City and County Should Press Corporate Hospital to Honor their Contract to Provide Mental Health Services

Memorial Medical Center’s lease legally requires it to keep operating the mental health unit. More than a year ago, MMC closed it, wreaking havoc with citizens who need the service.

Last spring, the psychiatrist running the 5^th Floor unit was leaving and MMC was sluggish about advertising the position nationally and paying what the market required.

After investigating, I published a column January 29 asking why the City and County, MMC’s landlords, whose managers sit on MMC’s Board, weren’t pushing MMC to keep its promises. Lighting a fire under MMC’s posterior.

MMC CEO John Harris expressed great confidence that the mental ward would re-open during the first quarter [end of March] or immediately thereafter. I’ve kept in touch periodically. Weeks ago I delayed this column because MMC told me a deal [with Peak Behavioral Services, though the MMC person wouldn’t confirm that] to reopen the ward was basically done, and that the announcement, which lawyers had asked be delayed, might come any day. That’s still the message.

It sure seems like someone is gulling someone – and certainly no one’s providing information to the public.

We do know:

We need the 5^th Floor. Foregoing mental health services or going to El Paso is more or less destroying some number of human lives.

MMC breached its contract by closing the mental ward, has been out of contract for more than a year, repeatedly predicting that it will comply soon.

Neither the City nor the County has sued MMC or even written a letter of inquiry.

MMC is also allegely in breach of its contractual promise to continue the equivalent of MGH’s program helping folks who can’t pay.

MMC does not feel the appropriate urgency about this.

This is a pathetic failure of corporate and public entities.

At the County Commission’s 25 July meeting, Commissioner Shannon Reynolds criticized County Manager Fernando Macias for not even reporting the problem officially.

Macias basically said it wasn’t MMC’s fault because its contractor quit. Not a brilliant explanation, particularly by a lawyer and former judge. (My efforts to question him failed.)

I understand from hospital personnel that MMC had advance notice. Alamogordo’s hospital has a psychiatrist. It’s not impossible. MMC didn’t do the utmost to ensure no beak in serving vulnerable people. More than another year has passed. Why haven’t Las Cruces and Dona Ana County pushed MMC?

“The contractor stopped work” has a limited shelf-life as a legal excuse. Suppose John Harris is rehabilitating my house. If the roofing contractor quits after ripping up my old roof, and it’s kind of hot, I’ll expect John to find another roofer. Might be a short delay. But fourteen months? He still owes me for breach of contract, even if he can sue the missing contractor to help pay the damages.

Psychiatrist Ernie Flores scoffs: “How come they can spend all this money opening up clinics all over town but they can’t reopen one unit?” MMC has reportedly opened clinics treating cancer, cardiology, Ears/Nose/Throat; and a Bone & Joint Orthopedic Surgery clinic. Clinics promising big profits. Profits matter. People?

While MMC and Peak squabble on about dollars, people aren’t being served.

If the City or County had listened when we told them to get aggressive, maybe there’d be a judge in the picture, ordering MMC to get this done before the heat drives us all mad.

But your city and county ain’t doing the job on this one.

                                                 – 30 --

 

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 30 July, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website (sub nom What's Going on with MMC's Mental Health Services), as well as on the KRWG website. A related radio commentary will air during the week both on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and on KRWG Radio. ]

[Previously (a couple of times since January, including a week or two ago) MMC has kept telling me this problem is on the point of being solved very soon, like within days. This time, MMC didn’t return a phone message I left. Maybe this time it’ll prove true. I hope so. But as far as I can tell, the problem remains real simple: MMC won’t spend the requisite money, because, for its parent corporation, profits are naturally worth spending to generate, but stuff like continuing needed services to vulnerable patients and honoring contractual promises aren’t.]

[Consider asking your city councilor and/or county commissioner what's up with this.]  

 

Proposal that Sheriff Hire, Train, and Provide School Officers to Gadsden Seems Dead

The County Commission approved putting officers in Gadsden schools; but was that action lawful, effective, and in county citizens’ interests?

GISD Superintendent Travis Dempsey initially proposed using sheriff’s deputies. He said GISD would pay their salaries.

But Gadsden would not pay for the necessary training to turn deputies into school resource officers or cover increases in the county’s higher insurance premiums. The additional officers would also incur benefits, add to Sheriff Kim Stewart’s administrative costs, and leave us liable for big bucks in potential liability. Say for example, that an SRO – not allowed to lay hands on the kids --- got overpowered by three football players, and lost possession of his gun, then used it.

When I talked to Dempsey in April, he seemed to soften on some of those points; but I’m told the final Memorandum of Understanding recently approved 4-1 by the Commission contained no provisions dealing with those expenses, benefits, or “soft” administrative costs.

At the vote, Commissioner Shannon Reynolds objected that a vote would be improper because Section 5-3C of the County Codes says, “No matter shall be placed on the agenda for approval . . . unless the County Manager has first determined that it has been reviewed by the appropriate departments, personnel or entities, and is appropriately prepared for Board consideration.” Sheriff Stewart neither attended the meeting, signed the contract, nor approved the deal, and was known to oppose it.

Technically, the code doesn’t say the appropriate department must approve the proposal. However: (a) if the department head says the proposal is crazy, a board might have second thoughts; and (b) since the Sheriff is an independent elected official, with operational responsibility for her department, the Commission lacks legal authority to force her into this.

Nevertheless, Dempsey has reportedly pushed for Stewart’s compliance. I can understand why a school administrator would rather have the County taxpayers foot the bill and take on the liability, and for someone else to work out the practical details, and perhaps share the blame if something goes wrong. Hell, yeah!

Fernando Macias doesn’t like being disagreed with by other county officials. Whether he deeply believes we should have armed officers in schools, and the rest of the county should bear some of the Gadsden expense, or whether this fits conveniently into the long-running battle between County Manager and County Sheriff, I can’t say. Perhaps both?

There’s also reasonable doubt that armed officers in schools are a positive step. Whichever side you’re on, imagine being ordered (by folks in no position to do so) to participate in what you thought was counter-productive, and might even get children harmed unnecessarily.

Dempsey didn’t return my recent phone calls seeking comment, so we don’t know whether he plans to continue urging Stewart to change her mind – or perhaps is arranging for Gadsden to handle Gadsden’s school resource officers. County Attorney Nelson Goodin has told both the Commission and me that he sees no legal mechanism through which the Commission could compel Stewart to join the contract. I fully agree. The County decides her overall budget, but she has complete discretion on how to allot funds among law-enforcement purposes from the total she has available. Nor do I think Gadsden has any basis for suit.

Given the costs and questions, why did other county officials push this so hard, knowing that the critical party, the Sheriff, was consistently saying, “No, Thank you!”

                     – 30 --

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 23 July, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website. as well as on the KRWG website. A related radio commentary will air during the week both on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and on KRWG Radio. ]

 [By the way, I first wrote on this issue Sunday, 21 April (Should County Put Armed Officers in Gadsden Schools? )  It seems odd that the County Commission went all the way to a vote on this without Sheriff Stewart's buy-in, but maybe the commissioners felt strongly about it.)]

On a Potentially Interesting LCPD Development

Something good happened. How optimistic should we be?

I’ve complained often that Las Cruces and the LCPD delay sharing public information regarding officer-involved shootings.

Recently, they did a very full press conference and video presentation regarding the shooting incident between Bobby Charles Crawford and police.

Sorry if this sounds flip, but my first thought was, “Jeez, these guys are acting like Kim Stewart!” Sheriff Stewart does this sort of thing, showing openly what she knows, cautioning that further facts could change the equation, avoiding speculation, and stating “I don’t know” when appropriate. All in a collegial, cooperative manner.

The apparent improvement reminded me of times when I’ve spent an hour on the phone with my bank, waiting for a live person, with stupid ads preventing me from concentrating on anything else, then finally reached someone who competently and courteously solves the problem.

LCPD is under new management, though the new management (Acting Chief Jeremy Story) says even the old management was realizing things needed to open up a bit.

How optimistic should we be? Guardedly. First, this event wasn’t as soon after the incident as it should have been. (By contrast, last year, with DASO’s officer-involved shooting of Bob Yaccone and one in Chaparral, Stewart held press conferences two days later!) Meanwhile, IPRA requests for bodycam footage from the 21June incident have not yet been fulfilled.

Second, this was an easy case for police: while I’ll keep an open mind, awaiting further evidence, just as I would if it seemed initially that a police officer was at fault, this one sure seems a slam dunk: Crawford is a dangerous guy, a repeat felon illegally carrying a gun, who fired at a police sergeant within five seconds of being forced to stop. We want him off the street. Opening fire disqualifies him from much sympathy, as does fleeing felony warrants.

Crawford shot first. Of course, you shoot back. Too, this appears to have been a non-congested area, without pedestrians to be endangered. So far the investigation has found no person, building, or third-party’s vehicle hit by an errant bullet.

The City must recognize its duty is to share all information that’s legally public, not to circle the wagons.

Some folks have been pushing for better transparency and police accountability for a while now, with a very mixed reception from the City. This kind of event is a step in the right direction; but more citizen involvement, of the right kind, could greatly improve LCPD performance, particularly in improving how police conduct impacts suspects, citizens, and police themselves. The national, state, and local NAACP wrote the U..S. Department of Justice, complaining of a high concentration of officer-involved shootings here, and the DOC is looking into that.

Let’s see whether we get a similar factual openness if the next case is a closer call as to who is at fault for what. Let’s hope LCPD gets more responsive to IPRA requests, and even follows the law. Let’s watch the City search for a new police chief. (What I’ve heard regarding Story is positive, but I lack adequate information to form an opinion.) Let’s track further discussion of important issues such as proposals for a Citizens Police Oversight Board.

Citizens may have helped cause this improvement, although a change in personnel was also a factor. But let’s not take a victory lap. Much hard work remains to be done. Besides, it’s too hot.

                                      – 30 --

 

[The above column appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper’s website on Sunday, 16 July. as well as on the KRWG website. A related radio commentary aired on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and on KRWG Radio. Apologies for not posting this on my blog the day it appeared in the newspaper!]

[We know little more than we knew a week or ten days ago about these matters. We are stil pushing for better police accountability. Councilors, to varying degrees, support that. I haven’t heard details yet on the search for a new LCPD Chief.]

Doomed Referenda Aimed at Overturning Widely-Supported State Laws

 

Rightwingers want you to sign petitions requesting referenda challenging five measures adopted during this years’s New Mexico Legislature session.

The “Referendum Project is working to stop these horrible laws from going into effect.” The “horrible laws” make it easier for folks to vote and to obtain health care the governors of Texas and Florida don’t approve of.

Republicans, the party of individuals' gun rights, aren’t keen on other individual rights. Having eviscerated national constitutional protection of women’s choice, they want all states to follow suit. New Mexico opinion polls and voting histories, and choice-related referendum results in surprising states such as Kansas, suggest how out-of-touch these folks are.

The “horrible laws?” HB 7 prohibits cities and counties from “denying, restricting or discriminating against an individual’s right to use or refuse reproductive health care or health care related to gender.” The law reflects majority views of New Mexicans, and follows New Mexico’s law and constitution. (Draconian laws elsewhere mean refugees from those states seek health care here.)

Similarly, SB 13 aims to protect both providers and patients seeking abortion care and gender-affirming healthcare from punishments other states have legislated. For example, someone who provides an abortion could be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison, $100,000 fine, and loss of professional license. Trying to protect citizens, healthcare providers, and visitors seeking care from such barbaric laws sounds to me like basic decency.

HB 4 (Voting Rights Protections) extends the early voting period, creates a permanent absentee ballot list, and facilitates voting by extending deadlines and timelines and making Election Day a state holiday. This and SB 180 (election changes) are battles in the lengthy war over whether we should make voting harder (particularly for minorities and poor folks) and excuse that by screaming “election security!” Consider the sorry history of conservatives’ efforts here and elsewhere to prove “election fraud,” including but long preceding Mr. Trump’s .000 batting average.

Referendum is a progressive measure, invented to protect the people from legislatures beholden to banks, railroads, and corporations. These folks are free to use it. But there are laws against misleading anyone into signing. With criminal penalties. (In the last big conservative effort here, folks opposing the city’s minimum wage ordinance made crazy claims to procure signatures, such as saying the petition was to save a popular boxing program!)

A leader of The Referendum Project” is Carla Sonntag, who writes a lot of “op-eds” favoring oil and gas and against environmental protections, but also writes a lot about culture-war issues. She’s founder/co-founder and CEO/executive-director of a host of great-sounding front groups (listed in my blog) that amount to colorful clothing in which to dress up unpopular ideas. Sonntag has opposed HB 218 (Low Income Public Utility Rates) as “socialized utility rates;” opposed legalizing marijuana, which seems a popular measure here.

This use of Referendum by small right-wing groups will waste time.  They have the right; but they’re attacking policies and protections most New Mexicans approve of. They haven’t yet gotten even one target law on the ballot, but have filed suit to challenge the Secretary of State’s ruling that these bills don’t qualify for the referendum process under the state constitution’s exemption of laws “providing for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety.” If they clear that hurdle, I’d sure urge folks to avoid waste and unnecessary conflict by courteously declining to sign!

                                     – 30 –        

 

[The above column appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper’s website on Sunday, 9 July. as well as on the KRWG website. A related radio commentary aired on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and on KRWG Radio. ]

[I think the column states my views. One proponent objected to being classed as a “rightwinger.” We’ve arranged to devote a half-hour of our Wednesday morning radio show [“Speak Up, Las Cruces1” / Wednesdays 8- 10 a.m. on KTAL} on __ August to a discussion with two proponents of these refertenda, and possibly a state legislator as well. ]

[Apologies for not posting this on my blog the Sunday it came out. I had planned to include a list of groups Carla J. Sonntag [and/or her husband] seems to run. Haven’t had time for a full list, but Ms. Sonntag is the founder and CEO of Better Together New Mexico (BTNM), the Founder and Executive Director of the NM Business Coalition, the President and co-founder of Rebound New Mexico (RNM) and RNM’s sister organization, New Mexico Business Coalition (NMBC), etc. ]

                

Thanks, Las Cruces!

 Thanks to Las Cruces, and so much I enjoy here.

Obviously the Organ Mountains and vast skies are the headliners. Watching them redden and darken as the full moon rises above them inspires feelings some folks may find in churches or mosques. Sheer beauty reminding us of Nature’s magnificence. A bright yellow carpet of poppies stretching toward the Organs in May, or the extreme red of claret-cup cactuses add spice, as do the hawks and eagles, roadrunner, coyote, and the comical quail. Getting out into nature, to hike, climb, bicycle, or just watch, is quick and trafficless. You may be completely alone, in just minutes.

We can hike or play outdoor sports year round here. My addictions are pickleball, almost daily, varying times to duck high winds and the worst heat, and growing tomatoes.

I’m fond of more excellent local coffeehouses and small restaurants than I can name here, particularly superb Mexican restaurants. A weekly wonder is the Farmers Market, downtown, each Saturday morning, offering fresh, tasty food and fast friends.

Live theater is more alive here than in most similar-sized cities. Black Box, LCCT, NMSU, and now others produce fine shows. Allen Theaters show big, popular movies, and the Mesilla Valley Film Society, in Mesilla’s historic Fountain Theater shows more varied and interesting films.

We have more than our share of talented artists, musicians, writers, and poets. Try the “Salons” Cleve and Mary hold at Downtown Blues Coffee, or poetry workshops/readings at Amaro Winery, or readings at NMSU, and varied music venues.

We started a community radio station. KTAL-LP started broadcasting six years ago, with discussions of local issues, locally-hosted music shows, and some interesting shows from elsewhere. Visit 101.5 FM or stream us. As newspapers and local talk radio disappear, “Que tal”’s importance here will grow. You can volunteer to host a show or otherwise help community radio.

Politically and otherwise, Las Cruces is still a nice-sized city: large enough to be reasonably interesting but small enough that committed individuals can have an impact. Volunteer municipal and county boards and nonprofits await. (So many citizens caring about community and the marginalized is another local pleasure.) Political parties’ county meetings aren’t crowded. Progressive and conservative “nonpartisan” groups meet monthly. I enjoy the Progressive Voters Alliance. Aside from substance, while some groups’ meetings have one long, soporific speaker, PVA, after a six-minute opening presentation, lets everyone speak – for only two minutes. That’s rigidly enforced, even on state senators. You get introduced to a host of progressive and charitable ideas, causes, groups, and events. You choose which to support how.

Living here also brings us face-to-face with important stuff. First that others were here before us, native folks and Spanish immigrants. Hearing Spanish frequently is a pleasant reminder that we are trespassers in a centuries-old community that ignored borders.

In a small desert city, despite our growth no tall buildings block our clear sight of natural elements such as the course of the sun and moon and the naked shapes of the mountains. We humans are all intruders in a precious natural world that will long outlive us, even though we’re fast fouling its livability. Deer may visit your home, in some areas. Those vast skies are huge paintings. Our occasional rainstorms not only revive our desert but are compelling light shows. Dry arroyos flood.

Life feels more elemental than in larger cities or milder climates.

I like it here.

                                      --- 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 2 July, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper’s website ("So Many Reasons to Love Las Cruces"), as well as on the KRWG website. A related radio commentary will air during the week both on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and on KRWG Radio. ]

[My initial title as I conceived this column was “How to Live in Las Cruces,” but really it isn’t how. It’s just some stuff one old geezer enjoys here. I wasn’t sure I liked the column, but several more controversial columns just aren’t quite ready yet. So I dressed this up as best I could.]

[There’s so much more to mention about my town. Bicycling by the river at dusk with with wife and dog. Proximity to the Bosque del Apache Bird Refuge. Sitting in the New Mexico Wine and Spirits ___, across from the Fountain Theater in Mesilla, when Doug Adamz, Mark Matthias, and Theresa Tudury are making music and telling stories there, or when Rus Bradburd and Dennis Daily are.

[And how could I forget to mention Coas Books?]

[And coffee houses! Dael and I wrote our wedding vows sitting in Milagro, on what was then a visit here, before we fully moved here [back here, in my case], and have had a host of good conversations there. My gratitude for Nessa’s, on Picacho at 2^nd, the pink building I’ve expressed in an earlier column, "Bicycling to the Gratitude Cafe" – 2018. And which I see I mentioned in a 2019 column not unlike this one, "A Quiet Community Sunday"] Grounded has been open more than a year, and is sometimes more crowded than I might like, but they’ve made wonderful use of that space, particularly the outdoors, and done what they wanted to as far as food and drink.]

[And what of the excellent photographers we know here, who do varied but excellent work, from bird to night shots of southern New Mexico?  -- without averting eyes from the ugliness of humankind's treatment of our mother Earth?  And fine galleries?]

[And there are so many Mexican restaurants we enjoy! Chope’s (which I guess I described in an earlier column ("Driving down to Chope's on Highway 28" back in 2015, and from which we were returning when I took the photo to the right, of a pecan field being irrigated), where we enjoy the food, the family, the history, and the home. I loved Las Cruces-style Mexican food instantly, in 1969, and enjoy places that maintain that; but I also like Habanero, (where the chef is from Zacatecas, by way of San Diego, which always reminds me that the lady who first cooked me enchiladas had grown up in the country around Zacatecas) with is “Fresh-Mex” departure from local styles, and the restaurant is located in an old house where people I know actually lived, long ago. Nopalito is another fine local restaurant, old-style. I enjoy their food off the truck at the Farmers Market, and during the pandemic their garden area was a nice refuge for friends and me. I also enjoy La Nueva Casita – and numerous others I just don’t happen to have been back to as recently. And Las Cruces offers a host of fine local eateries, most with a personal touch, among them The Shed, Salud, Cafe de Mesilla, Thai Delights, and Luna Rossa.]

[But maybe the key to enjoying where you are is the “enjoying” part of the sentence, not the place. When we are inclined toward gratitude, or can become so, we find much to be grateful for; and when something inside us is raging like a fire, there’s a lot out there that’ll burn.]