EDITORIAL: CYFD needed leadership; Justice Vigil can deliver

Aug. 17—As problems mounted at the Children, Youth and Families Department, it appeared the departure of Secretary Brian Blalock would only be a matter of time. It was. The clock on his administration struck midnight last week when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the California lawyer she had recruited to run the perennially troubled agency was out and retired Supreme Court Justice Barbara Vigil of Santa Fe would assume command in October.

The governor described Blalock's departure as a "mutually agreed-upon decision." Blalock's continued leadership became untenable as it accumulated baggage that ranged from lawsuits alleging horrific bungling in two child abuse cases, to whistleblower claims of procurement shenanigans, to the agency's use of technology platforms that engaged in systematic electronic destruction of public records. A Journal editorial June 17 asked in a headline, "Governor, should CYFD chief stay, go?"

So the "mutually agreed-upon decision" was the right one. And so was the governor's tapping of Vigil to head the agency, which has more than 1,000 full-time employees and an annual budget of roughly $170 million.

Vigil, 62, retired at the end of June after 21 years on the state district court and Supreme Court.

She said in an interview in June she felt it was time to "pivot and evolve to determine how I might serve our state in another role." She found one, and it's a good fit. She served as Children's Court judge in Santa Fe District Court for 10 years and helped create juvenile justice boards in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties. Vigil said she "found it impossible not to advocate for new ways to improve our system in order to better serve our children."

While pointing to accomplishments in the last two years that included cutting the vacancy rate for front-line caseworkers and reducing the backlog of child abuse investigations, the governor acknowledged administrative "missteps" at the agency. One of those was use of an app that was set to auto-delete conversations — raising heated objections from open government and child welfare advocates. Lujan Grisham says she put a stop to it when it came to her attention.

Meanwhile, two whistleblowers, Cliff and Debra Gilmore, have filed a complaint with the state attorney general, state auditor and Ethics Commission alleging Blalock and a deputy devised a way to make Binti Inc. of Oakland, Calif., a sole-source provider on an estimated $45 million information systems upgrade. The Gilmores say in a lawsuit they were fired for raising questions about Binti along with other issues concerning transparency.

The agency also is facing lawsuits over the death of James Dunklee Cruz, a 4-year-old Albuquerque boy beaten to death by a friend of his mother, and the case of a Romanian couple whose four children — ages infant to 4 — were taken into custody and then returned to the parents over objections of a foster parent and some CYFD workers. Shortly after, the infant was abandoned at a North Carolina hospital, blind and with a fractured skull and brain damage.

"CYFD's job is to keep children safe, so if they can't figure out a way to prevent these mistakes that are sometimes fatal they need to revamp their system," said attorney Sara Crecca. "That's their single job."

Beginning in October, that job will be done under the direction of former Justice Vigil, who said last week "the health and well-being of our children is critical to our future." Mariana Padilla, director of the state Children's Cabinet in the Governor's Office, will serve as interim.

At the news conference announcing her appointment,Vigil noted the need to strike a balance by being as transparent as possible while still abiding by confidentiality requirements. "We must be open and responsible to the public with respect to how we investigate and the processes we follow to make sure we are caring for the public's trust," she said. That's the right tone. This job would be a huge challenge for anyone, but Barbara Vigil has the credentials to indicate she's the right person to take it on.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.