campaigning during the post-Watergate era, Apodaca portrayed himself as "The Man Nobody Owns."
Born Raymond S. Apodaca in Las Cruces on Oct. 3, 1934, Apodaca graduated from UNM in 1957 and began teaching history and coaching high school football in Albuquerque. He later moved back to Las Cruces, opened an insurance business and branched out into retail and real estate.
He is survived by his ex-wife, Clara, three daughters, Cindy, Carolyn, Judy, and two sons, Jerry Jr. and Jeff.
University official gets prison for defrauding school - Associated Press
A former Florida college administrator has been sentenced to one year and three months in federal prison for defrauding the school out of $155,000 during a website redesign project.
Brian Carroll, 47, of New Market, Tennessee, was sentenced Monday in Tampa federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in January to felony wire fraud. Carroll must also forfeit proceeds from the crime and pay restitution.
According to court documents, Carroll was serving as the executive vice president of Southeastern University in 2016 when he became involved in a project to redesign the website and digital brand of the university's President. The private university is located in Lakeland, Florida, about 30 miles east of Tampa.
Carroll set up an anonymous limited liability company based in New Mexico without the knowledge of other Southeastern University officials and then used that company to bid to the university to perform the web rebranding project for a total price of $185,000, prosecutors said. The school accepted the bid with Carroll's recommendation, and the university made five payments to Carroll's company over several months in late 2016, officials said.
Unbeknownst to university officials, Carroll's company contracted with an unrelated New York-based company to do the actual work on the project for just $30,000, leaving Carroll with the remaining $155,000, investigators said.
A sealed indictment was returned against Carroll in August 2021, and he was arrested three months later.
