Albuquerque City Councilor Louie Sanchez has made it known that he intends to introduce a city council resolution to remove and terminate APD Chief Harold Medina for cause. The WHEREAS recital provisions of the Resolution identifies numerous and specific instance of mismanagement of APD by Chief Harold Medina as well as  the ongoing federal investigation of the APD DWI Unit and the bribery and conspiracy scheme with a prominent criminal defense attorney.

Sanchez released to www.PeteDinelli.com the following proposed city council resolution he will sponsor and  introduce at the next city council meeting:

                                                     RESOLUTION

REMOVING POLICE CHIEF HAROLD MEDINA FOR FAILURE TO LEAD THE ALBUQUERQUE POLICE DEPARTMENT

WHEREAS, Harold Medina is the Chief of the Albuquerque Police Department (“APD”); and

WHEREAS, when Medina was appointed to his position, it was due to the abrupt departure of the previous Chief; and

WHEREAS, effective leadership of the Albuquerque Police Department is critical to the safety and wellbeing of the residents of the City of Albuquerque; and

WHEREAS, a federal investigation into multiple APD officers has resulted in the dismissal of more than 150 active DWI cases; and

WHEREAS, this investigation appears to show unchecked corruption within the Department; and

WHEREAS, these allegations of widespread corrupt actions by APD officers undermines the confidence of the community in the entire department; and

WHEREAS, the profound lack of leadership, which allowed such corrupt activities to transpire, unfairly tarnishes the reputation of upstanding officers, who through no fault of their own are associated with this terrible behavior; and

WHEREAS, Medina’s mismanagement of the Albuquerque Police Department is evidenced by numerous tragedies and scandals, such as:

1. A police cadet was killed in a murder-suicide following reports of an affair taking place during her training at the police academy that APD was aware of;
2. An academy class where seasoned instructors were moved because the son of a deputy chief attending the academy faced termination for untruthfulness;
3. APD’s Gang Unit was all but dissolved along with critical units such as the Narcotics and Vice units;
4. Record numbers of officers have resigned or retired, leaving the Department dangerously shorthanded;
5. Increased officer terminations;
6. Increased officer-involved shootings at the highest number in decades, if not in APD’s history;
7. Increased response times for 911 calls with some callers holding for hours while hundreds more calls sit unanswered; and
8. The highest number of homicides in two recent years with at least 328 people murdered on the streets of the City; and
9. At least two lawsuits pending against the City and APD, each claiming the wrongful death of family members who suffered from mental illness.

WHEREAS, these tragedies reflect serious failures in leadership and an institution in dire need of intervention; and

WHEREAS, Medina’s conduct is inconsistent with the requirements of his position as Chief of Police and his responsibilities and obligations to the City and its residents; and

WHEREAS, Medina’s conduct threatens the public health, safety, and welfare of the people of the City of Albuquerque; and

WHEREAS, while the City Council has expressed concerns on numerous occasions about the leadership of the Department, there has been no apparent improvement in the administration of APD; and

WHEREAS, Pursuant to Article 5, Section 4(d)(1) of the Charter of the City of Albuquerque, “[t]he Police Chief . . . may be removed for cause by a vote of two-thirds of the entire membership of the Council.”; and

WHEREAS, Chief Harold Medina’s failure to lead the Albuquerque Police Department constitutes cause for removal.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL, THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE:

SECTION 1. Harold Medina is hereby removed from his position as Chief of the Albuquerque Police Department.

SECTION 2.  SEVERABILITY. If any section, paragraph, sentence, clause, word or phrase of this Resolution is for any reason held to be invalid or unenforceable by any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of this Resolution.

The Council hereby declares that it would have passed this Resolution and each section, paragraph, sentence, clause, word or phrase thereof irrespective of any provision being declared unconstitutional or otherwise invalid.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The above Resolution is subject to possible additions, deletions,  modifications and amendments as deemed necessary by its sponsor City Councilor Loui Sanchez and other city councilors and  the city council as a whole.

CITY CHARTER PROVISIONS ON THE APPOINTMENT AND REMOVAL BY CITY COUNCIL OF CHIEF OF POLICE

It is article V. Section 4, of the Albuquerque City Charter which outlines the duties and responsibilities of the mayor and the appointment and the removal the Chief Administrative Officer, Deputy Administrative Officers, the Chief of Police, and the Fire Chief.

Section 4 of the City Charter entitled DUTIES OF THE MAYOR provides as follows .

“The Mayor shall:

 Organize the executive branch of the city;

    (b)   Exercise administrative control and supervision over and appoint directors of all city departments, which appointments shall not require the advice or consent of the Council except as provided in (d) of this Section;

   (c)   Be responsible for the administration and protection of the merit system;

    (d)   With the advice and consent of the Council, appoint the Chief Administrative Officer, any deputy administrative officers, the Chief of Police, and the Fire Chief. Appointees requiring the advice and consent of the Council shall be presented to the Council for confirmation within 45 days after the Mayor takes office or after a vacant appointed position is filled. When an appointee is presented to and not confirmed by the Council, the Mayor shall, within 60 days thereafter, nominate another person to fill the position, and the Mayor may continue to nominate until confirmation;

1.   The Police Chief or Fire Chief may be removed for cause by a vote of two-thirds of the entire membership of the Council.

The link to review the City Charter is here:

https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/albuquerque/latest/albuqcharter/0-0-0-263

APD INVESTGATION TEAM ANNOUNCED

On Friday, February 2, APD Chief Harold Medina held a press conference to address the “ongoing administrative investigation” involving  the dismissal of DWI cases and the 5 police officers implicated in the DWI dismissal scheme. Medina said  “We are looking at everyone in the department who may have had a role in the alleged scheme among DWI officers.”

Medina announced he chose Commander Kyle Hartsock, who oversees APD’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, to head up the investigation into the five officers.  Medina said Hartsock, who previously worked for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office, has an “outside perspective with no ties to current or former DWI officers.”  Medina also said he has “hand chosen” the group to investigate made up of Hartsock and Deputy Commanders Josh Hawkes and Ken Johnston and none have any history with the DWI unit.  Medina said Hartsock has daily calls with the FBI and  passes  along any criminal findings to the federal agency as the internal probe continues.

Commander Kyle Hartsock for his part said this:

“We will ensure that any officer or any personnel belonging to the city of Albuquerque that was either involved in any part of this scheme, or knew about it and didn’t report it, will be held accountable.”

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/albuquerque-police-outline-history-of-dwi-case-outcomes/article_31716d9c-c06b-11ee-84da-7fbcb7fceffb.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

 DWI LIEUTENANT RESIGNS, INTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMANDER PLACED ON ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE

On February 9 it was reported that APD Lt. Justin Hunt resigned from APD. He was one of five officers placed on leave. The police department confirmed Hunt worked in the DWI unit from 2011 to 2014. Review of cases dismissed revealed Hunt’s name came up in 18 DWI cases since 2011 with 15 of those were tossed out.  Court records also show Thomas Clear III, who advertises himself as a criminal defense lawyer, was Hunt’s attorney in a 2014 divorce.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/albuquerque-metro/albuquerque-police-lieutenant-resigns-amid-investigation-into-dwi-unit/

On February 13, it was reported that Internal Affairs Division APD Commander Mark Landavazo has been placed on administrative leave as part of the department’s ongoing investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by DWI officers. Landavazo is the highest-ranking member of APD to be put on leave because of corruption allegations involving the prosecution of DWI cases and focusing on several APD officers and their interaction with staff of defense attorney Tom Clear.  Landavazo has been with APD since 2007, became commander of the Internal Affairs Division in 2021.

Links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/apd-places-internal-affairs-commander-on-leave/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/albuquerque-police-internal-affairs-commander-on-leave-in-dwi-corruption-probe/article_c7f57be8-cad7-11ee-8759-6710784486dd.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

ABQ JOUNRAL SANCHEZ GUEST OPINION COLUMN

On Sunday, February 4, the Albuquerque Journal published the following guest opinion written by City Councilor Louie Sanchez. Sanchez represents District 1, Albuquerque’s Central West Side, on the Albuquerque City Council. The guest column outlines the failed leadership of Chief Harold Medina. It also provides grounds to remove Medina for cause.

Sanchez Column Headline: Lack Of Leadership Has Ruined Moral Within APD

BY LOUIE SANCHEZ, Albuquerque City Councilor

“Recent incidents involving the Albuquerque Police Department since last fall concern not just myself, but all citizens and residents of Albuquerque.

APD’s mismanagement is evidenced by a spectrum of tragedies and scandals. This past fall, a police cadet was killed in a murder-suicide following reports of an affair taking place during her training at the police academy that APD leadership was aware of: An academy class where seasoned instructors were moved because the son of a deputy chief attending the academy faced termination for untruthfulness. Instead, he weaponized the EEOC process at the advice of his father and was reinstated to the academy.

Under current leadership, APD’s Gang Unit was all but dissolved along with such critical units as the Narcotics and Vice units. Record numbers of officers have resigned or retired, leaving the department dangerously shorthanded.

It gets worse. More officer terminations followed with more officer involved shootings — the highest number in decades, if not in APD’s history. Response time for 911 calls increase with some citizens holding for hours while hundreds more sit unanswered.

The city saw the highest number of homicides in two recent years under this mayor and under his current police chief — at least 328 people were murdered on the streets of the city. At least two multi-million-dollar lawsuits are pending against the city and APD, each claiming wrongful death of family members who suffered from mental illness. Such shootings were among the very reason the DOJ came to Albuquerque.

These low-points, now a part of APD’s history, are, as Dr. James Ginger puts it, the result of poor leadership. Now a public corruption investigation by the FBI of APD officers threatens the integrity of entire department.

An immediate consequence of Chief Medina’s failures is the dismissal of over 150 DWI cases. All those offenders now skate on being held accountable for their alleged offenses.

Medina says he knew about their alleged misconduct but if that’s true, why had the DWI unit been praised by him throughout last year? Why did Chief Medina permit this to happen? Why was APD leadership caught off guard? Is it because cronyism thrives under Mayor Keller’s chief of police, or merit and performance are not valued but loyalty is?

I served 26 years with APD and never have I witnessed such failed leadership and integrity issues by any of APD chief of police. Now all APD is being painted with a broad brush of corruption and Mayor Keller and his appointed police chief are the prime examples of what you are not supposed to do as a leader.

Could it be that they are so occupied with patting themselves on the back that they were indifferent to such egregious misconduct in their own ranks? Could it be they are so consumed with spiking the football on their fictional belief that DOJ’s oversight is almost over?

Chief Medina seems to have missed the class on integrity. Lack of leadership and hypocrisy ruins morale. Now we have a city reeling from scandals and tragedies from its police department. These leadership failures are why Dr. James Ginger says he will not release APD from its mandates under the 2014 Court Approved Settlement Agreement.

These failures and tragedies reflect an institution in dire need of intervention. It’s time to recognize that failings of leadership have dire consequences for our city. We must work together to address these concerns and improve our quality of life.

We need to prevent the “Fall of Albuquerque.” We need change. It is time for Medina to resign or be replaced. Our honest, hardworking officers deserve better.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/opinion-lack-of-leadership-has-ruined-morale-within-apd/article_6fcc9978-c13c-11ee-beba-273bf33285e0.html

CHORNOLGY OF A SCANDAL

On January 19 the FBI raided the homes of three APD officers and the office   DWI defense attorney Thomas Clear III who are allegedly involved in a bribery and conspiracy scheme spanning a decade to dismiss DWI cases. Five cops, including one lieutenant, have been implicated. District Attorney Sam Bregman ordered 198 DWI cases dismissed because of the scandal. No criminal charges have been filed and the FBI search warrants remain sealed.

The five APD officers who have been identified at the center of the federal investigation are:

• Lieutenant Justin Hunt
• Officer Honorio Alba, Jr.
• Officer Harvey Johnson
• Officer Joshua Montano
• Officer Nelson Ortiz

All 5 police officers were placed on paid administrative leave during the pendency of the federal criminal investigation.

During the January 22 city council meeting, the APD bribery scandal was front and center as Albuquerque City Councilors expressed extreme frustration over that lack of transparency over the scandal and the failure of Mayor Tim Keller and his administration to brief them and advise them of the investigation before the FBI executed the search warrants. Several city councilors criticized the mayor’s administration and the police department with councilors going as far as to blame the entire situation on a lack of leadership by Mayor Tim Keller and  APD Chief Harold Medina.  Councilors complained that they were left totally in in the dark about the federal investigation and only learned of it through the news media reports.  Albuquerque City Councilor Dan Lewis summed it up best when he said  this:

“This investigation, it does appear to show some unchecked corruption within the department. And these are allegations that are widespread of actions by Albuquerque police officers. … To be honest, it’s the leadership of Chief Medina, the leadership of the APD brass, leadership of the [Keller] administration. These are the questions that we’re going to continue to ask and continue to talk about.”

On January 23, APD Chief Harold Medina and Mayor Tim Keller made the rounds to the 3 local news stations and gave the Albuquerque Journal exclusive interviews in an effort to explain the federal investigation the best they could and to spin away the criticism and taint of APD corruption leveled against them by the city council and the public. Chief Medina for his part proclaimed that the city council was “out of line” for demanding information and for exercising their oversight authority. Chief Medina called out City Councilor Louie Sanchez and Dan Champine who are retired cops saying they should know better and to not ask questions on pending criminal investigations.  Mayor Keller accuse the City Council of “unethical conduct” when he said “it’s marginally unethical for them to air these concerns” that may jeopardize the investigation by simply asking for information they are entitled to have in order to carry out their oversight authority.

On January 25, Albuquerque City Council President Dan Lewis and City Councilors Louie Sanchez and Dan Champine sent a letter to Chief Harold Medina asking him questions and demanding written answers on APD policies and procedures as they relate to the handling of DWI cases and what contributed to the dismissal of the DWI cases and which lead to the DWI bribery and conspiracy scandal. The City councilors also demanded the Chief Medina show up at the February 5 City Council meeting.

CHIEF MEDINA APPEARS BEFORE CITY COUNCIL, NO CONFIDENCE MOTION NOT CONSISDERED FOR LACK OF A SECOND

On February 5, APD Chief, Harold Medina appeared before the Albuquerque City Council and he answered questions. Initially, Chief Medina resisted appearing before the City Council to answer questions and suggested under advice of the City Attorney that he brief the City Council and answer questions in private and during an executive session of the City Council.

During the city council meeting, APD Chief Harold Medina made it clear he would not answer questions about the ongoing investigation.  As a result, city councilors were relegated to questions about the department’s procedures in confirming police officers were attending court hearings and discipline surrounding officers missing court appearances which is at the center of the FBI investigation. Medina was asked how many missed court hearings is too many before disciplinary action is taken.  Medina said it’s a case-by-case basis, including the reason why the officer didn’t show up. He also said the department currently does not have a database to track how many times an officer misses court appearance.

City Councilor Louie Sanchez took issue with Medina’s answers. He said as a former APD officer, he knows hearing schedules are public record, and anyone can look up when cases are dismissed because an officer was a no-show. City Councilor Louie Sanchez said he did not understand how the police department did not catch what was going on sooner. Sanchez told Medina this:

“Know who’s missing court and who isn’t missing court, it’s not the responsibility of the DA’s office; it’s not the responsibility of the individual. It’s not the responsibility of the citizens out here, it’s your responsibility.”

Medina responded saying APD does no have the manpower to check those appearances.  Medina said this:

“We have never had the staffing to look up every case in newmexicocourts.com. Today for example, there are 547 cases in the system for the Albuquerque Police Department. Historically, we have relied on other entities to relay information to us that an officer has missed court. Given the fact that individuals are not going to be able to do that, we can do it, but it would be very time intense”. 

Medina said APD would need about 20 full time staff to track and manage a database on Court appearance by APD cops. Medina said this :

“As of this moment …  we don’t have agreements with any of the entities [to share the data] that we are working with. We never have had one, this is the way the system has always worked and that is what we are working on right now.”

Those entities include the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office. Medina said prosecutors were supposed to send them notifications when an officer missed court.  Medina’s response about the DAs office prompted Councilor Sanchez to read the letter from District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office saying it was never the DA’s job to report officer no-shows. Instead, it was a courtesy.

Other councilors said while it’s obvious something needs to change, but they said they are not sure they had enough information to move forward yet. City Councilor Brook Bassan said this:

“Until the FBI comes back and giving us some solid answers and solid evidence, I am going to refrain from comment or judgment beyond this moment in time.”

City Councilor Dan Champine, who is a former APD officer asked about the status of the DWI unit since this investigation started. Medina said there’s no longer a DWI unit, but APD is still handling DWI cases.

At the conclusion of Medina’s questioning, City Councilor Louie Sanchez moved for a vote of “No Confidence” in  APD Chief Medina but the motion  failed to get a second and therefor it was not discussed or debated.

After the motion “vote of no confidence” failed,  Staci Drangmeister, spokesperson for the mayor’s office  issued the following statement:

“Councilor Sanchez’s failed attempt to call for a vote of no confidence shows just how out of touch he is with our community and the rest of the council. Even worse, he is trying to punish Chief Medina as he is exposing corruption and working with the U.S. Attorney and FBI to support their investigation. Fortunately, the other eight members of the council showed they are interested in finding justice for victims of DWI.”

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/city-council-set-to-talk-about-investigation-into-apd-dwi-officers/

https://www.koat.com/article/police-harold-medina-albuquerque-city-council-meeting/46654024

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/city-council-questions-apd-chief-over-tracking-of-officers-missed-court-appearances/

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

With the appointment of an APD criminal investigation team, the resignation of Lt. Justin Hunt from APD and the placing of Internal Affairs Commander Mark Landavazo on administrative leave as part of the department’s ongoing investigation, it safe to assume that the investigation is expanding.  There is a real possibility that more police officers will be implicated in the scandal. It is more likely than not that the Federal investigation will lead to more than a few indictments. Then there is the matter of APD being under a Federal Consent Decree for the last 9  years and being required to implement 271 reforms. It is likely the scandal will result in  Federal Monitor James Ginger  finding that APD’s compliance levels are no longer near the compliance levels of 95% as he found in his 18th Federal Monitors report leading to great hope that the dismissal of the Court Approved Settlement Agreement was in reach.

The Resolution to terminate Chief Medina is a natural extension and exercise of the Albuquerque City Council’s oversight authority over APD as well as the Chief of Police.  Ever since this scandal broken on January 19 with the execution of the search warrants, APD Chief Harold  Medina has been in full “politcal  spin cycle” mode of “pivot, deflect, take credit and lay blame”.  Medina has blamed the District Attorney’s Office for not giving APD notice of officers failing to appear as well as blaming the Public Defender’s office for being aware of what attorney Clear was doing. Medina takes credit for the investigation and taking action to hold people accountable for the corruption when it was in fact the federal investigation that forced his hand after he allowed the problem to fester.

It was sure arrogance by Chief Medina proclaiming that the city council was “out of line” for demanding information and exercising their oversight authority. It is Medina who showed contempt and insubordination to the elected city council by calling out the 2 city councilors who are retired cops saying they should know better and to not ask questions of the Chief on pending criminal investigations.

It was appalling when Mayor Keller accused the City Council of “unethical conduct” by saying “it’s marginally unethical for them to air these concerns” that may jeopardize the investigation by simply asking for information they are entitled to have in order to carry out their oversight duties and responsibilities over APD.

Keller and Medina have made more than a few stunning admissions. They admit that the APD bribery and conspiracy scheme went on the entire 6 years they have been in charge of APD, but they never detected what was going on.

Both admitted that only after they found out the FBI was investigating APD, the decision was made to initiate a city criminal and internal affairs investigation and to proclaim cooperation with the FBI. Medina admitted that he knew about the corruption as far back as December 2022 when APD first received a complaint related to the department’s DWI unit yet he waited and essentially did nothing for a full year.

Keller’s admissions come from a person who was first elected as the “white knight” state auditor who stopped “waste, fraud and abuse” and held people accountable for government corruption. Medina’s admissions come from a chief who claims he has never looked the other way at police corruption. Both have looked the other way on documented corruption involving overtime pay abuses by police officers. There have been 7 audits in eight years documenting the corruption, waste, fraud and abuse in police overtime.

APD’s reputation has been trashed to a major extent by the scandal. APD will be viewed by many as having another bastion of “dirty and corrupt cops” who have brought dishonor to their department and the department’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness and Respect.” The whole scandal places an ethical stain on the department that may never be removed. This is before any charges have been filed, before anyone is fired from APD and before we ever know who is responsible.

QUESTIONS NEEDING ANSWERING

The public must demand that there be a thorough investigation of the police officers involved in the crimes and the APD command staff who should have known what was going on.  Once the Resolution is introduced, City Council President Dan Lewis should refer it to the Committee of the Whole.  The City Council should call upon the City’s Internal Audit Department as well as the City’s General Council to investigate what has happened and present their findings. A series of hearing should be held to allow the city council conduct open, public hearings and be briefed on what is going on in general terms on what’s being done.

It is clear that he Albuquerque City Council should demand a full audit of APD by the Internal Audit Department or the Inspector General and of overtime paid to the police officers implicated. There are at least 3 unanswered questions that must be addressed by the investigation:

1. Did APD Chief Harold Medina, the Deputy Chiefs or Commanders, Lieutenants or Sergeants withhold information about the DWI Unit from the Federal Court monitor believing they could contain the scandal and resolve it on their own? Full compliance and dismissal of the Department of Justice Court Approved Settlement  Agreement (CAS)  will likely be affected by the scandal. What is downright pathetic is how hundreds of DWI cases were dismissed and went totally undetected by the Federal Monitor.  It’s hard to believe that no one reported the problem to the monitor and his auditing team.
2. Exactly what remuneration was paid by the defense attorney to the cops to get the cases dismissed? Was it cash or some other benefit paid, such as airline tickets, high end tickets to sporting events or entertainment event tickets or lavish trips?
3. The police union contract mandates the payment of a minimum of two hours overtime pay at “time and a half” for schedule court appearances. Did the accused police officers claim time and a half for court appearances that they never attended, or agreed not to attend, as they were paid by the defense attorney?

CONCLUSION

Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Medina must be held accountable and responsible for what has happened. Until Mayor Keller and his administration, and for that matter the City Council, take aggressive action to deal with this latest APD crisis, APD’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness And Respect” are meaningless words on a wall. The first step to restore APD’s reputation and some level of public trust in APD  is the immediate termination of Chief Harold Medina by the Albuquerque City Council.

On February 12, the New Mexico State Senate passed House Bill 129, Firearm Sale Waiting Period Crimes, on a 36-32 vote. The bill would require a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases, with a few exceptions. The House voted to accept amendments added by the NM Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure has now been forwarded to the Governor Office where Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is expected to sign it.

Supporters of the bill argued that it closes a loophole that allows firearms to be sold before the buyer’s background check comes back, and could provide a “cool-off” period for people in emotional distress. New Mexico would join several other states that have also adopted waiting periods, although the length varies greatly.

Adopting Senate amendments to the bill was the last major hurdle to the bill’s passage. The House passed the Senate amendments on a 36-32 vote.  The bill’s most significant change since the House voted in favor of the measure on February 2 is that the waiting period was cut in half from 14 days to 7 days.

Both the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee added several amendments carving out exceptions to the waiting period. Law enforcement agencies and people with federal firearm licenses or concealed carry licenses would be exempt from the waiting period. People selling a gun to an immediate family member or a law enforcement officer selling to another officer would also be excluded.

Changes were made to the bill’s secondary waiting period. That period is triggered if a background check isn’t returned within seven days. In the original legislation, if a background check hadn’t been returned within 30 days, the seller could release the firearm to the customer. That number was cut down to 20 days. If the background check is returned after the seven-day waiting period but within those 20 days, it can immediately pass to the buyer.

Several Republican representatives voiced objections to the bill itself. Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, said she was concerned about the effect of a delay on gun shows. Others expressed dismay that an amendment that would allow people with an order of protection against another person to bypass the waiting period failed in the Senate.

Some representatives argue there should have been more exemptions. State Rep. Stefani Lord said this:

“But the biggest thing for me on top of everything else Mr. Speaker … [is]  the fact that they didn’t allow the exemption for survivors of domestic violence. I think if you come in and have a restraining order, you are scared for your life, you are not living with this person, you are afraid they are going to kill you, you don’t have the opportunity to bypass that.” 

Thus far, the 7 day waiting period is the only gun control measure supported by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that has passed. Other bills  making their way through the Legislature include a bill to keep guns out of polling places which has passed the Senate floor in late January and has passed the House Judiciary Committee. It needs to pass the House floor before being signed into law. A bill to increase the penalty for felons in possession of firearms passed the House floor on Saturday and is now referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/bill-to-impose-waiting-period-for-gun-sales-in-nm-heads-to-governors-desk/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/gun-bill-headed-to-governor-includes-7-day-waiting-period/article_bf40c77e-ca22-11ee-8e0e-df3aa5da01c7.html#:~:text=A%20bill%20that%20would%20require,for%20people%20in%20emotional%20distress.

MEASURES PASSED IN SENATE

On February 12, the Senate passed the following House and Senate Bills:

House Bills 2 and 3, the General Appropriation Act of 2024, passed on 31-10 bipartisan vote. The  $10.22 billion budget sets aside dollars for state government to operate in fiscal year 2025, including for education, public safety, the environment and health care. It’s a $36.1 million increase from the House version of the budget.

House Bill 252, Adjust Income Tax Brackets, passed the Senate on 26-13 vote.   Tax credits and changes included in the tax package including are clean energy credits and reduced personal income tax.  There is no increase to the alcohol excise tax for alcohol treatment and addiction services with tax having  failed

House Bill 193, Law Enforcement Retention Disbursements, passed the Senate on a 38-0 vote. This bill will  change the Law Enforcement Retention Fund for better recruitment  and retention of  law enforcement officers. Lawmakers removed the $1 million appropriation originally included in the bill because it is part of the budget that passed. The House Bill passed  the Senate with no changes and it  it now goes to the governor for her signature to become law.

Senate Bill 146, Hospital Acceptance of Health Plans, passed the Senate on a 21-16 vote. This bill would require county hospitals and contracting hospitals to provide affordable payment plans under certain circumstances, such as if a provider is the only one in the county who can provide life-saving treatment or if the patient is uninsured. The bill now goes to the House for further consideration which is not likely given that only 2 and a half days remain in the session

MEASURES PASSED IN THE HOUSE

On February 12, the House passed the following House and Senate Bills

House Bill 182, Election changes, passed the House on a  38-28 vote. This bill aims to target the effect of artificial intelligence on elections. The bill would require a disclaimer for campaign materials made using “materially deceptive media.” That includes images, video or audio made using artificial intelligence that show a candidate saying or doing things they didn’t actually do,  often referred to as  a “deepfake”,  that is distributed without that person’s consent.  Violating the disclosure requirements would be a misdemeanor; a second offense would be a fourth-degree felony.

House Bill 190, Public Private Partnership Agreements, passed the House on a  56-9 vote. The bill would allow for public and private partnership agreements on certain infrastructure projects, including broadband, electric vehicle charging stations and road construction. Several representatives said the partnerships could fast-track work on construction projects. Rep. Matthew McQueen, R-Galisteo, introduced two amendments. Although one failed, another, which would prohibit public officials who received campaign donations from a private company from participating in the process, was successful,  avoiding a “pay to play” schemes.

House Bill 165, Pharmacy Provider Reimbursement, passed the House on a 66-0 vote. The bill would allow independent and local pharmacies to reap the same reimbursement rates as corporate pharmacies from Medicaid managed care organizations. Proponents say it would put small pharmacies on the same playing field as Walmart, CVS and other big box pharmacies. Several representatives shared stories about small pharmacies closing in their communities.

House Bill 303, TANF Funds Workforce Pilot Program, passed the House on a 41-13 vote.  The bill would offer stipends for program costs and living expenses to people enrolled in accredited workforce training programs. Participants would be eligible for stipends up to $1,000 per month for up to a year. The adult education pilot program would last for three years with annual reporting to the legislative finance committee.

House Bill 181, Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Act Changes, passed the House on a 61-1 vote. This bill would expand the Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association Act, which was intended to protect consumers if their insurance provider goes into debt. The changes would expand membership to include people using health maintenance organizations to cover their health care.

House Bill 186, Car Crash Reporting Damage Amount, passed the House on a 62-0 vote. Car accidents would only have to be reported to the New Mexico Department of Transportation if $1,000 worth of property damage occurred. Currently, the threshold for a written report, which was last changed in 1991, is $500.

House Bill 239, Cannabis as Prison Contraband, passed the House on a 57-4 vote. The bill would add cannabis to a list of prohibited contraband in correctional facilities. If cannabis is not prescription or isn’t brought into the facility through “regular channels,” it could be a felony crime to possess in New Mexico jails or prisons.

House Bill 130, Cloud Seeding Pilot Program, passed the House on a 61-6 vote.  The bill would create a 3-year “cloud seeding” program – a weather modification program with the goal of increasing precipitation. The Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the Roosevelt Soil and Water Conservation District, would oversee the project, which aims to address drought, increase water supply and mitigate the effects of climate change in the state, according to the fiscal impact report. The proposed budget  sets aside $1 million to the program.

Senate Bill 159, Higher Education Trust Fund, passed the House on a 43-18 vote. The bill would create a trust fund to cover tuition and financial aid programs for students at higher education institutions in the state.

Senate Bill 137, School Board Training, passed the House on a 42-17 vote. The bill would require new school board members to go through ten hours of training in ethics and school personnel, public school finance, open meetings and public records, governance and supervision and student achievement and support services. It would also prohibit new school boards from terminating superintendents, or extending their contracts, shortly after the election or appointment of a new school board.  All candidates for school boards would be required to report $1,000 or higher campaign contributions. Currently, only candidates in large school districts – 12,000 or more students – that have contributions and spending above $500 have to report those donations to the Secretary of State.

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/mondays-capitol-recap-heading-into-final-phase-of-the-legislature/article_7ec251ba-ca11-11ee-88d9-eb540be37d8a.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

COMMENTARY AND ANALYS

The 2024 New Mexico legislative session ends on February 15 at noon. There are 394 separate House Bills, 317 separate Senate Bills, 18 Senate Joint Resolutions, 15 House Joint Resolutions, 56 House Memorials and 12 Senate Memorials for a whopping 780 bills and memorials that were introduced for consideration. Before any bill can become law, it must go through the committee process of each chamber, and if amended referred back to the originating chamber to approve changes, and be enacted by both chambers and even then, it could be vetoed by the governor. Needless to say time is running out on the passage of most if not all of the remaining legislation that has passed only one chamber.

A listing and the status of all the legislation here:

https://nmbilltracker.com/allbills

The link to the blog article on the passage of the 2024-2025 budget is here:

2024 NM Legislative Update: Senate Passes Budget With 31-10 Bipartisan Vote; Goes Back To House For Concurrence; Always “Saving For Rainy Day” While Simply Ignoring Present Day Demands; Session Ends February 15 At Noon

On January 31, halfway through the session, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted 53-16 to send its nearly $10.2 billion 2024-2025 budget spending plan to the New Mexico Senate for approval and further amendments.

On February 11, the Senate Finance Committee approved House Bill 2 which is the $10.22 billion state budget enacted by the House passing the measure on a 9-0 vote with two committee members absent. It was then sent to the full Senate for final approval.  Among the items included in the budget approved by the Finance Committee is the allocation of $220 million from the general fund for road maintenance and beautification. Along with Senate Bill 300, which would add about $527 million, to the total of new money for the two items could be $747.8 million, which would be a record high.  Other items the amended House Bill 2 include:

• Increase the amount seniors and disabled veterans can receive per month in SNAP benefits from $25 to $100.
• Contribute about $25 million that would go toward police and corrections recruitment and retention, $20 million for state and local volunteer fire department recruitments and $11 million for emergency medical services.
• Impact school meals, adding $20 million and making it a recurring expense

On February 12, the full New Mexico Senate passed House Bill  2 on a  31-10 bi-partisan vote. House Bill  2 creates a $10.18 billion 2024-2025 Fiscal Year state budget. It is a 6.5% increase in recurring funds from last year’s  2023-2024 fiscal year.  Senate amendments added $31.6 million to the House version of the budget that passed. Including the “feed bill”, an administrative measure to fund the Legislature, the drafted budget sits at just more than $10.22 billion. That’s nearly 7%, or $653 million more, than fiscal year 2024.

The bill contains 30% to be held in reserves for future possible deficits for when there is an expected downturn in oil and gas revenues which funds 40% of the state budget.  Some Senators argued that the state should have used some of the extra funds for projects now instead of placing them in reserves to cushion for future possible deficits.

BI-PARTISAN SUPPORT

The proposed spending plan receive bi partisan support  from Democrats and Republicans, even from those who have not voted for proposed budgets multiple times in the past. Many senators said there are protections in the latest budget, such as those affecting trust funds and reserves, which will help protect New Mexico when the currently booming oil and gas industry faces a downturn. Oil and gas dollars fund a significant portion of the state’s general fund.

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said he felt more could have been spent on current needs and objected that the budget takes money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant. Ortiz y Pino said this:

“If we spent a little more investing in now, we might not have so many needs in the future. … On the other hand, this is where we’ve got to budget before us, it’s the expense of a lot of things that I think are valuable. … We could have used that TANF Block Grant money, which is 100%  federal money coming to the state for candidate recipients which could have used that, to expand the benefits and make life a little more bearable for the poorest among us.”

Sen. Bill Burt, R-Alamogordo, said that he would rather that some of the budget be saved rather than spent.

“I think this is a good budget and I think we should pass this budget,” Burt said. “I’m gonna vote for this budget. I haven’t for the last four or five years, and it has some problems, but I’m gonna vote for it… But until we also get serious about  down the road, we’ve got to look further than the next few years.”

Sen. Ron Griggs, R-Alamogordo, said this:

“I think what you have is a budget that’s workable. Could be better and we can argue that until the cows come home, but we got a budget that’s workable.”

EDUCATION FUNDING

The largest slice of the general fund would go to public schools, which are slated to receive about $4.3 billion next fiscal year. That includes more than $94 million to give a flat 3% raise to all public school employees, an amount that was trimmed by a Senate Finance Committee. Before public school employees were looking at a total average of 4% raises.  The version the budget approved by the  Senate includes $30 million for summer reading intervention programs, $14 million for early literacy and reading support and $5 million to train secondary educators in the science of reading.

PUBLIC SAFETY FUNDING

Public Safety also receive a significant increase in overall funding. State police officers would get a raise under the spending plan, becoming the highest-paid law enforcement agency in the state. Exact raises for individuals vary depending on their experience and position. The Senate Finance Committee amended the budget to include $25 million for recruitment of local law enforcement and correctional agencies.

TRUST FUNDS FOR THE FUTURE

Upon passage by the Senate, Democratic leadership issued the following statement on the budget:

“This budget transfers over a billion dollars from the general fund to a series of endowments and expendable trusts to support future spending on things like housing, conservation, water, and workforce development. If you include the higher education trust fund currently working its way through the process, then the legislature is ensuring that over $2 billion of the $3.47 billion in new money is secured to address future liabilities of the state. With additional legislation being worked on, we’re also looking at never having to bond capital ever again. We are truly securing our fiscal future for generations to come.” 

Senators boasted of the trust funds included in their approved budget saying the trust funds are way to safeguard dollars when oil and gas aren’t bringing in booming revenues for the state. The budget would send $1.3 billion from the general fund to endowments and expendable trusts. General fund reserves are  32% of recurring appropriations.

Not all lawmakers agreed with setting aside so much money for the future in trust funds.  During floor debate, Sen. William Soules, D-Las Cruces, asked if lawmakers are so afraid for the future that they’re putting aside dollars for then and not today. He questioned how many children in New Mexico are in unsafe and unhealthy positions, and how many state agencies, such as the Supreme Court and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission,  are underfunded. Soules said this:

“We have billions in savings and investments. But we have needs now.”

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque said there may be fewer future needs if lawmakers invest more dollars today rather than saving so much. He said more investment in housing is needed as well as into the CYFD or early childhood education.

Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, said the state is fully funded to keep going the free breakfast and lunch program the Legislature passed last year. He said he remembers when lawmakers had to take money away from school districts that were doing well in the past because of budget limitations. He said he hopes lawmakers won’t have to ever do that again.

Senator Bill Tallman, D-Albuquerque, said more discussion is needed on how the state can become more independent from oil and gas revenues. Tallman said this:

“I really don’t know what we’re going to be doing to diversify our economy, which is one of the most important issues we should be dealing with at the moment.”

Sen. William Burt, R-Alamogordo, agreed that booming oil and gas revenue won’t always be available to the state. He said lawmakers need to look at some of the less exciting factors of the budget, like retirement, to preserve the long-term future of New Mexico. Burt  said this: .

“We’ll never be able to cover everybody’s bases completely. …  We do absolutely the best we possibly can.”

BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

Other  budget highlights include the following major appropriations:

• $1.2 billion for natural resources, housing and innovation
• $24 million to judicial branch agencies
• $7 million to support victim advocates, sexual assault victims and supplement federal grants for crime victims
• $11.7 million for the New Mexico Department of Health
• $1.96 billion to the Health Care Authority Department and $180 million for Medicaid
• $3 million for tribal health councils
• $19.6 million to expand Pre-K
• $4.43 billion in recurring funds for public schools
• $50 million to the tribal Educational Trust Fund
• $20 million to pilot and evaluate evidence-based strategies to improve the Children, Youth and Families Department
• The Higher Education Department will receive $1.3 billion in recurring funds
• $100 million to develop a strong workforce
• $10 billion to establish a new Green Bank
• $300 million in the Lands of  Enchantment Legacy Fund for water conservation, outdoor recreation, agriculture, and wildlife protection
• $150 million to the Department of Transportation for major infrastructure, maintenance and road improvements

The link to the quoted news source are here:

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/nmleg/senate-passes-budget-goes-back-to-house-for-concurrence/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/budget-clears-state-senate-with-bipartisan-support/article_43c4fdde-c9f2-11ee-b9a4-87c26fe38e60.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/over-10-billion-proposed-house-budget-bill-passes-senate-committee/article_76385efe-c921-11ee-8094-6b77577abcc7.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The Senate approved $2 billion of the $3.47 billion in new money  be placed in reserve funds and trust funds, representing a whopping  58% of the surplus funds. It’s very disappointing that the New Mexico State Senate is reluctant to take bold an aggressive action to address the state’s present and urgent needs and is  always “saving for a rainy day” while simply ignoring present day demands.   Sen. William Soules, D-Las Cruces, said it best when he asked if lawmakers are so afraid for the future that they’re putting aside dollars for then and not today. He questioned how many children in New Mexico are in unsafe and unhealthy positions, and how many state agencies, such as the Supreme Court and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, are underfunded. Soules said this:

“We have billions in savings and investments. But we have needs now.”

The 2024 New Mexico legislative ends on February 15 at noon. Talk about cutting it close. Two and a half days is not much time for the House to approve the budget as amended by the Senate.   It now goes back to the House to deal with changes made on the Senate side before it can be sent to the governor for line-item veto’s, if any, and signing it into law.

The 2024 New Mexico legislative session began on January 16 and it ends on February 15 at noon.  The 2024 legislative session is a 30-day short session dedicated to financial matters where much of the session is devoted to exclusively approving the state’s annual budget. There are 394 separate House Bills, 317 separate Senate Bills, 18 Senate Joint Resolutions, 15 House Joint Resolutions, 56 House Memorials and 12 Senate Memorials for a whopping 780 bills and memorials that have been introduced for consideration. Before any bill can become law, it must go through the committee process of each chamber, and if amended referred back to the originating chamber to approve changes, and be enacted by both chambers and even then, it could be vetoed by the governor.

A listing and the status of all the legislation here:

https://nmbilltracker.com/allbills

Both the New Mexico House and Senate were in recess on Sunday, February 11. This blog article highlights and reports on the progress made with legislation as of Monday, February 12.

PASSES TO BECOME LAW

On Wednesday, January 7, House Bill 171 was the first bill to pass both chambers of the New Mexico 2024 legislative session. House Bill 171 as amended is entitled the School Graduation Amendments and it passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote. The bill would update the state’s graduation requirements for its high schoolers, allowing for more student choice while keeping the number of mandated units at 24. House Bill 171 is a renewed version of a bill from last year’s legislative session that passed both the House and Senate but ultimately was vetoed by governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.

On February 9, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law House Bill 171.  which overhauls and codifies into law  the state’s high school graduation requirements.   New Mexico’s updated high school graduation requirements are as follows:

• Four units of English, the last of which could be more flexible, such as journalism course
• Four units of math, two of which must generally be Algebra I and Geometry, but the rest of which appear to be flexible and could be fulfilled by such courses as financial literacy
• Three units of science, two of which must have a laboratory component and the other which can be more geared toward things such as work-based learning
• Four units of social science, which include U.S. history and geography, government, economics and financial literacy, and world history and geography. The final unit is also flexible and can include such things as psychology or ethnic studies
• Five and a half units of electives, which vary wildly, and also can include financial literacy courses as well as computer science and career-technical education courses
• Two courses set by the local school district or governing board
• One unit of physical education, which can include courses in things such as dance and marching band
•  Half a unit in health

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/for-the-second-time-a-bill-to-update-new-mexicos-graduation-requirements-is-headed-to/article_457dd9bc-c61d-11ee-84fa-270e68360ca7.html

The biggest changes to know about are that students will still need to earn 24 credits, but Algebra II will no longer be required but schools must still offer it. Students will now have to complete four full years of social studies classes, and that must include some personal financial literacy coursework. A semester of health with lessons on sexual abuse, assault, and prevention is now required. Career technical classes can count toward English, math, and science credits, and local school districts will get to decide on two graduation requirements for their students.

The link to the quoted news sources are here:

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/new-mexico-governor-signs-off-on-new-high-school-graduation-requirements/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/this-modernizes-graduation-requirements-governor-signs-first-major-bill-of-the-session-into-law/article_7370168a-c7aa-11ee-9e21-8b766e5a72f3.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

2024-2025 BUDGET ENACTMENT STILL PENDING

House Bill 2 and House Bill 3 were combined to form the State Budget. On January 31, halfway through the session, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted 53-16 to send its nearly $10.2 billion 2024-2025 budget spending plan to the New Mexico Senate for approval and further amendments.

On February 11, the Senate Finance Committee approved House Bill 2 which is the $10.22 billion state budget enacted by the House passing the measure on a 9-0 vote with two committee members absent. It now goes to the full Senate for approval.  Among the items included in the budget approved by the Finance Committee is the allocation of $220 million from the general fund for road maintenance and beautification. Along with Senate Bill 300, which would add about $527 million, to the total of new money for the two items could be $747.8 million, which would be a record high.  Other items the amended House Bill 2 include:

• Increase the amount seniors and disabled veterans can receive per month in SNAP benefits from $25 to $100.
• Contribute about $25 million that would go toward police and corrections recruitment and retention, $20 million for state and local volunteer fire department recruitments and $11 million for emergency medical services.
• Impact school meals, adding $20 million and making it a recurring expense

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/over-10-billion-proposed-house-budget-bill-passes-senate-committee/article_76385efe-c921-11ee-8094-6b77577abcc7.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

SENATE PASSED LEGISLATION

As of February 12, the following  bills that have been enacted by the New Mexico Senate:

House Bill 129 establishing a 7 day waiting period on the purchase of a gun.  On February 10, the Senate passed House Bill 129 on a 23-18 vote after several Republican amendments aimed at carving out exemptions for military members and people who have orders of protection against another person. House Bill 129 has been amended three times. The waiting period was introduced as 14 days but was changed to 7 days. Also, if the required background check hasn’t been completed within 20 days, the gun seller can transfer the firearm to the buyer.   Supporters of the bill said it would help curb suicides and other acts of violence. Other states have also adopted similar waiting periods for firearm purchases. The bill goes back to the House for approval.

The links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/legislature/gun-purchase-waiting-period-bill-passes-new-mexico-senate/

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/state-lawmakers-debate-gun-control-proposals/

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/nmleg/firearm-waiting-period-bill-passes-senate/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/senate-passes-bill-for-7-day-waiting-period-on-gun-buys/article_900d7b6a-c896-11ee-841a-a32daf248ee1.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

House Bill 141, Supreme Court Justice Salary Increase, passed the Senate on a 33-6 vote.  This bill, which already was  passed by the House, would set the pay of Supreme Court justices at $232,600. A $6.1 million appropriation from the general fund would fund the pay increases. The bill now goes to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham now, and she’s rejected similar requests in the past. Bill sponsor Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said he’s adjusted the bill this year removing state salary increases that match federal ones, hoping the third time’s a charm to get this passed.

Senate Bill 3 known as the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act passed the Senate on February 9 on a 25-15 vote. The bill moves to the House with only six days left in the session. If passed, it will require employees and employers to pay into a state fund that would allow workers to take paid time off when a child is born, for a family emergency, or another kind of medical crisis. Changes discussed centered around the length of time off workers could take. For maternity and paternity leave, employees can take up to 12 weeks off, but a floor amendment shortened the leave period for medical reasons down to nine weeks. The amendment also changed the leave from calendar year to application year to ensure that employees can’t take more than 12 weeks off in a year. Another change on the Senate floor was adding a required 20-day notice when possible. The Seante also expanded the time employees have to pay into this fund before they can apply for paid time off. The original bill only required 90 days but that was expanded to six months, a move that was popular with small business owners. Small business owners argue this bill would be a financial burden on employers and limit the ability of business owners to help out their employees on their own terms.

The links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/senate-floor-debates-paid-family-and-medical-leave-act/

https://www.abqjournal.com/business/amended-paid-family-and-medical-leave-act-passes-senate/article_fb77a8c4-c7da-11ee-a024-cfb0aad7231a.html

Senate Bill B15, Health Care Consolidation Oversight Act passed the Senate on a  27-15 vote.  This bill would allow the Office of Superintendent of Insurance to determine whether proposed hospital consolidations or mergers could negatively impact health care, excluding state- and university-owned facilities, for the next year. The legislation held an emergency clause but failed to get the two-thirds floor support necessary for the clause that grants immediate effect, if signed by the governor, to get through.

Senate Bill 17, Health Care Delivery and Access Act, passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote. This bill would impose assessments on most hospitals in the state and reimburse hospitals with the revenue generated.

Senate Bill 21, amended, Local Firefighter Recruitment, passed the Senate on a 36-0 vote. This bill would appropriate $35 million to a new program the legislation would create within the Department of Finance and Administration focused on firefighter recruitment.

Senate Bill 37 (committee substitution) Meat Inspection Act passed the Senate on a 38-0 vote. This bill would create a new office — the Office of Meat and Poultry Inspection Director — and give the New Mexico Livestock Board the authority to “ensure the safety and quality of meat and poultry” for consumption, according to the bill’s fiscal impact report. It would also require NMLB to inspect approved meat slaughtering, processing or manufacturing facilities.

Senate Bill 71, sponsored by Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, has passed one Senate Committee and would create an Office of Housing that would be attached to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. The governor would appoint the office’s director, who would oversee studies on housing issues and work with government agencies and private developers to plan and fund projects.  The office will require three or four full-time employees, which will be funded from the Governor’s office budget. The office would be tasked with working hand in hand with the quasi-governmental New Mexico Mortgage Finance (MFA) Authority and other organizations. But according to the the legislative analysis, the Mortgage Finance Authority has raised concerns about overlap with the MFA noting the office would duplicate much of the work it already does,” the report said. On February 8, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham showed up in a Senate committee to push personally for the bill to create a state housing office. The Senate Committee voted 5-4 to advance the bill to the Senate Finance Committee with no recommendation, instead of the more common “do pass” recommendation.

The link to the quoted news source is here:

Housing bill backed by governor barely survives committee hearing

Senate Bill 88, Electronic Driver’s License Credentials passed the Senate on a 38-0 vote. This bill would allow the Motor Vehicle Division to give out electronic driver’s licenses.

Senate Bill 106, Declaration of Independence Anniversary,  passed the Senate 38-1 vote.  This bill would set aside $150,000 for a state semi quincentennial commission to plan and put on celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which is July 4, 2026.

Senate Bill 108, amended, Distribution to Election Fund, passed the Senate ona a 41-0 vote. This bill would create a new distribution from the tax administration suspense fund to the state election fund, with a maximum transfer amount of $15 million.

Senate Bill 116, the Tobacco Fund is not a Reserve Fund passed the Senate on a 38-0 vote.  The tobacco settlement permanent fund would be removed from the general fund reserves by this bill. The fund was created in 2000 as part of an agreement between the state and big tobacco companies, according to the New Mexico State Investment Council. The bill’s fiscal impact report states removing the fund would allow it to “be invested with higher return targets.”

Senate Bill 127, known as the Professional Psychologist Act Changes passed the Senate on a 36-0 vote. The bill would give licensed psychologists with a special type of certification to prescribe and administer injections for psychotropic drugs as well as intramuscular and subcutaneous injections. It would also change the structure of the Board of Psychologist Examiners and the committee which reviews complaints against prescribing psychologists.

Senate Bill 129, Cybersecurity Act Changes, passed the Senate on a 37-0 vote. This bill would amend the Cybersecurity Act, including adopting more cybersecurity rules and standards.

Senate Bill 128, amended, State Fire Retirement, passed the Senate on a 37-0 vote. This bill would add state fire members to a renamed coverage plan and increase service credit by 20% for state fire members in service on or before June 30, 2013.

Senate Bill 135, Step Therapy Guidelines, passed the Senate on a  38-2 vote. This bill addresses step therapy and prior authorization. It would regulate how insurers can require patients to use preferred or less expensive medications before moving on to non-preferred or more expensive medication, regardless of health insurance. The bill sponsors say this would make medicine more accessible.

Senate Bill 241, Aging Department Background Checks, passed the Senate on a  32-6 vote.  This bill would require employees and volunteers with the Aging and Long-Term Services Department working in adult protective services, the long-term care ombudsman program and consumer and elder rights to undergo criminal history records checks. Selected applicants would also have to undergo background checks.

Senate Bill 142, Behavioral Health Facility Notification, passed the Senate on a 39-0 vote.  This legislation would not allow residential behavioral health facilities to admit patients without trying to get family contact information for patients, so patients could notify their family of admission.

Senate Bill 151, committee substitute, Premium Tax to Emergency Services Fund, passed the Senate on a 35-0 vote. This bill would send an additional $11 million to the Emergency Medical Services Fund.

Senate Bill 148, Tax and Fee Admin Fees, passed the Senate on a  34-0 vote. This bill would remove administrative costs and fees withheld by the Taxation and Revenue Department for administration of local government revenues by fiscal year 2029. The fees would continue on certain distributions.

Senate Bill 161, committee substitute, Acute Care Facilities Subsidies, passed the Senate on a 37-0 vote.  This bill would appropriate $50 million to provide subsidies for 12 hospitals in rural parts of the state.

Senate Bill 169, Conservation Fund Changes. This bill would set aside $10 million for the supplemental land and water conservation fund, which is handled by the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Senate Bill 175, Law Enforcement Fund Distributions, passed the Senate on a 39-0 vote. This bill aims to recruit and retain law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and probation and parole officers. Bill sponsor Sen. Leo Jaramillo, D-Española, said there’s around $25 million drafted in the budget for this, which is about $10 million less than the request in the bill initially.

Senate Bill176, Athletic Competition Act Changes, passed the Senate on a 20-16 vote. This bill would change the Professional Athletic Competition Act to add fighter weight classes and increase annual licensing fees for certain license types. It also would redefine some media terms.

Senate Bill 190, DWI Act, passed the Senate on a 26-8 vote.  This bipartisan legislation would add new DWI sections to the Motor Vehicle Code, including addressing penalties, fines and jail sentences. Senators talked about the nearly 100-page bill for over an hour on the floor, and some lawmakers on both sides of the aisles voted against it.

Senate Bill 201, Transportation Regulation, passed the Senate on a 35-0 vote.This bill would clarify transportation duties the New Mexico Department of Transportation holds, removing outdated technical language and making technical corrections.

Senate Bill 204, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Abq.), would make it a fourth-degree felony to carry a gun in a park or on a playground. There would be exceptions for law enforcement while on official duty. The bill is one of several gun-related bills under discussion at the Roundhouse. Others, like a waiting period for gun purchases, have received a fair bit of debate already. But the proposal to keep guns out of parks is just now being scheduled for initial debate in the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee with only a handful of days left in the lawmaking session.

Senate Bill 216, NMFA Affordable Housing Projects, passed the Senate on a 34-0 vote.  This bill  amends  the Finance Authority Act to provide financing for affordable housing projects and amend the local government planning fund to provide financing in order to develop affordable housing plans and flood maps.

Senate Bill 217, Severance Tax Bond Fund Distributions, passed the Senate on 34-0 vote.  The bill would provide for a minimum distribution from the severance tax bonding fund to the severance tax permanent fund every year for nine years.

Senate Bill 236, Metro Development GRT Increments, passed the Senate on a  20-9 vote . This effort would impact the procedure for determining gross receipts tax increments paying for metropolitan redevelopment area projects, including allowing new, approved construction in determining the gross receipts tax base.

Senate Bill 239, Lottery Scholarship Changes, passed the Senate on a  30-5 vote.  This bill would change the definition of a full-time student who’s eligible for the lottery scholarship and count summer semesters.

Senate Bill 300, Transportation Project Bonds,  passed the Senate on a 37-0 vote. This bill would allow for up to $205.8 million in bonding capacity from the severance tax bonding fund and $247 million in state transportation bonds to support certain road projects.

Senate Joint Memorial 2, amended, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Task Force, passed the Senate on a 30-0 vote.  This joint memorial would codify the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relative’s task force.

Senate Joint Resolution 16, County Official Salaries, passed the Senate on a  37-0 vote.  This joint resolution proposes to amend the state Constitution to remove the cap on county officers’ salaries. If it gets through the House side of the Roundhouse, it goes to voters in the November 2024 election or, if applicable, the next special election.

House Bill 41 known as the Clean Transportation Fuel Standards Act passed the Senate Conservation Committee on February 9  on a party-line 6-3 vote, with Democrats supporting its passage. HB 41 has already passed the House of Representatives on a 36-33 vote and it now heads to the Senate Finance Committee. The bill is intended to lower the carbon intensity of transportation fuels through the use of a carbon credit market. One of the main reasons people have cited for opposing the clean transportation fuels standards is the potential impact to prices at the pump since the states that have enacted clean transportation fuel standards tend to have higher gas prices. Bill sponsor Rep. Kristina Ortez, D-Taos, said the potential benefits of the bill is cleaner air and reduced respiratory illness and she also said the bill would spur economic development. Ortez said this:

“There’s been lots of fear-mongering around the gas prices.”

Robin Vercruse, the executive director of the Low Carbon Fuels Coalition refuted the claim that the bill would spur Eco comic development and said this:

“This claim … is contrary to basic economic theory in supposing that market competition will actually raise prices. …  The compliance cost, in this case the cost of credits in the program, will be passed directly to consumers. Theoretical studies reflect that assumption when they assign a cost per gallon. But here’s the thing: Real world data shows that is not the case. If the cost is passed directly to consumers, gas prices would rise and fall based on credit prices. However, there has been no correlation between credit prices in these programs and gasoline prices. That means these programs do not work in the real world as speculative studies would suppose.”

The link to the quoted news source is here:

Clean Transportation Fuel Standards bill clears Senate committee

FAILED IN SENATE

Senate Bill 145, the Public Bodies and Federal Immigration Violation failed in the Senate on a 21-18 vote. This bill would have prohibited governments in New Mexico from entering or renewing agreements to detain people for federal civil immigration violations, including with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Senate Bill 146, Hospital Acceptance of Health Plans, was tabled by the full Senate on February 11. The bill would require county and contracting hospitals to accept certain qualified health plans available through the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange and provide affordable payment plans to uninsured patients.

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/over-10-billion-proposed-house-budget-bill-passes-senate-committee/article_76385efe-c921-11ee-8094-6b77577abcc7.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

Senate Joint Resolution 5, Public Employees Retiree Health Care Fund, failed in the Senate 14-25.  This joint resolution would have proposed to amend the state Constitution to prohibit the expenditure of retiree health care fund trust dollars for any purpose except the benefit of the trust beneficiaries.

HOUSE  PASSED LEGISLATION

The following legislation has passed the New Mexico House of Representatives as of February 12. It includes bills that have already been enacted by the Senate and those House Bills that will be forwarded to the Senate for action:

House Bill 2 and House Bill 3 were combined to form the State Budget. On January 31, halfway through the session, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted 53-16 to send its nearly $10.2 billion 2024-2025 budget spending plan to the New Mexico Senate for approval and perhaps further amendments.

Senate Bill 153, Early Childhood Fund Transfers, passed the House on a 52-14 vote. The bill would increase the distribution of the early childhood education and care program fund for programs such as child care assistance, doula and lactation support home visits and pre-K. The distributions from the fund would increase by $95 million.

Senate Bill 5, Firearms near polling places, passed the  House Judiciary Committee on a  7-4 vote.  The bill, which passed on the Senate floor last would prohibit guns within 100 feet of polling places, with some exceptions. It needs to pass the House floor before heading to the governor’s desk.

House Bill  7, Healthcare Affordability Fund Distribution,  passed the House on a  51-14 vote. The bill would earmark revenue from health insurance premium surtaxes for the health care affordability fund, rather than the general fund. The fund was established in 2021 with the goal of reducing health insurance and medical expenses. Currently, bill sponsor Reena Szczepanski said there is about $108 million in the fund balance.

House Bill 28, Public Project Revolving Fund Projects,  passed the House on a 65-0 vote.  If passed, the New Mexico Finance Authority would be able to offer loans from the “public project revolving loan fund” to schools, civic organizations, tribes and other state and local government entities. An amendment added some public and charter schools to the list of entities that would be able to apply for loans with the NMFA. The number is capped at 100.

House Bill 29, Public Project Fund Appropriations, passed the House on a 63-0 vote.  The bill would appropriate $13 million from the public project revolving loan fund to the drinking water state revolving loan fund, the local government planning fund and the cultural affairs facilities infrastructure fund in amounts of $6 million, $2 million and $5 million, respectively.

House Bill 33, committee substitute, amended, Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act, passed the House on a 67-0 vote.  Drug manufacturers would be required to report certain information, including the annual price increase, manufacturing and marketing costs and revenue from product sales, for prescription drugs that cost more than $400 for a 30-day supply. The data, which would be reported to the New Mexico Office of Superintendent of Insurance, would be used to create policy recommendations to lower drug costs in the future, House Bill 33 is sponsored by a handful of Democratic lawmakers.

House Bill 48, Oil and Gas Future Royalty Rate, passed the House on a 39-28 vote. Royalty rates for state trust land leases to oil and gas producers would be increased. Currently, the rates range from about 18% to 20%. The bill would raise that cap to 25% for prime real estate in the Permian Basin and other high-producing areas, matching Texas’ maximum royalty rate percentage.

House Bill 98, Accounts for Disabled Eligibility, passed the House on a 62-0 vote. This bill would increase the number of people with disabilities eligible for a type of federal savings account, which is tax advantaged. The proposed changes to “achieving a better life experience” account eligibility would allow people who became disabled before the age of 46 to qualify. Currently, the age is 26. Bill sponsor Rep. Elizabeth “Liz” Thomson, D-Albuquerque, said this change would help “catch” more veterans in the program.  Thomson said the change aligns with federal policy changes.

House Bill 134, Tribal Education Trust Fund, passed the House on a 68-0 vote.

This bill would create a trust fund to build education capacity for Native American students, including developing culturally relevant curricula and bolstering Native language programs. The current draft of the state budget bill sets aside $50 million for the fund, but sponsor Lente says the aim is to double that.

House Bill 141, Supreme Court Salary Increases, passed the House on a 52-0 vote.   This bill would increase pay for Supreme Court justices to $232,600. As of July 2023, the justices were paid $191,700 according to the 2023 Judicial Compensation Commission report. That leaves New Mexico at 29th for state supreme court justice pay, the report says.

House Bill 148, Water Project Fund Projects, passed the House on a 64-0 vote. The annual authorization bill would allow the New Mexico Finance Authority to offer loans or grants to public groups for approved water projects. More than 50 public entities already have qualifying projects. If the bill passes, the Water Trust Board will decide which projects will get funding.

House Bill 102, Magistrate as Court of Record, passed the House on a  35-27 vote. Magistrate courts would be required to record all proceedings as a “court of record” so that if an appeal is brought, the Court of Appeals can use those recordings as an appellate record. There are limited cases when the courts would not be required to act as a court of record. Any excess money would return back to the fund

House Bill 196, the Government Accountability Trust Fund, passed the house on a 39-28 vote.  This would create the government results and opportunity expendable trust and the government results and opportunity program fund. The legislation would change the overflow mechanism of the general fund operating reserve to direct dollars into the trust fund.

Bill sponsor Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces, has said this is a way to protect New Mexico when oil and gas dollars aren’t booming like they are now. Pilot projects could get funding floated over several years as other funding sources are identified for the future. The accountability part of the bill includes provisions to track and report the efficacy of such projects. There is funding attached to the bill included in HB2, the budget bill.  There was some controversy over changes between the original and committee substitute. Rep. Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, said some of the “guardrails” for funding had been removed between versions. Other representatives justified the changes, saying some provisions were “unmanageable” for certain entities.

House Bill 207, Public School Capital Outlay Grants, passed the House on 64-1 vote.  The bill would change one word in the law creating the Public-School Capital Outlay Fund. In the existing law, it states the fund “may be expended annually” for grants to school districts and charter schools to make lease payments. The bill would change “may” to “shall,” making the assistance “mandatory rather than discretionary.”

House Bill 211, Water Project Prioritization, passed the House on a 67-0 vote.   The bill would change the Water Project Finance Act to allow funds to head to wastewater projects. The bill’s fiscal impact report noted there was “significant demand” for wastewater project grants, and less demands for other projects like Endangered Species Act programs.

House Bill 232, Infrastructure Planning and Development Division, passed the house on a 65-0 vote.  The bill would create a new division in the New Mexico Finance Authority called the Infrastructure Planning and Development Division. The division would take over certain functions of the Local Government Division of the MFA, including the rural equity ombudsman role and handling infrastructure capital improvement plans for local governments.

House Bill 252 committee substitute, Adjust Income Tax Bracket (House tax package) is the tax omnibus bill and it passed the House on a 48-to-21 vote.  The House’s tax omnibus bill includes changes to the income tax structure as well as a handful of tax credits and deductions for certain New Mexicans.

The bill would reduce income taxes for all New Mexicans, with the largest cuts headed to the lowest tax brackets. A competing floor substitute, which proposed a flat 1% personal income tax regardless of income, failed on the floor. The tax omnibus includes a number of tax changes, including energy storage tax deductions, personal income tax restructuring by increasing the amount of tax brackets, adjusting tax rates, and changing income ranges within each bracket, rural healthcare practitioner tax credit, fire recovery tax credits, corporate income tax changes, angel investment tax credit, capital gains deduction, Medicaid home modification gross receipts tax deduction and childcare provider GRT deduction.

Tax omnibus passes House

House Bill 236, Public Safety Retirees Returning to Work, passed the House on a 56-7 vote.  This bill mirrors a Senate version.  The public safety measure would allow government retirees to return to work in public safety fields, including corrections, police, detention, courthouse security, EMT, paramedics and firefighters. They would be able to return for a period of 36 months while still receiving a pension payment.

House Bill 253, the Capital Outlay Changes, passed the House on a 63-0 vote. The bill would make changes to the state’s capital outlay program. Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, said the changes would make the program more “sustainable.” A “nonreverting fund” to be known as the capital development and reserve fund would be created by the bill and managed by the State Investment Council. Money in the fund would be available to the Legislature to go towards capital projects costing less than $5 million, and for the planning and design of more costly projects.

House Bill 270, Higher Ed Tech Enhancement Fund Provisions, passed the House on a 62-1 vote. This bill primarily would clarify the requirements for the tech enhancement fund for research institutions in the state, stating that the below colleges are, in fact, eligible to receive funding awards. The University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and Navajo Technical University would be able to use technology enhancement fund dollars to match federal and private grants. An amendment removed a $70 million appropriation attached to the original bill.

House Bill 271, Public Finance Accountability Act, passed the House on a 63-0 vote. This bill would codify requirements that capital outlay grant recipients conduct annual audits and make the audits public records. If the audit show “material weaknesses or significant deficiencies,” according to the bill’s fiscal impact report, funds wouldn’t be distributed until the grant recipient fixes the problems.

House Bill 298, Service Members Suicide Prevention, passed the House on a  59-1 vote.  The bill would require the Veterans Services Department to raise suicide awareness for service members and increase prevention resources for active-duty service members and veterans as well as their families.

House Bill 302, Department of Defense Military Recommendations, passed the House on a 65-0 vote . Child care programs certified by the U.S. Department of Defense would not be required to meet additional state licensing requirements.

House Bill 308, General Obligation Bonds, passed the House on a 67-0 vote.  The bill proposed $289.6 million in general obligation bonds, $30.4 million of which would head to senior citizen facilities around the state, $19 million to libraries, $229.6 million for education projects and $10 million for the state Department of Information Technology to improve its public safety radio communications system.

HB316, Felon in Possession of Firearm Penalty, passed the House on a  53-11 vote. The measure would increase penalties for felons found in possession of a firearm. People with felony convictions would face five years in prison if found with a gun or destructive device. A repeat offense could lead to nine years behind bars.

Links to quoted news sources are here:

https://nmbilltracker.com/allbills

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/legislature/roundhouse-roundup-guns-on-playgrounds-drug-price-transparency/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/capitol-recap-here-s-what-happened-at-the-legislature-on-friday/article_87ecc59c-c7a3-11ee-9bf7-b7fe94f0f0da.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/capitol-recap-heres-what-happened-at-the-legislature-on-wednesday/article_6057708e-c61a-11ee-84c3-a387919b874a.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/capitol-recap-here-s-what-happened-at-the-legislature-on-thursday/article_8d94a148-c6dd-11ee-9a5a-b7db8854180d.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/capitol-recap-despite-snow-statehouse-still-buzzing/article_373b3c18-c88f-11ee-9f2c-dfb6ca413793.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

With a mere 3 days left in the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers are having longer days and nights, packed schedules and marathon sessions getting bills through the House and Senate committees and ultimately voting on the chamber floors. Legislation that will likely consume a large percentage of the remaining time is the final enactment of the budget and all the gun control legislation that is still pending and awaiting committee hearings.

It’s clear that the overwhelming majority of the 780 bills and memorials introduced will not make it out of any committees nor be enacted by both chambers by the February 15 at 12:00 noon when the session comes to an end. By and large the entire 2024 thirty day legislative session will go down as accomplishing very little. The biggest news thus far that has come out of the session are the changes made to high school graduation requirements and the fact that the Governor’s gun control package went virtually no where except perhaps the 7 day waiting period and no guns allowed at polling places.

Simply put, trying to squeeze in so much work into a 30 session is crazy and no way to do business.  Too much time is spent on feel good public relations such as introducing family members, watching performances, reciting long memorials, recognizing local sporting teams,  dance groups and organizations, and  singing birthday songs to each other and generally lounging around and talking about other things unrelated to the work at hand.

Thirty day sessions should be a thing of the pass as should be 60 days sessions and a full time, pay legislature with much longer sessions is long overdue but that will likely never happen given the desire to hold on to the quant notion of having a citizen’s part time legislature.

On January 16 the 2024 New Mexico legislative session began at noon and it ends on February 15 at noon.  The 2024 legislative session is a 30-day short session dedicated to financial matters where much of the session is devoted to exclusively approving the state’s annual budget. There are 394 separate House Bills, 317 separate Senate Bills, 18 Senate Joint Resolutions, 15 House Joint Resolutions, 56 House Memorials and 12 Senate Memorials for a whopping 780 bills and memorials that have been introduced for consideration. You can review a listing and the status of all the legislation here:

https://nmbilltracker.com/allbills

With only 6 days remaining of the 2024 session, this blog article reports on the progress made with some of the legislation:

On Wednesday, January 7, House Bill 171 was the first bill to pass both chambers of the New Mexico 2024 legislative session. House Bill 171 as amended is entitled the School Graduation Amendments and it passed the Senate on a 40-0 vote. The bill would update the state’s graduation requirements for its high schoolers, allowing for more student choice while keeping the number of mandated units at 24. House Bill  171 is a renewed version of a bill from last year’s legislative session that passed both the House and Senate but ultimately was vetoed by governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/for-the-second-time-a-bill-to-update-new-mexicos-graduation-requirements-is-headed-to/article_457dd9bc-c61d-11ee-84fa-270e68360ca7.html

House Bill 252  is the  tax omnibus bill and it passed the House on a 48-to-21 vote.  The bill would reduce income taxes for all New Mexicans, with the largest cuts headed to the lowest tax brackets. A competing floor substitute, which proposed a flat 1% personal income tax regardless of income, failed on the floor. The tax omnibus includes a number of tax changes, including energy storage tax deductions, personal income tax restructuring by increasing the amount of tax brackets, adjusting tax rates, and changing income ranges within each bracket, rural healthcare practitioner tax credit, fire recovery tax credits, corporate income tax changes, angel investment tax credit, capital gains deduction, Medicaid home modification gross receipts tax deduction and childcare provider GRT deduction.

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/nmleg/tax-omnibus-passes-house/#:~:text=The%20House%20approved%20a%20tax,from%20Gov.%20Michelle%20Lujan%20Grisham.

Gun-related legislation also made strides in the Roundhouse later in the evening. After some heated opposition from Republicans, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation to set up a seven-day waiting period on firearm sales, and it heads to the floor next.

SENATE PASSED LEGISLATION

The Senate unanimously passed two measures, including a series of proposed general obligation bonds and an act seeking more transparency in drug pricing.

Other legislation that passed the New Mexico Senate are as follows:

Senate Bill 3 know as the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act passed the Senate on February 9 on a  25-15. The bill moves to the House with only six days left in the session. If passed, it will require employees and employers to pay into a state fund that would allow workers to take paid time off when a child is born, for a family emergency, or another kind of medical crisis. Changes discussed centered  around the length of time off workers could take. For maternity and paternity leave, employees can take up to 12 weeks off, but a floor amendment shortened the leave period for medical reasons down to nine weeks. The amendment also changed the leave from calendar year to application year to ensure that employees can’t take more than 12 weeks off in a year. Another change on the Senate floor was adding a required 20-day notice when possible. The Seante  also expanded  the time employees have to pay into this fund before they can apply for paid time off. The original bill only required 90 days but that was expanded to six months, a move that was popular with small business owners. Small business owners argue this bill would be a financial burden on employers and limit the ability of business owners to help out their employees on their own terms.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/senate-floor-debates-paid-family-and-medical-leave-act/

Senate Bill 17, Health Care Delivery and Access Act, 40-0

This bill would impose assessments on most hospitals in the state and reimburse hospitals with the revenue generated.

Senate Bill 21, amended, Local Firefighter Recruitment, 36-0: This bill would appropriate $35 million to a new program the legislation would create within the Department of Finance and Administration focused on firefighter recruitment.

Senate Bill 37 (committee substitution) Meat Inspection Act passed the Senate  38-0. This bill would create a new office — the Office of Meat and Poultry Inspection Director — and give the New Mexico Livestock Board the authority to “ensure the safety and quality of meat and poultry” for consumption, according to the bill’s fiscal impact report. It would also require NMLB to inspect approved meat slaughtering, processing or manufacturing facilities.

Senate Bill 71, sponsored by Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, has passed one Senate Committee and  would create an Office of Housing that would be attached to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. The governor would appoint the office’s director, who would oversee studies on housing issues and work with government agencies and private developers to plan and fund projects.  The office  will require three or four full-time employees, which will be funded from  the Governor’s office budget. The office would be tasked with working hand in hand with the quasi-governmental New Mexico Mortgage Finance (MFA) Authority and other organizations. But according to the the legislative analysis, the Mortgage Finance Authority authority has raised concerns about overlap with the MFA noting the office would duplicate much of the work it already does,” the report said. On February 8,  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham showed up in a Senate committee to push personally for the bill to create a state housing office. The Senate Committee voted 5-4 to advance the bill to the Senate Finance Committee with no recommendation, instead of the more common “do pass” recommendation.

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/nmleg/housing-bill-backed-by-governor-barely-survives-committee-hearing/

Senate Bill 88, Electronic Driver’s License Credentials passed the Senate 38-0. This bill would allow the Motor Vehicle Division to give out electronic drivers licenses.

Senate Bill 106, Declaration of Independence Anniversary, 38-1

This bill would set aside $150,000 for a state semi quincentennial commission to plan and put on celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which is July 4, 2026.

Senate Bill 108, amended, Distribution to Election Fund, passed the Senate 41-0. This bill would create a new distribution from the tax administration suspense fund to the state election fund, with a maximum transfer amount of $15 million.

Senate Bill 116, the  Tobacco Fund is not a Reserve Fund passed 38-0.  The tobacco settlement permanent fund would be removed from the general fund reserves by this bill. The fund was created in 2000 as part of an agreement between the state and big tobacco companies, according to the New Mexico State Investment Council. The bill’s fiscal impact report states removing the fund would allow it to “be invested with higher return targets.”

SENATE BILL 127 known as the Professional Psychologist Act Changes passed 36-0. The bill would give licensed psychologists with a special type of certification to prescribe and administer injections for psychotropic drugs as well as intramuscular and subcutaneous injections. It would also change the structure of the Board of Psychologist Examiners and the committee which reviews complaints against prescribing psychologists.

Senate Bill  129, Cybersecurity Act Changes, passed the Senate 37-0. This bill would amend the Cybersecurity Act, including adopting more cybersecurity rules and standards.

Senate Bill 128, amended, State Fire Retirement, passed the Senate 37-0. This bill would add state fire members to a renamed coverage plan and increase service credit by 20% for state fire members in service on or before June 30, 2013.

Senate Bill 135, Step Therapy Guidelines, passed the Senate  38-2. This bill addresses step therapy and prior authorization. It would regulate how insurers can require patients to use preferred or less expensive medications before moving on to non-preferred or more expensive medication, regardless of health insurance. The bill sponsors say this would make medicine more accessible.

Senate Bill 151, committee substitute, Premium Tax to Emergency Services Fund, passed the Senate  35-0. This bill would send an additional $11 million to the Emergency Medical Services Fund.

Senate Bill 148, Tax and Fee Admin Fees, passed the Senate 34-0. This bill would remove administrative costs and fees withheld by the Taxation and Revenue Department for administration of local government revenues by fiscal year 2029. The fees would continue on certain distributions.

Senate Bill 161, committee substitute, Acute Care Facilities Subsidies, passed the Senate 37-0.  This bill would appropriate $50 million to provide subsidies for 12 hospitals in rural parts of the state.

Senate Bill  204, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Abq.), would make it a fourth-degree felony to carry a gun in a park or on a playground. There would be exceptions for law enforcement while on official duty. The bill is one of several gun-related bills under discussion at the Roundhouse. Others, like a waiting period for gun purchases, have received a fair bit of debate already. But the proposal to keep guns out of parks is just now being scheduled for initial debate in the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee with only a handful of days left in the lawmaking session.

Senate Bill 300, Transportation Project Bonds, 37-0.  This bill would allow for up to $205.8 million in bonding capacity from the severance tax bonding fund and $247 million in state transportation bonds to support certain road projects.

Senate Joint Memorial 2, amended, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Task Force, 30-0: This joint memorial would codify the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relative’s task force.

Senate Joint Resolution 16, County Official Salaries, 37-0.  This joint resolution proposes to amend the state Constitution to remove the cap on county officers’ salaries. If it gets through the House side of the Roundhouse, it goes to voters in the November 2024 election or, if applicable, the next special election.

House Bill 41 known as the Clean Transportation Fuel Standards Act passed the Senate Conservation Committee on February 9  on a party-line 6-3 vote, with Democrats supporting its passage. HB 41 has already passed the House of Representatives on a 36-33 vote and it now heads to the Senate Finance Committee. The bill is intended to lower the carbon intensity of transportation fuels through the use of a carbon credit market. One of the main reasons people have cited for opposing the clean transportation fuels standards is the potential impact to prices at the pump since the states that have enacted clean transportation fuel standards tend to have higher gas prices. Bill sponsor Rep. Kristina Ortez, D-Taos, said the potential benefits of the bill is cleaner air and reduced respiratory illness and she also said the bill would spur economic development. Oriz said this:

“There’s been lots of fear-mongering around the gas prices.”

Robin Vercruse, the executive director of the Low Carbon Fuels Coalition refuted the claim that the bill would spur Eco comic development and said this:

“This claim … is contrary to basic economic theory in supposing that market competition will actually raise prices. …  The compliance cost, in this case the cost of credits in the program, will be passed directly to consumers. Theoretical studies reflect that assumption when they assign a cost per gallon. But here’s the thing: Real world data shows that is not the case. If the cost is passed directly to consumers, gas prices would rise and fall based on credit prices. However, there has been no correlation between credit prices in these programs and gasoline prices. That means these programs do not work in the real world as speculative studies would suppose.”

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/nmleg/clean-transportation-fuel-standards-bill-clears-senate-committee/

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSAGE

The Senate Judiciary passed House Bill 129 as amended and committee substitute on a 6-3 vote.  The Legislation that would enact a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases passed its first and only Senate committee hurdle. It goes to the Senate floor next. Lawmakers also approved amendments to the bill in committee, including exemptions for people with concealed carry licenses, so it’ll later need to go back to the House again for concurrence if passed through the Senate.

HOUSE FLOOR PASSAGE

The following legislation has passed the New Mexico House of Representatives and will be forwarded to the Senate for action:

House Bill  2 and House Bill  3 were combined to form the State Budget. On January 31, halfway through the session, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted 53-16 to send its nearly $10.2 billion 2024-2025 budget spending plan to the New Mexico Senate for approval and perhaps further amendments.

House Bill  7, Healthcare Affordability Fund Distribution, 51-14

The bill would earmark revenue from health insurance premium surtaxes for the health care affordability fund, rather than the general fund. The fund was established in 2021 with the goal of reducing health insurance and medical expenses. Currently, bill sponsor Reena Szczepanski said there is about $108 million in the fund balance.

House Bill  28, Public Project Revolving Fund Projects, 65-0

If passed, the New Mexico Finance Authority would be able to offer loans from the “public project revolving loan fund” to schools, civic organizations, tribes and other state and local government entities. An amendment added some public and charter schools to the list of entities that would be able to apply for loans with the NMFA. The number is capped at 100.

House Bill 29, Public Project Fund Appropriations, 63-0

The bill would appropriate $13 million from the public project revolving loan fund to the drinking water state revolving loan fund, the local government planning fund and the cultural affairs facilities infrastructure fund in amounts of $6 million, $2 million and $5 million, respectively.

House Bill 33, committee substitute, amended, Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act, 67-0.  Drug manufacturers would be required to report certain information, including the annual price increase, manufacturing and marketing costs and revenue from product sales, for prescription drugs that cost more than $400 for a 30-day supply. The data, which would be reported to the New Mexico Office of Superintendent of Insurance, would be used to create policy recommendations to lower drug costs in the future, House Bill 33 is sponsored by a handful of Democratic lawmakers.

House Bill 134, Tribal Education Trust Fund, 68-0

This bill would create a trust fund to build education capacity for Native American students, including developing culturally relevant curricula and bolstering Native language programs. The current draft of the state budget bill sets aside $50 million for the fund, but sponsor Lente says the aim is to double that.

House Bill 252, committee substitute, Adjust Income Tax Bracket (House tax package), 48-21: The House’s tax omnibus bill includes changes to the income tax structure as well as a handful of tax credits and deductions for certain New Mexicans.

House Bill 270, Higher Ed Tech Enhancement Fund Provisions, 62-1

The bill primarily would clarify the requirements for the tech enhancement fund for research institutions in the state, stating that the below colleges are, in fact, eligible to receive funding awards. The University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and Navajo Technical University would be able to use technology enhancement fund dollars to match federal and private grants. An amendment removed a $70 million appropriation attached to the original bill.

House Bill 308, General Obligation Bonds, 67-0: The bill proposed $289.6 million in general obligation bonds, $30.4 million of which would head to senior citizen facilities around the state, $19 million to libraries, $229.6 million for education projects and $10 million for the state Department of Information Technology to improve its public safety radio communications system.

Links to quoted news sources:

https://nmbilltracker.com/allbills

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/legislature/roundhouse-roundup-guns-on-playgrounds-drug-price-transparency/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/capitol-recap-here-s-what-happened-at-the-legislature-on-friday/article_87ecc59c-c7a3-11ee-9bf7-b7fe94f0f0da.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/capitol-recap-heres-what-happened-at-the-legislature-on-wednesday/article_6057708e-c61a-11ee-84c3-a387919b874a.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/capitol-recap-here-s-what-happened-at-the-legislature-on-thursday/article_8d94a148-c6dd-11ee-9a5a-b7db8854180d.html

GOVERNOR’S GUN, CRIME PACKAGE STALLED AND WILL LIKELY FAIL

On February 9, the Santa Fe New Mexico in a an article  written by it staff reporter Robert Nott, reported that much of the Governors’ gun and crime package is stalled and will not be enacted. Below is an edited version of the article:

“Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham started the year with high hopes of making a dent in the crime and gun violence that disproportionately seem to plague New Mexico. Her 21-point package included both stricter gun laws and tough-on-crime initiatives. Taken together, the governor said during a news conference in January, the bills comprised the “largest, most comprehensive package” of such bills in the history of the Legislature. Maybe so, but with this year’s 30-day session set to end at noon on Thursday, most of them seem to be some distance from the finish line.

“We’re getting late in the session; we only have a week to go,” Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, said in an interview  … . Chandler has her name on two gun bills:

1. One to make it easier to take guns away from people who might threaten themselves or others,

     2.  One to go after gun sellers whose weapons end up in the wrong hands 

[Both bills] have stalled and may not get restarted. … Both are in a holding pattern just outside the landing field known as the House floor. It could be difficult to get either bill through the House and then over to the Senate for vetting and support, she said, for one reason: “They are going to be racing against the clock.”

That clock is ticking away and those bills are among more than 750 pieces of legislation introduced in this year’s session. They are fighting for attention against a raft of bills that have nothing to do with crime or guns, including approving a budget for the coming fiscal year.  In short, it’s priority time, and a lot of things are going to be left stuck behind in the mud.

What you will see now, said Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, is a focus on the budget and capital outlay bills, meaning “some of the other issues will fall by the wayside and they won’t have a chance to make it.”  Still, he said he expects long Senate floor sessions Friday and Saturday in an effort to move some bills forward, including gun-related legislation. “Gun safety and gun issues will take up quite a bit of time,” he said in an interview.

Rep. Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, also expressed optimism some crime bills can make it. “I think we’ll be on the floor a lot, I think we can still do it,” she said. On the other hand she, like most Republicans and some conservative Democrats, is less enamored of supporting any new gun laws that, as they see it, violate the right to bear arms. “I don’t want any of the gun bills [to get through],” she said in an interview.

A bill to put a seven-day waiting period on gun sales has passed the House and seems to have a chance in the Senate, where it could get a floor vote soon. Another bill to ban guns at polling places has already passed the Senate and is working its way through the House. However, others — such as Chandler’s and one from Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, to ban certain types of guns and high-capacity magazines — seem to have entered a legislative black hole, which is often what has happened in past sessions with proposals to tighten New Mexico’s gun laws.

“Public safety continues to be a top concern for New Mexicans,” Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Maddy Hayden wrote in an email, citing the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce’s recent 2024 Voter Pulse survey. She noted that the waiting period bill was moving through the Legislature but said much more needs to be done.

Hayden wrote this:

“While this is a significant piece of legislation that will save lives, dozens of other pieces of critical public safety legislation [are] stalled. It is unacceptable that other common-sense gun safety legislation, increasing criminal penalties for violent offenders and keeping dangerous individuals behind bars pending trial are not receiving the attention the public is demanding and that it deserves. We urge the Legislature to take up these bills immediately.”

Tara Mica, state director for the National Rifle Association, who has been lobbying on behalf of the group at the Roundhouse for about 25 years, said what’s happening this year is nothing new. Bills that strengthen criminal penalties, she said, often don’t have a “strong shelf life. … They get buried in committee up here. That’s not just this session. That’s been happening for decades.”

Albuquerque pollster and political analyst Brian Sanderoff said at this point in the legislative game, if it becomes clear a bill does not have the support of the majority of the Legislature or the strong support of a committee chair it will likely “die just because time is running out.” 

Several crime-fighting measures supported by the governor have already been killed in committees, such as one giving judges and prosecutors more leeway to detain those suspected of violent crimes behind bars until their trial and one that would crack down on panhandling. Other bills in the governor’s public safety package are still waiting to get a committee hearing.

A few of those could still break out, said Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque. Rehm, a retired police officer, has pushed unsuccessfully for a number of crime-fighting initiatives in past years, including raising the penalties for felons caught in possession of a firearm. Though that piece of legislation, House Bill 315, seemed to have no chance throughout the first three weeks of this session, it is scheduled to get its first hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on Friday. Rehm said this  in an interview

“I think we’re going to get maybe one of my bills through.”

Sanderoff said it is premature to assume any bill cannot be driven to the finish line in the last week of the session. He said if Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, and Democratic lawmakers in both parties want a bill to succeed, “there is still time to get it through the legislative process.”

Rehm agrees.

“We can move something in a couple of days if we decide we need it,” he said.”

The link to the full article is here:

https://nmpoliticalreport.com/nmleg/with-less-than-a-week-left-much-of-governors-gun-crime-package-seems-stalled/

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

With a mere 7 days left in the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers will l be having longer days and nights, packed schedules and marathon sessions getting bills through the House and Senate committees and ultimately voting on the chamber floors. Legislation that will likely consume a large percentage of the remaining time is all the gun control legislation that is still pending and awaiting committee hearings.

Chances are the overwhelming majority of the 780  bills and memorials  introduced will not make it out of any committees nor be enacted by February 15 at 12:00 noon when the session comes to an end. Simply put, trying to squeeze in so much work into a 30 session is crazy and no way to do business. 30 day sessions should be a thing of the pass as should be 60 days sessions and a full time, pay legislature with much longer  sessions is long overdue.

The links to related blog articles are here

https://www.petedinelli.com/2024/01/30/2024-nm-legislative-update-14-waiting-day-period-for-gun-sales-passes-2-committees-reputable-presumption-killed-in-committee-third-year-in-row/

2024 NM LEGISLATIVE UPDATE ON GUN CONTROL: 14 Waiting Day Period For Gun Sales Passes 2 Committees; Rebuttable Presumption Killed In Committee; No Guns At Polling Places Passes Senate

On Friday January 19, it was reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed search warrants and raided 3 homes of Albuquerque Police officers and the home and the law office of prominent DWI criminal defense attorney Thomas Clear, III.  All 6 are allegedly involved in a bribery and conspiracy scheme spanning a decade to dismiss DWI cases. DA Sam Bregman ordered the dismissed 159 DWI cases because of the scandal and the Albquerquerqu Police Department has opened its own criminal investigation with an Internal Affairs investigation of the 5 officers.

The 5 cops implicated have been identified as  Honorio Alba Jr., Joshua Montaño, Nelson Ortiz, Harvey Johnson and Lt. Justin Hunt with all placed on paid administrative leave. The FBI searched the homes of Alba and Johnson and the law offices of Thomas Clear III and the home of Clear’s paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez. The US Department of Justice and US Attorney’s office have confirmed the APD police officers and the criminal defense attorney are at the center of a federal investigation involving the dismissal of hundreds of pending DWI criminal cases by the APD Officers ostensibly for some sort of remuneration to have the cases dismissed.

NEWS UPDATE:  On February 9 it was reported that APD Lt. Justin Hunt  resigned from APD. He was one of five officers placed on leave about two weeks ago. The police department confirmed Hunt worked in the DWI unit from 2011 to 2014. Review of cases dismissed revealed Hunt’s name came up in 18 DWI cases since 2011 with 15 of those were tossed out.  Court records also  show Thomas Clear III, who advertises himself as a criminal defense lawyer, was Hunt’s attorney in a 2014 divorce.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/albuquerque-metro/albuquerque-police-lieutenant-resigns-amid-investigation-into-dwi-unit/

NEWS UPDATE: On February 29 it was reported that APD Officer Honorio Alba Jr. resigned. Alba was  honored for his work against drunk driving last year. The group known as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, named him New Mexico Officer of the Year in 2023.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/apd-dwi-officer-under-federal-probe-resigns/

DWI DEFENSE ATTORNEY THOMAS CLEAR III HAD 88% DISMISSAL RATE  INVOLVING  OFFICERS UNDER INVESTIGATION

On January 3, the Albuquerque Journal published on its front page an extensive article with the banner headline “Attorney, five officers and a pattern” written by its staff reporters Matthew Reisen and Colleen Heild.  Following are pertinent, edited excerpts of the article:

“Defense attorney Thomas Clear III was better than most at getting DWI cases dismissed. He had become well-known for it among clients and peers, as well as for his higher fee to handle such cases. … [A] Journal analysis of cases dating back more than a decade reveals that Clear’s above-average dismissal rate in DWI cases nearly doubled when the cases were filed by a select group of DWI officers with the Albuquerque Police Department.

Both Clear and those officers saw plenty of other cases go to trial, end in plea agreements or be deferred, records show. When they were on the docket together — almost 9 out of 10 times [or 88%] — it appears as if Clear’s clients couldn’t lose. More than 100 DWI cases reviewed by the Journal appear to follow a pattern: five specific officers dropping the ball — in a variety of ways — almost exclusively when Clear was the defense attorney.

…

A look at [Clear’s] track record in Albuquerque’s Metro Court shows:

Clear was listed as the defense attorney in 86 DWI cases that were resolved or closed from Jan. 1, 2021, to Nov. 1, 2023, in which he won dismissals of the client’s charges 45% of the time, or 39 cases. A primary reason for dismissals involved the officers failing to appear in court or their unavailability to testify. Others were dismissed because of issues with the evidence or because the six-month rule had expired.

The dismissal rate, in general, for DWI cases filed in Bernalillo County hovered between 26% and 30% over that same time period, according to statistical reports gathered by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

When considering Clear’s cases with the five officers under federal scrutiny, the dismissal rate spiked to 88%.  Clear’s dismissal numbers don’t include the 152 misdemeanor cases dismissed by Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office because they involved the four APD officers who have been recently flagged for potential credibility issues.

During their time with the DWI unit, officers Alba, Johnson, Montaño, Ortiz and Lt. Hunt had plenty of cases that weren’t dismissed when other defense attorneys were on the case. Those typically ended in guilty verdicts at trial, deferred sentences and plea agreements. Hunt no longer handles DWI cases.

However, of the 104 cases those arresting officers filed and Clear defended — dating back to 2009 — 92 were dismissed. Montaño had 42 of the cases, Alba had 27, Hunt had 25, Ortiz had six and Johnson had four.  Many of the cases were dismissed after the officers missed pretrial interviews. There also were dismissals for not providing discovery and not meeting court deadlines. …  . ”

The link to read the entire unedited Journal article is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/attorney-had-high-dwi-dismissal-rate-with-officers-under-investigation/article_938b75a4-bc60-11ee-9134-4b51cfcb273c.html

40 MORE CASES DISMISSED

On February 6, it was reported that  40 more cases have been dismissed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office in connection to the FBI investigation into accusations that members of the Albuquerque Police Department’s DWI Unit were getting paid to get cases dismissed. The latest case dismissals include some repeat DWI offenders. The cases had nothing to do with drunk driving. One was for aggravated fleeing from an officer and the other was for drug possession. The cases are ones the DA’s Office said it can’t prosecute now due to the officer’s credibility being called into question.

All of the dismissed cases were filed by DWI-unit officers Honorio Alba Jr., Joshua Montaño, Harvey Johnson Jr. and Nelson Ortiz are being investigated by the FBI and APD in a corruption probe. All 5 police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave during the federal investigation. Criminal  defense attorney Thomas Clear III and his paralegal, Ricardo “Rick” Mendez are also  targets of the federal investigation. An analysis of the cases file by  the officers and where the case were  dismissed revealed that the cases were dismissed exclusively when Clear was the criminal defense attorney.

https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/more-cases-dismissed-in-connection-to-albuquerque-police-dwi-scandal/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/bernalillo-district-attorney-has-now-dismissed-195-dwi-cases-related-to-apd-corruption-probe/article_f3e4df12-c54d-11ee-b075-bbc990fa9043.html

APD INVESTGATION TEAM ANNOUNCED

On Friday, February 2, APD Chief Harold Medina held a press conference to address the “ongoing administrative investigation” involving  159 DWI case dismissals and the 5 police officers implicated in the DWI dismissal scheme. Medina said  “We are looking at everyone in the department who may have had a role in the alleged scheme among DWI officers.”

Medina announced he chose Commander Kyle Hartsock, who oversees APD’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, to head up the investigation into the five officers.  Medina said Hartsock, who previously worked for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office, has an “outside perspective with no ties to current or former DWI officers.”  Medina also said he has “hand chosen” the group to investigate made up of Hartsock and Deputy Commanders Josh Hawkes and Ken Johnston and none have any history with the DWI unit.  Medina said Hartsock has daily calls with the FBI and  passes  along any criminal findings to the federal agency as the internal probe continues.

Medina said this:

“We wanted our best investigative team, and we know that so much of our great investigations have come out of our violent crime section, so I just want to announce that Commander Hartsock will be the commander who’s in charge of this investigation.”

Commander Kyle Hartsock for his part said this:

“We will ensure that any officer or any personnel belonging to the city of Albuquerque that was either involved in any part of this scheme, or knew about it and didn’t report it, will be held accountable.”

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/albuquerque-police-outline-history-of-dwi-case-outcomes/article_31716d9c-c06b-11ee-84da-7fbcb7fceffb.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

TIME LINE OF CASES DISMISSED

The federal investigation surrounds accusations of APD  officers being paid to get DWI cases dismissed. During the February 2 press conference, Chief Harold Medina spoke in general terms about the dismissal of cases. He said he  learned about the claims involving the DWI Unit  in December of 2022 but it wasn’t until over a year in October of 2023 that he  called  the FBI about the cases.

Chief Medina confirmed that the DWI Unit’s members are being investigated, but he would not confirm specifically what the officers are accused of actually doing. Notwithstanding, Chief Medina said one way a DWI case gets dismissed is by police officers simply not showing up to court hearings. The chief said every missed court notice received is looked into. Medina said the problem is an officer missing court hasn’t always triggered a notice or that notice hasn’t always gone to the right place.

During the February 2 press conference, Chief Medina presented the following  timeline of APD’s total DWI cases and the cases dismissed:

• 2015: 21% of 1,753 DWI cases were dismissed or 375 cases.
• 2016:20% of 1,339 DWI cases were dismissed or 268 cases.
• 2017: 40% of 1,291 DWI cases were dismissed or 527 cases.
• 2018:40% of 1,422 DWI cases were dismissed or 576 cases.
• 2019:43% of 1,633 DWI cases were dismissed or 711 cases, but Internal Affairs started to track all missed court dates
• 2020:33% of 1,133 DWI cases were dismissed or 378 cases.
• 2021: 37% of 1,103 DWI cases were dismissed or 410 cases.
• March 2022: Pretrial interview standards changed after APD requested help over shortage of officers/officers being stuck in court
• 2022:19% of 1,020 DWI cases were dismissed or 196 cases.
• 2023:3% of 1,027 DWI cases were dismissed or 35 cases.
• 2024:There are 7 open Internal Affairs investigations

Between 2015 and 2018, an average of 436 DWI cases were dismissed annually. In 2019, APD’s Internal Affairs Unit (IA) began investigating all missed court hearings. This was as a result of changes in APD’s federally mandated reform efforts under the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA). Since 2019, Internal Affairs has investigated 304 times when an officer missed a hearing and confirmed misconduct in 163, or 54%, of those instances.

In 2019, there were 103 Internal Affairs investigations, the highest yearly total, with 29 of them confirmed misconduct. In the years that followed and with the Bernalillo County the District Attorney’s Office briefly put in charge of pretrial interviews of police officers, the investigations into missed hearings ebbed and flowed.

2020 saw 78 investigations with 43 sustained, and 2021 saw 37 investigations with 24 sustained. In March 2022, the New Mexico Supreme Court suspended pretrial interviews. That year, there were 75 investigations into missed hearings, with 56 of them, or 75%, sustained.

Hartsock said some of the investigations into dismissals were not sustained because the officer had a good reason to miss the hearing. If an investigation into an officer’s missed hearing found misconduct, they would be subject to a letter of reprimand.

For every additional sustained misconduct, the discipline moved up to a more serious level. A Discipline Level 1 is a “termination” for cause.  In 2023, the investigations into dismissals plummeted to 4 cases, with each one being sustained.

Medina declined to say if any of the sustained cases involved the officers being investigated by APD and the FBI. He added that, so far, he has not seen “a great pattern” of sustained violations against the officers.

Albuquerque police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos  said APD received no notices of officers’ missing court dates in 2023. Gallegos said the notices stopped coming in “at some point” after September 2022.

Links to quoted news sources with statistics are here:

APD’s full press conference involving FBI Investigation, Feb. 2

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/albuquerque-police-department-to-provide-timeline-of-dwi-dismissal-scandal/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/albuquerque-police-outline-history-of-dwi-case-outcomes/article_31716d9c-c06b-11ee-84da-7fbcb7fceffb.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

APD HAD NO SYSTEM TO TRACK OFFICERS FAILURE TO APPEAR IN COURT 

During the February 2 press conference, APD Chief Medina asserted  DWI cases have long involved a game for defense attorneys to get cases dismissed as defense attorneys  push for multiple continuances until an officer misses a hearing and the case is dismissed by the courts for the prosecution failure to appear with  a witness.  Medina also admitted APD  has not had reliable system or  records of whether APD officers were showing up to court hearings.

APD policy is clear and it dictates a “missed court notice” should be generated when there is a failure to appear by a police officer. According to APD’s standard operating procedure, a supervisor in the department’s court services unit is supposed to review and a “failure to appear email” is supposed to be generated and entered in the internal affairs database if there wasn’t a valid reason for not showing up to court.  Medina said this simply does not always happen and he said “This has been a constant struggle.”

While Medina admitted APD has not had its own reliable system of tracking when officers don’t show up to court, he pointed toward a failure, or a systems gap, of more than a year by  the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office system that notified APD  when officers missed court.  Medina said APD stopped getting emails from the DA’s office in September 2022, claiming the DA’s office told APD at the time their system “crashed” or “failed.” Medina said this:

“We’re not gonna get into details, but yes, we are working to figure out why we weren’t getting as many notifications or where our notifications are going. That look at it. Not pointing fingers anywhere. We just don’t know,”

Spokespersons for both current DA Sam Bregman and his predecessor former DA Raúl Torrez said all communication about officers failing to appear is a simply a courtesy.  Both said it’s not up to them to tell APD what their officers are doing or not doing.  A spokesperson DA Sam Bregman said the office has consistently contacted officers directly if they failed to appear. A spokesperson for former DA Raúl Torrez said they were letting the law enforcement agency itself know. The metro court does  have a check-in system  which is offered as a courtesy, but it does not track which officers are repeatedly not showing up for court.

Medina credited the changes made in 2022 for curbing the number of dismissed cases. Medina said this:

“I’m asking the community to bank on the trust that we’ve built over the past several years, and give us time. It gives us time to get to the bottom of exactly what is occurring, ,,, We are looking at everyone in the department who may have had a role in the alleged scheme among DWI officers. … If this misconduct occurred for a decade or longer, we are going to get to the bottom of it.”

Links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/investigations/albuquerque-police-didnt-receive-notice-officers-missed-court-for-16-months/?ipid=promo-link-block1

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/albuquerque-police-department-to-provide-timeline-of-dwi-dismissal-scandal/

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/was-there-a-system-to-track-apd-officer-court-appearances/

MEDINA BLAMES DA OFFICE

On February 1, APD Chief Harold Medina sent an 8 page single space letter to the Albuquerque City Council attempting to answer questions they had raised.  Medina identified one particular problem that he believed contributed to the dismissal of DWI cases and wrote this:

“Another shortfall in the criminal justice system has traditionally been the lack of ‘accountability for tracking missed appearances in court. The District Attorney’s Office currently has the responsibility to notify APD of missed appearances. … “

DA BREGMAN SLAPS DOWN CHIEF  MEDINA

On February 6, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, after reviewing Medina’s February 1 letter to the City Council,  issued a  strongly worded statement that reads in part:

“In a letter dated February 1, 2024, to the City Council, the Chief of Police stated “the District Attorney’s Office currently has the responsibility to notify APD of missed appearances.” This is simply not true and has never been true. The Federal DWI investigation is about alleged misconduct by DWI police officers. Instead of focusing on that issue, the Chief is blaming the District Attorney’s Office, the Law Office of the Public Defender, and the Metropolitan Court for the dysfunction and mismanagement of his DWI unit. 

… .”

BERNALILLO COUNTY METROPOLITAN COURT ISSUES STATEMENT

On January 25, the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court issued the following statement regarding its “Officer Check-In System” on DWI cases:

“Being that it is not the Court’s responsibility to get witnesses to hearings, Metro Court does not currently have a system in place to notify law enforcement of officers’ attendance in court. However, just this week, the Metropolitan Court was asked by local law enforcement to develop such a system as a courtesy. It’s important to remember that most court records are public records in which specific dismissal information, if applicable, can be found through various resources such as through the court’s website or by visiting the courthouse.

… .

Realizing that officers are often scheduled in multiple courtrooms at once, the Metropolitan Court continues to utilize its “Officer Check-In System,” which the court developed in 2007. Through it, officers can “check-in” at one of the court’s kiosks as they enter the courthouse or check in online if appearing for a virtual hearing. Judges, staff, and attorneys are then able to use the system to see, in real time, if an officer has checked in and in which courtrooms an officer is scheduled to appear. Law enforcement court services liaisons are able to update the system from outside of the courthouse to notify judges and courtroom staff if, for example, an officer is running late or ill. Metro Court is one of only a handful of courts in the country with this technology.”

Link to quoted source material is here:

https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-update-fbi-investigation/46630667

FBI INVESTIGATION LIKELY IMPACT ON DOJ CONSENT DECREE

On November 16, 2023, it was a full 9 years that has expired since the city entered into the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) with the Department of Justice (DOJ) after the DOJ found a “culture of aggression” and a pattern of excessive force and deadly force.  Over the last 9 years, APD has devoted thousands of manhours, the city has spent millions of dollars on the reform process, creating and staffing entire divisions and roles and rewriting policies and procedures.

The Court appointed Federal Monitor has been paid millions and has performed extensive audits on APD’s performance measures and has  filed 18 audit reports on APD’s implementation of the reforms.  APD is now on the verge of being in full compliance of the reforms that will result in the case being dismissed.

Damon Martinez is the former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico who negotiated the consent decree with the city of Albuquerque and APD. After he left office, he went to work for APD as a policy advisor, he no longer works for the city and is a candidate for Bernalillo County District Attorney. On February 2, Martinez said the FBI investigation of the 5 APD officers  could be a setback for consent decree compliance delaying the dismissal of the case.

Based upon the facts that are known publicly right now, Martinez believes that the court will want to go back and look at two specific areas of the consent decree reforms:

1. The specialized unit section, which would involve the DWI Unit. Martinez said this “Does APD have information that their officers are not showing up to court? Is that information showing that there’s violations by certain officers of that standard operating procedure? And then what is APD doing about it,”
2. Misconduct, specifically how internal affairs operated when they got news of possible wrongdoing by officers. Martinez said this: “I believe the court is going to look at what APD did with that information specifically. Was Internal Affairs advised and how did they conduct themselves?”

https://www.koat.com/article/federal-investigations-impact-on-albuquerque-police-doj-agreement/46601193

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Great emphasis has been placed on the number of DWI cases  dismissed and the failed system of being able to track none appearances by the police. What seems to have been placed on the back burner is to what extent the corruption goes into APD and exactly how much or what remuneration was paid the get the cases dismissed.

QUESTIONS NEEDING ANSWERING

As the FBI criminal investigation continues, there are at least 3 unanswered questions that must be addressed by the investigation:

1. Did APD Chief Harold Medina, the Deputy Chiefs or Commanders, Lieutenants or Sergeants withhold information about the DWI Unit from the Federal Court monitor believing they could contain the scandal and resolve it on their own? Full compliance and dismissal of the Department Consent will likely be affected by the scandal. What is downright pathetic is how hundreds of DWI cases were dismissed and went totally undetected by the Federal Monitor.   It’s hard to believe that no one reported the problem to the monitor and his auditing team.
2. Exactly what remuneration was paid by the defense attorney to the cops to get the cases dismissed? Was it cash or some other benefit paid, such as airline tickets, high end tickets to sporting events or entertainment event tickets or lavish trips?
3. The police union contract mandates the payment of a minimum of two hours overtime pay at “time and a half” for schedule court appearances. Did the accused police officers claim time and a half for court appearances that they never attended, or agreed not to attend, as they were paid by the defense attorney?

It is clear that he Albuquerque City Council should demand a full audit of APD by the Internal Audit Department or the Inspector General and of overtime paid to the police officers implicated.

MEDINA’S POLITICAL SPIN

Ever since this scandal broken on January 19 with the execution of the search warrants,  APD Chief Harold  Medina has been in full “politcal  spin cycle” mode of “pivot, deflect, take credit and lay blame” with his interviews.  His February 2 press conference was a continuation of it. Medina takes credit for the investigation and taking action to hold people accountable for the corruption when it was in fact the federal investigation that forced his hand after he allowed the problem to fester.

APD Chief Harold Medina has admitted that the APD bribery and conspiracy scheme has gone on the entire 6 years he has been in charge of APD both a Deputy Chief and now as Chief.  As the Deputy Chief assigned Field Services by Chief Geier, Medina was directly in charge of the APD DWI unit, but Medina  failed to detect what was going on. Medina is known to be a micro manager and it difficult to believe nor understand that at no time did he ever get information regarding the nefarious conduct of the DWI unit.

OPVERTIME PAY ABUSES

There have been no less than 7 audits documenting the corruption, waste, fraud and abuse in APD police overtime over the past 8 years with one audit done by none other than former State Auditor Tim Keller. Keller and Medina have done nothing to curb the overtime pay abuse and there have been no prosecutions for time card fraud or overtime pay abuse by police officers, especially those assigned to the DWI Unit, even when found by the audits. In fact, there have been many APD Officers in the DWI unit who have been listed over the years as being in the top paid 250 city hall paid employees earing anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 or 2 or 3 times their annual salary. One of the 5 APD officer identified in the current scandal was assigned to the DWI and paid over $124,000 because of excessive overtime.

KELLER AND MEDINA MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR SCANDAL

APD’s reputation has been trashed to a major extent by the scandal. APD will be viewed by many as having another bastion of “dirty and corrupt cops” who have brought dishonor to their department and the department’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness and Respect”.  The whole scandal places an ethical stain on the department that may never be removed. This is before any charges have been filed, before any one is fired from APD and before we ever know who is responsible. The public must demand that there be a thorough criminal investigation of the police officers involved in the crimes and the APD command staff who should have known what was going on

Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Harold Medina have made more than a few stunning admissions. They admit that the APD bribery and conspiracy scheme went on the entire 6 years they have been in charge of APD but they never detected what was going on.  Both admitted that only after they found out the FBI was investigating APD, the decision was made to initiate a city criminal and internal affairs investigation and to proclaim cooperation with the FBI.   Medina admitted that he knew about the corruption as far back as December 2022 when APD first got a complaint related to the department’s DWI unit, yet he waited and essentially did nothing for a full year. 

Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Medina must be held accountable and responsible for what has happened.  Until Mayor Tim Keller and his administration and for that matter the City Council take aggressive action to deal with this latest APD crisis, APD’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness And Respect” are meaningless words on a wall. The first step to restore APD’s reputation is the immediate termination of Chief Harold Medina. The Albuquerque City Council needs to take any action to hold APD Chief Harold Medina and his command staff accountable for this latest scandal.