The plaintiffs in the hospital lawsuit today asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision concerning the hospital project’s management contract.

The New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled early last month that the health care facilities contract Valencia County signed with a local nonprofit complied with state law. The plaintiffs had argued that the contract was illegal under the New Mexico Hospital Funding Act because the nonprofit — Valencia Health Commons — isn’t a hospital located in New Mexico, which the plaintiffs say is a requirement of the act.

The decision by the appellate court upheld an earlier district court ruling.

James L. Sanchez, the attorney for the plaintiffs, filed a writ of certiorari with the supreme court requesting the court review the case, reverse the court of appeals decision and remand it to the district court to invalidate the contract through injunctive relief.

In the filing, Sanchez argues that the court of appeals committed error when it provided a flexible interpretation of the Hospital Funding Act instead of a strict interpretation.

Strict interpretation, or what Sanchez calls “strict construction,” is key to the plaintiffs’ argument that the contract, which would give approximately $21-million in mill levy funds to Valencia Health Commons, could only be signed with a hospital in New Mexico.

“The plain meaning mean of the Act clearly requires an actual existing physical facility as Plaintiffs claim,” Sanchez writes.

Under its flexible interpretation, the court of appeals said the contract could be signed with Valencia Health Commons, even though it has no physical hospital, because it would have a physical hospital at the time the mill levy money is turned over to the health commons for operation and maintenance.

Sanchez writes that the court of appeals decision essentially legislates from the bench, adding words and powers to the Hospital Funding Act that the legislature didn’t intend.

“The combined effect of adding the words ‘pledge’ and ‘escrow’ to the Act, and by not requiring a contracting hospital to have ‘physical facilities’ is to amend the Hospital Funding Act and the power to issue a mill levy under the Act, so that mill levy funds will be available to pay for the construction of a hospital without voter approval,” Sanchez writes.

The supreme court could take approximately four months to decide if it’ll review the case.

Related document:

(Valencia! redacted one phone number and five addresses.)

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Parents of elementary school students in Los Lunas are overwhelmingly opposed to changing the start and end times for the school day, according to the results of a survey released by Los Lunas Schools this week.

Under a high school reform initiative, the Los Lunas Schools Board of Education has proposed changing the start time for the elementary school day from approximately 8:30am to 7:40am. The school day would end at approximately 2:30pm instead of 3:30pm.

The change would accommodate a later start time for high school students, so the district can provide intervention and remediation sessions to students in what’s being called “zero hour,” prior to the start of the regular school day at Los Lunas and Valencia high schools.

According to the results of the parent survey, 1,172 parents are opposed to the schedule change, while 496 like the change. That’s 70 percent of parents opposed to the change.

Board Member Frank Otero said at Tuesday’s board meeting that the survey results reflect what he’s heard when talking to parents — parents don’t want a new start and end time.

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Members of the Belen Consolidated Schools Board of Education, having recently attended a board institute in Santa Fe for mandatory training, said they were surprised with how much uncertainty there is about the state’s budget and its possible effect on local education.

During the training, the board members heard from officials with the New Mexico Public Education Department, legislators and even Gov. Bill Richardson.

“They couldn’t give any substance because they truly didn’t know what the budget situation was, and you could see them skirt all the issues,” said Belen Board President Jamie Goldberg.

In the past the board members have been able to talk with officials and legislators about specific projects and district growth, but this year the conversations were more about the need for patience as legislators and other state officials work through budget issues. Goldberg called the conversations “somber.”

The legislative session ended last week without a solution to the budget deficit, which means legislators will convene in a special session next week to continue to work on the issue.

The Belen and Los Lunas districts already had to manage budget cuts as the state tries to find money wherever it can. While legislators in general say they support education, it’s unclear if education can be spared cuts during the special session.

“This board has taken a strong position, when talking to our legislators, in not having or taking any cuts at all in education. We understand the situation. We understand the condition of the state, but we just don’t want them to cut education,” said Belen Board Member Julian Luna.

While Belen Consolidated Schools has a stable budget situation, even after the cuts, Los Lunas Schools has been reeling, proposing major changes to its school day to save money by cutting back on staff and faculty, coupling the changes with high school reform proposals.

With the districts each employing more people than any other entity in Valencia County, the number one priority for them has been protecting jobs. Los Lunas Schools has chosen not to fire anyone, but isn’t filling some vacant positions.

“Like any business, you want to protect your employees. That’s what we’re going to be doing,” Luna said.

Both districts rehired their superintendents this week, with neither getting a raise.

Superintendent Patricia Rael and Belen’s board members mutually decided not to raise her salary.

“There’s no pay raise for a second year for Dr. Rael. The employees didn’t get one last year, so she didn’t as well — and again this year,” Goldberg said.

Superintendent Bernard Saiz was offered a raise by the Los Lunas board, but he chose not to accept it because of that district’s budget situation.

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Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera this month touted his department’s community police program that puts deputies in communities around the county.

“We all need to get together to address problems in Valencia County,” he said.

The program started in October when Rivera hired three new deputies. Those deputies were assigned full-time to Meadow Lake and El Cerro Mission, Jarales-Bosque and Rio Communities, and Highland Meadows.

“I’m getting deputies to work in certain areas of the county and only in those areas,” he said.

The deputies are tasked with not only patrolling to proactively reduce crime, but they also meet regularly with residents and business owners, people Rivera hopes will becomes his departments eyes and ears.

“They get to know the people. They get to know the areas where we have problems,” he said.

The deputy assigned to Jarales-Bosque and Rio Communities had to leave the department last month. That meant those areas didn’t have a deputy for a few weeks, causing some angst among residents and two county commissioners.

Since then, Rivera has assigned Deputy Chris Trujillo to the area.

To get to know his area, Trujillo spends most of his time there, patrolling and attending community meetings, stopping by businesses and talking with people.

He also gives out his cell phone number to anyone who wants it.

“I’m single. I’m always available,” Trujillo quipped.

Trujillo said the sheriff’s department has made a commitment to community policing, and the way to make it successful is for his cell phone to ring. If he doesn’t get calls with tips and concerns, he said he can’t thwart crime.

“I’m one officer committed to these areas in southern Valencia County,” he said. “I’m committed to being in these areas at all times, not only for the residences but for businesses as well.”

Trujillo schedules meetings with businesses, like Allsup’s, Dollar General and Al’s Mini Mart in Rio Communities, where he trained owners and employees in safety and ways to reduce shoplifting.

Because of a recent rise in motor vehicle thefts in Rio Communities, Trujillo and Rivera are planning to catch the thieves using a decoy vehicle.

Rivera said it’s not just the big crimes he wants to address through the community police program, but even things like illegally dumped trash and graffiti.

“To take care of the problems, it’s going to take all of us working together. The people are my voice,” Rivera said.

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Legislation awaiting Gov. Bill Richardson’s signature could cut more than $1.6 million in capital outlay money earmarked for 46 projects in Valencia County.

The legislation — SB182 — lists projects throughout the county whose money could be taken away because the projects didn’t have third-party contracts, had no activity or had a remaining balance after the project had been completed.

The City of Belen will lose more than $147,000 marked for improvements to baseball fields at Belen’s Eagle Multipurpose Park. The city will also lose $100,000 for arsenic removal and treatment facilities and $22,000 for the restoration of the Doodlebug, an old-fashioned train car near Becker Avenue.

Rancho Cielo, a master-planned development west of Los Chavez, will lose $50,000 earmarked for an interchange at Miller Road.

The Village of Bosque Farms will lose $30,000 it could have put toward improving the Bosque Farms Library. It’ll also lose $23,000 for water tank storage improvements, $15,000 for improvements to its wastewater treatment plant, and $7,500 it could have used to purchase a police unit.

Valencia County will lose $164,000 for improvements to the Don Jose y Dolores Cordova Cultural Center in Jarales, $100,000 for a traffic light at Highway 304 and Golf Course Road, $100,000 to put toward the construction of a new county administration building, and $50,000 for planning improvements to El Cerro Mission Boulevard.

The county also lost $33,000 for the purchase of an El Cerro Fire Station tanker and $20,000 for building improvements at the Conejo Convenience Station, as well as $627,000 from a $1.5-million appropriation to develop a master plan for water and wastewater infrastructure.

Belen Consolidated Schools lost $70,000 for a drop-off area at Rio Grande Elementary School.

Los Lunas Schools, the Town of Peralta and the Village of Los Lunas don’t appear to be losing any significant amounts of capital outlay money.

Other projects, many already completed but with unexpended balances, will also have their money reverted back to the state.

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Belen Consolidated Schools has shown substantial success in reducing its truancy rates, according to a three-year report released yesterday by the district.

“I am pleased to report, after reviewing three years of data, that initiatives and interventions recommended by the truancy committee have come to fruition, and the ultimate goal of reducing truancy and habitual truancy to improve academic achievement has been realized,” said Richard R. Romero, a district student support programs liaison.

The report says the total number of days students are absent has declined by more than 5,000, or nearly 29 percent.

The district has 280 fewer truant students (between five and nine unexcused absences), which translates to 43 percent fewer truant students. The district also has 178 fewer habitually truant students (10 or more unexcused absences).

“There was a 70 percent reduction in habitually truant students. That’s a huge number,” Romero said.

Among total absentees, the district has reduced the number of unexcused absentee days by more than 6,000, a nearly 65-percent drop.

The biggest declines in unexcused absences, truancy and habitual truancy were at H.T. Jaramillo Community School.

Board Member Julian Luna said the measures don’t just reduce truancy but also reduce drop-out rates.

Board President Jamie Goldberg said higher school attendance not only makes kids more productive members of society but also increases the amount of funding the district receives.

The district has been aggressively targeted truancy since 2006, with a committee implementing anti-truancy measures. Three employees devote their time to getting children to attend school.

The primary approach of the district’s anti-truancy program is follow-up — contacting the families of truant students to find out the circumstances keeping the student from school.

“We get a hold of parents, find out why their kids aren’t in school and get them there,” Romero said.

One tactic is having the truancy officers visit the homes of students who haven’t been attending school.

“We’re going into these homes, going into their environments, to see what kind of environment they have, including the family,” said Board Member Dolores Quintana.

Another more aggressive tactic involves sending school resource officers to the homes of Belen Middle School students to “get kids out of bed and take them to school.”

Quintana said the measures also involve giving students reasons why they should attend school. The district is trying to instill work ethic in students.

Despite the reductions, Romero said the district still has a lot of work to do.

“Although there have been significant improvements, truancy and habitual truancy remain a serious barrier to learning for many of our children,” he said.

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The Belen Consolidated Schools Board of Education formed an alternative schools facilities management subcommittee last night to help transition alternative high school students into their new school building next year.

The subcommittee will also discuss moving the district’s Family School to a new location.

Construction continues on the new Infinity High School near Belen Middle School. If all goes according to plan, the district will move Infinity High School students to the new location prior to the start of next school year.

That move will free up the current Infinity High School, which consists of two portable classrooms on Becker Avenue.

The district wants to move the Family School, which provides part-time classes for homeschooled children, to the Becker Avenue site. The Family School is currently operated out of leased space at Valley Community Plaza in Rio Communities.

Board President Jamie Goldberg said the subcommittee is necessary to plan for the moves, so the district can be proactive in planning the moves and addressing concerns.

“We want to make sure everything’s in place,” he said, adding, “We want to make sure everyone knows what’s going on ahead of time.”

He said the subcommittee will be composed of board members, district staff, alternative school staff and parents. He acknowledged some parents of Family School students have concerns about the move to Becker Avenue.

“We want to keep them happy — and make sure it’s safe,” he said.

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Three members of the Belen Consolidated Schools Board of Education tonight nearly defeated a policy that might deny some students a hot lunch.

The board members — Julian Luna, Jamie Goldberg and Sammy Chavez — quickly expressed opposition to the proposed policy, which in three paragraphs says students who have charged five meals and haven’t repaid the cost can be “denied meal service due to excessive charges.”

Instead of a standard hot lunch, the nonpaying students “will be given a substitute meal (to be determined at that time),” according to the policy.

“I would really hate to set up a policy in regards to this, especially in these trying times. A lot of families that may not have at one time qualified for a free meal, the dad may have lost his job, been laid off or furloughed by the state, and may just not have enough money at this particular time,” Luna said. “I’m not in favor of this policy.”

The policy doesn’t say the students would get cheese sandwiches as the alternative meal, but Chavez compared the policy to when Albuquerque Public Schools was serving cheese sandwiches to its nonpaying students. Chavez doesn’t see nonpaying students as a serious problem in the district.

“When it happens, and it does happen on an infrequent basis, I think we need to have some compassion and some ability to allow these students to have a meal without being singled out,” he said.

Superintendent Patricia Rael said the district doesn’t have a lot of nonpaying students, but she said some students are habitual.

Board Member Adrian Pino, who, along with Board Member Dolores Quintana, brought the policy to the board, said they did so to deal with “the ones that take advantage of the system.” Quintana said the policy is meant to target students who can pay for their lunch but don’t.

“We wanted to make sure that those who could afford to pay should pay,” she said.

Goldberg said he doesn’t want to deny some students meals when others who can afford to pay get free and reduced-price lunches simply because they go to a school where free and reduced-price lunches are universal.

“There’s no way I’ll approve this. It won’t have my vote. It’s not going to happen,” he said.

The board approved the first reading of the policy. The three board members in opposition could have voted down the first reading, effectively killing the proposal, a thought that crossed Goldberg’s mind.

With the approval of the first reading, the board will take up the policy for a second reading at its next meeting. The policy could then be approved at the following meeting, which is unlikely given the early opposition.

“It’s just such a trying time right now that it’s not a good time to pass a policy like this,” Luna said.

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Rep. Elias Barela said over the weekend that not supporting the development of a master-planned community in Rancho Cielo’s 6,000 acres west of Los Chavez could lead to unwanted development there.

“It’s a quality development. It’s private land. If we drive Rancho Cielo out, who’s going to take over it? What’s going to happen with it?” Barela asked. “Is a better company going to come in? Is it going to be developed in a better fashion or a worse fashion?”

Not helping the developer, Coast Range Investments, build Rancho Cielo there could mean the 6,000 acres turns into Valencia County’s next Meadow Lake, he said.

“If people don’t have good jobs here, the only people who are going to be buying that land are ones who basically will do what they’ve done to other parts of the county, literally a spew of mobile homes and lack of infrastructure,” he said.

That’s why he and Rep. Andrew Barreras worked to get the North Belen interchange reconstruction and Signet Solar’s infrastructure funding out of bills at this year’s legislature that Barela said threatened to cut the funding. He said efforts to pull Rancho Cielo’s funding would have “ensured its utter destruction.”

Sen. Michael Sanchez placed the North Belen interchange money on a list of projects to be cut during the regular session. Sanchez said last week he did that to highlight how the developer of Rancho Cielo won’t pay its portion of the money needed to improve the interchange, which will provide access to Rancho Cielo.

“The thing that I think is really important is that we just be honest about what our policy decisions are and what our policy choices are,” Barela said.

Barela said Sanchez has been trying to cut funding for the North Belen interchange and Signet Solar since the special session last year.

The two legislators have a significant policy disagreement when it comes to how Valencia County and Belen should grow.

Sanchez is opposed to the growth of Rancho Cielo west of Los Chavez, instead wanting to focus on downtown redevelopment in Belen.

“I’d rather fix Belen and do what we can in the city of Belen. Why are we moving the city from one area to the next?” Sanchez said last week in Santa Fe.

Barela, on the other hand, believes Rancho Cielo will provide development that downtown Belen can’t, manufacturing jobs like those that could be created by Signet Solar, a solar technology manufacturer.

Barela said the best way to help small businesses is by providing jobs in major industry, which can in turn provide a stronger consumer base for small businesses. The failure of Signet Solar to build in Rancho Cielo is one way to harm small business, he said.

“It’s devastating to people. You’re hurting people who don’t have work and are having trouble putting food on the table, not only the ones who are going to work in Signet Solar, but the ones who buy dinners, the ones who buy gas, the ones who buy flowers, and the ones who buy building materials,” he said.

Last week, local business owners began meeting to save the funding for the North Belen interchange project, even traveling to Santa Fe to meet with Sanchez.

“It’ll really help all the small businesses. I’m not surprised businesses came out and said they’re for this,” Barela said.

In the meeting with Sanchez, however, and during a later meeting with Jim Wood, executive vice president of Coast Range Investments, the business owners found out the state’s $3 million in funding for the interchange reconstruction was never at risk of being cut. The project is instead being halted because Coast Range Investments said it wouldn’t yet put forward the $4 million it “pledged” for the project.

Signet Solar, which was expected to be the first to build in Rancho Cielo, was denied a loan guarantee from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in January, which led Coast Range Investments to decide to hold back its funding for the North Belen interchange improvements. The denial is now in a DOE appeal process that could take nine months to a year.

“I am very disappointed that the debate suddenly became about when and where they’re supposed to pay this and that,” Barela said.

The debate about funding cuts and Rancho Cielo’s viability is “unnecessary” and a “cat fight,” he said, adding that both Valencia! and the Valencia County News-Bulletin got “sucked into” irrelevant concerns characteristic of “gotcha” politics.

“I’m not a mind reader. We don’t know if the project will fall apart. But I know that it hasn’t fallen apart. This action and this debate are making it more likely that it will,” he said.

Barela said the city, county, state and federal governments have put thousands of hours of work into Rancho Cielo and Signet Solar. Coast Range Investments has put $40 million into the master-planned community.

Barela said the worst thing local leaders can do to Signet Solar because of the denial of the loan guarantee is “kick them and throw them and use it as an opportunity to walk away” from the project. He said that would show Valencia County is “closed for economic development.”

“It’ll ensure nothing comes to this area anymore. It’ll create a stigma,” he said.

Barela said the project shouldn’t end this way. He wants locals to take a deep breath and show “some real leadership.”

He said he believes Coast Range Investments and Signet Solar are acting in good faith and have given him no reason for pause.

“The road’s not without bumps, and I think real leadership requires people to step up and say, ‘Look. Time out.’ I don’t think the way to do this is to pull the rug out from under them. If we’ve got some issues with delays, if we’ve got some issues with how the contracts are written, we’ll deal with that. And if the project’s completely unviable, we really need to look at it,” he said.

Fred Mondragon, the secretary of the New Mexico Economic Development Department, is a “huge supporter” of Signet Solar who says the project is “an extremely viable venture,” according to Barela.

“If we pull the rug from under this, it’ll be an extremely negative message that we may never recover from,” he said.

He said Sanchez’s efforts to pull funding from Rancho Cielo are “premature” and “punitive,” because there hasn’t been open debate in Valencia County about the viability of the project and the future growth of Valencia County.

When asked if he would debate Sanchez face-to-face on issues related to Belen’s growth, Barela said he welcomes it.

“I’ve been very upfront about my position on this issue. What is his position?” Barela asked, adding, “If he would want to talk about it and do it, I’d be more than happy to do it.”

He also plans to push his ideas for how Valencia County should grow with local officials in Belen, Los Lunas and at the county.

“When I talk to people who have lost their jobs and people who have lost their homes, when I talk to people who have lost family to drug use because there’s not any opportunity for them, when I see there are rampant Children, Youth and Families Department complaints in this county because of stresses on the family — when I see what the lack of a good job does, I have become one of those people who understands what Franklin Roosevelt meant when he said the best social program is a good job. There’s dignity in work far beyond the economic benefits of it,” Barela said.

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A Los Lunas LOCATOR test poster.

The Village of Los Lunas Police Department set up a new program this week to more quickly and effectively respond to child abductions.

Police Chief Roy Melnick said his department is now using LOCATOR, which stands for Lost Child Alert Technology Resource, a program created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

LOCATER will help his department get information to the public about child abductions by quickly scanning photos and entering information about a missing child, including the facts and circumstances of a child’s disappearance.

Law enforcement agencies within the county, around the state and nationwide can view the information once it’s been entered, and the program can be used to produce missing posters for the media and public.

“There are many challenges facing law enforcement personnel in missing child cases. One of the greatest is collecting and disseminating the child’s descriptive information quickly,” Melnick said.

According to Melnick, one in six missing children are recovered simply because information and photographs of the child or suspected abductor was distributed to the public.

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