County Commission Work Session

I wandered into Tuesday's county commission work session to learn the status of the detention center citizens' advisory committee, but they were still talking about reorganizing the fire department.

Fire/Emergency Chief Eric Crespin was defending his plan to centralize operations. I suspected it wasn't a popular plan with the sixteen fire chiefs, for reasons that might range from highly sensible to somewhat selfish. 

As one volunteer fireman said afterward, “he got his ass handed to him by the commission. Crespin was doing an empire-building exercise, misusing numbers, which Ben Rawson and Billy Garrett took apart beautifully.” 

Rawson cross-examined Crespin like a lawyer questioning a hostile witness. I wondered whether his tone was justified. I guessed he was playing to the audience, which included some fire folks I supposed had helped him prepare his questions. It was effective, although I wondered whether it might have long-term costs if both Rawson and Crespin stick around. (When cross-examining witnesses, I start nice, and never use such a contemptuous tone unless a witness has already shown me and the jury he deserves it.) 

Garrett was firm, but more kindly. He called Crespin's plan “premature,” and rejected following it now, and urged Crespin to work with the fire chiefs to fix problems. He took a straw poll of fire chiefs present, asking whether they would work collegially with Crespin on problems – and left open some later reorganization if problems weren't fixed.

Crespin may have undermined his cause a bit. He reportedly didn't inform any fire chiefs that his proposal would be discussed at the work session. They found out from the Sun-News. One volunteer called that “really deceptive.” 

Crespin says there was no deception, and that he had mentioned at several meetings the need to consolidate. Knowing that “the only commonality they have is that they don't want to be under central administration,” Crespin might have done better to inform them more specifically of the impending discussion. 

Districts like their autonomy. At some fire stations, certain families have been involved since the station's inception. Volunteers like being part of a small band, not numbers in a larger group. There's an esprit de corps. They bring commitment, training, and knowledge. Their passion reminds one that this, like many local issues, directly impacts our fellow citizens. 

But long-term, consolidation is probably inevitable. Volunteerism is down, here and elsewhere. That's the key problem, and it's a tough one to solve. Volunteers say consolidation will drive volunteers away; but for a variety of reasons, stations can't maintain enough active volunteers to do the job. Will volunteer fire departments someday recede into history, like the town crier and lamplighter, or will some change in lifestyle or an imaginative marketing ploy save the day?

Crespin gave the commission a fistful of reasons to consolidate now. Some sounded prudent, others didn't seem to hold water. None convinced the commission. 

As to the detention center CAC, the commission heard Warden Patrick Snedeker from Las Vegas (NM) discuss the CAC instituted there in 2004, then articulated more specific directions for the one here.

The nine-member board will include: one family-member of an inmate; five commmission appointees, one by each commissioner; and appointees by the local ACLU, NAMI, and CAFé. It'll focus on civil rights, conditions of confinement, rehabilitation, and prisoners' transitions from jail to the outside world. I can only hope the commissioners appoint open-minded, thoughtful folks with no preconceived agendae, and lets the committee do its work independently.

Chris Barela told the commission he was open to the new advisory committee, adding, “The more viewpoints, the more ideas, I'm not afraid of that.” However, he urged them to avoid prospective committee members who might, because of recent history, have “pre-existing conflicts with me as an individual.” 

 

If the committee-members are clearly independent, and approach this prudently – listening attentively to prisoners, families, and guards, but not taking anyone's word as gospel – they may provide some important insights and ideas.

                                                           

[But no CAC would have protected a detention officer from shooting himself in the leg recently.]

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[The above column appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News this morning, Sunday, 4 September, and is also available on  the newspaper's website (under the slightly unfortunate headline Fire Consolidation Plan Inevitable Long Term) and will presently be available on the KRWG-TV website as well.]

[btw, I've been told that the newspaper (hard-copy) omitted the sentence  "The nine-member board will include one family member of an inmate; five commission appointees, one by each commissioner; and appointees by the local ACLU, NAMI, and NM CAFé. It’ll focus on civil rights, conditions of confinement, rehabilitation, and prisoners’ transitions from jail to the outside world."  Probably had a smaller hole on that page than anticipated.]