County Commission Extends Contract with CoreCivic and Identifies Incoming County Manager

The September 25, 2024, meeting of the Torrance County Commissioners ("TCC") addressed:

1. Estancia Mayor Nathan Dial's concerns regarding the Torrance County Sheriff threatening to arrest him for attending a meeting of the Torrance County Republican Party at the McIntosh Senior Center;
2. the Torrance County Fire Department ("TCFD") labor union's request that the county sign the collective bargaining agreement with the union;
3. The management of upcoming and past elections by the Torrance County Clerk's Office;
4. The hiring of staff for Torrance County Dispatch;
5. New staff for accountability of personnel and equipment for TCFD;
6. The creation of a Division Chief of Training position for TCFD;
7. The hiring of an executive assistant for the Torrance County Fair Board;
8. The extension of the county's contractual relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") and CoreCivic;
9. The hiring of Jordan Barela as county manager for Torrance County; and,
10. Contractual issues related to well-digging and the Manzano Mutual Domestic Water Association.

Public Comment

Estancia Mayor Nathan Dial spoke during public comment about the McIntosh Senior Center. Specifically, he addressed an incident during which Sheriff David Frazee had threatened to arrest him for being in the McIntosh Senior Center "on behalf of the [Torrance County] Republican Party." Dial said he wanted to explore Torrance County's plan for the senior center and whether the center would revert to the county as per an ordinance. He said that he also wants to place an item on the November 2024 agenda regarding the operation of the McIntosh Senior Center.

Julie Fill, a representative of the Torrance County Fire Department labor union, Association of Professional Firefighters of Torrance County, International Association of Firefighters ("IAFF") Local 5441, urged the county commission to sign the collective bargaining agreement with the union, citing the recent salary increase provided to the county's dispatchers.

Immigration Law Lab ("ILL") representative Tiffany Wang spoke on behalf of an immigrant seeking asylum. ILL representative Ian Philebaum delivered a translated version of the statement. After this, PJ Podesta of ILL said that the county was still seeking to renew its contract with ICE and CoreCivic even though he said that advocates had provided evidence of alleged physical harm suffered by detainees at the facility. Podesta invited people to visit a website to see his organization's position statement.

The Upcoming General Election

Torrance County Clerk Linda Jaramillo spoke about the upcoming presidential election. She included voter registration statistics for Torrance County. Jaramillo spoke of threats to herself and election workers, as well as emergency responses to election violence planned for by Torrance County. Specifically, TCSO will cycle through polling locations to check on polling workers and to address the risk of an active shooter at polling locations. Specifically, Jaramillo stated that there had been issues at the Moriarty Civic Center in the past and that she had asked Moriarty Police to provide coverage at the civic center.

Torrance County Dispatch Hiring

The commission returned to a request from the county dispatch office to hire a deputy director or an administrative assistant for the county dispatch office. At the August 28, 2024, meeting of the TCC, Commissioner McCall said that he thought neither was appropriate and that dispatch should "just buckle down" and do their jobs. In the present meeting, Commissioner Schwebach said that he did not want to favor dispatch over other offices for county public safety. However, Schwebach said, this was the first time that dispatch had come up with solutions to being overloaded. Commissioner McCall asked whether the costs would come from the dispatch budget only. Schwebach confirmed that would be the case. The commissioners unanimously voted to approve dispatch's request to hire an administrative assistant.

Torrance County Fire Department

Tablet Command

The commissioners addressed a request to approve Tablet Command software for Torrance County Fire & Rescue, which will allow for real-time staff and equipment accountability. They deferred their action on this request because of potential amendments to the contract between TCFD and Tablet Command. Fire Chief James Winham said that without this software, it would be challenging to maintain personnel accountability because it was a safety issue for firefighters. The commissioners approved this contract unanimously.

Division Chief of Training for Fire/EMS

Winham asked the TCC to approve the creation of a position of Division Chief of Training for Fire/EMS. Winham said that the department was penalized during its ISO review for training issues and believed creating the position would help the department meet standards. Commissioner Schropp asked whether this would facilitate getting volunteer firefighters to more training and whether the cost of having this chief would be cheaper than sending firefighters to other locations for training. Schwebach wanted to know whether the fire department would use a grant to pay for this position, and Winham said that was not allowed by the terms of one particular grant. He stressed the position was not grant-funded. McCall said that using grant funding for other positions in order to afford this position was "just robbing Peter to pay Paul." Finance Director Misty Witt said that this cost would have to come from the general fund and would increase the fire department's budget. Schropp moved to approve the request for this new training chief position at a salary of $65,000/year. The commissioners unanimously approved this motion.

Torrance County Fair Board

The county commissioners addressed a request by the Torrance County Fair Board for the hiring of Hayley Encinias as an administrative assistant. They also approved paying #94,200 to Jessica Love and $79,600 to Sterling Donner for services related to juvenile justice. New Mexico Child, Youth & Family Division funds this program. Commissioner McCall asked why the funding for juvenile females was higher than that for juvenile males. "I'll tell you why," Schwebach joked, "it's because boys are stupid." The commissioners approved using a Responsive Government Election Grant to administer the planning, operation, technology and materials, personnel, and facilities for elections.

Torrance County Detention Facility

The county managers addressed the intergovernmental agreement with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding the Torrance County Detention Facility by extending it to December 31, 2024. The approval was unanimous and without discussion.

Incoming County Manager Jordan Barela

The county commissioners approved the contract for hiring the incoming county manager, Jordan Barela (who is unrelated to Janice Barela, former county manager). Barela is currently the Santa Fe County Housing Authority Board Staff Liaison and Housing Operations Executive Director. His professional history also includes work as a law enforcement officer. Barela spoke before the commissioners and said he was appreciative of the opportunity to work for the county. Acting County Manager Tracy Sedillo said her last day in the county manager role would be Monday, after which point she would be retiring.

Manzano Mutual Domestic Water Association

The commission addressed the Manzano Mutual Domestic Water Association project raised by resident Orlando Lopez. "I don't quite understand what - on the finances, what was paid," said Lopez. He explained that the project was not progressing as anticipated. The contractor for the project had not done certain work related to water meters. "This is where the hiccup comes in," said Schwebach, explaining that during a long meeting in the past, the commissioners approved the funding related to the project. The contractor's work did not include the types of meters and quantity of meters anticipated by the Commissioners, according to Schwebach, then the contractor ran out of money. Grants Administrator Amanda Lujan said that there were problems with the interpretation of the agreement with the contractor, Yearout Mechanical, with a deficit of approximately $27,000 related to the completion of the project in comparison to the funds actually approved for the project. Schwebach said that he was irritated because a national contractor was picked (Yearout is a subsidiary of Legence, a US company headquartered in San Jose, California, that is, in turn, a subsidiary of Blackstone, a multi-national private equity firm that describes itself as an "alternative asset manager" headquartered in New York City; it claims $1.1 trillion in assets under management), and that a local contractor should have been selected to avoid problems with well drilling.