Santa Fe District 1 County Commission Forum

Tonight Undersheriff Robert Garcia and I hit the Democratic Party forum for the District 1 County Commission seat currently held by Commissioner Harry Montoya. Our Santa Fe County Democratic Chair Richard Ellenberg played moderator and read questions to the candidates who each had a chance to introduce themselves and give opening comments before answering questions. The current candidates for District 1 are Jon Paul Romero, Lenny Roybal, Paul White, and Daniel "Danny" Mayfield.

Water was on the audiences mind as the first question solicited the candidates opinions on the Aamodt settlement while the second question was on water rights and the writer of the question framed it in a way to convey the feelings that too many projects are being funded on the pueblo lands in Northern New Mexico. The Aamodt settlement which has not really yet been fully settled has been a huge bone of contention to non pueblo residents in Northern Santa Fe County. After news of the settlement came out following court ordered secret negotiations a county poll showed resident dissatisfaction which prompted County Commissioner Harry Montoya to write op-ed pieces defending the settlement. Residents are still unhappy and this settlement was an issue in the 2006 district 1 elections and looks to be an issue in 2010 as well. I was still shaking hands and drinking coffee so I did not take good notes on the water issues but I did sit down and take notes on the economic and crime questions.

On the Economy Jon Paul Romero wants to open regional small business incubators through out Santa Fe County. Lenny Roybal wants to teach people to grow their own food, open more co-ops and encourage landlords to lower rents in order to foster small business growth and he wants to encourage more students to become teachers. Paul White claimed the county has tripled its spending in the last three years. (I am sure this is not true, at least the Santa Fe Sheriff's budget is no where near tripled and has actually been cut by 8 percent in the 2009-2010 fiscal year and further cuts are expected. ) Mr. White also wants to promote a green economy, affordable housing and diversification of the economy. Danny Mayfield says we need to look closely at how we are spending county money but employment and jobs provided by the county is important to economic development however we need to ensure county employees are doing a good job and earning their pay.

Crime and youth crime was the next question and Paul White says in Chupadero where he lives there is a large drug related crime problem. He stated he has worked with the Sheriff's Office on developing a neighborhood watch program. He also advocated for programs for kids in jail to turn their lives around. Danny Mayfield stated we need to lead by example and be role models for children. He advocated supporting law enforcement and promote deputies spending more time in local neighborhoods. Jon Paul Romero says the solutions start at home and school. He advocated more activities and places for teens and stated we needed to be role models for our children. Lenny Roybal says we need to properly fund law enforcement and hire more deputies. He also advocated properly funding fire and 911 dispatch operators. He also stated we need to educate our youth and felt we needed programs in the jails for youth. Lenny also referred to the movie "Blind Side" and said "its easy to hurt a child but its hard to help them". He also said he cringes when schools look at dropping sports programs as they teach kids about life.

Each candidate had their supporters in the audience who were joined by several other candidates and elected officials including the man the candidates on the hot seat were seeking to replace, Commissioner Harry Montoya. Also in the audience was County Commission Candidate Robert Anaya who was probably getting warmed up for forums in his district 3 race to replace his brother Mike Anaya. The man seeking to take my job Undersheriff Robert Garcia was also in the audience shaking hands and passing out bumper stickers and business cards.

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Santa Fe Radio Cafe Podcast, Burglary Prevention

The interview I taped earlier with Santa Fe Radio Cafe, a early morning FM show on KSFR Radio 101.1 aired this morning (Monday Aug 3, 2009.) The interview came about when I ran across a post on the host Mary-Charlotte Domandi's facebook page. In the post she described two friends burglaries which occurred at the friends homes in the past two days. I added a comment on her post with a link to burglary prevention tips.

She commented back inviting me to be on her show. The show is taped live from the Santa Fe Baking Company on Cordova Road. The show is also posted on the web as a podcast so If you want to download it and listen to burglary tips while jogging around your neighborhood here is the link. Of course you can just listen to it online at the same link.

Pendulum has swung too far in Juvenile Detention Programs

I am back, I apologize for my two weeks of non blogging I just kept not being able to get to it. Nothing major keeping me from it just every day busy stuff. As many of you have seen in the media Santa Fe County is experiencing an increase in burglaries recently just as the city has over the last year. Many of the arrests we make on burglars caught in the act or after the fact are juveniles. A few years ago the state passed reforms on the handling of Juvenile criminal offenders designed to reduce the numbers of juveniles incarcerated and divert those juveniles to programs rather than incarcerate. For the most part it was a good idea rooted in intervention and the idea that you only incarcerate the worst offenders.

The State came up with a scoring system which is used to evaluate juveniles when they are arrested. When an officer arrests a juvenile they call a Juvenile probation officer on the phone. The officer details the circumstances surrounding the arrest to the probation officer who uses the scoring sheet to add up the points. A juvenile must score above a certain number of points in order to be placed in the detention center. Points are given for whether the crime was a violent one, whether injury's or death are involved, the juveniles past history etc. The scoring is heavily weighted towards incarceration of violent offenders.

This means that those who are arrested for non violent crimes such as burglary, graffiti, D.W.I., and many gang related cases and other non violent crimes are usually not incarcerated. Think about it, you call the police because some kid just plowed into your car. We get there and he is drunk, you think as we put him or her into the back of out squad car that the offender is going to at least spend the night in detention. Instead we drive away with the child call his or her parents and have them pick up the child at our office. They go home with their parents suffering no short term legal consequences.

I say short term because I am not saying they don't suffer any consequences. They will eventually report to a probation officer and may or may not even see a judge. They will receive treatment, be monitored and pay reparations. However, what kind of message do we send in the short term when they just go home and find that they will not be detained even for one night? We have arrested at least five juveniles for burglary in September alone. Burglary is a felony punishable by prison if an adult commits the crime. In a burglary someone knowingly breaks into your home, vehicle or business in order to commit a crime, usually theft. It is a personally devastating crime. It robs victims of the sense of security in their own homes and creates fear and insecurity among its victims for years. It goes way beyond the value of the items taken. Yet children can commit burglary's with out any fear of incarceration.

Prior to the laws being changed in New Mexico the pendulum may have been to far in the opposite direction. Children were incarcerated for the most minor offenses which included running away from home. Children incarcerated for minor offenses were mixed in with those whom were incarcerated for major offenses including murder and rape. Those kids whose only crime may have been unhappiness at home or real home parenting issues were exposed to real criminals and as such likely to become friends with and end up assisting or emulating those children who were already lost to society. Someone recognized this and changes in the laws were sought and passed. In my opinion it was the right idea but those who drafted the regulations were over zealous in their execution.

The time has come to revisit the juvenile incarceration system and give more latitude towards including certain crimes such as DWI, felony burglary, auto theft and other serious felony's as crimes in which juveniles can be incarcerated. Juvenile Probation officers should be given more latitude to make individual case decisions based on the circumstances of the arrest and yes I do think some first time, one time juvenile burglars maybe should not go to detention. However, those who are caught during a burglary spree, or who admit to multiple burglary's should at least spend one night away from home to think about what they have done. I also believe D.W.I. should always be an immediate incarceration. The public really has no idea that kids who commit these types of crimes do not get incarcerated. I know that changes will not occur until the public is aware of whats happening and only then will the pendulum began its slow swing back to somewhere in the center.