Housing looms large in governor’s Albuquerque town hall - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
At the second of a series of town hall meetings on Monday night, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham heard from members of the public for six hours.
In an auditorium at Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, locals raised issues ranging from difficulty finding mental health treatment, unfair or unlawful evictions, lack of communication from the government offices responsible for victims of crime, and visible poverty in their neighborhoods.
“Every time I drive somewhere, in every single community, I see risks that are easy to see — that’s not every public safety issue — I see these risks escalating and growing exponentially,” Lujan Grisham said.
The governor was joined by a panel of elected and appointed government officials including Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, Senior Public Safety Advisor Benjamin Baker, Health Secretary Patrick Allen, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, City Councilor Joaquin Baca, Albuquerque Associate Chief Administrative Officer Mariela Ruiz-Angel and Chief Deputy District Attorney Joshua Boone.
Audience member Kevin Cooper said people with substance use disorder should be put into the Metropolitan Detention Center, the county jail outside of Albuquerque. He said the jail is being “underutilized” because of bail reform. He was not the only one to suggest putting mentally ill people or those with substance use disorder into locked facilities.
“Let’s reimagine the Metropolitan Detention Center, call it the Metropolitan Development Center, and put people out there to get them off of drugs, into rehabilitation, into job learning,” Cooper said. “There’s a hospital out there. There’s 2000 beds tonight, ladies and gentlemen, that could house our homeless.”
Comments like that scared Erica Davis-Crump, a mental health advocate who also attended the town hall.
“The stigmatization as I listen to a person of a certain demographic say that they want to fill the beds at MDC — as the daughter of the oldest in my home, where my intersection needs — my baby brother is panhandling out there somewhere,” she said. “I’m so scared for the intersection that my family sits at, and what that means for those that don’t have an option to have an exodus from here.”
Lujan Grisham has insisted that her legislative agenda is not intended to criminalize poverty or stigmatize mental illness.
“These issues are not about criminalizing being poor, unhoused, or mentally ill,” she said. “But there is an intersection.”
Taryn, a licensed social worker who was in the audience, told Lujan Grisham that’s exactly what she is doing with her policies.
“Our system was not meant for justice,” she said. “It was meant to oppress and marginalize people, and that’s what it continues to do, and that’s how I see your policies: as continuing to marginalize individuals.”
She said putting people in prisons or psychiatric facilities still doesn’t solve the lack of resources once they get out.
Lujan Grisham said she thinks “we need the jail, unfortunately, to be available until we get caught up.”
She said there are the resources available to build “a place for people to go, that’s not just a shelter, that’s really a reimagining how we lift people up.”
“But people have to want to go, and by and large, far too many people that are intersecting these systems are unwilling to go and stay in these programs,” the governor said. “I think part of that is we’re not getting to the right folks.”
An audience member who did not identify themselves said they have experienced homelessness and came up with a question for the governor while trying to sleep in the cab of his pickup truck.
“I’ve heard a lot of ideas of where the homeless should be, whether it’s prisons, or mental facilities, or hotels that are refurbished,” they said. “I noticed the one answer that never comes up is a place of their own.”
NM school district, power utility sue FEMA, alleging unfair hurdle gets in way of fire compensation - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A school district and electrical cooperative in Mora County allege in a lawsuit that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is putting an unnecessary burden on them as they seek compensation for the biggest wildfire in New Mexico history.
The Mora Independent School District and the Mora San-Miguel Electrical Cooperative suffered various losses in the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire beginning in April 2022. The fire burned thousands of utility poles, and soot and ash damaged school buildings and landscaping, along with other losses, according to the lawsuit Friday.
The fire began as two botched prescribed burns ignited by the U.S. Forest Service. Congress tasked FEMA with administering nearly $4 billion to compensate individuals, businesses and local and tribal governments for losses they incurred in the fire, which burned a 534-square-mile area. Congressional sponsors hoped FEMA would be a way to quickly and fairly compensate thousands of victims without the need of a lawsuit.
But before the school district and electrical co-op can get access to that $3.95 billion fund, the lawsuit alleges FEMA is adding an unnecessary hurdle: Requiring the public entities to first seek aid from FEMA’s Public Assistance program. That’s a program the agency deploys across the country whenever a disaster occurs that reimburses governmental organizations for costs incurred due to a disaster.
FEMA released rules in late August 2023 that laid out how its compensation program would work. The rules tell public entities that they are expected to apply for the Public Assistance program before being eligible for the $4 billion fund.
The district and co-op’s lawyers say that the requirement is unnecessary, especially because the deadline to file a claim with the $4 billion fund is soon approaching. The office will not accept claims filed after Nov. 14, 2024.
The lawsuit asks a judge to get rid of the rule that requires entities like the school district to go through Public Assistance, along with attorney’s fees.
Local and state officials have complained that the Public Assistance program is slow and burdensome. The lawsuit notes that FEMA is still processing and making Public Assistance payments to local governments in the path of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.
“Plaintiffs do not have years to wait on public assistance before filing a claim,” the lawsuit says.
Citing those delays, state lawmakers early last year approved $100 million in zero-interest loans to local governments affected by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, an effort to make quick payments to help communities recover while they wait for Public Assistance funds.
As of July 25, the state had provided $99.6 million of the $100 million provided by the state, including $41.1 million to Mora County, $34.2 million to San Miguel County and $22.6 million to the city of Las Vegas.
Earlier this month, Mora County filed a lawsuit against FEMA that makes the same argument about the Public Assistance programs as the one in the lawsuit filed by the school district and the co-op Friday. The fire damaged and destroyed several county buildings, and did additional damage to roads, watersheds, according to the lawsuit. It also increased operating expenses the county is still shouldering.
Singleton Schreiber, a California-based law firm, is representing all three public entities, along with more than 1,000 other clients. Brian Colón, a former New Mexico state auditor who now works for the firm, is the lead lawyer on the lawsuits.
The electrical co-op did not qualify for the state’s loan program. While it has waited for Public Assistance funds, it has relied on borrowing at high interest to make needed repairs to the electrical grid, director Les Montoya has told Source NM. In March, the co-op told its members that 77% of the roughly 3,700 utility poles destroyed or damaged in the fire had been fixed.
FEMA reports that it has provided more than $172 million in Public Assistance funds, including $91 million for debris removal and other emergency protective measures, since the federal disaster was declared in May 2022. That funding went to entities in the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire burn scar, as well as for fires elsewhere in New Mexico in 2022, like the McBride Fire in Ruidoso and the Cerro Pelado Fire near Los Alamos.
Earlier this month, again anticipating delays with Public Assistance funds, lawmakers at the short special session approved $70 million in loans for local governments affected by the South Fork and Salt fires, similar to the loan program for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has yet to sign the bill, amid an ongoing feud with lawmakers for not taking up a slate of public safety measures at the session. However, she suggested last week that she would approve the funding package for South Fork and Salt Fire victims, which includes the $70 million in loans and $30 million in direct payments to help families and public entities on the Mescalero Apache Reservation and elsewhere in and around the burn scar.
FEMA has not yet responded to the lawsuits on behalf of Mora County, the Mora school district or the electrical co-op.
In addition to the Public Assistance program payments, the FEMA office overseeing the compensation fund has paid out $960.2 million in 6,233 claims payments, as of July 23. That’s about a quarter of the $3.95 billion awarded by Congress.
Prosecutor opposes 'Rust' armorer's request for release as she seeks new trial for set shooting - Associated Press
A special prosecutor is opposing a request by a former movie armorer that she be released from prison while seeking a new trial and appeal of her involuntary manslaughter conviction in a 2021 shooting on the set of the film "Rust."
Kari Morrissey wrote in a response brief filed Friday that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's motion for release "is premature given that the court has yet to receive completed briefing on the defendant's motion for new trial, hear arguments on the defendant's motion and rule on the motion in defendant's favor."
Lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed have argued her case should be reconsidered because prosecutors failed to share evidence that might have been exculpatory.
Gutierrez-Reed wants a judge to dismiss her conviction or convene a new trial in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for "Rust," was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Gutierrez-Reed already has an appeal pending in a higher court on the involuntary manslaughter conviction.
She was convicted by a jury in March in a trial overseen by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who later assigned the maximum 18-month penalty.
Baldwin's trial ended July 12 when Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case based on misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defense.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of "Rust," where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
She was acquitted at trial of allegations she tampered with evidence in the "Rust" investigation.
Six tribal water rights settlements for NM heard on Capitol Hill - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
The Navajo Nation president and leaders from Acoma, Ohkay Owingeh and Zuni Pueblos joined tribal leadership from across the nation on Capitol Hill, offering testimony about the benefits of $3.7 billion federal dollars in six proposed water rights settlements across New Mexico.
The deals would settle tribes and Pueblos’ water rights in four New Mexico rivers: the Rio San José, the Rio Jemez, Rio Chama and the Zuni River.
Another bill would also correct technical errors in two previously ratified water rights settlements: Taos Pueblo and the Aamodt settlement Pueblos of Nambé, Pojoaque, Tesuque and San Ildefonso. Finally, a sixth bill would add time and money for the Navajo-Gallup water project to construct drinking water services.
New Mexico representatives presented a record six settlements for Pueblos and tribes at a subcommittee hearing Tuesday, the first step in getting needed Congressional approval to end decades of litigation. Companion proposals from the Senate were heard Friday in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Mescalero Apache Tribe President Thora Padilla was introduced to senators with support for the settlements.
As climate change reshapes the Southwest into something hotter and drier, with more strain on its water resources, approaching water collaboratively means communities have a chance to stay, and tribes can exercise their sovereignty.
In front of House members on Tuesday, Ohkay Owingeh Gov. Larry Phillips Jr. said the settlement of the Ohkay Owingeh’s rights on the Rio Chama will offer a means of long-awaited restoration.
“The U.S. bulldozed our river, it destroyed our rivers and bosque,” he said. “This needs to be fixed, the settlement gives us the tools to do that.”
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) said tribes and Pueblos gave up certain acreage that they are entitled to, and worked out drought-sharing agreements to benefit everybody in the region.
Leger Fernández sponsored five of the bills, and Rep. Gabe Vazquez (D-N.M.) sponsored a sixth that was heard on Tuesday.
Additionally, she said the funds will enable more infrastructure, bosque restoration and ensuring water rights protections for neighboring acequias.
Acoma Pueblo Gov. Randall Vicente told the committee that making concessions in the settlement was crucial to preserving water for future generations.
“It is better to have adequate wet water, than paper rights without a water supply,” he said.
Even if the Pueblo enforced having the oldest water right, Vicente said the Rio San José’s system is so damaged, it would take decades for water to reach Acoma.
The settlements can help redress the federal government’s injustices towards Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Phillips said. He pointed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s channelizing of the Rio Chama and the building of Abiquiu Reservoir in the 1950s, which moved water away from the Pueblo.
“Both of these actions resulted in depriving us of our bosque and waters necessary for a proper river,” he said. “We entered into the settlement in order to protect, preserve our water resources and the bosque.”
The loss of water not only impacts the health of Pueblo communities, Phillips said, but it splits people from their lands and means the loss of sacred bodies of water and ceremonies to celebrate them.
Water offers a lifeline to traditional ways and offers prosperity, said Zuni Pueblo Gov. Arden Kucate.
Zuni Pueblo will work to build new drinking water treatment systems and restore waffle garden irrigation practices, a technique used for generations until the turn of the 19th century, when settlers diverted water and clearcut the Zuni River watersheds.
“It will usher in, what I sincerely believe, will be a new chapter for our tribe, allowing us to protect and sustainably develop our limited water resources, to restore traditional agriculture and facilitate much-needed economic development,” Kucate said about the settlement.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren also spoke, celebrating water rights settlements with both New Mexico and Arizona.
Some of the settlement agreements are already two years old.The administration supports all of the New Mexico settlements, said Bryan Newland (Ojibwe), the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“Any delay in bringing clean, drinkable water to communities is going to harm the people who live in those communities,” Newland said. “We also know from our experience that these settlements only get more expensive, and implementation only gets more expensive the longer we wait.”
Tribal water rights are not entirely settled in New Mexico, most notably on the Rio Grande, where a federal assessment team started addressing water claims issues in 2022. Leger Fernández said she hopes the six water rights settlements in other watersheds will provide a model for collaborative management of water rights on New Mexico’s largest river.
“These water rights settlements provide the framework for future water rights settlements, which include those involved in Rio Grande,” Leger Fernández said.
Leger Fernández said the moment was still momentous, even if it’s only the first step.
“There’s never been this many settlements at one time,” she said. “There has never been a hearing that was this big.”
WHAT’S THE PROCESS?
The House Committee on Natural Resources held a legislative hearing on 12 water rights settlements across the U.S. with a projected cost of $12 billion.
The hearing consisted of testimony from federal agencies and heads of tribal governments.
The settlements can now head into a process called mark-up and means they can be added to legislative packages moving forward. Both of New Mexico’s senators sponsored companionate bills.
It’s just the first step in the process, but Leger Fernández said she’s looking to face the biggest hurdle of cost head-on. She and members of the Department of the interior testified that continuing to fight court battles will cost the federal government more money, and that waiting isn’t an option.
“The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be,” she said.
PRC approves NM Gas Co. rate increase agreement - By Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission approved a stipulated agreement which is expected to result in a rate increase for customers.
The stipulated agreement is between New Mexico Gas Company and various consumer and environmental advocates. The gas utility initially asked for the ability to collect nearly $49 million in additional revenue from customers. The stipulated agreement reduced that to $30 million.
The rate increase will go into effect in October.
Commissioner James Ellison said he supports the stipulated agreement. He also expressed concerns that this is at least the fourth time in eight years that a rate case involving NM Gas Co. has been resolved through a stipulated agreement.
“I do think it’s also reasonable to ask how many stipulations in a row would we like to see before we’d like to have a litigated case,” he said.
He said the advantages of a stipulation is that it provides a mutually acceptable resolution, especially in cases where there are multiple intervening parties. That makes it unlikely that any party will appeal the ruling.
“But I do think with the litigated case, there is more scrutiny,” he said.
Commission Chairman Patrick O’Connell said he believes there’s value in both litigated cases and in stipulated agreements.
“If you just settle, settle, settle, who knows what’s buried in the trajectory there,” he said.
He said the best way to learn all the details is to have the transparency that a litigated process brings.
“Having said that, I think probably, if we have concerns about that, I think we’ll want to somehow signal that ahead of when they file their next case,” O’Connell said.
Ellison said that NM Gas Co. has indicated that the lower increase in revenue will mean that some of the projects it is undertaking, such as replacing meters, will be done more slowly. However, he said, the utility is not canceling any projects required for pipeline safety or compliance with federal regulations.
“I do take the company at its word here that they’re going to replace the 90-year-old uncoated steel pipeline first, and if they need to delay something, they’re going to delay projects that are more discretionary like the meter replacements,” he said.
Commissioner Gabriel Aguilera said that there is not 100 percent visibility about which projects will be performed using the $30 million additional revenue and which ones are going to be delayed because of the reduced amount in the stipulated agreement.
“But I received some assurance from the explanation that the projects that are needed for reliability and safety will be the ones that will be pursued here,” he said.
At the same time, Aguilera said that he does not anticipate that the projects NM Gas Co. initially requested money for will go away. He said those projects will now be delayed due to the smaller revenue increase.
“I anticipate that they will be back before us with similar if not the same projects,” he said.
Water line in Albuquerque breaks, neighbor’s service dog missing - KRQE, KUNM News
A water line broke in Northeast Albuquerque Sunday, sending water exploding out of the street. While water is back on for most residents, repairs will take longer, and a service dog remains missing after getting lost during the chaos.
KRQE-TV reports neighbor Rose Romero says the break was “really loud” and water and mud began shooting out of the ground near Morris Street and Montgomery Boulevard. She says the water shattered her home’s windows and caved in the roof over her garage.
Romero is visually impaired and says her 14-year-old black lab, Ivy, was in the yard when water began gushing in. A search around the property did not turn up the dog who Romero relies on.
A spokesperson for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority tells KRQE that the break occurred at a weak point in the water pipe caused by a decades-old “tap.” That’s where a new pipe is inserted into an old one to divert the water to where it’s needed.
The Water Authority is checking the rest of the pipeline under Morris, but says additional issues aren’t likely. The repair is likely to take days and the authority warns residents they may experience intermittent outages.