Governor can't fight crime with ineptitude

Jul. 18—Opening day — and closing day — of New Mexico's special legislative session ranged from peculiar to bizarre.

A few Republicans heaped praise on Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for being a gutsy executive eager to fight what they called a crime crisis.

A few Democrats criticized Lujan Grisham for ineffectiveness and failing to do her homework.

Democrats said the governor recycled one crime-fighting proposal that's been a state law for 17 years. Worse, they accused Lujan Grisham's administration of sitting on millions of dollars lawmakers allocated to reduce crime by helping people who are addicts, homeless or mentally ill.

Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a leading liberal in the 112-member Legislature, was tougher than any lawmaker on Lujan Grisham. A Democrat from Albuquerque, Ortiz y Pino homed in on the governor's interest in forced treatment of mentally ill people who break the law.

"We don't have services adequately now for people who want them, who voluntarily would eagerly go into a treatment program but there's no room," Ortiz y Pino said.

His message to fellow senators was plain: Forced treatment is geared only to putting more troubled people in jail cells. It won't reduce addiction, mental illness or crime itself.

Ortiz y Pino hammered Lujan Grisham's administration for doing little to help with treatment, even though legislators have appropriated money to state agencies for that very purpose.

"We gave the Behavioral Health Services Division $20 million to expand services," Ortiz y Pino said. "The $20 million we appropriated three years ago was not spent. We reappropriated it last year, and $2 million of it was spent, maybe."

Sen. Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said the Legislature's Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee welcomed Lujan Grisham's call for a special session on crime, only to find failure after failure in her approach.

"We developed a thoughtful and deliberative process. We scheduled an exhaustive number of interim committee meetings," Cervantes said of legislators. "As time went on, we began to recognize some very serious shortcomings with the proposed legislation."

One difficulty was inconsistency by the governor. Cervantes said assisted outpatient treatment initially was to be part of her agenda for the session. Then her camp withdrew the idea, only to vacillate again.

"It's been a frustrating process. And the reason in large part for me it's been frustrating is the agenda and bills have changed month to month, week to week and hour to hour," Cervantes said. "In the last 24 hours, we're seeing new proposals that were never presented, that were never contemplated for this special session."

In addition to his criticism of the governor for organizational failures, Cervantes said Lujan Grisham pressed for passage of redundant legislation.

Lujan Grisham's publicists announced one item for the special session by saying, "Inconsistent crime and ballistic reporting by local law enforcement agencies hampers effective criminal investigations." The governor's proposed solution was a new law mandating crime reporting at the local level with the information flowing to her Department of Public Safety.

Cervantes said the governor's idea is already codified in the Uniform Crime Reporting System, a state law approved in 2007. That measure already designates the state Department of Public Safety as "the central repository for collecting, maintaining, analyzing and reporting crime incident activity from law enforcement agencies."

If an executive department isn't getting mandatory work done, it's up to the governor to fix the problem. Maybe Lujan Grisham's staff was so busy drafting a new state law it didn't realize a nearly identical measure has been on the books since George W. Bush was in the White House. Or perhaps there's a different explanation.

"I've been here a long time," Cervantes said. "I'm accustomed to seeing existing law repackaged, retitled, some words changed around to seem like we're doing something."

Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives adjourned Thursday, at least temporarily ending the special session after all of five hours.

Lujan Grisham might only have wasted $60,000 or so for a day of partial statehouse staffing, plus legislators' expense allowances and mileage reimbursement.

Like a cabbie's meter, the total can keep running if she brings back legislators for more madness.

It doesn't take a political scientist to understand legislators should work through the interim to develop meaningful crime-fighting bills for the 60-day session starting in January.

As for Lujan Grisham, she gets no bouquets for effort, obstinance or grandstanding.

Cervantes, Ortiz y Pino and House Speaker Javier Martínez are good at their jobs. They can provide helpful counsel on what crime bills should be introduced in January.

The question is, would the governor do her part? By that I mean, would she take time to listen?

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.